1985 Monte Carlo SS known as Barney

[GregWeld]

My question would be --- WHY didn't you take the time and shorten it (the bolt) THIS TIME...

[SSLance]

Well, I was ten minutes away from rolling the car off the lift when I found that...and it's another 2-3 hours to remove and replace the trans one more time not counting the time to shorten the bolt.

Trust me, I took a week off to think about it...but decided I'd give the locktite a shot. It's not catastrophic if it comes loose again so there's no real risk and there's a chance (albeit it a small one) that it won't come loose again.

There's also a chance that once I shorten the bolt, the Tee block will too short screwing up the geometry of the clutch fork causing me a whole 'nuther set of problems...

[67goatman455]

Dang! car looked real good in the videos! I keep forgetting your only a few hours north of me, i can't believe how many cool cars it looked like were at the event.

In your videos aimed at the rear suspension it looks like your really close to bottoming out the shock.... or am i not looking at it right?

[SSLance]

Thanks Scott. It was cool to watch all of the Muscle cars going at it at the Invitational. Hopefully that event will only get better in years to come.

That black spring cup that holds the bottom of the spring is probably a bit over an inch deep and the bottom of the shaft is at the bottom of it. There is a bump stop on the shaft and I regularly check it to see if the shock body has bottomed that bump stop out and while it does get close, it never has pushed it all the way down. It does push it down into the spring cup to make it appear as if it's bottoming out though for sure.

With the recent changes we've made to the car up to and including putting the 200# springs back in the rear and lowering the rear stance just a bit, watching those bump stops is a great tool to make sure we have enough ride height in the car to keep it from bottoming out. I've had the rear hitting the bump stops before and it is NOT fun, nor is it fast that way.

You should come watch us race in Topeka in October, we are doing a two day event Oct 18-19th in the large lot of the South end of the infield at Heartland Park Topeka. You never know, I might have room for a ride along even if you show up.

[SSLance]

So, the 2014 racing season is over for me. As I sit and watch updates from all of my friends heading to Vegas for SEMA and OUSCI I'm reflecting on this last season and making plans for next year. This year exceeded my expectations big time, but my plans for next year are even greater.

The event this past Sunday was great, I was able to hold off the rest in my class and take a win in CAM. The car just loved that particular course and all of the learning I did over the year as a driver helped as well. Here are some pictures taken of Barney on the course at Event 13 by David Peterlin of Peterlin Photography.



and no, I did NOT hit that cone.



Took 4 first timers for rides...they all loved it.







Even let a fellow competitor run a heat in my car to measure myself up against him.






Stay tuned for the new plans for the off season. Updating safety equipment is job one, updating the rear axle bearings is another...and we'll have to see how much is left over in the kitty after that to see if there are to be any other upgrades made.

[glassman]

Lance, besides autox, are you planning on tracking it at all?

Congrats on a successful season

[waynieZ]

Congratulation's Lance, and here's to even more success next year!

[instro84]

nice work lance, loud forward to seeing updates.

[Ron in SoCal]

Originally Posted by waynieZ

Congratulation's Lance, and here's to even more success next year!

Here, here

or is it "hear, hear"?

[SSLance]

Originally Posted by glassman

Lance, besides autox, are you planning on tracking it at all?

Congrats on a successful season

Thanks! I plan to track it some at the Optima events I hit next year.

Originally Posted by waynieZ

Congratulation's Lance, and here's to even more success next year!

Thanks I can't wait...Is it March yet?

Originally Posted by instro84

nice work lance, loud forward to seeing updates.

Thank you. I'm looking forward to getting started on them.

Originally Posted by Ron in SoCal

Here, here

or is it "hear, hear"?

Either one works for me...