Hackster's Autocross Track Day Truck (Garage Build)

[hackster]

Originally Posted by wheatie11

How has everything been going? Any updates?

Sorry forgot to update this earlier this week.

Vegas went ok. I need to work on my driving more than the truck to be totally honest. There were some brutally fast cars and very good drivers there.

I held my own overall but did pretty poor on the AutoCross and Track Day portions.

I finished 10th overall out of 23 in my class of GTV. Keep in mind most of these guys have been racing for years and years. The truck does well in the Design and Engineering portion of the event. 6th out of 23 is pretty good for a truck that has its original ****ty paint and some rust holes here and there.

Some rediculous cars there as well. Dusold's camaro has 850HP on a full tube chassis...you can start to see I am a bit out of my league here, but still having fun.



Fresh Debut AMX was incredible.



This was the unfortunate part of the weekend, he hit the wall about 75 or so. The car is worse in person but the driver was OK and that is all that really matters, he can build another car.





Sitting in line waiting for the Speed Stop Challenge, you can see some killer cars I am lined up with. Pretty fun to even be able to hang with these guys in my old truck.



Our Road Rally took us down the main strip, it was brutal, hot and we were in bumper to bumper traffic for 2 hours.

Cool as hell though to see all that stuff and from the seat of the truck.





My buddy Martin has this killer wagon, it has a 535 hp 427 crate engine in it and hauls the mail!!! Well his 35 amp alternator, yes you read that right 35 amp would not keep up with the heat, the fans, lights and stuff in all that traffic and finally killed the battery. So we hung out here on the side of the road for a couple of hours until someone could bring us a battery and we could get Martin home safe.



That is what this event is all about for me. Making new friends, getting some seat time and having fun, I dont think I will ever be right at the top but hope the more seat time I get the better I can place.

This Holden was super cool, it looks like it is a real Holden brought in from Australia and sounded rowdy!!



Truck will have some good footage on streetcar challenge show in the next few season.



Cool Pic.



Ordered some proper wheels for it when I got back. Just finished measuring them up and am going to get bigger tires this go around as well. 295/40/18 on an 11" wheel

Messed around with the coilover setting for a few moments last night and stiffened it up in the front 3 clicks and will do the same for the rear. I need to swap the springs all the way around to stiffer rates and likely get a smaller rear sway bar.

I have a track day all day Friday, should be fun, its at my "Home" track PIR.

Sean

[rustomatic]

Thanks for posting pics of two cars that can give you so many bad ideas: that AMX and DuSold's Camaro. They're about enough to make you put the bed in front of the cab, then put a hood on the bed, turning it into a shoe with rear-weight bias. Bad ideas . . .

It sounds like you had a good time--you got to soak up the strip in style!

[HeadInTheClouds]

I read that whole truck build because I love those old Cummins trucks. I had a 2012 Cummins, and never had a problem with it. Recalls done on oil changes. In and out. Other than the steering one. You have some great builds, including this one. Thanks for sharing! Is the racing easier on the body?

[hackster]

I signed up for the Cascade Car club track day and instruction a week or so ago. Headed up to the class portion with Doug Bockman (sp). He put on a good class and went over a lot of the same stuff as the team continental class I took a few months ago. He went a little more in depth on car control and I took a good bit from his class.

We had 4-30 minute sessions on Friday at PIR, first two were in the rain. I was pretty bummed at first running in the rain but it turns out I got some really great car control lessons with the wet weather. Leaning how to keep the rear out without spinning it out, over correcting or lifting. After 60 minutes of in the rain I had a pretty good handle on getting around in the rain, it was slow, three cars went into the wall hard that day.

Third and Fourth sessions were in the dry and awesome. Truck worked well, track was fast, I picked up a lot about exit speed, getting on the gas faster. Slow in, Fast out is starting to mean something.

I tightened up the front coilovers 3 clicks and softened up the rear a couple and the truck was better, front end had a lot less dive and the truck was pretty balanced. I was able to get the rearend out on some faster corners but it was very predictable and controllable.

4th session I tracked down the fast car in the group a new z-28 and we did 6 or 7 laps around the track with me on his ass. He could pull me a little bit on the front straight but I could reel him in on the corners. We had a great time and passed our fair share of cars.

We talked after the session and he was impressed, could not believe I was able to hang with him the entire time.

I still need a lot more work, truck needs a little bit but I am getting better and more confident.

Onto a few pics I snapped.







Only on track action I got of it, hope to get some more.




Funny part was I loaded it up with a bunch of steel, tubing bender and a hydraulic ram today and did a bunch of running around.

Love this truck.

Sean

[fleet]

Congrats on all the progress made...with driver and truck.

Lookng at the stance on that thing is addictive...

[SSLance]

I did a couple of track sessions in the rain last weekend and learned a ton as well. Then in the semi dry session after I put what I learned to use and ti really showed. I loved driving the track in the wet, was giggling like a school girl when I came off track.

Curious if you made any adjustments to truck between the wet and dry session? I ran the exact same setup on both and seemed to be just fine.

[GregWeld]

Some of the best driving lessons I've received/learned from - was at DirtFish.... not only is it wet - it's gravel... you finally figure out how to control the car with just the loud pedal and begin to enjoy looking out the side windows! LOL


This truck is so kool - but YOU learning to drive it is way kooler!

[bonecrrusher]

Originally Posted by hackster

This Holden was super cool, it looks like it is a real Holden brought in from Australia and sounded rowdy!!

Nice build man - I missed this entire thread, lol.

Looking at this Holden - I think thats a Chevy SS that has been badge converted. It looks like the steering wheel is on the left hand side of the car.

[hackster]

Originally Posted by bonecrrusher

Nice build man - I missed this entire thread, lol.

Looking at this Holden - I think thats a Chevy SS that has been badge converted. It looks like the steering wheel is on the left hand side of the car.

I wondered about that.....damn cool car but was loud as all get out.

Thanks for the props, easy to miss with all the crazy cool builds going on here at Lat-G.

For those following along.....first time with the camper on the old 12 valve dually and it was night and day difference, half the power of the 14 but it handled the camper so much better than the 14. I was shocked. Truck did extremely well. Need a few things for it. Steering box needs replaced, and it desperately needs the 3k governor springs. Those are next on the list but I was very happy how the truck did with the camper, trailer and F100 in tow.

What a weekend.

Got up to the fairgrounds about noon on Friday and got the truck unloaded and the camper all setup, its just better on the dually.

We hit the show about 1 or so and met up with my old man there. I was surprised how many cars were there on a Friday. Got to meet some cool people there that day. It was hot out.

Few pics from the show on Friday.





Yeah...you are seeing this correctly





This thing was super clean....and you know I like these trucks.





We got done at Puyallup and headed out to the drags. I cruised out there with my dad, F100 did great in the hot weather and sitting in traffic, I was pretty happy.

Met up with Rushforth and a few of his buddies for some Karting time.. I had no idea that I would be sore afterwards. For being a pretty big fella, I was happy with mid pack, 8 of 15 guys. It was a blast. 2 fifteen minute sessions were enough though. If you are ever up there, check this place out, its totally worth it.



I met this chap at the track and talked with him for a while. Super cool old truck. It was an original short bed that someone used to tow with and was just cool. I talked with him a bunch over the weekend. Great guys.



Was an awesome first day up there. I walked a lot, was pretty tired and hot by the end of the day and was so busy having fun I had forgotten to eat or drink anything from about 1 or so on.

[hackster]

Saturday,

Damn early morning, up at 4:45 to get things ready and roll into the show, glad we were camping right there.

Great parking spot to wait in line.







Got all setup at the show and pretty much forgot to take pics =) there were a couple of outstanding cars there that I could not get pics of but some that I did.

This is an Avanti....yes you read that right.









Just some other neat cars, I shot and thought I would share.






Yes, that is a common rail cummins..