79 Camaro build update - Lateral-g Forums

silver63c10 · #1 01-01-2016, 07:56 AM

Exciting developments for the new year..

Last year, I was able to check one item off the bucket list: driving at Texas World Speedway. This year, we get to do another massive one!

We'll be heading to COTA in August (cool suit, anyone?) and seeing what she'll do against the best of the best in the Optima series. There is a LOT of work to do between now and then to get it ready for the biggest of Big Boy tracks.

Speaking of work, the new shop is pretty much up and running, and featuring a sweet new toy that should make getting those things done a lot easier.

We've got a few weekends of work to do on the Z, then it will be the Camaro's turn. Suspension, brakes, safety upgrades, interior work and a lot more on the docket. Bring on 2016!

**WSSix** · #2 01-01-2016, 09:03 AM

Good luck Duston!

GrabberGT · #3 01-03-2016, 08:19 AM

Good luck and enjoy the new shop. I'll be living vicariously through you this year. COTA just isnt in the budget for me. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you get it ready. Im sure I'll be seinge you at plenty of the 79 at the autocross this season.

silver63c10 · #4 04-13-2016, 08:44 PM

How about a little update time?

When we last left off, the new shop was up and running and there was a pile of parts beginning to grow. After some fits and starts, we've been plugging away and making steady progress on making this into a car worthy of running on a man-sized race track.

Fuel Cell

Up first was fire safety. Our $129 Summit special cell has had a rough life, and was never meant for road course duty in the first place, so we called in the help of Fuel Safe. This is an FIA-cert'd Enduro cell that should be much happier should things get hairy.

the new and improved 'natural state of the racecar' picture

somehow haven't grabbed a pic of it since the install, but here's the top of it

Side note, does anyone know if it's normal for the bladder to bang around inside the can on these? Ours has the hard plastic one, and even with 6-7 gallons of fuel in it you can rattle it back and forth. Their tech line was not the most helpful when we called to ask..

Big Boy Brakes

We knew going into the Texas Optima event last year that we were pushing the limits of the braking setup we had. We discussed our setup and options at length with Mike from Wilwood during that event, and a few emails picked up the conversation where it had left off and got us on the right track.

The rears were up first, with their 12" rotor and integrated parking brake setup making use of our existing 4-piston Dynalites that were originally up front (my how things change!)

buttoned up and ready to go

a Lokar parking brake lever finished off the install - it's since been liberated through the carpet

Up front, we needed two things - diameter, and better cooling capacity. We landed on the 14" kit with radial mount Superlite calipers, upgrading to the GT curved vane slotted rotors.

these things make me giggle like a fat kid with 14 inches of cake

mocked up to make sure all is well

one side ready to go, one side to go

A Real Race Seat

Along the same lines of our Summit special fuel cell, our APC (remember that company?!) 'race' seats brought about visions of those YouTube videos of people flopping around their cars after their seats broke apart in a minor wreck.

After a few fit tests (sitting in other people's seats at their open house), Jon and Terry at Vorshlag hooked us up with real deal FIA-certified Cobra Suzukas. Then came the matter of, you know, actually fitting them in the car.

remember that time something just bolted right into the racecar?

the Cobra mounts presented a bit of a height issue..

we got to work with the tubing bender, band saw, welder, etc.

and a few weekends later had ourselves a seat, along with new up-to-date belts

We bought a matching one for the passenger side, but it's going to either wait until we can stomach another 10+ hour build to put it in or end up in the Z. This car most likely won't see a whole lot of track time with an instructor, but if it does the Cobra will go in.

Gears that don't scream

One ancillary issue that was left over from last season was the rear end gears. The new 3.70s we set up early in the year had chewed themselves into oblivion in short order, which was a good excuse to break out the aluminum housing we had sitting on the shelf from the drag racing setup.

A new set of 3.70s went in, hopefully for good this time, and aluminum center offsets a bit of the weight gained in the new fuel cell.

Aero

The final piece of the puzzle involves aero and cooling. We had massive cooling issues on the tiny road course at TMS in early spring last year, making the prospect of running a 3 mile course in Austin in August an uphill proposition (turn 1 puns).

step 1: direct the air to the radiator..with aluminum instead of posterboard

Since we gutted the front bumper and grill area and never put anything to direct the air in there, we're operating on the assumption that turbulence is robbing us of a lot of cooling efficiency. Block off plates on each side, along with a pan top and bottom will help control the flow at speed.

The second half of this equation is converting our single pass Northern aluminum radiator into a triple with a little creativity, some scrap aluminum, and a TIG. There's also room for another inch or so of width and a bit more height should we need to add more capacity to get the results we're looking for.

The final piece of the puzzle is a little front aero to work with the rear spoiler. To put it plainly, there's just not a good way to do a splitter/air dam/etc. on these cars in my mind. The smart thing to do would be to find a stock Z28 setup, mount it up and run, but I've never cared for them.

I think this setup will be both within our metal fab skillset and fit the look of the car, along with helping the nasty front aero profile a bit.

We're hoping to get the brakes finished up and get to a track in the not too distant future. Motorsport Ranch in Cresson offers a good stepping stone, and I have a little familiarity with it in the Z, so it seems like the ideal place to start. Onward and upward.

SSLance · #5 04-14-2016, 05:39 AM

Great update Dustin! Looks like you have been busy this off season. You will appreciate that seat being lower for sure, it was worth all the work it took. My Recaros seats are 2" lower than the ones they replaced, not only does my helmet not bang off the roof anymore, but I'm certain it lowered my CG a bit as well.

Looks like the rest of your mods are well designed, can't wait to hear how they work out on the track.

silver63c10 · #6 04-15-2016, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SSLance

Looks like the rest of your mods are well designed, can't wait to hear how they work out on the track.

Thanks, Lance. I would have loved to get the seat even lower, but the floor mods and giant cowl pretty much I'm excited to test everything out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zspoiler

Have you looked at the IMSA /SCCA Camaro race cars of the 1977-81 era ,for ideas on the front spoiler? Some were pretty wild.

I've looked at a ton of them over the past few years while plotting this. I feel like the nose on these cars is huge to start with, so adding anything to the front profile just exaggerates that even more.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gscherer78ta

Hey Dustin, do you have any pictures of your seat mounts?

Hey Greg - saw your email, sorry I haven't had a chance to reply.

I don't have a pic of the finished mount, but here's one of it in progress.

This is a perimeter frame that runs around it, and we used some cold rolled flat stock to make legs that run down to the holes from the previous seats in the floor. Our cars are so short inside any off the shelf brackets are going to be tough.

Quote:

Originally Posted by glassman

good luck at COTA this year! You and car car should do well....nicely prepped.

Thanks! If it doesn't do well it won't be for lack of effort, at least

silver63c10 · #7 05-18-2016, 08:08 PM

Back to it.

So, it's been an interesting month or so. The car has taken every opportunity to remind us who is boss (hint: it's not us), but last weekend we got back to it on the autocross course.

We had registered for an event with the car on the 7th, and thought everything was in place. New brakes were all in, alignment checked out, and corner weights set.

A trip down the road to bed the brakes quickly revealed that all was not well, and we soon discovered that our new front master cylinder (purchased last summer, based on our old calipers) wasn't jiving with our new setup, which has 1" less piston area in the caliper. This translated to a frightening lack of braking power.

So we went from "Let's get it loaded tonight" to..this.

Well, the event registration was done, and after a strange series of events I still can't fathom, we ended up with the chance to run my mom's 2016 SS that Saturday.

When you borrow mom's car, you run lots of tape and a WIDE line

Absolutely blown away by this car. Even on stock Goodyear F1s, it was a blast to drive. We weren't able to fully defeat the traction and stability controls which led to some frustration, but overall it is one mean machine. Those CAM-C guys are definitely smarter than us..

PROTIP: Running a horizontal strip of tape at the top lets you pull it off in one piece

Converting from Digital back to Analog

Back to the red Spawn.. The new 7/8" master cylinder came in, and we were able to get the brakes bled and bedded in time to hit last weekend's Texas SCCA event.

I guess you could say the..pressure..was on

With the new master, my scrawny self can hit 1000+ psi consistently, with peaks over 1300 - much happier.

All that was left was to hit the track and see how it worked. After 3 runs to convert myself back over after multiple events in the newly tuned Z and the 2016, I finally settled back in.

Adjustments to the new double adjustable QA1s along with brake bias changes were made every run, and by the 4th things were starting to feel like home again. True to form from last year, we still proved to have an appetite for cones...

Jon's 'F-150' is actually the same LS-swapped Nova as Feras'

Including one each on two runs that would have taken the class for the day. Almost worth it for that close of a margin, but I could have stood for it to be reversed

All in all, a very good day, and we are super pumped for this weekend's adventure..

2016 Texas CAM Challenge

Been looking forward to this since it was announced, and relieved and excited that we're going to make it. Can't wait to battle it out for two days with a great group of people and cars!

Zspoiler · #8 04-14-2016, 08:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silver63c10