Budget '69 Camaro Track Car - NO WHINERS!

[Ron Sutton]

Originally Posted by Vegas69

The tweaking was the part I enjoyed about my car more than anything except for the using. It's really incremental.

You make a very good point. Getting your car dialed in to where it suits your ability will result in a car that you can drive at 8 or 9/10's and run faster than you used to at full tilt. Being comfortable is a big factor. I'll be interested to see just how much faster you can get with a properly set up car and the same skills behind the wheel.

Todd's always on track.

Greg's goal is to have more fun. So that has been my focus. We're making the car work better for how he wants to drive it. Not once at the track did I say to Greg ... "use more track", "change your line", "drive in deeper," etc. We're just focused on on increasing the driver's sensory input, being smooth with all the driver input mechanisms to keep the tires "happy" & enjoying the time on track more.

My goal with the car is to optimize it so it's consistent, predictable & doesn't doing anything surprisingly evil. It has before and it's not much fun driving fast on a real race track with other cars around you if you're not confident in the car. Scaring yourself trying to keep up with the pack is not fun.

It is a LOT of fun if you can drive your hot rod at 9/10 lap after lap with all the adrenaline and no peed pants. I believe the fun is from driving fast, passing some cars, hanging with the group you want to on track and having a sense of accomplishment that you did it. The fast laps in the 2:08 to 2:10 range are icing on the cake. For track day events, lap times are something to BS about in the pits ... or the forum ... but the fun is on track.

I've seen cars at the track that are so ill handling, if you drive them at the pace of the other cars, you're trying to save your life almost every corner. That's not fun. The way the car was handling before ... with lower tire grip & 40/60 F'd up brake balance... if you tried to drive it to a 2:08-2:10 you would have spun off track back end first. The set-up simply wasn't capable. Charley ran 2:09's & 2:10's every session like clockwork. That looked fun. With the stuff we improved at T-Hill, now Greg can run with Charley occasionally without killing himself.

We're only making small changes before Sonoma. Better brake balance, so Greg can use the brakes more & tires that come in quicker. That car has more speed potential in it, but my focus will be to make it easier & more fun to drive.