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A 21st Century Street Machines Front Clip Provides This Unibody With Modern Vette Suspension
These are great days to be a muscle-car enthusiast. Performance parts are plentiful, new stampings to replace rusted sheetmetal are regularly popping up, and GM’s crate motor program makes it easier than ever to drop in a new power plant that combines incredible power with everyday drivability. Old Camaros or Novas have been passed over because they were saddled with a wimpy six. Now, however, they are the perfect candidates for a heart transplant, namely, in the form of Chevrolet’s marvel of horsepower engineering: the LS1 engine.
The only problem with this scenario is that while performance enthusiasts can easily have all the power they want, they still have to deal with a unibody platform and a suspension design that’s over three decades out of date. Well, 21st Century Street Machines, a small shop in the heart of North Carolina’s NASCAR country, may have the answer to that problem with its new front clip for classic Camaros and Novas. This tube-frame clip allows you to install a Corvette front suspension for greatly improved handling and facilitates easy engine swaps.
Credit for the innovation goes to 21st Century’s Ed Bednar, a longtime muscle-car fanatic, and lead fabricator Jim Pettigrew, who cut his mechanical teeth working with Cup teams. The new bolt-in front clip slides directly into the spot occupied by the old stamped-steel clip and allows the installation of a high-performance front suspension from a C5 Vette. It also includes a modern rack-and-pinion steering system that does away with the old, cumbersome drag-link design.
Besides the updated design, the steering rack is also a big key in the clip’s second big advantage: it cleans up the engine compartment and allows multiple engine options. Bednar and Pettigrew have designed multiple engine mounts and headers that will accommodate everything from the standard Chevy 350 to a modern LS1, all the way to a big-block 427. Everything except a big block is a direct bolt-in. (Because of the increased dimensions, a big block requires minor sheetmetal work to the transmission tunnel to fit.) Also available are racing-style stepped headers, which are custom made for each type of motor to best fit the space while keeping the spark plugs accessible.
Depending on your needs, 21st Century Street Machines can provide you a front clip at just about any level of dress you require. The bare-bones option assumes you already have Corvette C5 hardware and comes simply with the clip (including the engine mounts) and a steering rack. The rack is required with the purchase because it is custom to the clip and vital for getting the correct steering geometry.
The optional list of goodies includes the complete C5 (’97-’04 models) front suspension, anti-sway bar, tube headers, transmission crossmember, powdercoat-finish pre-routed brake lines and even a new engine, if you so desire. If you are willing to pay the shipping, the guys at 21st Century will even put it all together and send it ready to bolt up to your car.
In case reworking just the front suspension isn’t enough, 21st Century is now hard at work on the rest of the suspension. By the time you read this, they should be just about complete with designs for subframe connectors to stiffen the unibody chassis and new rear framerails that will improve the suspension geometry and allow wider, more modern rear tire and wheel combinations.
It looks as if unibody Chevy enthusiasts will soon have all the ammunition they need to compete head to head with the best modern sports cars. It definitely is a good time to be a muscle-car guy!
