Suspension: We upgraded the rear suspension with new Competition Engineering coil over shocks, 8 new chrome-moly rod ends, rebuilt the stock Vega front disk brakes and Dana 60 11" drum brakes on the rear, new master cylinder, all new steel brake lines and wheel cylinders: Cost: $625.00.

Body and windows: I did all the bodywork myself, since I used to own a body shop I was familiar with this end of it. I used two 4'x6' sheets of 1/8" thick Lexan. (Be sure to get the

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Lexan with the hardened surface, it is really scratch resistant. I took the car to a body shop to have it sealed with two part sealer/primer and sprayed Dodge truck white (hey, it had to have a little bit of Mopar on it!). Materials for bodywork, Lexan, Stainless mounting screws and nuts, primer, urethane paint and $300.00 to the shop for paint labor and urethane color and hardener, body work and windows cost: $755.00.

Instruments: We chose the new Autometer Sportsman PlayBack tach and we limited ourselves to two basic but critical gauges, oil pressure and water temp. The Sportsman Playback Tach and shift light have performed great and the playback feature helped get the launch RPM figured out right away. Cost for the tach, shift light and gauges was $418.00.

Miscellaneous: Here is the one that has never failed to surprise me. This category includes: new bolts, nuts, washers, roll bar tubing, welding supplies, spray paint, aluminum and steel material for brackets, race oil, trans fluid, gaskets, sealers, radiator hoses, battery cables, roll bar padding, etc. I kept a separate list for this one and I was surprised when it totaled $410.00.

If you do the math you get $5273.00. We paid $5500.00 for the car originally and sold a lot of stuff off of it at the Swap Meet. The best I can figure is we have $10,100.00 in the complete car, NOT counting the engine. Jeff is writing the engine article this month and I think he will come up with about $4500.00 if you take the carburetor price off his numbers as I have them in my totals. Looks like we are on the strip for about $14,500.00 plus or minus a few hundred bucks. I am very satisfied with what we accomplished and how the car is performing.

The best 1/8 mile ET is 6.51 at 102 MPH. The best quarter mile is 10.53 at 124.7 MPH. The quarter mile can definitely get better as I run out of cam at about 1200'. The valves started to float so I adjusted the MSD Digital 7 ignition to run against the chip at 7000 rather than possibly have a valve hit a piston. I really think it will run 10.30s all day when I get the right gear and get the jetting leaned out a little more. Pretty darn good for a 383" Chevy with a small .505" lift hydraulic cam.

We are going to enter the Fall Series at our local track in October. I will try to get the launch a bit more consistent and I will keep you posted on the results of the "Back-2-Basics" in its first real race series. We have some plans for some upgrades this winter. We want to install disc brakes on the rear and possibly the front as well. We are planning to install an alternator and possibly a larger fuel cell so we can run two brackets and make back-to-back runs without stopping for fuel after every run. It will be time to upgrade the harness and do some detailing. Other than that we are already looking forward to racing at some IHRA and NHRA points races and trying to put the "Back-2-Basics" into the winner's circle on a regular basis.

Thanks for reading our column. If you have any questions or comments about this project car...let's hear them. E-mail me today.