Laguna no sound limits
 

Just checking to see who else may be joining
rustomatic and myself for the Laguna event on Sunday
My tire guy who is also Otec was telling me Viper club is
going to be there.. I see a lot of them signed up

Pantera is pretty much ready to go.. just a test ride tonight
and then change the exhaust to the 4" straight pipes and load
her up tomorrow.. hopefully my buddy will bring his go-pro and
we can shoot a few videos... one other Pantera running but
in another group

New carb, new oil lines, new fuel lines, new tires
so hopefully she will be good all day

Panteracer

Which weekend is it again? Would love to swing by

Unlimited Sound.. at Laguna Seca
 

It's this weekend.. a fiend of mine.. Tom Dankle will be out there driving his Boss 302. I'll be in the passenger seat!!!...:confused59:

Dammit! I need to go to Monterey next weekend to drop off my wife at a baby shower and woulda been perfect to run over there.

Have fun fellas. Get some video.

Laguna no sound limit
 

What year and color boss
I will stop by I have the
Black Pantera

Panteracer

It's the one on the right. --- 2012

That's Camilo Pardo's GT. Tucked away for the night. He stayed here at here at his place during the Concourse d' Elegance events.

http://i477.photobucket.com/albums/r...wk/V__CA29.jpg

Laguna
 

Cool will look for it tomorrow
I just covered mine for the night
Trailering down with all my tools etc
and Straight exhaust .. Had two cops
Waiting on the end of my street with the
street exhaust on...they just smiled as I drove
to the shop
Also bringing my Pantera buddies race tires

Panteracer

Laguna no sound
 

This was a great event with many many fast cars
SCCA Nationals are running there in two weeks and
we had a bunch of guys testing, tuning and working on
their lines. I ran Blue group and have never been passed
so many times in my life... those boys fly... full race vipers,
vettes, winston cup cars.. there was one guy with a Mercury
montego that was modifed with an offset motor, flairs, cooling
in the back.. just an awsome car that I believe was the fastest

Total control car lost something on the snout of his crank that
got tangled up and broke the crack.. Fairmont that is qualified
for Optima challenge thinks he lost something in the valve train
He has a little over a month to get a new motor

I had two guys pass me going into turn 2 really hard.. I was in fourth
bearing down hard and they both went hopping by me barely keeping
the car together

I dragged my tiedown loop on the rear of my front A-Arm around the
track the first session.. carb might need a little tweaking ... need to
talk to Don

Poor guy next to me in a really clean 65 mustang had a rear end and
valve cover leak and worked on the car all day.. finally ran part of
the last session

Talked to Rustomatic briefly.. he has a really trick shock to rearend
brace that comes off of his rollcage inside.. saw Chet with my
old mustang.. really did not venture out too much as I left the house
at 4:30 with about 3 1/2 hours of sleep

Great day, great weather and really fast and loud cars
Time to get ready for Thunderhill in October

Should have a couple of pics from one of my Pantera buddies
in a couple of days

Panteracer

Would like to hear/see your videos Bob.

The Mercury you speak of is the Merc9, pretty well known around here. It pretty much dominates.

http://merc9.com/

Laguna
 

Merc9
Flash when he went by you are wondering
what the hell is it?..then he just checks out
I could at least follow most for a little while
Not that bad ass beast...love it

Sorry my video buddy is moving and cancelled
on me at the last minute. My go pro worked like
Garbage (first one they made) when I ran straight
Pipes at firebird and I have not replaced it yet

Yesterday was a little pricey with new tires (fronts twice since
the first ones were an issue, carb rebuilt and tweaked, new
Teflon braided fuel lines, oil lines,plugs,wires and cap, $200 in
Race gas etc. Time on the track-priceless so no go pro yet

Photos to follow

Thanks for the link

Panteracer

The cyclone was totally bad ass. Yesterday I finally got to see it run in person... Car was built/maintained by Stuart Hall of Hall Fabrication in benicia. :thumbsup:

Him and the corvette had some good battles (vette had an all aluminum 417 inch Ford powerplant by the way....)

Cyclone is a 555" BBF , making around 1000 hp from what I heard. Wicked :D

Ive seen that black pantera running around Los Gatos before, way cool seeing it run on the track!!

Fast Laps were right about 1:30 for the vette/cyclone, not sure if any of those cars broke into the 20's, but that is insanely fast for laguna!

Laguna
 

I guess I just like black cars
I live in Los Gatos but keep the car at my
shop in Campbell..... I try to get it out and
drive it as much as possible.. then track it now
and again

A couple of pictures from Sunday... sorry it says they are too big too load

Panteracer

It was cool seeing your Pantera out there, Bob--I'd take it over the Maclarens and Vipers any day! I thought your Firebird was nice, but the Pantera is definitely in another league!

My luck wasn't so great, but I had a good time--how can you not do this when being allowed to race your car around Laguna Seca?

I made it through two sessions. On the last lap of my second session, my alternator exploded, sending shrapnel into my upper radiator hose. Simultaneously, I boiled my brakes, which resulted in no pedal pressure, so I was removed from the track via flatbed. At least it was my last lap, and there was at least one guy I'd passed twice...

In my row in the pits, there were three guys whose engines tanked, two of whom had broken cranks--the Fairmont guy Bob already mentioned, something to do with pistons and valves contacting. There was indeed some interesting carnage, but I guess I was lucky overall. What was cool was that the guy with the worst damage, the black TCP fastback, was letting me cannibalize radiator hose components off of his car. Another guy threw me an alternator and a hose, along with a pile of wire and a stripper. I tried, but failed; I overheated in the staging area trying to get out for the fourth session. It was my fault for either not burping the cooling system or not noticing a failed water pump. I learned some stuff...

I saw Kevin's car broke the alternator bracket. Not sure if that took out the dry sump belt which killed the motor or what... Didn't look pretty though!

At least he let you borrow parts. :D

Laguna
 

Rustomatic,
sorry to hear about the car... at least it was not
an engine like the others... I only ran 3 runs as I needed
to get on the road as my elect brakes on my trailer were
messed up and locking one.. I drove all the way down in
the morning (dark) with no trialer lights.. decided it was
better to leave early before the lights were needed

It was a great day and not bending or blowing up
motors is always a good day and not that expensive
I have lunched 8 motors in the Pontiac, one in my
mustang and none so far in the Pantera... as I stated
before I just changed all the fuel and oil lines after my
recent fire and was checking that stuff all day and hoping
to not have a bon fire

Good to see you again

Just signed up for the Thunderhill event in October with CFRA
which is the Monday after Shelby club.. trying to get a
few more Panteras there

Panteracer

laguna
 

358 Mustang,
I talked to Kevin and yes the bracket broke
things got tangled and it also broke the crank
His drysump was also hanging there so it
was a mess.. too bad as that car is fun to watch
really fast and smooth.... he can drive and the car
is well sorted

Panteracer

You talking about Kevin Sitner?

Laguna
 

I was talking about the Total
control car. I believe his name was Kevin
He helps Chet with his car

Panteracer

A Red 67/68 Mustang - white stripes and numbers I think -- That's Keviin Sitner...


He's fast... and his car is well dialed. Yeah - he works on your old Mustang (Chet's)

Merc9 reported hitting 119 db @ Laguna. :rockin:

Greg, I believe the TCP Mustang being discussed is the dark blue one and you can see it being chased and passed by the Merc here around the 2:30 mark.

The TCP car is driven and maintained by Kevin Sittner.... Kevin has a shop in Lodi, Cal (Precision Machine) and if I didn't have Ron Sutton running my car project - I would have considered Kevin's shop (or more likely - Cortex). He runs a "truck arm" in his personal Red 67/8 Mustang. Not sure what the suspension is in the '65 TCP car.


I searched and found the car on TCP website - which listed the equipment.... The rear is a TCP pushrod system (which my Mustang used to run - until it was switched back to a leaf spring & Maier set up). The front is the TCP coil over set up which is what I'm running... The TCP car runs a 600 HP 408 ci


I have to tell ya -- I wouldn't think the Merc9 car would be very much fun to just pass everyone like they're standing still.... While I like to be able to pass some folks (Gaetano in particular - LOL) I find track sessions more fun to be running with some guys that are "equal" or better than me and see if I can catch them in one area - and if they pull me in another etc and try dice it up a bit with them. That's just my own feeling.

Laguna no sound limits
 

Greg
I tend to agree with you (second time I have said that now but
never again:) about running with someone your own speed
My viper buddy and I track a lot together but no cage with this
group so he ran one group down. I really missed running with
him this time and even thought about dropping down a group
until I saw all the cars on the track in his group .... It was like a parking lot
My last session had 12 cars. Oh how I love open track more than
running with your buddy:buttkick:

Panteracer

LOL...That clearly ain't the Merc's normal run group. They run the fastest classes with NASA and SCCA and win often.

Laguna
 

Flash
My buddy said the camero really
Pulled away from merc9
Trust me I should have been running
another group. Those buys rock

Panteracer

Pulled away? Wow that must be something stupid fast and 4 digit power.

Laguna no sound limits
 

Trust me I thought Merc9 was the fastest
thing out there.. I did see the camero go
by but didn't seem as quick.. it only ran
two sessions according to my buddy

Panteracer

Just to clarify, the TCP car I referred to is a black fastback--I might have mistaken it for the black fastback they've used for TCP development for like two decades now, but I'm not sure. It broke the alternator bracket and crank snout, and did a dive into the gravel. Another guy in a red and white fastback ('65?) with a Cortex suspension (can be seen on their Web site), a car down from me in the pits in the other direction, also broke the front of his crank. Martin Pond's Fairmont was also in my pit row...

And I thought the cost of mountain bike tires was prohibitive...

I may show up as a dopey spectator at Thunderhill, since I have time to yap here, but not enough time to fix my stupid car. My wife's also doing a 13.1 that weekend...

Laguna Sounds
 

Norcal Shelby site posted the sound readings of
the cars on their site for the Laguna unlimited sound day..

Black Pantera going up the hill in 4th gear was 106 ish
Finally figured going in 3rd at the apex of 5 and up the hill worked better and
the 4" 180 headers hit 109.7

A Javelin trans am car was hitting 114 plus
and someone was in the 119 range

My street exhaust which has 10" glass packs and are 3" straight
thru hit 104-105 as Sears a few years back before they thru me out
on a 103 db day

I have a third set of mufflers cans 18" but still 3" straight thru but turn
downs instead of megaphones on them- never been tested but
I believe they are 98 ish

Panteracer