I want to thank Gaetano (Track Junky) for offering to let me use his car hauler to take my car down to RTTC. That was an unsolicited offer from a guy I have yet to meet in person. We've shared emails and PMs and our Norcal get together was recently postponed, but I just wanted to publicly thank him for that nice gesture. Another one of the great contacts I have made on this forum. :thumbsup:

Thanks again G, but I am determined and NEED to do this road trip thing! :D

Pretty decent weekend of forward progress and street testing as we get ready for the RTTC road trip. We are down to mostly "minor" things on the white board to-do list, but every time 1 or 2 things get erased, 2 or 3 things replace those. That's how it goes.

--Changed/inspected oil a 2nd time since distributor gear broke last weekend. This oil looked and the oil filter was cut open and looked great as well. Bronze gear doing it's job so far. Will check again either in Bakersfield or in Irvine after a few hundred miles of wear.

--Wilwood e-brake kit installed

--Played with prop valve and dialed in maximum rear brake bias and still could not achieve rear brake lockup. May not have optimum MC bore. Looking into that now, but brakes are much improved as expected over previous disc/drum setup.

--Car was stalling when stomping on brakes. Adjusted various carb settings.

After the last of the street testing runs on a sparse commercial road, a few cops starting heading to the area. I'm sure I had nothing to do with it. :_paranoid

But, one of the worst things I could have done for that day was ride shotgun in Rich's flagship build car (for his buddy/customer Eric David). It's very similar to Todd's 69 in a lot of ways, and it ruined me for the day. What a beast and beautiful car (Eric's on left, Todd's on right for those that just registered yesterday). We are working on convincing him to come to RTTC with us. :thumbsup:

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/f.../SEMA10001.jpg

ASSume your pedal ratio is at 6:1 or better?

Also - what M/C bore you running?

Eric has a gorgeous car. I mentioned how loose the track is at El Toro and how he would likely do some damage when he was here in November. It's my fault. :D That photo is the perfect example of different blacks. His has a blue tinge while mine is dark.

As we discussed, it's the pads. I can lock up my rears easily with a larger bore master cylinder and my Carbotechs. It's an amazing difference. I ended up needing to dial out about 5-6 turns. They are an autocross pad with good initial bite. The wilwood pads they send with the street kits don't squeak and have great life. They just don't work that great. My rear pads were nearly brand new after 3-4k on them. I haven't had them squeak like my front road race pads.

Anytime Dave. After all the help that was offered to me from the guys on this site to try and get me to Optima it was a no brainer. After reading about your distributor gear woes I didn't want to see you not make it to RTTC.

Good luck and hope you do well.:thumbsup:

ASS is right. I do not know. I remember reading some posts about this awhile back, but did not do anything with it.

Since the car was a pretty well running car when I got it (minus about 12 or so drivetrain leaks), we have just made changes and see how the results were on the fly.

We are not sure what the bore on the MC is either... it is not an aftermarket piece -- some GM stock style piece, but not sure off what year or model. That could/should be one of our next steps in this process... I think.

We are down to prioritizing final things to check/adjust/replace/etc with less than 2 weeks to go for the road trip, and this may not make the cut. If not, we will continue to look at this when we get back.

Yeah it is. And shame on you for scaring away another nice car. Haha. I'd be hesitant too with such a beautiful paint and body.

Yep, I believe you on the pads. Again, one of the final things to decide to leave as is for the trip/racing. Not sure I will get to it before next week but definitely on the short to-do list and will happen soon.

You think I should change pads before proceeding with a possible MC change? Guess it would make sense to know what MC I got first huh... :lol:

Yep, a great niche of car guys. Thanks for the well wishes man. I just hope to do well, learn about my driving and my car, and avoid carnage! :woot:

If you can lock the fronts, you should be able to lock the rears...

Haven't been able to lock the fronts yet... maybe I need to get back on those calf raises.

Seriously -- I wouldn't be tracking the car if you can't make the brakes work beyond tire grip... you're asking for trouble.

Another ASSumable question. Did anyone BED the pads in? And do the brakes work better after you put some heat in them?

That last question is most important... because if they don't... you'll be having one of those off track excursions that nobody wants. :D

I agree, you should be able to achieve front lock up unless your master cylinder is way oversize. Like 1 1/8.