I got the car back recently from TCI. While at their shop they made some changes to the Camaro Subframe and Torque arm setup to bring up to their current specs. I'm now able to stuff my R888 275 front tire with 6* of caster and -1* of camber with full turning radius!
With the updates to the suspension done it was time to focus on tuning the suspension for track day fun! The first step was upgrading to the Ridetech triple adjustable coil over shocks on all four corners. The car was then corner weighted and final ride height set, which you can see in this pic.
The front ended up in about the same place and the rear was raised slightly. The Ridetech shocks plus ride height adjustments completely transformed the car. With my old coil overs even at soft setting the car was still very stiff feeling for regular street driving and rough pavement transitions or bumps in the pavement were very unpleasant. Now even with the shocks tuned for baseline track setting the car is awesome on the street.
I left the spec sheet at home but I will post up my corner weights when I get a chance.
I still have some small work left to do on the car such as installing an oil cooler (first one I ordered and had waiting for me all this time was a hair too big) resealing the firewall where the new wiring harness and A/C lines pass through, etc.
I'm planning on doing some maiden testing out at Adams Motorsports Park. Next week for sure and I am trying to leave work early today to get out there too. So if anyone local wants to join me....
Chad,
What did tci do to your subframe that enabled you to use your 275/888 upfront?
Chad,
What did tci do to your subframe that enabled you to use your 275/888 upfront?
Anyone buying a new frame won't have to do anything. I have an older version that has the lower control arm slightly further back than the current frame. To compensate TCI made me newer control arms to bring the ball joint forward.
Whew what a great weekend! Lets start with a recap of Saturday.
After the Saturday before when Streets of Willow Springs turned into the Lakes of Willow Springs I felt a little short changed. I really though a 1:27 and maybe even a 1:26 lap time was within reach. So skip forward to Tuesday and Darren (of Speed Limit racing) who had his white C7 Zo6 with Z07 package at the track is making noise about going back the next Saturday with his Cobra. I already had plans with my wife that Saturday and it was going to be a high of 95* but once Darren mentioned he was going to have an air conditioned motor home with him and my understanding wife let me reschedule I was signed up!
Arrived at the track and pitted with Daren. A fully polished all aluminum Cobra getting worked on the track draws a lot of interest! Of course Darren and I are the only classic cars there.
The good news is that I did manage to squeak into the 1:27's one a single Lap. It was my 2nd lap of the 2nd run session so about the best conditions for the tires. My phone recorded a 1:27:97 but the official transponder recorded a 1:27:86 which felt better as that was solidly into the 1:27's in my book!
Here is the video from that session. 2nd lap is my fastest. First lap has some passing and later laps have some passing. The temps may have been too hot to really knock some time off (at my skill level) but it was sure fun chasing down other cars on the track. If you compare this to last week you will see several corners where I can't hold the same G's due to the heat. But I went there on a mission to try braking later and harder and it shows on some of my laps I was pulling close to 1g in braking with at least one lap where I saw 1.1g's in braking!
Thanks to being able to hang out in Darren's motor home i was able to survive the heat and run all 5 sessions in the Camaro. There were two negative side effects to hanging out in his motor home though. 1) Watching car movies inbetween run sessions may not be the best motivation when they are movies like Driven where every race includes massive and destructive crashes lol! 2) I didn't notice that the combination of afternoon wind and all of the fine silt in the pits from the flooding the week before combined to create the Sands of Willow Springs instead of Streets...
Check out my passenger seat from sitting in the pits with the windows all down.
After the event wound down I was looking up traffic conditions for the 2+ hour drive home. This time I decided to take my neighbor's advice and come home over Angels Crest highway. Man! What a great way to conclude a fantastic track day. ~50 miles of curvey and scenic mountain road and the best part is the first 20 miles I didn't encounter a single car going my direction and in total I was held up by slow traffic a total of maybe 1 mile. It was great. The mountain air was cool and I just cruised at the speed limit of 55 mph rolling through 30-35 mph turns one after another relaxed and feeling like my Camaro was the best car in the world (Sorry Marry P.). It was also a bit of a nostalgia throw back to the monthly "cruise the crest" some of us used to do before the core moved away or took their cars apart.
It was a long and exhausting day but a supremely enjoyable and satisfying day.
Whew what a great weekend! Lets start with a recap of Saturday.
After the Saturday before when Streets of Willow Springs turned into the Lakes of Willow Springs I felt a little short changed. I really though a 1:27 and maybe even a 1:26 lap time was within reach. So skip forward to Tuesday and Darren (of Speed Limit racing) who had his white C7 Zo6 with Z07 package at the track is making noise about going back the next Saturday with his Cobra. I already had plans with my wife that Saturday and it was going to be a high of 95* but once Darren mentioned he was going to have an air conditioned motor home with him and my understanding wife let me reschedule I was signed up!
Arrived at the track and pitted with Daren. A fully polished all aluminum Cobra getting worked on the track draws a lot of interest! Of course Darren and I are the only classic cars there.
The good news is that I did manage to squeak into the 1:27's one a single Lap. It was my 2nd lap of the 2nd run session so about the best conditions for the tires. My phone recorded a 1:27:97 but the official transponder recorded a 1:27:86 which felt better as that was solidly into the 1:27's in my book!
Here is the video from that session. 2nd lap is my fastest. First lap has some passing and later laps have some passing. The temps may have been too hot to really knock some time off (at my skill level) but it was sure fun chasing down other cars on the track. If you compare this to last week you will see several corners where I can't hold the same G's due to the heat. But I went there on a mission to try braking later and harder and it shows on some of my laps I was pulling close to 1g in braking with at least one lap where I saw 1.1g's in braking!
Thanks to being able to hang out in Darren's motor home i was able to survive the heat and run all 5 sessions in the Camaro. There were two negative side effects to hanging out in his motor home though. 1) Watching car movies inbetween run sessions may not be the best motivation when they are movies like Driven where every race includes massive and destructive crashes lol! 2) I didn't notice that the combination of afternoon wind and all of the fine silt in the pits from the flooding the week before combined to create the Sands of Willow Springs instead of Streets...
Check out my passenger seat from sitting in the pits with the windows all down.
After the event wound down I was looking up traffic conditions for the 2+ hour drive home. This time I decided to take my neighbor's advice and come home over Angels Crest highway. Man! What a great way to conclude a fantastic track day. ~50 miles of curvey and scenic mountain road and the best part is the first 20 miles I didn't encounter a single car going my direction and in total I was held up by slow traffic a total of maybe 1 mile. It was great. The mountain air was cool and I just cruised at the speed limit of 55 mph rolling through 30-35 mph turns one after another relaxed and feeling like my Camaro was the best car in the world (Sorry Marry P.). It was also a bit of a nostalgia throw back to the monthly "cruise the crest" some of us used to do before the core moved away or took their cars apart.
It was a long and exhausting day but a supremely enjoyable and satisfying day.
Great to see the progress you've made Chad!
I miss the Cruisin the Crest days. Need to get back out just for the fun!
__________________ Nick
69 Camaro - 383, 700R4, Wilwood, Hotchkis, Bilstein, GlobalWest . . . A whole lotta fun on a back road!
I miss the Cruisin the Crest days. Need to get back out just for the fun!
Nick! Dude it has been a long time since I've seen you on the forums! Maybe we can resurrect a cruise the crest for old times sake. Carl is still around and might be down. Most the group that we ran regularly with though I haven't seen around anymore. I myself was on hiatus for a few years dealing with the lows of getting my car back on the road.
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
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