Well that's pretty wild and wooly stuff!! Nothing good comes from parts falling off cars!
That is for sure!,,
I think the part I like the best about auto sports is the peoples willingness to help everybody including the guy that might beat them. It's just a great group of people.
Glad you made it home okay! I didn't want to say to much in my thread but since you shared the carnage here I just wanted to say I have huge respect for you getting that car back on the track Tuesday! I'm impressed that not only were you still eager to have it beat on but even more that you came prepared with enough spares to rebuild your swaybar.
Thanks Chad. I was lucky with the spares. I was cleaning up and just threw that stuff in the bag instead of putting it away...lol
Hope to meet up with you at a track soon!
Say the word
Oh and having been on the receiving end of a similar offer to help me get my car home recently it is humbling and amazing what a great group of folks there are in the car world.
I spent this weekend tearing the car down to check on the damage. I found that the sway bar impacted the wheel and took a couple small chunks out of the edge of the inner barrel. It also put a large dent in the frame, put some marks in my upper a-arm, and bent the steering tie rod. So I have some work to do.
The chunks that were taken out of the wheel and a-arm are about a 1/4 in or so. Would you suggest replacing The barrel and the arm?
It's been a while since I updated so here it goes. After the Super Chevy Suspension Challenge I went about fixing some of the problems that were exposed namely the sway bar arm. I came off at the track causing some damage so out came the BFH and I used a Home Depot Map Gas torch to heat the arm up enopugh to bend. Not the easiest method but it was all I had. I got some threaded end links and lopped off the end of the arm, drilled it, tapped some threads, mocked it all up and it was good to go after some final adjustments.
Since the car was in the air and I did not get a chance to install it before Super Chevy I took out the old T56 trans to install the Tremec Magnum T56. There are some differences in the Magnum vs the standard T56. The Magnum is just a bit bigger, heavier and most obvious is that the shifter is in a different position. so changes had to be made to the tunnel to accommodate the shifter location. After some measurements and a few cuts I made a access cover for the trans tunnel so that I could get the shifter out if needed down the road. I also relocated the stock center console a bit just to make the shifter look centered.
After rolling around on the new trans which is breaking in nicely and having sway bar arms that I don't have to worry about I went to a few auto-X events to get some much needed seat time. during these events the rear end was acting a bit odd so I had a few people drive the car and it seemed that the posi was giving out and it was. I pulled the axles and center out and replaced it with a Strange unit with 3.89 gears. while I was there I put on thicker axle retainers and changed the rear spring on the Ridetech shocks for some heavier units.
The next order was some new tires. I really like my HRE but I am running 18and 19 on those and tire selection is not good for what I am doing with the car. I was able to get some Falken 615k in 275-18 and 315-18. so I had a Fikse set of wheels fitted with these for the track use.
With all of the updates I felt confident about heading to Thunder Hill for the Optima event. Loaded up the truck, borrowed a trailer and hit the road. I got there in the early evening and pulled the car off the trailer. i hung around with Mike (Glassman) for most of the evening and we shot the breeze and had a great time. Thanks again for the hospitality Mike!
the next morning after the meeting it was time to go to work. in the auto-x i totally crapped the bed with May Pozzi riding shotgun...noty very encouraging. David Pozzi was also instructing and he jumped in the car with me to give me some pointers. Can't say enough good things about the Pozzi's. Thanks for everything!
Dave riding shotgun. I think this picture was taken by Scott (Seig). Tahnks forthe great shots that weekend!
After the butterflies were worked out I started to get better with my driving and was having a good event. I turned in what I felt were respectable times in the auto-x and speedstop . So next up was the road course. It was intimidating with all the elevation changes and the length which was at least double any track I have been on ( I'm a rookie).
I felt I was was doing fine and my lap times were dropping and then......I pealed a tire off the bead but thankfully there was no real drama associated with it. i limped it off the track and my day was done. Overall i was please as i had felt i improved in all of the events and even with the the early track exit i finished mid pack in GTV.
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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