John - they probably won't trust me with the controller, haha. There is a net around it to protect the masses, at least? We'll be happy to help find the right car for your "kids", though.

Trey - I'm in the marketing department, doing graphics and some project/traffic management. It's been a blast so far.

Greg - thanks! We've missed you guys the last few events. We've got a tough decision coming on tires for next year, I like the Falkens but the Rival S seems to have surpassed it pretty handily as far as the big tires go. Luckily there's still a good amount of meat on ours, so we've got some time.

It's surprised me how much more comfortable I've gotten in it this year, even with a few stretches of downtime. Excited to get some more spring and swaybar under it this winter.

I was surprised to see the TMS event still going on with all the rain we had that weekend. Looks like you had fun though. Who's the new guy with the Nova? Havent seen him running yet.

I might get in 1 or 2 more events this next month before tearing down the car. Dont know which ones though.

He's cool. The car was a drag car before, he's put a Ridetech(?) 4-link under it and some front suspension work too. Spent a few events working out bugs but he's coming along pretty quick with it.

I think we're going to make the one on the 15th then start eyeing the to-do list. Two month offseasons are a blessing and a curse..

Yup. 6 weeks of planning and tear down and then "Oh Crap!" :willy:

Been there! Sounds like our prep going into last season, which led to us not getting the car out til like August.

-------

Stumbled across a pretty cool pic on facebook by Brad Maxcy of Vorshlag and Texas SCCA - this looks way more composed than any other pic I have of it. This was on, I believe, the first slalom in the runs above. Very open and very fast.


Can't wait to get it stiffer and lower.

End of season update! Last event of the year for the car was last weekend. Tricky course, I was a bit tired, driver excuse bingo.

Still a fun day, but I never got a handle on the course. At all. Even on my last run, there were 4 or 5 spots I just couldn't get the car feeling right on.


My trusty crew chief was also on hand wielding the big camera. Can't wait to get started on the suspension work and tame this thing..


Now, to prioritize that winter to-do list..

Duston,

I love this thread and the fact that you are out actually using the car you built.

Keep posting pics and Updates as I am watching them all.

Couldn't agree more! And personally, I like the later 2nd gens. Nice to see one getting some love!

Thanks guys! We have definitely had a blast running the snot out of it this year.

Minor update - I was hoping to run the car one last time this weekend, but I ended up with a decent size cut in the passenger rear tire sidewall on a run and I'm not comfortable street driving with it.

Enter the Z! ..and its 3 year old RS-3s. High for the day was 50, strong north breeze, it was amusing all the way around. Good way to end the year, and remind me what it's like to feel totally confident and comfortable in a car.

First run of the PM session - cold tires was hilarious. HILARIOUS.


Best raw time of the day (had a cone somewhere)


In hindsight, I do a lot of tiptoeing in the Camaro, where in the Z I'm more gun it and figure it out later. What gives the confidence to do this even on worn out tires?

• 4+ years of seat time in the Z
• Neutral handling:
• Will push a bit if you overcook it driving into corners, but easily correctable with a quick brake tap
• Rotates predictably through corners with controlled throttle
• Hard initial brake bite (thanks Carbotech!) and solid, predictable ABS performance allow for stupid heavy braking

Compared to the Camaro -

• One season and some change dodging cones in it
• Handling is a mixed bag:
• Turn in is quick, but it gets into an unrecoverable push if you get in too hot
• Rotates freely (like, really freely) with the throttle, making corner exit a delicate process and delaying getting back to the power
• Hard braking (I supposed it's trail braking) into corners brings the rear around, often rather abruptly
• Manual brakes and sub-optimal master cylinder sizes are difficult to modulate (new masters that are still sitting on the bench..), initial bite is fairly soft and walking the line between no brakes and lockup is tricky

Soooooo, now we just have to figure out how to make the bottom more like the top? Season starts March 6th..

Have you ever put a infrared temp sensor on your brakes rotors directly after a run on the Camaro? I had a symptom somewhat like your braking issue and turns out I had way too much rear brake which was upsetting the car on corner entry. What made mine hard to diagnose was it wouldn't happen on the early parts of runs, just later on in the runs as once the EBC yellow pads heated up they gripped way harder.

My rear rotors were about 100 degrees hotter than the fronts right after a run. Once I swapped in some parts store rear pads, it fixed it right up and gave me WAY more confidence on corner entry.

I put together a log sheet loosely based on the one you posted and managed to use it at one event. I think I checked the front vs. rear temp and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, but it's been a while. We fought to get any rear bias into it for a long time, and I think we could probably stand to pull a little back or go to a slightly less aggressive pad to fine tune it.

Once we get the new masters in it will have to be re-tuned all over again either way - the plan is to plumb in some pressure gauges to aid in this.

I'm thinking the lack of front spring rate also has a lot to do with it. I'm hoping an increase in that department combined with some tuning on a double adjustable shock will help us tame the weight transfer to the front tires under braking.

Exciting developments for the new year..

Last year, I was able to check one item off the bucket list: driving at Texas World Speedway. This year, we get to do another massive one!


We'll be heading to COTA in August (cool suit, anyone?) and seeing what she'll do against the best of the best in the Optima series. There is a LOT of work to do between now and then to get it ready for the biggest of Big Boy tracks.

Speaking of work, the new shop is pretty much up and running, and featuring a sweet new toy that should make getting those things done a lot easier.


We've got a few weekends of work to do on the Z, then it will be the Camaro's turn. Suspension, brakes, safety upgrades, interior work and a lot more on the docket. Bring on 2016!

Good luck Duston!

Good luck and enjoy the new shop. I'll be living vicariously through you this year. COTA just isnt in the budget for me. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you get it ready. Im sure I'll be seinge you at plenty of the 79 at the autocross this season.

How about a little update time?

When we last left off, the new shop was up and running and there was a pile of parts beginning to grow. After some fits and starts, we've been plugging away and making steady progress on making this into a car worthy of running on a man-sized race track.

Fuel Cell

Up first was fire safety. Our $129 Summit special cell has had a rough life, and was never meant for road course duty in the first place, so we called in the help of Fuel Safe. This is an FIA-cert'd Enduro cell that should be much happier should things get hairy.


Side note, does anyone know if it's normal for the bladder to bang around inside the can on these? Ours has the hard plastic one, and even with 6-7 gallons of fuel in it you can rattle it back and forth. Their tech line was not the most helpful when we called to ask..

Big Boy Brakes

We knew going into the Texas Optima event last year that we were pushing the limits of the braking setup we had. We discussed our setup and options at length with Mike from Wilwood during that event, and a few emails picked up the conversation where it had left off and got us on the right track.

The rears were up first, with their 12" rotor and integrated parking brake setup making use of our existing 4-piston Dynalites that were originally up front (my how things change!)


Up front, we needed two things - diameter, and better cooling capacity. We landed on the 14" kit with radial mount Superlite calipers, upgrading to the GT curved vane slotted rotors.


A Real Race Seat

Along the same lines of our Summit special fuel cell, our APC (remember that company?!) 'race' seats brought about visions of those YouTube videos of people flopping around their cars after their seats broke apart in a minor wreck.

After a few fit tests (sitting in other people's seats at their open house), Jon and Terry at Vorshlag hooked us up with real deal FIA-certified Cobra Suzukas. Then came the matter of, you know, actually fitting them in the car.


We bought a matching one for the passenger side, but it's going to either wait until we can stomach another 10+ hour build to put it in or end up in the Z. This car most likely won't see a whole lot of track time with an instructor, but if it does the Cobra will go in.

Gears that don't scream

One ancillary issue that was left over from last season was the rear end gears. The new 3.70s we set up early in the year had chewed themselves into oblivion in short order, which was a good excuse to break out the aluminum housing we had sitting on the shelf from the drag racing setup.


A new set of 3.70s went in, hopefully for good this time, and aluminum center offsets a bit of the weight gained in the new fuel cell.

Aero

The final piece of the puzzle involves aero and cooling. We had massive cooling issues on the tiny road course at TMS in early spring last year, making the prospect of running a 3 mile course in Austin in August an uphill proposition (turn 1 puns).


Since we gutted the front bumper and grill area and never put anything to direct the air in there, we're operating on the assumption that turbulence is robbing us of a lot of cooling efficiency. Block off plates on each side, along with a pan top and bottom will help control the flow at speed.

The second half of this equation is converting our single pass Northern aluminum radiator into a triple with a little creativity, some scrap aluminum, and a TIG. There's also room for another inch or so of width and a bit more height should we need to add more capacity to get the results we're looking for.


The final piece of the puzzle is a little front aero to work with the rear spoiler. To put it plainly, there's just not a good way to do a splitter/air dam/etc. on these cars in my mind. The smart thing to do would be to find a stock Z28 setup, mount it up and run, but I've never cared for them.

I think this setup will be both within our metal fab skillset and fit the look of the car, along with helping the nasty front aero profile a bit.

We're hoping to get the brakes finished up and get to a track in the not too distant future. Motorsport Ranch in Cresson offers a good stepping stone, and I have a little familiarity with it in the Z, so it seems like the ideal place to start. Onward and upward.

Great update Dustin! Looks like you have been busy this off season. You will appreciate that seat being lower for sure, it was worth all the work it took. My Recaros seats are 2" lower than the ones they replaced, not only does my helmet not bang off the roof anymore, but I'm certain it lowered my CG a bit as well.

Looks like the rest of your mods are well designed, can't wait to hear how they work out on the track.

Have you looked at the IMSA /SCCA Camaro race cars of the 1977-81 era ,for ideas on the front spoiler? Some were pretty wild.

Hey Dustin, do you have any pictures of your seat mounts? I'd be very interested in seeing those.

I fabbed the seat mounts in my 78 but it still sits 1" high. With the T tops in my helmet contacts the glass.

Very nice update indeed!!!

good luck at COTA this year! You and car car should do well....nicely prepped.

Thanks, Lance. I would have loved to get the seat even lower, but the floor mods and giant cowl pretty much I'm excited to test everything out.

I've looked at a ton of them over the past few years while plotting this. I feel like the nose on these cars is huge to start with, so adding anything to the front profile just exaggerates that even more.

Hey Greg - saw your email, sorry I haven't had a chance to reply.

I don't have a pic of the finished mount, but here's one of it in progress.


This is a perimeter frame that runs around it, and we used some cold rolled flat stock to make legs that run down to the holes from the previous seats in the floor. Our cars are so short inside any off the shelf brackets are going to be tough.

Thanks! If it doesn't do well it won't be for lack of effort, at least :lol:

Back to it.

So, it's been an interesting month or so. The car has taken every opportunity to remind us who is boss (hint: it's not us), but last weekend we got back to it on the autocross course.


We had registered for an event with the car on the 7th, and thought everything was in place. New brakes were all in, alignment checked out, and corner weights set.

A trip down the road to bed the brakes quickly revealed that all was not well, and we soon discovered that our new front master cylinder (purchased last summer, based on our old calipers) wasn't jiving with our new setup, which has 1" less piston area in the caliper. This translated to a frightening lack of braking power.

So we went from "Let's get it loaded tonight" to..this.


Well, the event registration was done, and after a strange series of events I still can't fathom, we ended up with the chance to run my mom's 2016 SS that Saturday.


Absolutely blown away by this car. Even on stock Goodyear F1s, it was a blast to drive. We weren't able to fully defeat the traction and stability controls which led to some frustration, but overall it is one mean machine. Those CAM-C guys are definitely smarter than us..


Converting from Digital back to Analog

Back to the red Spawn.. The new 7/8" master cylinder came in, and we were able to get the brakes bled and bedded in time to hit last weekend's Texas SCCA event.


With the new master, my scrawny self can hit 1000+ psi consistently, with peaks over 1300 - much happier.


All that was left was to hit the track and see how it worked. After 3 runs to convert myself back over after multiple events in the newly tuned Z and the 2016, I finally settled back in.

Adjustments to the new double adjustable QA1s along with brake bias changes were made every run, and by the 4th things were starting to feel like home again. True to form from last year, we still proved to have an appetite for cones...


Including one each on two runs that would have taken the class for the day. Almost worth it for that close of a margin, but I could have stood for it to be reversed :confused18:

All in all, a very good day, and we are super pumped for this weekend's adventure..

2016 Texas CAM Challenge

Been looking forward to this since it was announced, and relieved and excited that we're going to make it. Can't wait to battle it out for two days with a great group of people and cars!

Good Progress Dusty! We'll see ya at the CAM Challenge!

Great build man love the color of the car.

Nice job with mom's car. I've heard they feel like pigs but man can those new cars move.

Whose Nova?

Yeah, I expected it to feel like a BIG car, but it controls it incredibly well. The shocks are just insane. The LT-1 is mind-bogglingly good. If we were smart we'd just sell out and get one of our own but that wouldn't be nearly as fun.

We keep telling ourselves that at least.

I just can't see you in a new car Dustin! The way your car sounds and the way you wheel that car is really fun to watch- sideways through the timing light with smoke blowing from the rear wheels!!!! Looks like all your effort paid off last weekend and you represented very well during the challenge.

Looking for the Like Button for this Thread !!!

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2016 SCCA CAM Challenge Texas

Well, that was an absolute blast just as I expected.


Got to the track late Friday, around 7:30. The beer had been flowing, bets were being discussed, I think a good time was had by all.

Fortunately, dad was able to get out there before me and get the car tech'd. I got to walk the -huge- course once and marvel at the wide gates and lack of Miata-centric elements, and we called it a night after swapping tires on the Z which he was driving in the worker index.


When everyone started heading to grid, it started to dawn on me how cool this event was.


Spent the entirety of Saturday chasing the car and beating myself up. Our Falkens are pretty much at end of life after a long hot Texas summer last season, and it really wasn't sitting well in the heat of battle.


Finished the day 6th (they gave out 5 trophies, of course), but I did at least win a Speedway hat in the giveaway during trophy ceremony. We finished the afternoon super early, providing plenty of time for the beer to flow again before dinner arrived courtesy of Dusold Designs.

Much bench racing was had, world problems and suspension issues were put to bed, the empty bottles were disposed of and we hit the hotel before sundown.

Sunday brought a clean slate, and three more morning runs and the Challenge rounds for which the CAM Challenge is named.


I managed to scrounge some time together on my final run of the morning, putting me in 4th heading into the 8-car challenge. This, naturally, matched me up with Feras in the Nemesis Nova.


The second round matchup pitted us against the eventual winner of CAM-T Mark Madarash. Mark has won more national championships in ESP with this car than I can count, and was deep in the trophies at last year's nationals after switching to CP by putting wider tires and flares on.

Mark was holding two seconds on my best time, so I knew I would need to pull some magic and get a little help from him to advance. I managed 64.6, .4 better than my best time of the weekend, but picked up a cone in the process. Mark was on his game, quick and clean like he'd been all weekend, with a 63.5.


What's next?

So pushing old tires around for two days was the catalyst we needed to make a few decisions:

- We now have one set of Rival S's that will be used for Optima in Austin, and a second set that will go on as soon as they arrive so we can begin suspension tuning.

- A set of Afco 850 lb standard springs are on the way. We'll use spacers to tune ride height if needed, but this pig has got to have some spring rate up front, like yesterday.

- Hopefully new springs will allow us to hook the rear swaybar back up and get things calmed way down.

Lots more work to do before August, but the last few runs Sunday got me super pumped to get this thing kicking some ass again.

Thanks Greg! Looking back at the videos the finish cracks me up every time. As exciting as it is, it wasn't helping the time much - excited to get our new springs and hopefully tame it a bit.


Haha, thanks Marty!

Love the vid - thanks for sharing bud:cheers:

The CAM Challenges are a fun event, aren't they? Looks like you got the most out of your time there.

That course was wicked long and very fun looking!

Happy to spread the word on how to not be overly fast but have a ton of fun in the process :lol:

Understatements on both fronts. I determined that a normal run is caffeine compared to the heroin of a challenge round. Lining up knowing it's win or go home is unlike anything else. Wish we would have had enough to make a 16-car class!

And yes, Mineral Wells courses are usually not for the timid. We're extremely fortunate to have it.

Ups and Downs.

Peaks and Valleys.

A class win, a few fast laps, and then boom.


Been a bit of a roller coaster month. After the Texas CAM Challenge, we decided to throw the kitchen sink at the car in an effort to get back on the same page as the other guys around here and hopefully have a prayer of being competitive at Optima in August.

Suspension Updates

Eibach 850 lb springs came in, along with 3.5" spacers to get things up on the right level. Dropped the front nearly an inch, requiring a full redo of the alignment and confirming that the camber curve of our front uppers is SILLY.


Lowering the car jacked the camber through the roof, allowing us to crank some more caster in while getting it back to our desired camber number. Look good, feel good: Check.

More Sticky!

Next up, our tired set of Falkens. We knew we were at a disadvantage last year once the Rival S arrived, and the time finally came to see what it was all about.


Night and day. Just unbelievable. Changing so many other things at the same time wasn't ideal, but time is running short and you do what you have to do.

The increased spring rate calmed down the front substantially under acceleration, braking, and in transition, combining with the stickier tires to take a car that was knife-edge loose at all times to give us a nice neutral happy car.


I did the long haul to Mineral Wells to test things out, and was happy to pull of a class win over a stock Z06 and Viper.


Next up: road course testing

With everything happy, our schedule was perfect (for once) to catch June's Open Track Day at Eagles Canyon Raceway last weekend. I've run there twice before in the Z, and knew it would be an excellent test of our new brake setup.


Fellow CAM-T'er and Optima COTA registrant Feras came out in the Nova as well, and we drew a good amount of attention as the only two cars besides a couple of Porsche 944s that were more than 5 years old.

Spent the morning feeling things out, consistently taking off chunks of time through each session and managing cool down laps to keep the water temp under 220 (our other concern for the day).


After the lunch break, the 3rd session went swimmingly, and I was even able to make the whole thing with the temp gauge sitting at 220-224, cooling on the straights consistently for 4 hot laps.

Then it came time for the last session..

(continued next post)

Open Track Day Session 4


It felt like our dog died. It still does. We put this motor together in 2007-2008, and have run the living snot out of it ever since. It's been freshened up a few times, but other than the valve springs it's all the same assembly we put together then. And just like that..


About a second and 3 mph away from my braking point on the big back straight, a rod reached what is commonly referred to as 'End of Life'.

Got towed back in (it hit me when the truck pulled up that we never put a tow hook on the front). Fortunately no oil was down on the track. We loaded up and headed home scratching our heads at what had happened, but knowing pretty well that the little 377 had screamed its last scream.

Happy Father's Day

Sunday brought Father's Day lunch, but Dad and I both were itching to get back home and tear into it. Pulling the spark plugs had us encouraged, as none showed damage. Pulling the drain plug was a different story, when around a gallon of water ran out before any oil did.


With the timeline until August on our minds, we started pulling parts off and within a few hours had the engine and trans out (a bit slower than our record time, but not a bad thing to get out of the habit of). Gotta love racecars.


With some persuasion from a hammer and chisel, we were able to get the pan bolts out and see what had taken place. All tolled, 3 broken rods, but 3 in tact pistons that protected the heads from the chaos below.


This thing has always been exceptionally good to us. It's given us warning signs when things have been a little off, and taken good care of us through way more than it's share of abuse. Between 450 and 500 passes at the drag strip, and more time above 6000 rpm in the last two years at autocrosses and track events than should be legal.

Its final act of kindness was blowing up now instead of day 1 in Austin, and sparing the heads which are the one thing we were missing for the new build.

The Thrash Begins

Good news is that we were already assembling the pieces for a bigger, meatier small block. The plan was to pull the 377 and mothball it as a spare..best laid plans.

And yes, I said small block. We've weighed the LS swap over and over, but for us it just makes more sense to stick with what we know. We have built too many of them to count, plus it's fun being 'those guys' still playing with the oddball junk nobody wants anymore.

This one will come out to 420 ci and hopefully provide a good amount more torque through the middle, while still screaming like a banshee at 7,000+.

But more on that later. I'll leave this post with the fast lap of the day from the 3rd session. Godspeed, little mouse motor.

Oh man!!! RIP mouse... That oil pan though!! Looks like it did a great job containing all of the flying pieces.

Good luck with the new build. Hope you get it in with plenty of time to shake it down before the big event in August. And I hear ya on staying with the SBC!!

Well, that stinks, Duston. You got a lot of life out of that motor though. I hope the 420 motor does just as well for you. Good luck getting it back in and ready for Austin.

Dustin,

That sucks!Starting to get the car dialed in and this happens.After lowering it have you experience any tire rub and brake pad knock back with the bigger brakes?

Mike,

Thats way cool not cool!!!, The pics are awesome and how much you beat that thing is even more awesome!!!! Wasn't gonna last forever at that....

Nothing wrong with a mouse motor, in my opinion, the 2nd best engine ever build, with the LS being #1 imo. Pound for pound dollar for dollar, you'll get the best outa the mouse....one helluva an airpump...

Hopefully, what, couple of weeks, back and running? nothing else hurt? future fire retardant upgrades?

Well that just sucks. But the plans for a big cube hi rpm sbc sounds awesome. Plenty of engine build picks please!

Thanks for the encouraging words, guys. Been a frantic few weeks, but we're hoping to have it back up and running this weekend.

We ended up pulling the front fenders a little more but everything was pretty good already overall.

It is getting a little bit of knockback in certain situations when there's successive left and right corners without braking. I'm afraid the amount of tire and the increased diameter of the rotor is exposing some weakness in the stock spindles at this point.

Unfortunately we didn't manage many pics of the build, it went together in a marathon session on the 4th.

Update incoming shortly..