The OneLapCamaro - Thoughts on SEMA and the Optima Invitational - Lateral-g Forums

James OLC · #1 11-11-2008, 10:26 PM

Friday we dumped some gas in the car and headed over to Tyler’s for some last minute work before heading to Pahrump for the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational. When I got to ATS we were third or fourth in line for a turn on the lift. Bad Penny was there getting some work done on the front sway bar; Larry was there with MotiV8r for a little bit of everything and FUEL was there after an incredible thrash to R&R the clutch for some tweaks and a trip to the dyno.

We were there to try to troubleshoot a strange sound that we were getting from the transmission at around 60 mph. Checked pinion angle and everything else that we could see before packing it up and hitting the track with more hope than common sense. We did quickly scale the car after Rupp set the bar really low with something around 3200 and change (I think); we rung the bell at a hefty 3500 plus – not an impressive number but it is what it is.

Saturday morning at 5 am saw us at Tyler’s again, this time for the drive out to the track. Despite the early hour, the shop was a hub of activity. Tyler and Tom had spent most (all) of the night working on FUEL – rebuilding the rear end in the wee hours to get Dave on his way to event. At 5:30 Steve spun Bad Penny around and lead the pack to the track with Curtis close behind, I am so impressed by Steve and Bad Penny and can’t wait until I have the OneLapCamaro to the point where I can drive it 300 miles to an event like SEMA then drive it 75 miles at 5:30 in the morning to an event like the Ultimate Street Car Invitational (which he as we all know wins) before driving back to ‘Vegas at rush hour on Saturday night.

James OLC · #2 11-11-2008, 10:27 PM

The Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational was an incredible event and I am honoured to have been invited to participate despite our relatively poor showing. We knew that we had transmission issues going into the event and they definitely hurt us on the road course. I had about 50 miles of highway driving on the car and a few shorts stints in Las Vegas going to and from the show and knew that the car was going to have issues. I was right. The first thing that I found was that there was an issue with the brakes; I would say that I had 80% of the brakes that I expected or needed. Could be pressure, could be fresh pads, could be fresh rotors, could be pedal ratio, could be master cylinder sizing - don’t know at this point. All I know is that while I had some brakes, I wish that I had more. That hurt a bit and definitely made me think twice at the end of the straights and heading into the curves. The much bigger issue that we encountered was with the transmission – or clutch – which slowed us up even further. While I had no issue up shifting, I could not get the transmission in gear while downshifting. There are a couple of 2nd gear corners at the end of some 4th gear (or more) straights so the inability to get the car into gear at speed hurt a bunch. I have a couple of not so fond memories screaming at the top of my lungs at the car while pushing or pulling on the shifter with both hands trying to find any gear. So, if you were there and were wondering why I seemed to be down on power in the turns 8 through 10, there you have it.

Telemetry from the Racepak dash would later show that although my maximum velocity on the back straight was only 104 mph, we did see 1.4 lateral-G’s on several occasion and there was one corner were we held 0.6 G’s or more for over 12 seconds.

The Autocross was a completely new experience for me. I had said before the event that I had never participated in one before – which was true – but what I hadn’t told anyone was that I had never even seen one live before. I talked to Mary Pozzi before my first run and she took the time to walk the course with me and suggested that I walk it a couple more times before running it with the car, She also gave me some really valuable advice on how to run it and how to make the most of the course. It helped and although it is too late now if I had another run or two I already know what I would do differently.

At the end of the day, I had a great time at the event and am more than satisfied with how the car performed on its maiden voyage, I hope that I have the opportunity to take another shot at the track once I have the bugs sorted out and have more confidence in the car’s abilities.

Tom Holt was great throughout the day, offering advice and assistance at every opportunity, Probably the greatest disappointment was when I took Tom out on the road course for a couple of laps only to be turned back at the starting line because the track had been oiled down.

James OLC · #3 11-11-2008, 10:27 PM

When the event was done we quickly loaded up the trailer and headed back for home. That night was a short drive to Mesquite because my wife was under the weather and we were both dead tired. I hit the pillow around 10 pm and was woke up at around 11 by the sounds of sirens. I took a peak out the window and saw the truck and trailer surrounded by police cars and fire trucks in the hotel parking lot. Damn. Thankfully it had nothing to do with me; it was just the Burger King next door which was now on fire. Damn. Ultimately no harm to the truck, trailer, or car. Twenty more hours on the highway with a mix of rain, sleet, and snow and we were home, safe and sound.

Recharge the batteries for a couple of days and I’ll start tearing into the brakes and transmission.

Sorry for the long winded post, lots to cover over the course of two weeks, before I end through I have to thank a bunch of people who made everything possible:

Chris Heighton and Don and Shane at Heighton Restorations
Tyler Beauregard and Russell at American Touring Specialties
Pascual Marquez and Marquez Design for the awesome interior
Rick and Hector at Rick’s Stainless for the killer gas tank
Jay Harris at Littlefuse for giving us access to their new ISIS wiring technology
Mark Magers at Lateral Dynamics
Cam Douglass at Optima Batteries
And all of our other sponsors including Ididit Inc., Tilton Engineering, and RFR Custom Fabrication (thanks Matt!)

Again, it was a pleasure meeting everybody and I look forward to the next time that we can all get together and shoot the breeze.

Cheers,

James

**Steve1968LS2** · #4 11-11-2008, 10:35 PM

One of my favorite cars.. truly stunning and it was an honor running with you at the track and even better getting to meet you.

I'm sure, once your car is sorted out, it will give Penny a run for her money. lol

Glad you made it home safe, keep in touch so we can get that photoshoot done. Man, how far was that you had to drive???

mazspeed · #5 11-11-2008, 11:19 PM

That is a beautiful car James. You should be proud and happy how it's turned out and the attention it has and will continue to receive. Congrats.

ironworks · #6 11-12-2008, 07:18 AM

It was great to finally meet you in person. The car was amazing and I wish I could have gone on saturday but we had a championship to wrap up in xtreme drag radial.

Rodger

WILWAXU · #7 11-12-2008, 07:54 AM

Stunning car! Attention to detail and craftsmanship are top notch.

Good meeting you and seeing the car run on Saturday.

svp · #8 11-12-2008, 07:53 AM

You did a great job with the car James, I know SEMA is a blur and we didn't have much time to talk...I could tell you were just overwhelmed with the whole getting ready and just getting to the show....but it was a pleasure meeting with you and talking breifly. The car is gorgeous!

slenning · #9 11-12-2008, 02:51 PM

Hi James, it was a pleasure getting to meet and talk to you and to see your gorgeous Camaro. You (and all of your helpers) did a great job man. That was a hell of a lot of work to get done to make it to SEMA, congrats. And as Brent said the writeup was great Thanks for sharing.