That pic works. Do you have no room for an x pipe?
Thank you
There is room for an X pipe, I didn't know to ask for one when my exhaust was done. You can't follow the exhaust cut out pattern on the 2nd cross member but the headers and mufflers might still hang lower than the pipe would in that spot even if it dropped a little bit.
Had some more fun at the SCCA El Toro autocross this past weekend. It was the longest autocross course I have run and a total blast. I will be hitting up these El Toro events whenever possible now. I'm a believer! Next time I just need to buy some x-runs in advance.
We had a decent turnout with two folks coming up from San Diego and a few other local Camaros showing up. Thought it appears most people made the long trek up to Camarillo.
Car looks great Chad! Camarillo had alot of 5th Gens and Mustangs on Sunday due to the Pony Car challenge and I would bet those guys run SCCA normally. Not a lot of old iron this week, three total I think. Sat was the a Corvette day and pretty big turnout I'm told.
Well yesterday was an interesting day. I'm not sure if this is a track day report or a weather report...
Anyhow after a little over a 4 year absence I got to return and run the full Streets of Willow Springs (SOWS) course in counter clockwise direction (CCW). I last ran this course in May 2011 with Dave of Badmotofinger fame.
The great thing about running at Willow Springs is that I don't have to stay in a hotel. However, the bad thing is that I have to get on the road by 5:30am... It was a beautiful morning though.
After driving over 100 miles I arrived at the track. I still get major jitters or what some call butterflies in the stomache when standing around the morning of a track day before I can get on track. When checking in they asked me what run group I wanted to which I say intermediate. Now extreme speed has gold for intermediate / advanced and green for intermediate / beginner. I'm thinking i haven't been on this track in 4+ years so I don't want to hold anyone up so when they put me in green I don't sweat it.
I had invited everyone local I knew on facebook but didn't give much notice. Maybe people knew about the weather to come but nobody else showed. I always get a kick out of being the only old car around. This day there were only two American cars older than the mid 90's there. An 88-92 Mustang and myself.
Well my first session out was good for a major ego boost as I passed everything on the track in the green group and still managed to run a 1:29 second lap time which beat my previous best of 1:31 from 4 years ago. I think the next fastest car in green ran a 1:35. The Camaro impressed a lot of folks there that day and usually whenever I was near the car people came up and asked me questions about it or commented on how surprised they were at the lap times I was turning. A lot of track day drivers aren't familiar with protouring so they assume an old car like ours are just going to get annihilated. Of course outside of Optima and the American Street Car series most pro touring cars don't get run on the road course much.
I come back into the pits and let the car cool off. What a beautiful day!
As I'm waiting around after session 1 I see on facebook both Steve Rupp and Greg Blundell mention crazy storms. huh. I shrug it off and get bumped to the Gold run group for session 2.
I run my best lap of the day in session 2 with a 1:28 second lap time. I'm still passing a lot of the cars in my run group. After checking transponder times I see that I'm the 4th fastest car of the day. I review the video on my phone and notice that I'm still braking way way too early on both straight aways on track.
In between session 2 and 3 some rain comes in. It's big drops but not too hard and my phone says it will clear up by 2pm so I decide to just wait it out. Becausestreetcar right?
Right before session 2 I noticed that Darren Friedman of Camarillo autocross fame is at the track with his C7 z06. I had introduced myself after session 2 and then after the rain really started coming down he offered the hospitality of his trailer where I promptly stored my stuff and myself for the next 6 hours waiting for the rain to break.
Darren's vette. Oh look the rain is ttarting to come down harder...
What the hell. Don't those clouds realize this is Southern California in the desert... in JULY?!?
I did try going back out on track a third time during what appeared to be a lull in the storm. I didn't last the full session before pulling off. Driving a 68 Camaro on the track is awesome. Driving it in the rain with maniacs spinning out left and right and my own car trying to wag its tail anytime I think about the gas pedal was too much for me.
The best part about getting to run SOWS CCW was the ability to compare v2.0 of my car to v3.0. This is because SOWS is considered a small car track where handling is >>> than horsepower. The track is a little over 1.5 miles long and has 12 turns. Given that v3.0 has about 150 ft tq and 225 more hp to the wheels SOWS would remove a lot of the hp advantage (not all) and focus more on the suspension.
Some data. The lateral acceleration are the jutting marks to the side of the track (yellow 0.8+ g's, red 1.0+ g's) while the green and red track line represents lineal acceleration (green = accel, red decel).
v2.0
v3.0
A 3.5 second improvement in lap time may not seem like much but I didn't even get to run the whole day. With the whole day I could of easily dropped another second off, maybe more. I left a lot of time with my super large braking zones. I put a comparison video together of my best lap with v2.0 and v3.0 and its amazing how hard I was working driving v2.0 compared to how easy it looks to drive v3.0.
I used to get the willies before a track day weekend -- not anymore. I think this just takes some time to shake off as you gain confidence in yourself, and your car. I also think this stems from not wanting to "embarrass" yourself... Which - if you go with the attitude of "this is not a race - this is just for fun"... then you can overcome that feeling as well. I'm lucky that for the last year + - I've had Ron Sutton in my pit - and he calms you down - reminds you that you need to start out slowly - relearn the track - relearn yourself - be nice to the tires - warm everything up (including yourself) etc... and that's a great way to just have a fantastic weekend of driving. I also think it helps to be surrounded by friends that are there to help you, and give you plenty of crap. That way you're too busy defending yourself to be thinking about being nervous.
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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