Sounds like fun. Count me in. :thumbsup:

These rednecks held an event out at El Toro a few weeks ago, and for some reason they decided to pick a '69 Camaro to go to Optima this year. I really need to thank Bill, Yancy and Brian for giving me the opportunity to go out and play the day after SEMA, but now I have to get my pile ready. I'm totally ready to be crushed the resident hot shoes, i.e. Stielow, Hobaugh, or Popp, etc. However, the last thing I want to do is to get embarrassed by something like a Volkswagen Golf.

After El Toro I came away with a couple things I wanted to change to get the car a little more dialed in. This got me thinking about how much I've changed since day one. When it was first done, my end goal was to have a car that was fun to drive with my skill level behind the wheel where I didn't feel like the car was the limiting factor. While I've gotten a bit better at driving the car has come a real long way from what it first was.

While I am nowhere near as detail oriented as Brett Campbell, I figured I might as well keep everyone updated on the evolution of the car's suspension, and discuss a little bit about why I'm making the changes to the car. Hopefully it will be a learning process for all of us. If any of you guys have good suggestions I'll give them a shot. I'm start to amass a collection of springs and bars.

Oh and because you guys all like pictures, here is picture of the newest engine being assembled up at RPM in Santa Clarita.

http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/o...ps472a7d02.jpg

Sweet !

:G-Dub: :G-Dub: ....beautiful!!

Matt, awesome job getting the invite, couldn't go to a better guy, thanks for the ride at RTTC4, I think you have the skills and the car to give em a good show at Optima!

hey matt,

Sorry I couldnt BS with you at work today. But I was busy. Hope everything you bought works out!

Thanks Tom. And, thanks for the laps in the Barracuda, that thing is a blast and you definitely drove the wheels off of it. I was a little scared we might capsize on the back turn around though. :lol:

Yeah, the store was packed with people like me who get lost and distracted and then have a hard time finding what they're looking for. We'll find out today if everything works!


Now for a little carnage from El Toro. Here is the driver side front tire. Not pretty at all.
http://i366.photobucket.com/albums/o...psb18c7ceb.jpg
I need more negative camber. Currently running about a degree, which works well until you really start pushing the car hard. I've done a couple autocrosses with those tires and the tire wear was about where I wanted it.The El Toro autocross exposed a couple of shortcomings with the car though. Rather than just adding more negative camber I'm going to try adding a little more front spring as well. My car transitions into corners and turns in pretty quickly, but the more familiar you become with the car, the more you start to notice that its weight seems to move a little too slowly after you get the wheels pointed, and takes a little too long to set. When you force it into quick transitions you can sometimes feel the front jump or "hop" once before biting. It doesn't push very hard, but it feels like it is having a difficult time handling the weight transfer.

The car also has a little bit of steady state understeer and I will get to that next.

Matt

Ha! You are not the first to fear capsization... and the Cuda often feels as if it IS actually going to have a wheel fall off ...:confused59:

Details on the new rpm motor

RPM has been great to deal with!

It is a 454LS that used to be in Bad Penny except only the crank and rods are the same. :lol:
LS3 block with Darton dry sleeves bored to 4.185" by Steve Demerjian of R.E.D
Wiseco/K1 crank and rods, with custom Ross pistons (the machine shop did the machine work based off of a single old piston the original would be builder sent over so I had to have 4.182" pistons made)
reused the old cam from the 454 LS2, which is 243/259, 114 LSA
RHS LS7 heads, Comp valvetrain, springs, and SS valves
FAST 102 intake and throttle body.

On the loaded chassis dyno at RPM it made 585/565 at 6800rpm. This was a safe break in tune and really the only number we have from a full pull so far. I told them I'd bring it back after putting a few miles on it, I've gotten the miles, just haven't taken the car back. Since it makes enough power right now it hasn't been a priority. I think the motor has been a bit choked down with the old headers on it which are 1-3/4." I just replaced the header gaskets because one had burned through and found they were round 1-1/2" ones. Now I'm curious what it will do with a set of DSE 1-7/8" headers. :G-Dub: