1985 Monte Carlo SS known as Barney

[SSLance]

This weekend all of the off season prep was put to the test. It's where the rubber meets the road as they say. Our local SCCA test n tune was Saturday, and our Event 1 was Sunday. Weather was perfect for Saturday, couldn't have been any better...Sunday...not so much. Huge thunderstorms and rain all morning long, we finally got our first car off a little after noon and the track dried pretty well, but was still cool and damp and the conditions made us have to improvise on the course making it much more choppy and technical with no high speed zones at all. But hey...it was still racing and that's better than not racing.

Here's my best run from yesterday taken from the GoPro behind the seats.



And here's the same run showing how well the new Recaro seats and Simpson belts are holding the driver in place.



Had a great weekend, car did great, driver did okay once the rust was shook off... Had a half second lead in class through 4 runs yesterday and on the 5th run Patrick picked up 7 tenths which is huge...and clipped me by a tenth for the class win.

We were about a tenth apart on Saturday as well at the test n tune. So much fun racing with someone right at the same speed you are...had a blast.

Here are a couple of runs from the test n tune on Saturday, was a much more open course...got well into the 5,000 RPM range where the new power kicked in several times during a run.

[SSLance]

Oh yeah, I forgot the best part...

Noticed the rear axle bearing gone bad vibration yet once again on the way home yesterday.

[DavidBoren]

I think it might be time for a new axle. Maybe a Ron Sutton decoupled 3-link, as well. That should end this axle bearing nonsense once and for all. Then again, it's really easy for me to spend other people's money.

I'm glad to hear your fancy carburetor is working well for you.

[SSLance]

While I agree a decoupled three link would be awesome, you have to remember that this is a budget build that I race for a hobby. I am not racing this car for a living!

I basically have the same three choices that I had last year when it started eating axle bearings.

(1) keep replacing them as needed (getting good at it and they are cheap)

(2) upgrade to tapered bearing axles (about $300 with a slightly better bearing setup)

(3) convert axle ends to full floaters ($$ not only for the ends, but also the new rear brake package that has to come along with the new floater ends).

Then, if going that route...it only makes more sense to upgrade the front brake package similarly at the same time so they remain a balanced brake setup. $$$$

I just don't want to spend the money to do a full brake upgrade to resolve a problem that costs me $25 bearings a couple of times a season.

I'm pretty certain the left bearing is failing this time and it was replaced before the Optima event last July...it's had a BUNCH of abuse on it since then. The tapered bearing axle setup might be the prudent choice here but I'm not sure just how much better they'll be than the current bearings are considering what I do with the car? Need to sleep on it and check out my schedule...then decide.

[DavidBoren]

The tapered bearing sounds like the best choice. However, if the tapered bearing does not fix the problem, are they just as easy and economical to replace? Can you convert back to the non-tapered bearing if you need or want to? The full floater and associated brake upgrades would be awesome and all, but it would also be awesome to just change to bearings that do not leak and break.

[Ron Sutton]

The floater rear end itself isn't expensive. A complete new Speedway Engineering 9" Ford floater rear end with bubs, bearings, axles, etc is $1295.

if someone is building from scratch, it is a no brainer. But Lance ... you'd need to get new suspension brackets to weld on or have Speedway weld them on ... and new rear brakes. So it starts to add up.

You still have some "credit" on the books ... so let me know ...

[glassman]

Lance, what Recaro seat did you end up with? is it a fixed back and/or on sliders in case somebody else drives it? or is it just built for you?

I need 5pts in my setup (#becauseracecar doensn't always equal #becausesstreetcar) and i rather race.

[SSLance]

Originally Posted by Mizzouri

All buttoned up and ready for the next event on the 17th?

Car is completely ready...driver not so much. Have an out of town graduation to attend that day.

Originally Posted by glassman

Lance, what Recaro seat did you end up with? is it a fixed back and/or on sliders in case somebody else drives it? or is it just built for you?

I need 5pts in my setup (#becauseracecar doensn't always equal #becausesstreetcar) and i rather race.

These are the Profi-SPGXLs, fixed back fiberglass on sliders with a ton of adjustment room. Being able to fit your arse into the seat is the only limiting factor with these (already had to decline one ridealong as the guy couldn't fit his arse into the pass seat).

I also retained the factory 3 point belts and use those with these seats when driving on the street which is a real nice feature.

Comfy seats with comfy restraints #becausestreetcar
Comfy seats with 5 point harnesses for race day #becauseracecar

Best of both worlds.

We took it for a 45 minute drive yesterday afternoon to go to a cousin's son's graduation party, was great to just go out for a cruise in the complete car again. One of Terri's cousin's husband brought his fun car as well... We were parked not too far apart and later as the party was dwindling down we went out to check out each others rides. His car was like the anti-Barney...it was a Tesla...

His car, when you walk up to it, the door handles automatically extrude from the body inviting you to open the doors with them, I have to stick a key in the door and turn it just to unlock my doors. He presses a button on his key fob and his "hood" opens automatically...I have to hit the top of my hood just right with the palm of my hand to get my hood latch to release after pulling the cable handle from inside the car. It was pretty neat though, my first time checking out a Tesla...and I think their first time sitting in Recaro race seats in a 30 year old luxury car turned race machine.

Amazing the difference in technology during the 30 years between the two cars.

Our ride back how was just as nice, cruising the back roads with the windows down. Pretty glad to have the car back on the road again fully in one piece.

[Mizzouri]

Indeed it was an awesome weekend! Most of which I spent chasing your times.

Those new seats of yours are far far more comfortable than I could have guessed from the pictures. I could easily make those daily drivers. I really wish I had one in the TA.

I am really curious how Keith rebounds after getting his wheel bearing fixed and the new 1LE shocks thrown in before Topeka. Another 3 way fight...sounds like pure win to me!

Originally Posted by SSLance

This weekend all of the off season prep was put to the test. It's where the rubber meets the road as they say. Our local SCCA test n tune was Saturday, and our Event 1 was Sunday. Weather was perfect for Saturday, couldn't have been any better...Sunday...not so much. Huge thunderstorms and rain all morning long, we finally got our first car off a little after noon and the track dried pretty well, but was still cool and damp and the conditions made us have to improvise on the course making it much more choppy and technical with no high speed zones at all. But hey...it was still racing and that's better than not racing.

Here's my best run from yesterday taken from the GoPro behind the seats.



And here's the same run showing how well the new Recaro seats and Simpson belts are holding the driver in place.


Had a great weekend, car did great, driver did okay once the rust was shook off... Had a half second lead in class through 4 runs yesterday and on the 5th run Patrick picked up 7 tenths which is huge...and clipped me by a tenth for the class win.

We were about a tenth apart on Saturday as well at the test n tune. So much fun racing with someone right at the same speed you are...had a blast.

Here are a couple of runs from the test n tune on Saturday, was a much more open course...got well into the 5,000 RPM range where the new power kicked in several times during a run.

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Great videos. Sounds like the car ran as usual.

That's cool that you had someone close to you that you could compare to.

I went racing Saturday too and the closest cars I had to compare to were 4 late model Mustangs and a C5 and a C6 corvette. The rest were little imports. Wish there were more PT cars in the Vegas area that would actually use their cars.

Bummer about the bearings, but it sounds like you've got it under control for now.