I reaquired my old El Camino this past July after "loaning" it out for the past five years. It was back in 2006 when I last ran it on the road course. In the last six years I've been tracking "other" sports cars. I was real curious to see if, given the added driving experience, I could improve my lap time in the El Camino. My goal was to run under a 2 minute lap with the car in the exact condition it was in last time. My previous best was 2:02.67 and my best top speed was 148 mph. I went back to B.I.R. last Monday ended up running 3.4 seconds quicker at 1:59.27 and 5 mph faster at 153 mph. Goal met!
It was quite the experience getting back in that car after driving something significanly faster. It pushes, it throttle oversteers, and in some corners it does both! It has an intermittent miss at WOT that was never there before. It was pretty violent. Almost like fuel cut or something. I suspect the ignition. I had to send the dizzy in for repair after it crapped out at Car Craft so that's high on the list of suspects. The left rear tire was locking up under braking. Just the left and it was shredding the tire. I kept backing off the rear brake bias but that didn't help much. The brakes are marginable at best for heavy track use. The springs are too soft, needs a more aggressive alignment, gas pedal is a mile away from the brake pedal, and more. Lot's to work on. I did solve the gas pedal issue temporarily by zip tying a block of 2x4 to the gas pedal so that I could heel and toe. It added to the whole mullet mobile theme.
The car seems to like to shed its moldings now. On the trip back from Oregon, the left hand windshield molding flew off. Before we were able to retrieve it, it got run over several times. It was my perfect condition original too! So when I went to Brainerd, I made sure to tape down the windshield moldings with this temporary clear paint protection film which worked great. Should have done the bed moldings as well. During my last session of the day, the one with the camera mounted on the roof, I get black flagged. I thought oh crap, what did I do wrong? Then on the way back to the pits, I saw the problem in my rear view mirror. Thank God it didn't fly off! Scratched the hell out of my nicely painted box though.
I'm really glad I decided to run the car because the track will never be the same again. They announced that starting in October, the track is going to be widened and resurfaced!!! It will meet the requirements for everything except Formula 1. The track will be 10 feet wider which means turn 2 will be faster and safer. The new smoother surface should help with tire wear as well. Pretty cool!!!
Nice! I remember it being for sale, you sold it and bought it back?
Sold it five years ago and bought it back this past July. The fellow I sold it to was killed in an accident last year. His son called me in April to tell me about it and said he was going to sell the El Camino and wanted to give me the first shot at it. He only put 250 miles on it in five years. It was in the exact same condition as it was when I sold it except he had the inside of the box refinished and all the bed rail moldings polished. It looked beautiful. Didn't take me long to f that up.
I reaquired my old El Camino this past July after "loaning" it out for the past five years. It was back in 2006 when I last ran it on the road course. In the last six years I've been tracking "other" sports cars. I was real curious to see if, given the added driving experience, I could improve my lap time in the El Camino. My goal was to run under a 2 minute lap with the car in the exact condition it was in last time. My previous best was 2:02.67 and my best top speed was 148 mph. I went back to B.I.R. last Monday ended up running 3.4 seconds quicker at 1:59.27 and 5 mph faster at 153 mph. Goal met!
It was quite the experience getting back in that car after driving something significanly faster. It pushes, it throttle oversteers, and in some corners it does both! It has an intermittent miss at WOT that was never there before. It was pretty violent. Almost like fuel cut or something. I suspect the ignition. I had to send the dizzy in for repair after it crapped out at Car Craft so that's high on the list of suspects. The left rear tire was locking up under braking. Just the left and it was shredding the tire. I kept backing off the rear brake bias but that didn't help much. The brakes are marginable at best for heavy track use. The springs are too soft, needs a more aggressive alignment, gas pedal is a mile away from the brake pedal, and more. Lot's to work on.
It's amazing how many problems are exposed by getting faster...
Thanks for sharing the great video, and Congratulations on the driving improvement We noticed your improved time was done with a passenger penalty...Double Bonus!
Very cool! Have any issues with the wheel adapters? I was thinking of getting some for my 68 chevelle that's not going to see much track time and like some real world knowledge on em.
Very cool! Have any issues with the wheel adapters? I was thinking of getting some for my 68 chevelle that's not going to see much track time and like some real world knowledge on em.
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
The Old El Camino Is Back And On The Track!
It was back in 2006 when I last ran it on the road course. In the last six years I've been tracking "other" sports cars. I was real curious to see if, given the added driving experience, I could improve my lap time in the El Camino. My goal was to run under a 2 minute lap with the car in the exact condition it was in last time. My previous best was 2:02.67 and my best top speed was 148 mph. I went back to B.I.R. last Monday ended up running 3.4 seconds quicker at 1:59.27 and 5 mph faster at 153 mph. Goal met! 
So when I went to Brainerd, I made sure to tape down the windshield moldings with this temporary clear paint protection film which worked great. Should have done the bed moldings as well. 
During my last session of the day, the one with the camera mounted on the roof, I get black flagged. I thought oh crap, what did I do wrong? Then on the way back to the pits, I saw the problem in my rear view mirror. Thank God it didn't fly off! Scratched the hell out of my nicely painted box though. 
I had a 70 SS 396 back in the late 80's
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