That pic works. Do you have no room for an x pipe?

Thank you

There is room for an X pipe, I didn't know to ask for one when my exhaust was done. You can't follow the exhaust cut out pattern on the 2nd cross member but the headers and mufflers might still hang lower than the pipe would in that spot even if it dropped a little bit.

The TCI test Camaro switched to an X pipe. Check out the pics in post 12 here:
http://www.pro-touring.com/threads/9...ng-s-68-Camaro

Had some more fun at the SCCA El Toro autocross this past weekend. It was the longest autocross course I have run and a total blast. I will be hitting up these El Toro events whenever possible now. I'm a believer! Next time I just need to buy some x-runs in advance.



We had a decent turnout with two folks coming up from San Diego and a few other local Camaros showing up. Thought it appears most people made the long trek up to Camarillo.

Car looks great Chad! Camarillo had alot of 5th Gens and Mustangs on Sunday due to the Pony Car challenge and I would bet those guys run SCCA normally. Not a lot of old iron this week, three total I think. Sat was the a Corvette day and pretty big turnout I'm told.

Nice car Chad

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/f...pslr6tzrpx.jpg

Track day report!! SOWS CCW 7-18-15
 

Well yesterday was an interesting day. I'm not sure if this is a track day report or a weather report...

Anyhow after a little over a 4 year absence I got to return and run the full Streets of Willow Springs (SOWS) course in counter clockwise direction (CCW). I last ran this course in May 2011 with Dave of Badmotofinger fame.

The great thing about running at Willow Springs is that I don't have to stay in a hotel. However, the bad thing is that I have to get on the road by 5:30am... It was a beautiful morning though.
http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4k6rfve8.jpg

After driving over 100 miles I arrived at the track. I still get major jitters or what some call butterflies in the stomache when standing around the morning of a track day before I can get on track. When checking in they asked me what run group I wanted to which I say intermediate. Now extreme speed has gold for intermediate / advanced and green for intermediate / beginner. I'm thinking i haven't been on this track in 4+ years so I don't want to hold anyone up so when they put me in green I don't sweat it.

I had invited everyone local I knew on facebook but didn't give much notice. Maybe people knew about the weather to come but nobody else showed. I always get a kick out of being the only old car around. This day there were only two American cars older than the mid 90's there. An 88-92 Mustang and myself.

Well my first session out was good for a major ego boost as I passed everything on the track in the green group and still managed to run a 1:29 second lap time which beat my previous best of 1:31 from 4 years ago. I think the next fastest car in green ran a 1:35. The Camaro impressed a lot of folks there that day and usually whenever I was near the car people came up and asked me questions about it or commented on how surprised they were at the lap times I was turning. A lot of track day drivers aren't familiar with protouring so they assume an old car like ours are just going to get annihilated. Of course outside of Optima and the American Street Car series most pro touring cars don't get run on the road course much.

I come back into the pits and let the car cool off. What a beautiful day!
http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/...psdfj7t4g7.jpg

As I'm waiting around after session 1 I see on facebook both Steve Rupp and Greg Blundell mention crazy storms. huh. I shrug it off and get bumped to the Gold run group for session 2.

I run my best lap of the day in session 2 with a 1:28 second lap time. I'm still passing a lot of the cars in my run group. After checking transponder times I see that I'm the 4th fastest car of the day. I review the video on my phone and notice that I'm still braking way way too early on both straight aways on track.

In between session 2 and 3 some rain comes in. It's big drops but not too hard and my phone says it will clear up by 2pm so I decide to just wait it out. Becausestreetcar right?
http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/...psaxwtl3tk.jpg

Right before session 2 I noticed that Darren Friedman of Camarillo autocross fame is at the track with his C7 z06. I had introduced myself after session 2 and then after the rain really started coming down he offered the hospitality of his trailer where I promptly stored my stuff and myself for the next 6 hours waiting for the rain to break.

Darren's vette. Oh look the rain is ttarting to come down harder...
http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/...psdovw3quu.jpg
http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1sfqz1ni.jpg

What the hell. Don't those clouds realize this is Southern California in the desert... in JULY?!?
http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/...pservr5yvo.jpg

I did try going back out on track a third time during what appeared to be a lull in the storm. I didn't last the full session before pulling off. Driving a 68 Camaro on the track is awesome. Driving it in the rain with maniacs spinning out left and right and my own car trying to wag its tail anytime I think about the gas pedal was too much for me.

The best part about getting to run SOWS CCW was the ability to compare v2.0 of my car to v3.0. This is because SOWS is considered a small car track where handling is >>> than horsepower. The track is a little over 1.5 miles long and has 12 turns. Given that v3.0 has about 150 ft tq and 225 more hp to the wheels SOWS would remove a lot of the hp advantage (not all) and focus more on the suspension.
Some data. The lateral acceleration are the jutting marks to the side of the track (yellow 0.8+ g's, red 1.0+ g's) while the green and red track line represents lineal acceleration (green = accel, red decel).

v2.0
http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/...psxtdz8j8o.png

v3.0
http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/...psflqahxlv.png


A 3.5 second improvement in lap time may not seem like much but I didn't even get to run the whole day. With the whole day I could of easily dropped another second off, maybe more. I left a lot of time with my super large braking zones. I put a comparison video together of my best lap with v2.0 and v3.0 and its amazing how hard I was working driving v2.0 compared to how easy it looks to drive v3.0.

Full video of my 2nd session.

Chad you were gonna shave more seconds off that time no doubt!

How is it running with Extreme Speed these days? Same/different compared to previously?

What a great writeup!!

I used to get the willies before a track day weekend -- not anymore. I think this just takes some time to shake off as you gain confidence in yourself, and your car. I also think this stems from not wanting to "embarrass" yourself... Which - if you go with the attitude of "this is not a race - this is just for fun"... then you can overcome that feeling as well. I'm lucky that for the last year + - I've had Ron Sutton in my pit - and he calms you down - reminds you that you need to start out slowly - relearn the track - relearn yourself - be nice to the tires - warm everything up (including yourself) etc... and that's a great way to just have a fantastic weekend of driving. I also think it helps to be surrounded by friends that are there to help you, and give you plenty of crap. That way you're too busy defending yourself to be thinking about being nervous.

Nice Chad! Sorry I couldn't join, but really with the weather I'm not sorry, lol.

Keeping up with Darren is no easy feat :thumbsup:

Ha, ain't that the truth!

Thanks Dave. Extreme Speed feels about the same to me. Pretty low key operation. Not a Swiss clock or anything but cheap and effective track time. They are trying to do more special event type track days with various series such as the redline time attack or last weekend's "twilight" event (they had a 2nd track day running from 4:30pm to midnight. I saw some dude's video... F*ck that!! Driving at night on a race track in the pouring rain?!? They clearly didn't love their car ha ha.

Thanks Greg. I think the biggest thing for me is confidence in the car followed by myself. Once I run the first session, the nerves are gone the rest of the day. But before that first session I'm thinking of all these things that could go wrong and not at all focused on the fun part. I quickly reach equilibrium after that first session :)

It definitely makes for a more fun time when friends are with you on a track day. I don't think their is a contingent of regular protouring types that run track days in SoCal but I will keep sending out invites!

No kidding Ron. Efrain was going to try and make it at the last minute but had to bow out. You guys all dodged a bullet this weekend. I do not want my car in the rain ever. However, I'm not afraid of a little rain but even I wonder if yesterday was really worth it with how much rain the car saw. I learned that I need to reseal my kick panels, especially on the drivers side. I also forgot to to switch to the waterproof back door on one of my gopros. I thought the camera was toast but after I removed the battery and memory card and let it dry out it worked when I put it back together.

I can't wait for another event!

As Dave told me. Sometimes its best to live to fight another day...

Check out this guy going out in his Miata Saturday driving two laps during some of the heavy downpour.

Insane

And then this brass balled nut job doing it at night in the rain Saturday.

I'd say 40% of the turns on any given lap he is counter steering through some amount of slide.

He has a Miata. Therefore nothing to lose. Literally.

Just ask Weld.

That's great One Lap practice ;-)

Chad's 68
 

Chad thanks for posting the info.. good info on the track
Sorry to hear the weather messed things up a little
Will try to hit Socal in the future

Good to see your are running the car
like it is suppose to be used...
mine is still a part of the Jackstand racing
team for 3 weeks now.. seems like my
wheels decided to make a side trip somewhere else

Bob

That would make a very nicely equipped 1 Lap car I would think.

That class needs some more competitors Chad... be the man! :D

This is why I need more car storage space! I'd totally buy myself a spec Miata racer!

You know as I sat there debating going back on course I thought back to reading about your experiences in the rain this year Carl. I'd love to get some practice in the rain in something other than my precious Camaro. It is really scary. I think I need to get more comfortable counter steering and controlling oversteer at high speeds. Looking at the data the highest lateral g's I pulled in my best wet lap was between 0.85 and 0.9 compared to 1.3 g's in the dry. In fact almost every corner on the track in the dry I pulled at least 1 g if not 1.1 g's. In the wet almost every corner was comfortably below .75 g's :/

Good luck on getting kicked out of the jackstand racing team and finding your wheels :) If you do come to SoCal look me up as I don't need a whole lot of convincing to hit up a track day.

Dave, I would love to do One Lap of America! I just need a codriver and a low cost way of getting the car to Indiana and back...

I can justify the cost of the event itself but i can't justify the cost it takes to transport the car to and from. Even driving it there and back isn't cheap at 17-20mpg plus hotels etc.

:hello:

ha ha. Alright Tom, you do regular track days but I don't know how often you make it to SoCal? I heard some bridge fell down between SoCal and AZ. You still going to make it out here?

Glad to see you guys get some rain, Chad. Really sorry it had to come on your track day though. Good luck and have fun on your future outings!

That still sounds like a fun weekend to me Chad, even with the weather.
If I was out there, I'd join you for a track day no question!

I'll autocross in the rain any day, trackday in the rain, that's another issue. I'd probably still go out and run...but I'd be doing it just for fun and practice and I'd be VERY careful... If a lot of traffic or many others driving over their heads, I'd be the first to exit into the pits.

Thanks Trey. Its not the end of the world to get rained out and I still had a lot of fun before the rain showed up.

Hey Lance. Yeah I saw your thread about autocrossing in the rain. That was a cool pic! I did go out and put around during a lull but the track was still very wet. Between how lose I was and how fast others were driving (and then spinning out) I was the first to exit to the pits that run group :)

I probably make it out to cali for 3 - 4 track days/year. Mostly chuckwalla though. The tracks north of LA make for a loooong drive.

Yeah, one of the bridges on I10 right near chuckwalla actually. It'll be fixed long before it cools down enough for me to consider driving out there again.

Chad,
What did tci do to your subframe that enabled you to use your 275/888 upfront?

Anyone buying a new frame won't have to do anything. I have an older version that has the lower control arm slightly further back than the current frame. To compensate TCI made me newer control arms to bring the ball joint forward.

Whew what a great weekend! Lets start with a recap of Saturday.

After the Saturday before when Streets of Willow Springs turned into the Lakes of Willow Springs I felt a little short changed. I really though a 1:27 and maybe even a 1:26 lap time was within reach. So skip forward to Tuesday and Darren (of Speed Limit racing) who had his white C7 Zo6 with Z07 package at the track is making noise about going back the next Saturday with his Cobra. I already had plans with my wife that Saturday and it was going to be a high of 95* but once Darren mentioned he was going to have an air conditioned motor home with him and my understanding wife let me reschedule I was signed up!

Arrived at the track and pitted with Daren. A fully polished all aluminum Cobra getting worked on the track draws a lot of interest! Of course Darren and I are the only classic cars there.
http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6kupgvcz.jpg

The good news is that I did manage to squeak into the 1:27's one a single Lap. It was my 2nd lap of the 2nd run session so about the best conditions for the tires. My phone recorded a 1:27:97 but the official transponder recorded a 1:27:86 which felt better as that was solidly into the 1:27's in my book!

Here is the video from that session. 2nd lap is my fastest. First lap has some passing and later laps have some passing. The temps may have been too hot to really knock some time off (at my skill level) but it was sure fun chasing down other cars on the track. If you compare this to last week you will see several corners where I can't hold the same G's due to the heat. But I went there on a mission to try braking later and harder and it shows on some of my laps I was pulling close to 1g in braking with at least one lap where I saw 1.1g's in braking!


Thanks to being able to hang out in Darren's motor home i was able to survive the heat and run all 5 sessions in the Camaro. There were two negative side effects to hanging out in his motor home though. 1) Watching car movies inbetween run sessions may not be the best motivation when they are movies like Driven where every race includes massive and destructive crashes lol! 2) I didn't notice that the combination of afternoon wind and all of the fine silt in the pits from the flooding the week before combined to create the Sands of Willow Springs instead of Streets...
Check out my passenger seat from sitting in the pits with the windows all down.
http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/...psuejcmqei.jpg

After the event wound down I was looking up traffic conditions for the 2+ hour drive home. This time I decided to take my neighbor's advice and come home over Angels Crest highway. Man! What a great way to conclude a fantastic track day. ~50 miles of curvey and scenic mountain road and the best part is the first 20 miles I didn't encounter a single car going my direction and in total I was held up by slow traffic a total of maybe 1 mile. It was great. The mountain air was cool and I just cruised at the speed limit of 55 mph rolling through 30-35 mph turns one after another relaxed and feeling like my Camaro was the best car in the world (Sorry Marry P.). It was also a bit of a nostalgia throw back to the monthly "cruise the crest" some of us used to do before the core moved away or took their cars apart.
http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/...psbpkabjtc.jpg

It was a long and exhausting day but a supremely enjoyable and satisfying day.

Great to see the progress you've made Chad!

I miss the Cruisin the Crest days. Need to get back out just for the fun!

Nick! Dude it has been a long time since I've seen you on the forums! Maybe we can resurrect a cruise the crest for old times sake. Carl is still around and might be down. Most the group that we ran regularly with though I haven't seen around anymore. I myself was on hiatus for a few years dealing with the lows of getting my car back on the road.

Chad's Camero
 

Chad as always good to see you running the
hell out of the car... seat time is always the best
Seems like you like either raining or hotter than hell:)

Bob

Thanks Bob! I sure enjoy running the hell out of the car and it being relatively trouble free since I got back on the road last year.

I'm not sure I like running in the rain or crazy heat as much as willow springs is just out to get me!

Q: How to have fun with your car? A: Drive it!

In addition to the fun track day on Saturday I also took the car autocrossing in San Diego with the SCCA CAM crew on Sunday. As usual the SDR has a good turn out of CAM cars.

Its always great catching up with folks and doing a little bench racing in the pits.
http://carphotos.cardomain.com/image...9/19115893.jpg

http://carphotos.cardomain.com/image...9/19115894.jpg

http://carphotos.cardomain.com/image...9/19115895.jpg

And they always eat well. Richard setting up the BBQ.
http://carphotos.cardomain.com/image...9/19115896.jpg

Hot pits at SCCA never looked this good.
http://carphotos.cardomain.com/image...9/19115897.jpg

Video of my best run. I wasn't on my best game (came in 2nd) but I was having fun!


And the standings at the end of the day. Tom destroyed us this past Sunday. I was still happy with my 2nd place as I ran my best time on my last run which always makes me happy when I'm at an autocross.
http://carphotos.cardomain.com/image...9/19115898.jpg

It was a great weekend for me and the car. A track day in two back to back weekends as well as two events back to back Sat & Sun. I drove the car over 400 miles attending events this weekend, beat on it so hard on Saturday that it thought it was taking a Sunday drive on the autocross and only pulled out tools once for 5 mins to diagnose a loose fan wire.

Very nice!!! specially in the summer heat....

1:27..... you bastard. :bigun2:

LoL. I have a ton more seat time and I still barely beat you when you took your car on the track the first time. Yeah I don't think you have anything to worry about...

Did a little testing today in pursuit of hood vent options...

https://igcdn-photos-g-a.akamaihd.ne...57370981_n.jpg

If you're after additional cooling, hood vents made a very noticeable difference on my car by dropping water temps about 15 degrees. After adding the oil cooler I was able to drop temps another 15 degrees. On a hot day, my car runs about 175 on the freeway and 195-205 on the track.

That is my primary goal, enhanced cooling on the road course. Any aero benefits will be a bonus.

Right now I don't have a problem with coolant temps. Last outing with 95* and sunny day I was seeing a max of 210 coolant. However, I still see high oil temps and I'm hoping better hood venting will help everything all around.

Were those temps the Camaro and adding the Anvil vents? Do you have a hood with undercarriage or just the top layer only?

I'd put them where water won't soak your belt, wiring, headers, etc.. This is a mod I think every performance muscle car could benefit from. New cars evacuate under hood heat much better.