Originally Posted by IROCZman15

Here is my car as it sits currently. It is an incredible amount of fun to enjoy on the street, at car shows, at the drag-strip, at the auto-cross and on long drives.




I am the second owner of this car and have had it since February of 2000 (I bought it when I was 15 years old with the $3,500 of my own money which I had saved up from several years of cutting my neighbors lawns and yardwork). It was totally, completely stock then... had peeling clear coat paint, the original rear window louvers, straight body panels, original IROC wheels etc.. it was a dream come true without a doubt!! I grew up with family who were gearheads and as a kid, the 3rd gen bodystyle just appealed to me. I knew I had to have one one day, and I looked at a handful before finding this car, and I knew right away "this was the one"... and then the alternator froze on the voyage to my parents house and kicked the belt off and we had to limp it home.. just after buying it 30 mins earlier... !

My dad and I fixed this a week later, no problem, but I still was too young to drive the car so I would just wash it, wax it, fiddle with things week after week, just doing my best to learn mechanics and how things worked. All I wanted to do at that age was work on the car and learn. My father and I sanded down the areas of the body that had horrible clear coat peeling and we painted them red base/clear .. still before I was licensed to drive it.

It was my daily driver from 2002-2007 (high school and most of college). I’m talking pure daily driver, rain, snow, ice, 4 or 5 people piled in it, trips to the jersey shore, joyrides with girls, parking lot parties and burnouts. The car certainly lived a busy and exciting life back then, but I had become more keen on getting it to be more of a good looking and better performing car. So, in 2008, after getting a 1995 YJ Jeep for a Daily Driver I was finally able to dig into the car much more!

It has gone through many many upgrades over the past 20 years. The list is very long, and I keep detailed records and files of everything (I have 3 notebooks filled with parts, mods, details). The gigantic file folder of "parts receipts" and their $value sometimes is shocking, but what the heck.. it is my hobby and it makes me happy. I enjoy that I do almost everything that I can do mechanically to the car here in my 2 car garage too with the occasional help from my group of gear-head friends.

This car is an absolute joy to drive. It fires right up, idles great, and stays in the 178-185 temp range. I have taken it on many 4+ hour drives, on voyages in the rain, ran a multitude of AutoCross solo events, competed at the Optima Ultimate Street Car Shootout event twice (in 2016 and 2017 at NJMP), competed at the UMI Performance AutoCross event in 2019 and 2020, and of course some quarter mile action locally in NJ. Despite living in NJ where the weather is less than perfect all year round, but I do drive this car during the winter if the circumstances allow. It goes to car shows and cruise nights most of the year and it has won dozens and dozens of trophies and awards, some at bigger car show events like The Camaro nationals, The GM Nationals in Carlisle, Menards Chevy Show, Super Chevy Shows, and so forth. It was also one of the 10 IROC-Z cars to be invited to the GM Nationals indoor display to celebrate the "30 years of the IROC-Z" back in 2015 along with SEVERAL members on this board as well! It was in Popular HotRodding magazine back in May of 2010 (page 24) and also in Super Chevy Magazine April of 2010 (page 118).



Definitely check out some of my recent threads for more info on the car.

Car build up from 2017-2020:
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/auto...rior-next.html

Engine install and related stuff:
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/auto...g-install.html

Photos of car projects in photo albums:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/iroczman15/albums

My youtube page which has some tech stuff, racing videos, and build footage:
https://www.youtube.com/user/IROCZma..._as=subscriber

The car has gone a best of 12.07 at 113 mph....(as of 9/17/2020)
***EDIT: took the car to the track 9/18/2020 and ran 6 passes all in the high 11 second zone. my best pass of the night (and to date) was a 11.85 at 115.5 mph. My best 60 foot is a 1.64. It could be a lot faster if I wanted to only do drag racing. Since I want to continue to drive it on the street, it has a full interior, sound system, and normal car features. It weighs 3,320 pounds without me in it. I could also change the converter and rear gear ratio around to run a quicker 1/4 mile e.t. however that would take away from its street manners and also the car would suffer at the auto-cross events. My goal for this year is to run into the high 11's on motor, and then this winter the nitrous, roll bar, and long tube + 4" exhaust will hopefully get this car into the high 10 second zone. The car is street driven everywhere, I do not own a trailer.