Locked and loaded! Shake n bake! Badstinkyfinger on trailer ready to rock! Ace crewman Frankie Jud joining the pit crew. This is gonna be stellar! :willy:

Go get em ladies....:thumbsup:

We reconfigured the car in the shape of a rabbit and its gonna poop out little rabbits on the track, and throw magic **** out the window!:unibrow:

Abrakadabrah...brah...:D

If the driver can also make some smooth moves



that lil '68 should do well.

:D

:thumbsup:

That just happened!:yes: Slingshot........engaged. :lol:

Help me Tom Cruise

Help ME... my pit crew are at the Rosamond Bikini Bar tonite.... :unibrow:

Work hard and play harder...:lol:

BTW Dave, those pictures looked really good. Good luck tomorrow.

We are back! What a great time. Great driving Dave. Haulin butt out there. Shake and bake! :cheers:

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, Wooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Dave,

I love the photos of your car. Your Camaro looks amazing in those shots (and in person). Hope to see you soon at Marina.

Brian

You guys did an outstanding job at the track. The only way Dave was able to loose that additional 5 sec. was with your pit crew help. :thumbsup: If he sneeze you handed him a tissue...Now that's the way to run a track day. No worries for the driver.

In addition you have one big heart Bro... thanks for letting my son use the Snap on Tools jacket for the ride home. Way to look out for the little guy.

Brett

Dave, as I have said before, in a half jokeing manner - but way more serious now, you are my new benchmark. Your car is bitchen in the looks department and performance. And you have proven you have driving skills. So now I will be practicing more and guaging my progress based on your times.:hail:

Right on man, great hanging with you at the track and I look forward to seeing you at P town.

Brett

Thanks Brett. You have a great kid, he was content, even in the terrible weather. We had a blast.:thumbsup:

Thanks Corey.

Brian, thanks man. Can't wait to see your world-beater Camaro. That thing is just diabolical. :cool:

I will see you soon somewhere!

Brett -- thanks bro. We had a blast hanging with you and were glad you came up. Was a fun little pro touring group we had there. And I appreciate those words from a guy with track experience. I look forward to our friendly competition in the near future! :thumbsup:

I will now take this opportunity to show off the sickest tow hook I have yet to come across, one that Brett custom fabbed for me prior to this event. After it was installed, we were looking at it and saying how it looks like a chainsaw... no more than 5 seconds later a fellow driver walked over and said "man, that thing is a chainsaw" :lol: So it is now aptly named the "Chainsaw" tow hook, by Fab53. :cheers:

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/f...8/IMG_0829.jpg

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/f...8/IMG_0827.jpg

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/f...8/IMG_0811.jpg

More on that tow look later.... :_paranoid

The Chronicles of a Newbie Open Track day
 

This is a little wordy, but since RTTC2 had been my previous best all time experience in a car, that has now been trumped I am here to report. Had an absolute killer time at Streets of Willow Springs on Sunday meeting up with some of the Socal boys who are willing to beat on their cars a bit. Chad, Brett, Mike & I were the 4 Camaros there to represent our team amidst the sea of Bimmers, EVOs, and S2000 type cars. Brett wasn't allowed to run because his rollbar isn't done yet, but his killer Camaro got tons of attention.

My team includes my ace crew chief Rich Bermea of Road Touring Customs who has become a damn good friend of mine in the past year. These races and trips wouldn't be half as fun without this dude. Everyone who meets him loves the guy, naturally. Thanks buddy! :cheers: For this event he brought along his sidekick Frankie Jud, another skilled wrench and all around great dude. Plus he brought a 2nd GoPro to put on the outside of the car. :unibrow:

If you haven't ever stayed a night in Rosamond, CA......... well, you made a good decision. :lol: Quite the place. While I headed back to the Bates Motel after dinner to nurse the end of a head cold, the crew headed out to lovely establish known as the Rosamund Bikini Bar.... they were back in about 20 minutes. :lol:

Let's get to the racing. 1st Session - decided to jump up into Intermediate group since I've done RTTC and a couple autoX events, and that was a good group to start in with the point by deal and to get accustomed. Took it nice and easy and started learning the course while watching the gauges and checking things over. We added an cheapo oil temp gauge and rigged it up to monitor that before building an oil cooler system later. Well, that backfired a bit as I pulled off the course after 4 laps after the gauge showed 275* and rising. 270* was our predetermined warning number. Crew checked oil pan temp and it was only like 110 and water temp never budged over 180, so it was determined the cheapo POS gauge was not accurate. Sweet. Best time 1:36 taking it pretty easy. Thanks to Jay @ Speedtech for initial tire pressure recommendations.

2nd Session - Got a full 9 laps in but probably only 2 really clean ones due to knuckleheads not knowing when to give a point by (I gave my share throughout the day BTW). Pushed it harder and knocked 3 seconds off to 1:33. Crew made continuous adjustments to tire pressures & shock settings.

Chad encouraged me to try to get into Advanced for 3rd session so I talked to the organizers and they were cool with it.

3rd Session - Great call by Chad to move me up to Advanced. Faster and smarter drivers and better spacing even though similar number of cars in this group. Got 5 solid laps (can't remember why not more) and knocked 5+ seconds off my time. Down to 1:28 now. Some minor right side tire pressure tweaks and we were pretty dialed in for the rest of the day.

The real reason I think I knocked off 5+ seconds is Rich found this in my tail pipe. We think Todd must've snuck in and planted them. :rofl:

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/f...hoto_004-5.jpg

4th Session - Short session as the tranny linkage was already feeling mushy (reoccurring issue since RTTC) going in so I wasn't sure if I'd make the checkered... and that came true... but because the battery tipped over in the trunk on my 2nd lap (:lol:) -- guess that battery hold down didn't gitter dun (cheaper chrome piece that came on the car). Battery tipped over and knocked the fuel pump electrical out of commission, so it just died and I pulled over. So I got to test out my new Chainsaw tow hook. :D

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/f...8/IMG_0839.jpg

Session 5 - Battery reconnected and tightened down and shifter linkage massaged a bit (not much to do -- we just need a new linkage... or trans!). Ready to rock. Got to line up 2nd right behind the badass Orange C6 Z06 all race prepped on R888's. He set low time of the day with a Pro Driver at 1:23. The owner was driving this time so I gave myself a shot... a long shot. Or no shot :lol: Held with him okay for about 1/2 a lap then fell back. Shifter started giving me bad trouble and had to really slow shift it and force into gears. Gave her hell for 3 laps and laid down my best time on my final lap. Felt like a 1:27 but I knocked 5 thousandth's off my best for a lower 1:28.2. Video review shows the shifter issue slowed me a bit there.

Here is my 5th & final session trying to keep up with the badass C6 Z06. Best lap is 3rd lap before pulling into pit.



And here is my final & best lap of the day.



I received some really nice praise from other drivers and the event organizers at the end of the day. They were shocked I was on street tires. Some of these guys used to seeing imports don't give our cars too much credit since they don't see many of them. That's how it seemed anyway.

No offense to autoX lovers, but man this puts that game to shame in the fun department IMO. I can't wait to get back out to a road course, and I encourage anyone on the fence to do the same.

Awesome job by you and your crew Dave!!

I imagine you will be going to a 5 or 6 speed but I posted a bit of info at your thread about the Muncie and linkage I am using at the PT site. If you need more info get a hold of me. I stick with the Muncie for weight reasons and will eventually go to a Jerico and sequential linkage.

Once again, awesome job and congrats on a successful weekend. :thumbsup:

Hope to see you guys at Buttonwillow July 30th.

Congrats to the whole GoodTransBadLinkageHand crew for a successful day. :thumbsup:

Cool how driver and crew overcame the cars' issues.

Great driving (no surprise) and a great post.

Nice driving. It felt like I was in the car with you.

I had been leaning toward a Liberty prepped TKO 600 for quite a while, but my mind has started wandering toward these other 4 speeds lately i.e. Jerico and Tex Racing.... hmmm.

Thanks for the words. We will race together one of these days! :cheers:

The BadLinkageFinger crew did a great job. The car is taking everything we throw at it pretty well.

Thanks for the words Dr. Skip! :thumbsup: (In DFresh Land, everyone is a doctor) :lol:

Thanks Wayne!

Very nice Dave. Great videos. Glad you had fun.
Your car sounds mean and it moves out pretty good too!:yes: :thumbsup:

Lovin the pictures Dave. So great to see you really getting to use this car.:thumbsup:

Thanks dudes! :cheers:

Nick -- can I assume you'll be at GG Pleasanton on Saturday?

Thanks to Jay (BrakeLate) for this video chasing me in my 2nd and final Intermediate session before moving up to Advance to get some room to run. He catches up to me about the 5:50 mark. Since I burn quite a bit of oil, he first thinks there is a problem with my car when I smoke on decel/shifting. :lol: It's nice to be able to watch my lines from this perspective.

Looked like the only problem with your Camaro was that he couldn't keep up.:hail:

HEEP

I didn't see the 11 mustang coming anywhere close to hanging. :P That little 377 is a monster.:thumbsup:

Haha. He was a good dude and at least wasn't an import! :thumbsup:

Awesome car and video's! I like how you left that new mustang:thumbsup:

Operation FrankenMuncie
 

Just got home from the shop working all afternoon and into the night with Rich on my transmission deal... the M21 that came with the car has been giving me problems with shifting since RTTC so we decided to pull it and throw in one of his spare M21's in the shop for the upcoming GG AutoX next weekend in Pleasanton. Well, getting it out and talking more about it, we decided to try the wide ratio M20 he had there. We think the 2.52 1st should actually be much better for autoX as I will max out at 60ish mph in 1st (70ish with M21). We used parts from at least 3 different Muncies I believe so it's a bit of a mutt now. :thumbsup:

I was stoked to read recently this AutoX will not be the usual peanut but a little longer course to stretch our legs. How long I have no idea... I just can't imagine more than 60mph will be seen.

This move will also help us determine if the M21 itself was the problem or if the linkage was it. We've been stumped thus far.

It will also provide me with real world data in my never-ending and incessant research of my next trans (TKO, T56, T101a, Jerico are all candidates).

Also found we had one bad roller rocker (galled) so that is on order. Would love to move to shaft rockers someday.

Ok, I am getting delirious.... off to bed. :cheers:

Is there a schedule for when you'll be running? I'd like to come check it out.

Damn Dave, you're a night owl :D

It says 9am to Noon and 1pm to 3pm on Saturday, but not sure how it all works actually. I plan on getting there before 9am and see what happens. Should be some killer cars out there so come check it out and say hello.

Yeah, it's always smart to show up a little early on Saturday to get one of the lower numbered spots, which means you might get one additional run compared to some of the higher numbers if they only make it half way through a round at the end.

Oh, and I wouldn't expect to get over 40mph this coming weekend. This years autocross might be bigger than last year's, but that isn't necessarily saying much :lol:

Thanks for posting up that video too. Looks like you had a lot of fun out there. Makes me want to get out to a big track again.

See you next weekend,

Matt

I will see if I can plan to come out to the show sat for the day so I can watch the racing. I am not planning to take my car in the day but later my wife and I are planning to take it out down town if all goes right this week with it. Dave you planning on staying in the area sat night or heading home?

How early you think on Sat is sufficient? Based on my 4am post this morning from last night, you can guess I am not a morning guy. What time you guys plan on rolling over there?

40mph track has got to be more fun than the damn peanut. Was never too excited to run that configuration. This should be fun regardless -- looking like a good crew coming up.

Thanks and looking forward to see you Socal surfer boys too. :lol:

Nick, I was gonna hit you up this week and did figure you'd be there car or not. We are getting a bunch of us together after the show for dinner. Check this thread out. You should join and def bring the car!

https://lateral-g.net/forums/show...2&postcount=40

Getting there around 8 a.m. can't hurt, but I might sacrifice a possible 30ish sec run at the end of the weekend for an extra hour of sleep Saturday morning.

Goodguys said that they were planning a bigger course with better management for cars entering and exiting. So, hopefully things will run quickly and smoothly this year.

Matt

Nice, let's hope the car makes it out, I will plan to try and make it early for the racing and show and see how the evening goes, still need to get a baby sitter :willy:

Heck, man, bring the Chevelle out for a nice break-in on the AutoX. :unibrow:

:thumbsup:

a couple more vids from the 2nd GoPro at Willow Springs 2 weeks ago...