Rozelle Camaro USCA Buildup

[67XR7]

Jake what took you out of the game during the vega OUSCI?

You had mentioned a weld broke on INSTAGRAM.

[Vince@Meanstreets]

Originally Posted by 67XR7

Jake what took you out of the game during the vega OUSCI?

You had mentioned a weld broke on INSTAGRAM.

can't get more critical than a panhard bar mount. just a guess

[Jr]

Bump.

Jake,
Is the entire car wrapped? How has the wrap held up to rock chip and other misc battle wounds?

Do you have any pics of the cage? I've checked your website and this build thread, but I can't find any pics.

Also, good job this weekend.

[JakeR]

Originally Posted by Jr

Bump.

Jake,
Is the entire car wrapped? How has the wrap held up to rock chip and other misc battle wounds?

Do you have any pics of the cage? I've checked your website and this build thread, but I can't find any pics.

Also, good job this weekend.

Yep the entire car is wrapped. It's held up really well to chips but I've been disappointed by how hard it is to clean. Cone marks and road course rubber usually rub right off paint but with the wrap I have to spend hours with a polishing pad to get off a lot of stuff. It still looks darn good though when clean.

I'll see if I can dig up some cage pics... It's a 4 point that JCG made us and is the exact same as the one in blu balz.

And thanks this weekend was a blast! For those of you on the fence about doing these USCA events I can't recommend them enough, and the pikes peak CO facility this past weekend was incredible.

[JakeR]

Originally Posted by Vince@MSperfab

can't get more critical than a panhard bar mount. just a guess

It wasn't. Just a LCA bracket. Pretty common issue for solid axle cars that articulate as much as ours and it was taken care of with some extra bracing.

[JakeR]

This is all I can find.

It ties into the rear frame rails and the harness bar comes out in seconds with a couple of pins which is nice for fitting more stuff back there.




The car is now on its way to Lingenfelter HQ in Michigan so I won't be able to get good pics for a while, sorry!

[Jr]

That pic works. Thanks

[Sonar Chief]

Jake ... it was really nice to meet you and your family this weekend. Watching you wheel that Camaro was something ... I had a blast at PPIR as did the competitors, and Congrats on the win! Hopefully I'll join the novice group next year!!!!!

[JakeR]

Wow, long time no update! Time to get this thread back up to date. To be competitive in the USCA we are constantly making the car better otherwise we would quickly fall behind so there's a lot to cover over the next few posts.

The next big change after my last update was the motor. We started running USCA events with a GM crate LS7. It held up well and was very easy to drive fast but when you’re going up against guys like Mike Maier who are great drivers and have 700 hp, it is time to step up your game!

Lingenfelter Performance was at all the USCA events in 2015 and when we talked to them about a solution to our “problem” this is what they came up with:





Its an LS7 block with a full forged rotating assembly so I can spin it nice and high in the RPM range like I wanted. It’s still 427ci displacement, naturally aspirated, and is setup to run on the 91 octane premium gasoline we have out here in California. Being naturally aspirated, it is super fun to drive and helps the reliability while keeping underhood temperatures under control.

The numbers:


In the words of the guys at Lingenfelter “That should make driving fun.” Ya if you find 65+ mph burnouts with ease fun, this is definitely fun!

Even though it sounds nasty my dad is very particular about all our cars being very streetable. No lightweight clutches or crazy cams. Even with those numbers the car idles through LA traffic (which I do too often) like a champ and I wouldn’t hesitate to drive it anywhere.

And of course it’s more than enough power for me to have fun killing tires:



We did some different underhood stuff on the install that I thought was cool that I’ll cover in my next post. If you have any questions or want specific pictures let me know, I’m attempting to keep this thread more current so let me know what you want to see and I will do my best!

[JakeR]

Motor install pics!

Since we had the car apart anyways we decided to make some changes while the motor was out. The more driving I do the more particular I get about where the weight is at in our car. Previously our dry sump tank was located between the motor and radiator. For packaging and ease of access it was nice but it wasn’t where I liked it from a weight bias standpoint so back it went.

Cris and the JCG crew ordered a new, shorter dry sump tank and placed it along the firewall above the frame on the passenger side. Once it was as far back as possible they cut the tank apart and added volume to it so that our system holds a bit over 11 quarts of oil total. Thats a lot of weight!
Better pics of the completed tank at the end of this post.

Before:



After:



Why not put it farther back behind the fender like Mr. Stielow did? For us ease of access was too important to put it back there. This car gets flogged hard and we want everything easy to access and take in and out. Also, although his tank is likely 6” farther back so better for weight distribution it is also off to the very outside of the vehicle. Typically you want all the weight towards the center so by my logic it wasn’t worth the extra work for our car.

We also wanted to get the radiator back and lower. Ideally we would have laid it so the top went forward relative to the bottom and ducted air through the radiator then out the hood. However, under the time constraint before the next event and fearing messing up the classic good looks of the car we laid it the opposite way and moved it as far back as possible. JCG then made good ducting and clean closeout panels to make it look clean and like it belonged.



Cris then had the idea of using a C6 K&N air intake tube to draw air from on the other side of the radiator as this is how the modern vettes are set-up to draw cool air. Rumor has it the K&N C6 air intake tube makes pretty incredible power so in it went, some modification required. A little more aluminum ducting and it draws cool air separate from the heat of the engine now.









And as it looks now complete. Way cleaner than before and everything is still super easy to work on. Also this last pic is the best shot of how much volume was added to the dry sump tank.


After this install the car immediately went to Pikes Peak International Raceway for the USCA event for trial by fire of the Lingenfelter engine and all the work done by JCG. With 7000+rpm shifts and close to 700 hp being delivered all weekend long everything was definitely put to the test!



Luckily we had zero issues which allowed us to take the class win in every event and the overall GTV class win. Super fun weekend and a huge relief once we realized everything survived. Definitely a testament to the team that works on this car and the parts used.

More updates on their way! Let me know if there’s anything you want to see...