Hope to see you at the Lingenfelter event. Just gotta tear myself away from all this mountain biking stuff and get back to my car roots ...

Mary P.

I actually buy my GM parts from Scogging Dickey. Their prices are better than GM employee discount prices.

Mark

Thanks for sharing the big picture stuff not directly related to car parts -- the project planning -- something many of us struggle with again and again and..
:willy:

:thumbsup:

Subscribed, More pictures please.

Awesome car. My dad and I are very excited to be working on another project with Mark again. Can't wait to see the car further in the paint stage. Body and paint should go fairly quick as Matt at Sled Alley did a killer job on the metal work on the car. I'll will be sending Mark pictures along the way and I'm sure he will be over to shoot some as well. :thumbsup:
More to come soon, I will be starting on the body work towards the end of the week.

has he picked a color yet?

Subscribed! Best of luck meeting your goals Mark, not that you need it with your planning.
Thanks for that inspiring quote about completion. That bit of advice is one more puzzle piece I will try to fit into my life.

:thumbsup: subscribed

Rob McGaffin hinted the other day that he had seen a spray out, but wouldn't leak the color. :cool:

:cool: Can't wait!

guess I could just call Mark, huh??!!!!! :lol:

Come on Mark... That's all ya got?!?!



:lateral: :cheers: :woot:

Another Stielow project, can't wait to see more. Mark's projects always turn out cool, but you can learn something from each build. :thumbsup:

Couldn't agree with you more Corey. The "Red Witch" was a phenominal build. He basically turned a car with 40 year old technology and turned it into a car that could contend with some of todays finest sports cars. My favorite part was the addition of the ABS brake system.

I've been hearing crazy rumors about this car for the last several months. Looking forward to hopefully seeing it at SEMA.

Matt

Don't think it will matter a whit ...

I talked to Rob last Sunday and he didn't say anything about this. Gonna have to have a talk with that guy ...

Mary P.

I find it very funny that the number one question I get on this car is "what color is it gunna be".

Not how much power, weight, chassis..... LOL

I agree with Mary "Don't think it will matter a whit ..."

I don't tell people the color because it changes all the time and we won't know for sure until it comes out of Joe VanNus's paint gun.

Mark

Experiment:

I think you should paint it some really obnoxious color, just to test your "trendsetting" ability. You could start a trend of pink Camaros or something. You will never know the extent of your power until you test it. :lol:

Regardless of color, one thing is for sure - -those VanNus boys will have it slick!!!!!!

All joking aside, it looks like another great project. So since you asked for it, I will ask a few questions.

DSE Suspension, tubs etc. was already established
-New JRI Shocks also?
-Any special tricks to fit larger rubber under the earlier body or will it
ride on the slightly smaller wheel/tire combo that is typical of the
earlier cars?
-Same rear axle configuration (Vette hubs) that you ended up with on
Red Devil?
-I don't recall that you ended up utilizing any kind of traction control on
Red Devil, any plans to go that route? It may or may not yield any
performance gains for a driver at your level, but I thought I would ask
if you had considered it.

OK - that's enough of my dumb questions for now.

Very excited to be able to follow a build in somewhat real time - just finished reading the Pro-Touring book you put together, excellent all around read.

What about AWD, Ive been waiting to see some one take that on.

Alright. I'll bite.

What?! No aero mods?! Underbody tray, rear diffuser, splitter??? The competition will likely be doing more power and less weight as well. What have you got up your sleeve to get the title back?

Armchair Quarterbackingly yours,
Chris

How are you losing weight? From your book it seemed like you were always thinking about it, but from the pictures I can't spot any indication that you've gone farther in that direction than you have in the past.

What did you learn from Red Devil that you're applying to this car? With so few details it seems like you're building the same car over.

My bet is that Mark will fall on his creature comfort sword a bit and save weight in one area by not soundproofing "the little devil" as extensively, or perhaps at all.

As memory serves there was a figure mentioned in the excerpt on Red Devil in his Building the Mule book that spoke of 60 Pounds... That would be a huge diet for a car so capable.
I also got a minimalistic vibe off of that radiator shot, Smaller tanks maybe? Efficiency though less water weight?
As we learned from Stielow in the Mule book he goes the extra mile and shaves tenths of ounces to save ounces and ounces add up to pounds.

Another amazing project by Mark:thumbsup: :thumbsup: just keep us updated with lots of pics Mark and good luck

4.92 lbs per rwhp and it will look great in orange. :thumbsup:

Ok I'll ask how much power???? Same setup as before? More cubes?? Oh and by the way we need more pictures please!!! :thumbsup:

Subscribed! I was just reading about shortening the wheel studs on the Mule to save 25% of the total stud weight. I love learning from these builds.

I woulda thought it would be...'You gonna run vent windows or not?'

:D

alloy suspension parts/IRS?

:unibrow:


Not my place to reveal...but I don't think it matters much. It's going to be killer.

Flux capacitor? :cool:

1.21 jigawatts! :thumbsup:

Details
 

Where will you save the weight and where will you gain the grip? :_paranoid

I'l guess a lighter housing for your straight axle in back. Hollow axles did you run those before?
Lighter break package.
New shock package save weight and improved dampening = better grip.
Maybe a little less weight up front with the radiator/ cooler/ core support package. It looks like the radiator package you have has all the heat exchangers integrated into one unit?

I didn't see you mention transmission. Something track specific in magnesium?

Slightly bigger front and smaller rear tires with a cambered rear?

Lots of guessing with no basis on my part. Just proding you for some real details. :D

I'd like to see some titanium bits start working themselves into the build. Bolts, nuts, exhaust piping, headers. All that stuff is big money but when you are shaving ounces . . .

You aren't going to see a bunch of exotic metals for weight savings. Mark does not have that kind of money. His credt card is almost maxed out with each build.

Didn't he use mostly stock hardware on his last couple of builds? I seem to remember him having a literal bucket load of stock nuts/bolts/J-clips etc cleaned up and coated... :yes:

More power & less weight, but significant enough changes to warrant the expense of building a new car vs. modifying RD...there's something in plain sight that we aren't seeing! :willy:

More power in a smaller and lighter car... :cheers:

Yep, 67 vs 69 as he said is a lighter platform...maybe 200lbs max between the two? There is aluminum front sheetmetal for a 69 though so there may be something to offset that.

I'm also on pins and needles to see what you're doing with the tire widths...near 50/50 weight distribution with square or nearly square widths? :unibrow:

Oh yeah, PTM...you heard it here first!

Time to start moving the drivetrain and passengers backwards in the car.

Whenever I contemplate pro-tour competitive builds, I am alwasy stumped by what you can do to be better than a late model vette- They have us beat on weight distribution, IRS, unsprung weight, aero, and development. If I was building a max effort pro-tour car I think I would just give up and drop a vintage body on a C6 running chassis. Because the down side to the vette of course is you see 5 of them a day even in Seattle.

The other avenue you can pursue of course is the super lightweight approach ie street rod based design or similar. That won't work with the muscle car envelope though.

Well Stielow's builds are always interesting although with his car building experience I'd like to see him push the envelope a bit more. As he's said though the key to much of his success is being fairly conservative overall and simply applying ingenuity to the details.

Aluminum core supports are also available (AutoRad) as well as complete CF front clips for these cars... even 2nd Gen Pontiac Firebird/Tran Ams have CF noses, hoods, fenders and doors now! :_paranoid

I'd like to see Mark take advantage of ALL of the weight saving products available from out site sponsors and other vendors! :thumbsup: