El Camino Tears Up The Road Course
 

It's been 5 days and I still can't wipe the big grin off my face! I think the El Camino truly earned it's G-Machine wings last Wednesday at the Brainerd International Raceway (B.I.R.) in Minnesota. It was an open track day/driving school hosted by the Suburban Corvette Club of Minnesota. B.I.R. is a 3.1 mile long 10 turn road course with a 4700' long main straight. This was my third time road racing and the first time with the El Camino. I figured the car would do okay but i was shocked at how well it did. Along with a few other people judging by their comments. Many Vettes were passed. :D Mike Miller, the event coordinator: "we don't see many of these here." My guess is that he's "never" seen an El Camino at one of their events. He rode with me my first time out to help me learn the course. After seeing how much the front end wanted to lift at 140+ mph he suggested putting a spoiler on the front end. :eek: After that first session a guy who was a passenger in a C6 Vette came up to me and said he couldn't believe it. He said they could keep up on the long straight but not in the corners. I figured it would have been the other way around!

The event didn't go without incident. Two cars went off the track. One was a 69? Corvette that ended up in the ditch. I have it on video. The other was a brand new Ford GT/GT40!! I have in-car video being passed by the GT before it happened. There was a Mitsubishi EVO in hot pursuit. I can't say for sure but I suspect the GT driver's nose may have gotten a little out of joint not being able to shake the Mitsu and probably pushed his car a little too hard. It was sickening looking at the damage to the GT. What a beautiful car.

Mechanically, the El Camino performed flawlessly except for a blown header collector gasket. It ran cool, didn't use any oil or leak any fluids. It was running a little lean in 5th on the long straight. Not dangerously lean but it looks like some fuel system upgrades may be warranted. I was very pleased to see that all the suspension modifications actually work! And work well "out of the box". There is still room for improvement though. Unfortunately, it did sustain some minor damage. I was dogging a ZR-1 for several laps. For some reason, the driver wouldn't let me go by and on one of the laps, he kicked up a rock at 120mph which skipped off my hood and left a quarter sized star on my windshield. The ZR-1 was running racing slicks so I suppose the rock stuck to one of the rear tires.

I have about 45 minutes of in-car video shot in Hi Def. widescreen. I'm working with Scott on getting some of it posted.

Anybody who hasn't been on a road course, you gotta get your car out there and try it. It's a frickin blast!



Some stats from the day:

37 laps for a total of 114.7 miles

~90 mph average speed

143-147 mph on the long straight

27 gallons of gas used

4-5 mpg

I cant wait to see videos. Your right once you get your car on a road track it is severly addicting. I cant wait to throw mine on Gingerman Raceway again next year. Glad to hear you had soo much fun and it sounds like your car did real well. :thumbsup: WOw 147 on the straight!!
Definetly post the video of the new Ford GT40!!!

I can't wait to get my hands on that video. :thumbsup:

I downloaded a trial version of Ulead Video Studio 9. I wasn't happy with the quality of the .AVI's I was making. Hopefully this will help.

If your using ulead there are a ton of different recording options. I generally use the .mpg videos and they turn out great. There are also several other options that reduce the size of the videos but not the quality. If you wanted to get the videos to Scott you could use Usendit.com then he could do whatever he wanted with it.
You could tell him the highlight spots of the 45 minute video. The only thing about "in car videos" is that they dont look anywhere near as fast as what it is in real life.

I am happy for you, to really DRIVE our cars is the greatest enjoyment. The Protouring mods is such a great improvement on the handling of our cars.

Can't wait for the videos.

Hurry Scott!


Jan

It is really cool to see someone posting about the enjoyment they got from driving the project car and having a blast doing it! - Refreshing to be sure.

Please let us know when the vids are up on line. I really want to check them out.

I am very much looking forward to a trip back home so that I can take my Camaro for a little drive.

Very cool. Dying to see the vidz.
/Steevo

Very cool. It's always been my goal to have a nearly 40 year old car and use it to harass BMW and vette owners on a road course.

I'm sure the other EC/ 'velle owners would love to hear what your setup is. Heck, I'm curious and I'm a Camaro guy.

Here are some pics I took of Keith's ride this summer. :thumbsup:

A few more...

I have the DVD with the videos, I'll be posting them tonight. I need to compress them as right now the 4 total over 3 gigabytes.

Keith, could you rip me a copy of the DVD and bring it with on Saturday?

I want to watch the whole thing on my big-screen :unibrow: It'll be a nice motivator this winter when it's -30* and I don't feel like working on the car :thumbsup:

Quick question Keith... what do you think of those seats? They have a VERY attractive price point. How's the quality of the frame, material, stitching, etc? How well did they support you on the track (and also to go with that, how tall/heavy are you?) How did the brackets/tracks work out? Did they fit the stock attachment points, were they too high or just right, do they have any slop/rock, etc? How are they holding up overall?

Sorry for all the questions, but I've been wanting to swap out the non-supportive factory buckets in my car for a long time but I've been turned off by the idea of spending $600-1000/ea for the Sparcos or Recaros I have been considering, which is why I'm very interested in your seats. They look good in pictures, but I'm hoping for some REAL reports on them.

Sounds like you had a blast though. It's been a couple years since I've been on a roadcourse, but I'm dying to go back!

Troy

Keith has the URL's for the videos, hopefully he'll post them soon. :thumbsup:

First off:
Kudos to you for taking your car to the track. That is why I am building mine.
2nd:
I need info on the car-
What suspension are you running? How was the hydroboost? What pads on the brakes? What wheel/tire combo, and tire brand?
Details!!!!
Tyler

Were the videos posted yet?

Yup! Here they are.

Thanks a lot Scott for hosting these.

If you have a subwoofer turn it all the way up. You can hear the engine better. There's a lot of wind noise and it drowns out everything else.

This one is the longest. I'm chasing a ZR-1 for several laps and the driver would not let me pass. Like me, the driver was a novice but knew the passing rule because he let a Vette go by. ZR-1 Chase

This one shows a nice 69? race ready Vette passing me and then a couple laps later, he goes in the ditch which you can see as I pass the incedent. Vette in ditch.

In this video I'm passed in the very beginning by a Ford GT and then I try and keep up. :D Ford GT

In this one I overtake two C5's. C5's

Seeing that cowl vent going up and down when you stomp the gas is cool as hell!! I want that for my car!
Next time have the camcorder a little higher and we will really see the fun. Thanks for posting the vids. Sure brings back good memories passing those vettes. :D :thumbsup:

[QUOTE=CAMAROBOY69)
Next time have the camcorder a little higher and we will really see the fun. Thanks for posting the vids. :D :thumbsup:[/QUOTE]

Yup, thats gotta be the fastest dash I've sen in ages lol. Sure would like to see some more if tyou got them :)

:D

Ya, kinda looks like Need For Speed doesn't it. :) It was a last minute idea mounting the camera. If I had more time, I could have come up with something better. Next time I will definitely have it higher!

Awesome Keith! :thumbsup:

He was riding along with one of the other participants and asked for a ride. I should have had him work the camera. :)

I like them a lot. I'm most happy with the way they match the grain on my door panels and dash pad. They have kind of an original look to them. Not obviously a racing seat. Plus, I wanted a custom logo. The frame seems to be very well made. They have a quick flip forward release and the reclining mechanism is a large knob on each side of the seat that you turn. So you can set it perfectly. You're not locked into a set of preset notches. There is also an adjustable lumbar support but I can't tell any difference when I adjust it. So far the material and the stitching seem very good. The leather in the seat seems to be stretching and a butt crease is starting to form. I don't care for that. They are very firm. The seat supports my butt very well but the upper seat back offers little to no lateral support at all even with the shoulder harnesses. I was using the steering wheel to keep myself upright in the corners. I'm 6'4" tall and weigh 185. The sliders that come with the seats are good. They're dual locking whereas the cheaper ones only lock on one side. I fabricated my own brackets to mount them to the floor. There were 1/2" spacers between the seats and the sliders that I removed to give me more headroom. They're just right for me now. There is a little bit of play in the seat backs but it's not an issue. They don't make noise or rattle while I'm driving. Bottom line is, they're a very nice seat for the money. You can customize them and have logos put on them which was important to me. I'm sure there are better quality seats out there but you're going to pay a lot more for them.

Thanks!

Front suspesion:

Global West tubular lower A-Arms with del-a-lum bushings designed for coil over shocks.
Pole Position Racing adjustable upper A-Arms
QA-1 double adjustable coil overs with 450lb progressive rate springs. (need to go with a stiffer constant rate spring)
Caprice B-Body "tall" spindles.
Original 7/8" sway bar.

Rear suspension:

Factory boxed lower control arms.
Edelbrock adjustable upper control arms.
2" drop O.P.G.I. coil springs.
QA-1 Stocker Star adjustable shocks.
No sway bar.

Wilwood PolyMatrix "E" compound pads on the front. Not sure about the rears but they're not a real high performance pad.

The hydroboost is awesome! Worked flawlessly. I had more brake than I could use. The one time I felt the brakes lock up I was able to quickly back out of it and recover. I think the pedal feel is excellent. But I'm a novice.

ZR-1 polished replica wheels, 17 x 9.5 front, 17 x 11 rear. Sumitomo HTRZ rubber, 275/40 front, 315/35 rear.

All my mods are covered here: My El Camino

Keith,

Those flix were a lot of fun to watch, thanks. Your speed visibly increased over the day. That had to be satisfying.

Any comments in the pits from the other drivers?