Is this the Ultimate C1 Corvette Chassis Upgrade?

With Papers

Where there is a title there is hope. That was Ward Seifrid’s feeling when he found his 1962 Corvette. It wasn't even a car at that point, the frame was so far gone that it was unusable, and most of the surviving parts were stored out of the way in a commercial building. Seifrid, who owns a few other '60s Corvettes, gave some consideration to restoring the car to its original condition, but after talking with John Wargo from The Custom Shop, he decided to go the restomod route. Since the plan for the build now included a blown 598 ci Dart M big-block, something would have to be done about the lack of a frame... something serious. 

Spaceframe

That something came in the shape of a custom frame from SRIII Motorsports. The spaceframe design uses round-section tubing in braced and triangulated sections that are welded together to form an extremely rigid three-dimensional structure. SRIII chose round tubing because they felt it was more dimensionally-stable during high-G cornering and braking, and also under load from the forces exerted by rapid acceleration.

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More is Less

Although you might not think it by looking at all those tubes, the new frame saved hundreds of pounds over the rudimentary chassis originally pressed into service for 1953-1962 Corvettes. When you add in the weight saved by the later forged aluminum suspension components the frame utilizes, the result is less unsprung mass for a more responsive, controlled, and comfortable ride.

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C5 Front

Seifrid’s chassis uses a C5 suspension up front, and the narrowed SRIII cradle allows for several inches of additional space between upper control-arm mounting plates as compared to a factory C4 set-up, space that was essential in making room for the steering linkage and headers. 

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Rolling Stock

Though the C5 front end supports that generation's 13-inch disc brakes, Seifrid chose to go with custom-finished Wilwood brakes. To clear the Wilwoods, Seifrid selected Cray Hawk wheels (19 x 10 front and 20 x 12.5 rear), wearing Continental tires (245/30/19 front and 305/25/20 rear), though the Corvette needed 5-inch tubs to clear the much-bigger-than-1962 rears.

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C4 Rear

Rather than go with a C5 rear end, SRIII Motorsports' chassis uses a C4 system. The C5's rear-mounted transmission and torque tube simply wouldn't fit under anything other than a heavily-modified C1 body, something that just wasn't in the plan. In addition to being a better, more universal fit for C1-C3 Corvettes, the C4's standard front-transmission-with-driveshaft layout actually weighs less than the C5 pieces. The chassis is sprung and damped by Alston coilovers all around.

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Finished

Once The Custom Shop received the chassis from SRIII, Wargo and his team set about smoothing out all the welds, then prepping the frame for a body-level finish with body-color paint. The frame's tubes, brackets, and mounting plates were all sanded, primed, and sanded again before the copper-hued paint was applied. Not only does the result look a lot spiffier than powder coating, but it's also much more easily repaired and really sets off the suspension components nicely. With the Corvette completed, Seifrid loves the result so much that he's on the prowl for other another basket case C1, though this time he wants to make it mid-engined. We can't wait to see how that turns out, and what SRIII comes up with frame-wise, that is, if they can spare time from building these sweet spaceframes.

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