Probably my favorite car of the show.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psqvzjkynb.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psgbzunjn8.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psirexhr0r.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psatnitc1w.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pso0vzww4j.jpg

There were tons of cool cars there, and we met some great people. Kristi finally realized how cool Nova Wagons are....but also how cool early 2 door falcons are as well so its one of those two cars for the next build.



Chris Shelton found me Saturday and we chatted for a bit, he wanted to take some photos of the old girl so we got together for that most of Saturday night.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psyuhlacd4.jpg

He took some great pics. Favorite quote for the day from Chris..... "I have never shot rust and had it look so awesome"

He was shooting a really cool 68 camaro the same night and wanted to get some rolling shots of it so he asked me to drive this around while he hung all over it and took the photos.....how cool is that.

Cramped as hell and I physically could not get it into second from my long ass legs but it was pretty awesome.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psbig29zuf.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psezytyjyr.jpg

Chris took some killer photos, this is a little teaser. Thanks for the photo shoot Chris.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pslfv3pgmy.jpg

We headed back on Sunday but wanted to get out of there early, we walked a bit and met some great people, took a couple of trips around the grounds and loaded up to head home. We were super tired and had a great weekend.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pssc5qlhao.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psbgs2iq2n.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psdiexbwxt.jpg

Ready for the next adventure now.

Sean

It was nice seeing your wife and the truck last weekend......you-well, you still owe me a beer. And I don't want to hear that I had one in my hand both days, that doesn't matter...it's the principality!

Looking forward to seeing what comes from the photo shoot.
:cheers:

Your new wheels are killing it!

Haha...you did have your hands full both days =) its on me next time. Good to meet the boys too, they are cute little guys, must get it from their mom.

Me too on the shoot, I am guessing sometime next year it will hit the printer either way its cool.



Thanks, I am a bit fond of them and they just fit the truck really well.

Sean

Just sat down to watch last weeks Optima show, nice feature Sean...you are a natural in front of the camera. Good job!

Thanks man, I still have yet to see it =)

Little update:

Well interesting few weeks I have had.

Been working on the front of the truck trying to get some better Aero and get the frontend down a little bit. Munssey Speed and Design had built a few front bumpers for the bumpside trucks, I was lucky enough to get one of the very first ones of them in the fiberglass ones. Well, when I got it in the mail it was not exactly what I expected but I decided to make lemons out of lemonade. It really is a front bumper delete, think front rolled pan. You would have had to cut off the first 4 or 5 " of the frame and I was not up for that so I used it as an aero piece to smooth out the front of the truck.


You can kind of see what I am going after here.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pskmpyic4d.jpg

Oh and finally picked up a tig machine, this was literally my first time on aluminum, I was pleasantly surprised.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psjincduls.jpg

Mocking things up, and getting the bumper to finally sit straight.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7eufbcvu.jpg

Once it was mocked up I pulled it apart and painted the front "Bumper" and sanded it down to get it to match the rest of the truck. This was a quick effort.....this is all rattle can, primer a few coats of paint, some wet sanding a a little time with a buffer. I think it turned out awesome.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pslbm9zw4x.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps13ol02hi.jpg

Finished up the frontend with some pretty cool little home made struts and that was a wrap.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pshn5z5g54.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psdxxmk3um.jpg

With that done I was ready or almost ready to load stuff up and head to Optima Fontana. Spent a few days getting the new wheels and tires on the dodge as well as de stickering the camper....yes, I am OCD.

That is my 15 year old nephew that rolled down there with me, just under 1100 miles one way. He had an awesome time and lives 3 hours from me, we dont spend enough time together but we always have fun and he loves car time with his uncle.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psobnajkph.jpg

Lost a trailer tire about 50 miles from Fontana on Friday got it up in the air and swapped it out fired up the tuck and something was squealing fierce up front.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psgsexcilx.jpg

Got to a tire store, got them to plug and patch the trailer tire and picked up a Tensioner, belt and water pump just incase. Ended up swapping that out at the track at night as it was cooler at night and quiet. Got rid of the noise.

Some great sunrises and sunsets down there.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psxpezb7xi.jpg

I'll help out a little bit...
Fontana.

Haha...apparently I forgot to finish this post...

Well, things kind of kept down that route the rest of the weekend.

Ran a few Speed Stop events and my time was getting better, not great and certainly not on the fast end of things compared to the rest of the cars in the field...there was some super fast ass cars there this weekend.

Was getting down to the last 45 mins and went to start the truck for the next run and it had no throttle operation. Shut off, started again and it went full throttle....Ran for a second or two and I got it shut off. Pushed out of the staging lanes and pulled out the JMS Pedal Max controller and tossed it....all worked well again. By this time Speed stop was over and it was lunch time. Ate some lunch and headed to the autocross. Got in two really, really slow runs but getting the lay of the course. Hopped in for the third session and the brake pedal was pretty spongy. Pumped it a few times before heading out and it went to the floor. pumped, pumped and it never came back up. Drove it back to the pits with the e brake and worked on it.

Pulled the cap off the master and had the nephew pump the pedal a few times. Got some air bubbles and the pedal came all the way back. Rebled the fronts and no air, wondering if I had air or something trapped in the lines and they migrated to the master cylinder?? Still wondering about that.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5k4pi2aw.jpg



Only ran two sessions on the track on Sunday, just could not get into it.

I have a bunch of photos of the truck thanks to my Nephew and Daniel from FTE. Thanks again for the photos man.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psca4r6zup.jpg

Yes this is an amateur race with streetcars. This thing was bad ass, the guy was super cool and gave us a full tour inside and out.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psnhghqeem.jpg

Autocross

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psumnwe4p8.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psgo2dy7bp.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psnhovtxfl.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psls8pudwc.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psazpfvtlq.jpg

Speed Stop

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psldbqr1yn.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psz2sbibtf.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psgxo4afxo.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psjmfzyahk.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psaf8hkui7.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pszioiv0ji.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6zwj786t.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psumnwe4p8.jpg

Ill get some of the other photos from the weekend up soon.

I had a great time with the kid, safe travels, I am pretty hard on myself and a little disspointed in how I drove and how the truck handled.

Its getting a pretty good tear down, new Springs front a rear, new rear panhard bar and looking at how to get more corner entry grip before SEMA. So here is to the mad thrash of the next two weeks.

Oh and the rearend decided to puke a bunch of fluid on the drive home :cry: Pretty much how I felt yesterday :clap:

Sean

Looking good as always! This means you'll be at the event afterwards? We may finally be able to see the truck in person.

Forgot to keep this up to date...last update before SEMA and Invitational.

Went through all the suspension, remade the rear axle side panhard bar mount to hopefully get the rear roll center down a bit.

Replaced the rear springs with some 450lbx8" springs and replaced the front springs with 650x10" beehive style springs. Reset all the ride heights to be close to how it was and threw it on the scales. Believe it or not this thing is not horrible My next changes will be much much better weight distribution but for now I have to live with a 3550 lb weight with the race seats and and a 55 front 45% rear weight distribution and 3550 lb total weight.

Then was the brakes. I built some heat shields for the brake lines near the exhaust and covered them with heat tape. Been having some brake issues. Got the shields installed and rebled the fronts. Well the passenger side. Got to the drivers side and started inspecting it and found the lower piston was leaking into the dust shield. Curious if that was letteing air into the system. Replaced the caliper with a new one and bled the crap out of the system. Hoping all is well.

Loaded stuff up and headed south.

We are here in Vegas now...Loading into SEMA tonight as we are one of the last groups to load into the show. I will be there all week long and the truck will be in OPTIMA Alley. Not sure exactly where that is as I have yet to be there :D

Finally onto a new page.

So we made it to SEMA, got the truck unloaded and where it needed to be and parked it in Optima Alley for the week.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psz1nrcdip.jpg

Truck sat there like a good little girl all week long, I did not spend much time with it while it was there but did manage to chat with a few folks I have met on the web and everyone seems to like it and they were super nice.

Made it to the Lateral G dinner at Margaritaville and had a great time, finally got to put names with faces on this site and there are some crazy talented people on this forum and some nice fellows as well. Great to meet a lot of you guys, just sorry I did not get to meet more people.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4cdz1okh.jpg

Saturday was the Speed Stop first for me. First time out on the new setup and the truck handled lots better than the last time, no apparent issues with the brakes either so I was pretty happy so far. Managed to improve my time on the 4 runs that we got. Not last place but pretty close to the end of the list.

Autocross was next up for me. We had two courses and 4 runs per course. Truck handled better, but apparently the limited slip was not enjoying life and I had a tough time getting the truck to rotate and put power down on corner exits. Either way, my runs were in the 29 second range pretty consistent on all 8 runs. I was in the bottom of the field on this segment as well.

We did the Road Rally and that was actually pretty fun. My wife and I hopped in the truck and headed out for a couple hour drive that ended in a private evening at the Shelby Museum and production facility and a great dinner.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psnkmsvzrg.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pslxhy7ftk.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pstk2ajeen.jpg

Again no issues on the truck so all good.

Sunday is all about power and drivers ability. I was in run group A intermediate. I think it was the slower run group and that was just fine with me.

We got two morning and two afternoon sessions. I ran the first session and got the feel for the track again and felt pretty good, pretty slow lap times but not last in my field.

Adjusted the rear coilovers and truck was getting better, same issue with the limited slip not locking up on corner exit but corner entry was awesome. Truck is handling better than ever at this point and would be a little loose on exit if it was spinning both rear tires....:poke:

Got a little faster and a little faster the last two sessions but still pretty slow. I need to get a lot more aggresive on the braking zones, stop early braking and carry more corner entry speed to get my lap times down.

All in all I am pretty happy with what I have managed to build and do with the truck in the first year of having it and on a fairly tight budget the truck has some short comings though the lack of power the truck has, especially on the corner exits and straightaways, it acts like it has half throttle, then just kicks in. You can hear it so that needs to get resolved and it needs a cage and to lose some weight.

But being honest, I am pretty frustrated with my driving ability and being at the bottom of the standings. I don't do at all well with that and I am very competitive. I had a really good time at the Optima events and met some awesome people since February but I am not sure its the right place for me at this point in my life. So that leaves me wondering what should I do now....Do I keep going on the truck, knowing it will likely never get me to even mid pack and just be happy with that or do I start on something else, something with more power, lower lighter weight more track oriented but still not mainstream?

I know I need more seat time, and lots of it. That leads me to think Track Car.

There are some amazing cars and drivers running these events, my hat is off to all of them.

Chad....if you read this, you are a huge inspiration to me. I watch you drive, work on your car and drive it to the limit as many of the guys out there are doing. You work on it in your garage, drive it to the events and beat on it and drive it home. You have made tons of progress and keep pecking away at it. Keep it up man.

And this thing is just bad ass...

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7lqon7gj.jpg

Going to ponder what to do next for a bit.

Sean

Sounds like you had a great time and got to meet some good people. Glad to hear the truck ran well.

It was great to meet you and talk cars for a while at the Lat G party Sean. As you know I have been in a similar spot looking for a direction to go and my only advice is to find what is fun for you and keep doing that.

For me it is plainly whatever lets me get the most seat time, which is a mix between a few fun big travel events each year mainly to meet and hang out with people and as many autocross and track days close by to fill the void in the mean time. I also will never be the fastest car on track but I certainly enjoy messing with the fast guy's heads by running them down in the corners and I know you like that as well.

Good luck with whichever direction you chose, love what you have done with this truck so far.

Sean, I've got some advice on both of these subjects.

First, you have to know that your truck will never be in the top half of the field. The weight, balance, and aero will never allow it to compete with the more highly refined cars. If you love competing in the truck, you can either be happy with it as-is, rebuild it at a huge cost only to be 70% up the field, or retire it to fun runs and develop another car. A truck, as cool and easy as it is, just isn't the right choice for competition.

Next, seat time. We have some customers that have built some fairly powerful and fast cars. Cars that are much faster than their skills. They weren't able to develop their driving skills in those cars. So we built each of them a simple trainer car with safety, consistency and low maintenance costs as the focus. Both of them do a huge number of track days with instructors and are able to push the boundaries in these slow, small-tire cars. When they run their FAST cars, they can now push them much harder. I'd recommend the same. Buy a ready-to-run, simple, small-tire, low-power track car and get some instruction so you can drive it at the ragged edge. This will help whether you end up sticking with the truck, or going for a more competitive car.

Jasons advice is stellar!

Go out and buy a used MIATA SCCA spec track car --- they're 10 Grand or less -- drive the crap out of it CHEAP -- learn the LINES and get seat time and more importantly -- get instructor help. Practicing bad habits just makes you really good at doing it wrong. LOL


Sorry I didn't get to come and see you -- I watched the event and since I was sitting with Basher -- paid particular attention to you.... I thought you looked good out there. 600 hp shy? Yeah. Pushing a brick? Yeah. Fun to watch? Hell yeah!

BTW -- There is NOTHING to be gained by being in the top 20 or 30 at a USCA event. Nobody is going to write you a check. Two weeks after it's over nobody gives a crap. Regardless of lap times.... Just go out and run with your friends and ask yourself at the end of the day..... "Did I have a blast or what!"? DONE.

Great advice from two guys that have been there, done that. I doubt you'll fit in a Miata though, you're not exactly petite. :D

You're a builder and I have a feeling you're not done...either a redo on the truck or something 180 from what you've got, :poke: The conversation came up a few times over the weekend about more power vs more seat time, nothing wrong with both but as you know, $$ invested in you at this point is money ahead. Look how far you've come after just 9 months...kudos to you, Sean!

:thumbsup: :cheers:

I had one job last weekend, introducing you and Greg. I failed.

Hey Sean it was great seeing you and the truck last week. It's hard not to get caught up in lap times and being competitive but you have had a blast building and then driving your truck right?

Thanks for the kind words. Even though there is no USCA event at Thunderhill next year maybe we can meet up at that track or another one and do some ride alongs together.

EPICALLY....... LOL

Sean ---


I will also ADD to this discussion because it needs to be said and read.


Anyone that THINKS they can build some bad ass car -- and go out and drive it 4 weekends a year - and then they THINK they can run with the top 15 or 20 guys that are driving WAY more often than that. Dudes gotta have his brains taken out because they're scrambled!

Let's just take Mister (I say Mister with the greatest respect) Stielow...... ZILLIONS of laps under his belt.... huge horse power cars for a number of years.... ADD to this the man just happens to be a suspension engineer so the cars are great.... He drives often enough to not be rusty. I need half a day to run the cobwebs out of my head when I haven't driven for months! (HATE WINTER!)


Okay --- I guess what I'm saying is that "being competitive" is always a matter of "how competitive". Personally I'd rather just go out and have fun. Beat who I can and let the others go by. There are many out there with lots of experience that have built cars just to run these events..... and very few have actually won.... and a winner at one event doesn't (as you know) put you in the top at the OUSCI in Vegas.

Sean --- Just happened on this Facebook post from Danny Popp....



https://www.facebook.com/danny.popp....07950168253507



Just look at the LIST of people that are involved in supporting his win! Forget the talent the man has -- and how many events (seat time) he has.... he has FACTORY support... That's HUGE.

Just sayin'

Sean

It was great to meet you at the end of the LatG party. You have done some really nice work on that truck and should be very proud of it.

Don't get hung up on standings when you are going to an event in something you built vs highly engineered late model sports cars that are then tweaked by professional racers and teams.

The Optima is no longer about hot rods and muscle cars that is just a fact. Just look how many C5/6s were in the field and how many in the top 10.

Keep building cool **** and keep running track days or whatever is fun for you.

If your focus is about improving your driving and testing your skill against others take the advice given and buy something to run where real rules exist. That's why I bought (and unfortunately ended up rebuilding) an AI car.

I can tell you it is pretty fun to show up at a track day with only 340hp and work to keep up with, or pass, cars with way more power.

The truck looked great at SEMA! It was nice to finally see it in person.

I was nice meeting you again at the Lat-g party. I like your truck a lot.

In the spring I think I will sign up at PIR for there driving school and get the scca license. You should take the class with me if you can.

Hope to get my car finished by the beginning of summer.

You've gained a lot of new perspective in a short amount of time, Sean--you must know what that's like on a growth level, being that you're kind of tall. Just give what you've done some time to grow into, then balance out. USCA is cool, and it's fun to be there, but there's really no sense in taking out another mortgage to try and compete with guys who dump $200k on their toys like it's nothing.

Most of us are here to see what builders like you and so many others on the site do, hoping that most builds on here will eventually be more kinetic than potential. You've got the kinetic part down, so enjoy it, then get yourself a cheap Corvette (so you'll fit in the thing and get the weight down and back) . . .

Check out Vorshlag's Project DangerZone build. It might be right up your alley.

We're all here because we like to do this way too much: :bang:.

Sean,

Love your truck, I saw it last summer at a track day at PIR. I'm on board with 96z28ss as to signing up for more instruction next spring. It would be fun to get together then.

I learned track driving with a 2002 MINI S and did the "fast in the corners and slow in the straights" for 3 seasons. I now have a 2002 Corvette with way more power as my track toy and it was intimidating the first time out. If you want to "check fit" for a C5 let me know.

Dan

If Dangerzone strokes your fire, know that you could build a much faster version of it if you weren't restricted by the extremely tight rule set we were working with. The C4s are a huge bargain for the DIY builder. The C5 is a little better, as most of the heavy lifting is already done.

For the C4, you can pretty easily fit 18x11 wheels with 315 tires under the stock fenders. If you do the little flares like we did, then an 18x12 with 335 will fit.

Only problem with those choices is that they are SO BORING.... and on a Pro Touring site -- these aren't the cars anyone wants to watch being "built" --- big whoop -- put some tires on and go out and track it.

LOL


Sorry -- has to be said.

That's a good point, Greg. It's why Sean's Mustang looks like an F100, and it's why my Corvette looks like a Falcon . . .:action-smiley-027:

Sean you did fine, winning or placing in the top 30 in this event takes cubic dollars that you'll never recoup. :thumbsup:

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...FQKfBdK-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...smrQwd8-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...KHvNxzq-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...rHLgFM3-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...krnGb8J-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...wq78Qnn-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...jFhFSV7-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...hVcmSZc-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...W8VDVMz-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...dRxFbT5-XL.jpg

I love this truck! Great pictures Sieg.... as usual.


I think the pics show some of the "issue" --- that's a lot of roll going on there IMHO.

Holy cow!!!! Been trying to stay off the web a bit, with some work projects in full swing its been easy.....to come back on here and read all of these nice things is pretty motivating.

I pretty much agree with everyone's comments here that unless I pickup some huge sponsors and some incredible driving skill, I am kind of setting myself up for an unhappy outcome (self Inflicted)

I want to say thanks to all of you for taking the time to chime in here, it actually means a lot to me. I got the opportunity to meet a handful of you guys either at SEMA or the Lat G dinner (Except Greg.........Nice work Basher) and everyone was awesome and even just the conversations I learned a thing or two.

Not sure at all where I am going with the truck moving forward, but Yes Greg, it probably needs a little more spring in the front and a little more sway bar. That was the first track outing with that spring setup and I went from 450 fronts to 650 fronts. I am guessing it needs to be 750 fronts and a bigger front bar.

I am addicted to track days....they are super fun and you get some great seat time, but I would like to get some autocross laps under my belt.

I am thinking that there will be a dedicated track car in my future though, just not sure when or how much $$$ Ill spend on it.

Sieg....awesome photos thank you for taking them and sharing...looks like a new screen background is in my near future.

Thanks again fellas.

Sean

Great pictures and nice job Sean!

Definitely keep this truck as a cruiser. Put a reciever hitch in the thing, pull your track car to the track with it!

Man, I love this truck. I'd love to do one like this in the future!

Man love the build! Maybe i missed it but do you have the details on where to get that bracket for the front crown vic brakes to run the C5 stuff? Thanks

They can be found here....https://www.mercurymarauder.net/foru...ad.php?t=94024

Word on the street is the truck may be finding a new home...🤔 I just hope whoever ends up with it continues to track it and annoy the guys in the pretty foreign sports cars.
:flag2::cheers:

I really enjoyed see the build from start to end. Thanks for the detail.