RTTC comin up. We are comin after a black Camaro with a big block 427. You ready?:yes:

Get in line and good luck. :D Oh ya, it's a 489. I haven't seen my car in about 2 months but I'll be ready to shake and bake.

I'm comin after that black Camaro too, and Dave's camaro too, and all you mofo's and your tough-guy cars. Hell yah, you'll see me chasing you guys down......with my friggin camera. :rolleyes:

My car will have to wait a year as it's in a state of change and has some major components missing. But I'll be out there for the sites and sounds and a little motivation though. Look forward to seeing you all battle it out and share a few laughs and stories. :cheers:

A black big block Camaro? Nah, we don't pick the low hanging fruit.. :D

Chris! Lookin fwd to seein ya bro -- get that car up and gunning for RTTC3.5 up in Norcal! :thumbsup:

Was supposed to be at Big Willow today but wasn't feeling well this past week so I shelved it. So I am stuck at home on Lateral G this weekend. :D Might as well post some updates I thought...

Safety has been a big focus for me in 2012 as this car gets more serious, and I scored a great deal on a Fuel Safe cell complete with bladder off the NASA forum for $350 (same part # now is $1150 new). And it fits nearly dead nuts to the section already cut in my trunk for the "pro street" plastic cell that came with the car.

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/f...8/GEDC0024.jpg

After Mary Pozzi drove my car she insisted I get a larger steering wheel. So I have finally obliged with a new 350mm Sparco (Xmas present). :D

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/f...oto_001-11.jpg

And one of my favorite winter projects was the Nascar/ARCA Boom Tube exhaust I scored off ebay super cheap. Took some fab work at the shop to make it work, but it was a great starting piece and of great quality. 3.5" merge into the 19.5" x 1.5" exit. Don't have a great pic of the side view yet but this is how it came

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/f...8/photo-12.jpg

then after some tweaking at the King Muffler in Morgan Hill (Thanks Mike)

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

and an undercar view after the white paint job

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/f...8/IMAG0605.jpg

Rich did a fab job of modding the Corbeau brackets to get them flush with the floor so my XP1 Pro seats fit me just right now suited up with helmet.

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/f...8/photo-13.jpg

And finally, a little autoX action last Sunday at Marina. That darn quick Deanna beat me again by a nose hair. :lol: Of course Mary whooped us all really bad.

I took Rich's son Richie for his first autoX ride. Dad hopes this will motivate him more to get on his 1st gen Camaro father-son project. :thumbsup:



After talking with Dave & Mary P at Marina about my bad plowing front end, we finally decided to try a smaller front bar. So a Hotchis hollow bar has replaced the solid Addco bar. Will try that next and see what difference that makes... one change at a time when tuning!

So the new car is more tame ???

Oh man...Does not look tame to me...

Love it...

i need more goodies, but i must keep the wife happy:cheers:

My interior and phase two will have to wait.

Sweet gen one car:lateral: :woot:

Car's looking great, I like the new additions!! Is that vid with the new exhaust?? How loud is it?

Nice score on the cell Dave and I'm glad to see your finally dumping that tuner wheel.
I think you hit Ricky Bobby territory with that exhaust :lol:

Just kiddin' bro, cant wait to hear that thing :thumbsup:

Thank you Mike... def not tame, but I have room for more "ROWDY" I think. :D

Jerry, right? Thanks! Yes that was first real day out with new exhaust... it's pretty loud but I failed to mention I put the Car Chemistry 3 disk inserts in it and that is supposedly good for a 7 decibel reduction. I like it. :cheers:


Yeah it was just a matter of priorities. The old wheel "worked" but was not ideal... so it was time.

And I take the Rick Bobby comment as a compliment! :lol: :cheers:

Yup it's Jerry. And we will need audio from outside :unibrow:

I think you may be the first to run that exhaust on a street / track car

NASCAR exhaust is bad ass.

Car looks like its running great!

How long are those bladders good for?

Dave, those are some great mods for ya. That boom-tube exhaust is cool as hell.

Can I ask what kind of mods Rich did to the seat brackets to fit them better for you?

Dave-O....:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

The transformation is incredible :D

I def need to get some good video. I wanna know what it sounds like from the outside too! :thumbsup:

There is a guy on PT forum running a similar setup though...

http://www.pro-touring.com/showthrea...=car+chemistry


Thanks... now what's the catch? :lol:

Car is running great, but it ain't turning great! :lol: Gotta dial in the front end for better turn in. Otherwise just play more with spring rates, shock settings.

I was told the bladders can last well over a decade. There are known bladders in use for almost 20 years. The one I am getting has been drained every winter (midwest) and has been not used for 4 or 5 years. Came out of a Bondurant car from mid 2000s... not that that matters.

Thanks Corey.... The brackets that came from Corbeau sit pretty high. Basically had to cut the L-shaped brackets that lift it off the floor about 1.5" or so. That moved it just enough for me. Mary Pozzi did a similar thing with her same seats and brackets.

His vid was posted here too by an overzealous lat-g member. :_paranoid

https://lateral-g.net/forums/show...7&postcount=19.

Thanks dude!

Thanks for posting that... I was gonna... knew you'd pick me up! :D

Unless it's just the video/sound quality that system seems quiet compared to mine. :_paranoid

Great additions to the car and it sounds great!

The owner of NASCAM and the conglomerate that owns BMF could donate their time to do a Ritcher scale test out your way to decide this probing question. :wow:

The Exhaust is awesome.Sound's great on track.:thumbsup:

I'M SURE YOU'LL HAVE NO PROBLEM FINDING SOMEONE TO DO A FLY BY WHILE YOU STAND CURB SIDE :willy:

Also, is the steering wheel that is in the Camaro in the video a 12 or 13" ? Thanks

Current (in the video) is 330mm (about 13") and I will be stepping up to 350mm (14").

I'd stick with the small wheel. You are getting married, a beer belly in NOT optional. :cheers: :D

Listen to the man! Now my arms are almost too short to steer..

:lol:


Flash has got too much



to let that happen. :unibrow:

Oh man, now this thread is even turning on me!! :lol: :cheers:

Ok, thanks Dave. That is what I did to my seat brackets when I put the new seats in my car. I've wondered how many people modify the floorpans to get the seats to sit lower or any other modifications they do for seat fitment. I think DSE actually does modify the floorpans a bit for seat fitment if necesssary...just thinking out loud. Again, cool stuff going on with your ride.

Yes, we talked about the floor plans too. And I'm just glad we didn't have to go that far. Lucky I am only 6' and not taller.

And thanks! :thumbsup:

Yes....... we will have the Blu Balz for an appetizer, then a Payback burger for the main course, and a Dougie Fresh salad. For dessert, we will have the Houbaugh cheesecake!:D :lol: :cheers:

He doesn't post often, but when he does, it's usually a doozie. :D


http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/f...frasertype.gif

It's time to get out of bed and change your soaked drawers. :rofl:

:rofl:

I am using the same solid Addco bar (on a much milder build) and was wondering if using that sway bar would make any first gen plow or does it depend on the combination of parts as a package that causes that result.

Did the Hotchkis bar make a big difference when you swapped it?

I would say that running that bar is definitely not the norm and most are running a smaller bar or a hollow bar of similar size. I would think it's the total package though as you mentioned.... and I have not driven the car yet with the Hotchkis bar installed so I cannot report anything yet.

What a weekend...
 

I am not even sure where to start here... first, as many of you know, I've been battling some off and on fatigue and health issues for awhile now and it has kept me from making 3 track days since September. But I was determined to give it a shot at RTTC and do as much as I could. Well I not only made it through, I felt pretty good the whole time and still feed good now that I'm back. It is quite a medical mystery if you ask me, but I will just call RTTC exactly what the doctor ordered! :thumbsup:

Now, on to car stuff... I'll start by saying Badmotorfinger now has a bad motor... literally. Something happened mid morning on Friday on the road course. Not sure if overheating caused the problem, or a yet to be identified problem caused the overheating. Water temp was over 240 as I was pulling off the course and the coolant was empty. Not cool. First tow of he day back to the pits.

After a full body cavity search could not find an external problem so it's likely internal. Excessive blow-by is now occurring at this point at an alarming rate. :D

Button it up and head back out and see what happens. Power is down a bit but not terribly. Oil pressure a little low but acceptable. Make some more runs and see what happens. Went to the autoX and knocked over some cones. Man I usually don't hit an excessive amount of cones but I was on fire this weekend. :lol:

Back on the road course later in the afternoon and ran a short session but didn't get my clutchless rev matching downshift right and got the tranny stuck between gears. Tow #2 back to the pits.

Quickly got back out on track and went again.... it got a little hot and I came back in to cool and oil pressure was down to about 4 lbs. Yes, 4 lbs. Not cool again. It was mid afternoon now and decided to shut it down for the day and put some thicker oil in it for Saturday. Found some straight 50 at AutoZone and that was the life blood for another day. Oh and the battery was now dead. Add that to the shopping list.

Got back out Saturday and surprisingly the motor held its own for most of the day. Still down on power but pulling pretty good and would stumble a bit a times (also related to the float bowl adjustments for that speed stop dealio). Blow by is borderline hilarious at this point and I am getting texts and strangers coming up to me asking if my car is okay. One asked if I saw the smoke coming out of the engine... How could I not?! :lol:

After the motor injury, I was just wanted good clean runs in all 3 events and try to make the shootout. My car is terribly setup for that speed stop squared event so I knew I wouldn't make it far but I just wanted to make it, and I did. We are all anxious to see how we stack up and hopefully they post times soon. I've checked my videos and I have to say I am pretty happy with my estimated times based on my motor problems. The road course was and should be my best event and then the autocross and then I stunk up the speed stop drag race slalom deal. Was a blast though.

First report on recently installed mods:

Corbeau seats - fit great, feel great

Oil cooler system - TBD... oil temps reached high 280-290 when water temp was hitting 240+. Need to figure that out.

T101A trans - AWESOME. By the end of Saturday I was getting pretty decent at downshifting while left foot braking and right foot rev matching. Did experience some wicked wheel hop when timing was off on downshifts, but the car would stay straight as long as I was aimed straight.

Boom Tube exhaust - love it. Not too loud surprisingly due to the car chemistry inserts and it drew a lot of attention for both looks and sound. The GoPro captures the sound pretty good but definitely louder in person. :)

Carbotech brake pads - great pad when they are hot. They shined on the road course. Really liked them. Not sure if they helped a whole lot on autoX. Didn't feel like it even though I tried to drag the brakes quite a bit for that event and the drag/slalom/brake deal... oh yeah, as I drug the brakes people kept checking and asking what's wrong with my car again. LOL

Hotchkis front sway bar - maybe the best mod in past year. Made the turn in excellent and felt like 100 lbs were removed from front of car. I am actually excited to do the Goodguys Peanut in 2 weeks... if the motor cooperates with some oil pressure. :thumbsup:

Ok, enough commentary already. On to the videos. These look like my best times. I never put together a super clean road course lap and I think I look slow in this vid, but the time seems to be decent from what I've seen.



And an AutoX run on Friday. Starts at about :58



We had a blast of a weekend and I can't thank enough my good friend Rich Bermea of Road Touring Customs and his sidekick Frankie Judd for their track support and good times. These guys are great guys with big hearts and make it possible for me to do this stuff. And that Frankie can drive too. :thumbsup:

Looks like it's time to start finishing my new motor plans that were not ready yet.... good thing I already started collecting parts :)

Looks good Dave, real clean. Sorry to hear about the engine troubles.

I agree with Vince, hell of a good wheel man. Your car seems to be working well and it was wounded so even more impressive. I like that little 377. Tear it apart and fix it before it BLOWS. :unibrow: I bet you broke a ring. A compression check will figure that one out.

Not that loud? I thought it was the 1987 Daytona 500 when Richie fired it up next to my trailer. :lol: Sounded really good!

Hate that you hurt the motor
 

Gives you the excuse to put the one in that you have been gathering parts for this last year.

Never did see where you mentioned the brakes. Did you like the new pads?

Glad you were able to hold up physically, that has to be the brightest spot of the entire journey.

For a fat motor its not very jolly.

But I'm officially addicted to its sound and that shifting. :cool:

As far as all the cars' issues; you're a flexible problem solver so you'll come up with something creative.

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...Arrow-With.jpg

Glad you made it and it was nice meeting you. Hope the motor issue gets resolved. It sounded great when I heard it.