Yeah. I needed a little help getting off the course that time which also ended my day. I spun it and somehow shook things violently enough to break my coil bracket. The coil then fell on the Alternator which not only burned a hole in the coil but also shorted out the entire system. So no more runs for me that day. Luckily, autozone is only a couple miles down the road and a new coil, fuse, and an extra large hose clamp was all I needed to drive it home. I've got parts that should show up today to get it back to racing shape. Having the issue was a real bummer though as I was just getting into that confident racing mode again. 45's were well within reach and I had 4 more runs left. If only I raced enough to not need 10+ runs to find my racing persona. This weekend should be different. Let the games begin.:buttkick:

I will be at GG on saturday, my car is still in the bodyshop so ill have to make the walk of shame into the event this year. But I will make sure to stop by and say hello. Good luck this weekend!

Have you already replaced the tires on tow? I'd be interested in the bad tire, to use for mock up purposes.

:bigun2:

Glad to hear it was nothing serious! I was hating seeing the guys pushing the car as I was driving off... It was a shame about Gary's Vette, I liked hearing and seeing him on the course in the Spring. This should be a fun weekend and hopefully a touch cooler outside than last. ;)

Well, good news on this front (for me at least!). The shop has convinced me that a plug and patch will take care of me. I actually ran around this morning and bought another set of the Falken's, and I then went to another shop to switch them (they have the better machine which doesn't touch the wheel lip). When they took the tire off, it was just a simple nail afterall. It looked worse with the tread bulge, but apparently not.

So I will be returning the tires I just bought and continuing to run the current ones. I'm really glad for that, as they still have over 4/32" tread left! They are wearing better than I thought after 3k miles and a bunch of autocross runs. :)

Tow
 

Good to see you guys are running the cars hard
Seems like we always have something to fix
I am chasing an electrical short in mine

Love the Bird and Vega

Panteracer hoping to go to Texas next year

Awww! Seriously? Vega! :slingshot:

I was gonna leave that alone... :secret:

Thats great news on saving the tire. Money saved is always good. See you saturday.

See you guys tomorrow.

Bryan, I hope you made it to Ft. Worth safely and missed most of the rain.

Chris, I can't wait to check out the Vega! :mock: HAHAHA!!! Must be the new hood scoop. LMAO!

Tow
 

Chris
Sorry was rushing and wrote vega
and meant maverick

Like I said before I have pic of your car
next to mine at tech last year in Vegas
Hanging on my wall in my shop

Glad to hear you did not hurt it
too bad. Love the color also

Panteracer

Saw your car at GG this weekend. It looks great! Looks like it will be a blast. Congrats.

Do you have tow hooks/loops on it?

Thanx! Sorry if you tried to catch me and I was busy prepping the car... We had a quick turnaround in the autocross, so I found myself pretty busy this weekend!

I have a hook on the front, and 2 on the rear though they are really set up to be tie-downs instead of tow hooks (not easily accessilbe from the rear).

Any chance I could get details on them? I am in the planning stages, so parts acquisition mode.

http://www.racecartowhooks.com/

I bought the blanks and drilled the holes as needed. Then I had them powdercoated black. Pretty simple...

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...pssi8mnl6k.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps62f62368.jpg

Perfect, thank you.

Real men run purple....

He's got the sweet handlin' Purple...
 

http://i691.photobucket.com/albums/v...ps0e962445.jpg

I see some Purple marketing magic happening! LOL

Those black with red writing on them stickers are starting to show up all over the place... :D

Or the fillings in their teeth might rattle out!

Ditto! Thanx again for all of the help. Now to work some more on the driver.

I'm long overdue for a real update in this thread. Several things have been changed/tweaked this summer, so I need to write up a real post. Obviously, I've been working with Ron on some suspension tweaks. I cannot even begin to tell you all how much I've learned from him from our emails and phone conversations. But the most amazing part is the service after the sale. That has been invaluable!

Hi Bryan - I was at the Camaro Club autocross weekend before last and did a bit of drooling over your car but never got a chance to talk to you. My dad and I have the 'loud red 2nd gen' as Jay put it. :confused18:

Seeing all the goodies underneath, I like your car even more. Way cool. Looking forward to seeing you out up here again sometime soon!

Duston

Duston,

I actually did talk to you and your dad at the NTXCC event. You probably didn't realize it was me, but I came over and looked your Camaro over before the event started. :)

I'll look forward to the next chance to get up for an event again!
Bryan

Are those Draco's Ron?

Car looks great Bryan. I really dig all the improvements.

Ah, very good. I'm still pretty pre-occupied running through everything when we bring it out, so try as I might all the conversations from the day start to blend together a bit :lol:

Yes they are... :) Pretty cool to receive a spring dyno plot when you open the box for these.

Thanx! I need to do an updated writeup on the summer changes to the car...

Duston, you DO have a loud AND fast red 2nd gen. It's a hoot to watch the beast run the cones. I'm looking forward to getting out to another event with you and your Dad. Hopefully we can talk Bryan into coming back up for the next Camaro Club event in the spring.

Bryan, it was a blast hanging with you last weekend. Amy was stoked she ran her fastest times with you in the car with her. We definitely need to get the TAs together for a photo next time. Can't believe we let the opportunity go right on by us at GG's. Oh well. Next time.

Hi Casey,

Yes. Those are Draco springs. They're the best spring available to us that's still affordable.

Hey Bryan ---

Sorry I didn't have time to get together on this trip to Austin. Between Adrienne being in school half of the day -- and running around with her/for her while we were there we just didn't have much free time. I never even got over to see what SW had in the shop (although we did have dinner).

Have to tell ya -- she LOVES Austin! and has lots of school left - so there will be more trips for us.

Thanks again for letting me drive TOW this weekend, it was a lot of fun. How's the video editing my me tearing up your car going?? You have those go pros figured out yet?????

Glad you could make it. Steve and I shared driving TOW during the local autocross at COTA yesterday (parking lot, not on the track unfortunately). We each had 5 runs, and we rode with each other each time. It was cool to get a different perspective by riding in my own car on the course. We have different driving styles, and that's what I was hoping for.

We decided at the end of the day that we likely provided the most entertainment for the spectators because we were both blowing the last turn of the end on almost every run (it was a 180* turn). And Steve did his best to wipe out the codes and timing lights at the end too. ;)

I'll have videos up on YouTube tonight. I'm new with a GoPro, so I'm trying to get them into the best format while not being huge. So far they look pretty good.

Videos are up...

Here is my best run of the day (5th, last) from the top of the car as well as behind the rear tire. The fastest raw run times of the day were in the middle 29-second range. I ran a 34.9 and Steve hit a 35.5. Pretty good for his first time in my car!





Here are all of my runs:

Bryan's Runs

And here are Steve's runs:

Steve's Runs

Note the exit on Run5. He will thank me for chopping off his exits from the course on the previous runs. ;)

Nice! Didn't know they were running at COTA.

What did Vtec run in the Banshie MX5? Also you should let him take you for a ride in your car. He used to race Trans AM is memory serves and is solid on RWD platform big HP cars. He's got a lot of experiance building and tuning and is an instructor at The Driveway last I checked.

-Russell

This is the second time they have run there. They use one of the large parking lots for the course (lot H). It's a good spot for the course, since they are having trouble finding good spots around Austin itself.

Vitek finished in 2nd place in raw time with a 29.5. That little Miata with the LS is fast! And this is a replacement engine. He grenaded the LS3, so I think this is an LS1 he's running.

Interesting idea about letting him drive. I hadn't thought of that, but I would do it. I've chatted with him some, and he let me use his scales when I was setting up TOW this time. I imagine he would enjoy the chance, he seems to really like TOW. Hmm...

If your planning to do the driveway ask Him as well. You'll want him or Bill as your personal instructor. Also his name is spelled Vitek. I keep trying to make him a honda cam in my head for some reason. (Sorry Vitek)

Also, and be ready to be butt hurt, the Banshie has a 5.3L in it now..... teehee, I rode with him in his STi but I've seen the videos of that little MX5 so 2 in raw time doesn't surprise me.

I'd be interested to see what Vitek can do in the car too. That would be fun to watch.

Thanks again for letting my run. Did any of the vids get me taking out the cones or the finish line? How about some tire smoke from coming in too hot? If so you should post up for a lesson of what not to do.

Or to ride with. :)

I trimmed the vids for you, to save some face. :) But the end of your run #5 is a bit entertaining. I can put up the ones where you got "lost" at the exit also if you like, but I trimmed them off also...

I haven't watched all of the tire runs looking for smoke. Feel free to point it out though. :)

I missed that you posted the link. It's interesting how much less abrupt all the runs look on video than when we were in the car. It's also interating to see the front tire deflect as it is

Time to bring this thread up to speed, since it really is the place where I document the car...

Since we last spoke, first this happened:

Dropped valve thread

and while I was repairing that, I started a thread on Accusumps here:

Accusump Plumbing

and during this time a few other things changed too. Below are the highlights of the new engine combination:

• LS7 Block, honed to 4.127"
• Callies Dragonslayer 4.000" Stroke crank (from the 402)
• Callies Compstar 6.125" Rods with 2.0" journals (from the 402)
• Wiseco pistons with 4cc reliefs (~12:1 CR)
• TFS GenX LS3 heads, custom ported by Frankenstein Racing Heads
• Custom cam by EPS (238/248, .629/.604, 114)
• Morel 5315 lifters
• Edelbrock Victor Jr. L92 intake, ported by FRH (plenum and port match)
• Rocker arms upgraded with Harland Sharp trunions

Those were the big changes, lots of other little things in there too. And while I had it apart, I replaced the clutch also with a Monster LT1-S, their custom-flywheel which uses the new LT1 twin-disk clutch pack on an LS engine.

As noted in the thread above, it was a session of thrashing to get everything together and back into the car and get her ready for the Spring GG event in Fort Worth. I was bolting on parts until late the night before I drove up. But the drive went well, and TOW performed excellently! I finished 3rd in the Street Machine class. The newfound power definitely helped. The driver needs more work though.

This past week has been another thrash session to get the car ready for my first USCA event this weekend. One of the things I have been wanting and needing to do is to have the car dynoed and then tuned. I've had trouble finding anyone who seems to specialize in the Holley HP EFI systems, but I did locate someone about 2 hours from me last week. Turns out he had a slot available on Thursday, which fit perfectly into my schedule as well. So I drove over to his shop and spent about 4 hours between the dyno and street tuning.

Jumping straight to the good stuff, since everyone loves pictures and results:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...psmgyeknvp.gif

Ignore the red line, that was a timing experiment. The blue line was our final result: 541 HP and 502 ft-lb of torque. Those numbers are through my T56 Magnum and a set of 3.89 Ford 9" gears, which apparently cost a little power. Also this wasn't a DynoJet, but instead a load-bearing DynoCom setup. What I do know is that on this run, she actually laid down 568 HP, but the SAE correction factor brought her back down to the 541 number. Stout!

What I am really enamored with though is that torque curve! It's almost exactly what I had asked for when I had discussions with the various people that contributed to my parts selections. It's broad and consistent, and you can feel it in how the car pulls through the gears.

He attempted to pull all the way to 7k RPM, but for whatever reason the dyno wasn't correctly capturing those last few hundred rpm. You can see how the curve doesn't roll over immediately, but instead carries the power. It's great!

Before taking the car to him, I have done a lot of reading and research on tuning the Holley. I've also worked hard to try and set my fuel and timing tables. Interestingly, he reloaded my tune at the end and did a pull to see how it compared. I was at 532 HP and similar torque to the final runs, meaning my tune was pretty close to his final result. That was pretty cool.

After we dynoed, we drove on the streets for about 45 minutes with him dialing in different areas in the tune. He leans the car out quite a bit, added some part throttle timing, and cleaned up a few other things. I kind of expected him to do work on some other areas of the setup, but he didn't think it was necessary. I do still have some cold and hot start work to do, she doesn't always start right up like she used to with the 402 for some reason.

I drove back up to Fort Worth today with the new tune. The engine definitely felt smoother during the drive with the timing and leaner tune. I also picked up some mileage, a little over 2 MPG vs. where I was. I still don't think I'm optimal there yet, so I'll work on that some more. But that's no small improvement in its own right.

More to tell, but I need sleep now for tomorrow. Just wanted to get these out there to share. :)

Oh, I forgot to mention, just for GW;

We pulled the shaker off, leaving just the air cleaner in place, to see what the shaker costs me. Only 2 HP, and basically nothing during the rest of the run. I really was shocked by that result, as I figured the shaker would be a big limitation. I was wrong. So, thanx Weld for the suggestion on the foam top air cleaner. It seems to be working pretty well. ;)