Newbie Here!!

[Rod P]

it was a good season

[Rod P]

I have to share an awesome render from Chris Hickman of my car Plain Jane (1sickT8), who I was lucky enough to meet in Scottsdale AZ, I will just say he was my lucky charm ballast and together we turned in the fastest time of the weekend for the win!! you Rock Chris.....look him up at Chris Hickman Art Werks

[Rod P]

the upper shock mount and adjuster of the new Ridetech shocks, super easy to adjust and I don't have to jack the car up and crawl under it to change setting and fits perfectly thru the Upper Hotchkis shock brace, and the adjustment range of these shocks is awesome





Added some front spoiler supports heres the first two, just trying decide the direction for the next two

[Rod P]

I put the back Ridetech shocks on Monday and and set them as the instructions said and it was stiff, Tuesday I went full soft and it was bouncy, Wednesday I went up to click 5 and it rides well doesn't corner like i wanted, Thursday I only added 3 clicks, on setting 8 and the car feels good in and out of corners, and still rides well....so today I added the front Ridetech shocks to the mix!

so time to open the boxes


Look at these babies, there awesome looking so I gave you some close up shots, bearing lower T bracket, ride tech uses a swivel bushing upper mount instead of a rubber bushing that shocks have that create some bind in the suspension, and the guys over at ridetech did a excellent job of setting up my shocks to work with the Hotchkis components I'm running right now.




once you have everything apart reinstalling the new shock is fairly simple, because the body of the shock is a large diameter shock has to be installed with the spring the same time as opposed to a stock style shock that can be inserted in the bottom of the control arm




first you slip the shock into the spring


lifting both the shock in the spring he carefully slide them into place



position the shock in the spring and it's resting place and rotate the shock so T-bar lines up with the mounting holes


once in place you lift up this spring allowing you to place the bolts in the T-bar


after the bottom bolts are in place and tightened, I use a Jack to lift the arm upwards allowing me to bolt the upper part of the shock into place


that was it one side done now on to the next

[Rod P]

to be ready for the season, I tested the car and registered in and autocross driving school with a few friends a tune up for me and the car (Plain Jane)



good fun



and silly friends

[Rod P]

my season warm up didn't go as well as I wanted, I will just say the tires I had for this event... sucked..... I have run the Falken rt615k for a year and have never had a problem, I won some tires at an event and since they where new (but not Falkens) I figured how bad could they be (since this company was promoting them as a autocross tire just a year ago) the car was so loose and out of control it was scary and I was in 30th spot, so Sunday before the event Big O tires were mounting 2 front different tires for me in an attempt to save my weekend race, and I went back to the track and the car was better but not good but I dropped a second on my time and moved up 10 spots to 20, lesson learn "That Company will not fool me again"

[Rod P]

Last week at the last minute I decide to run the So Cal Challenge events, so I woke up saturday morning at 2:00am drove 550 miles to the event rolled in at 8:15 am and tech had just started at 8:00, so I was unloading the car during Tech, My girl friend also raced the day, I finished top 4, just beaten by Ridetechs 33, Brett Cambells Fab 53 Roadster Camaro, and Dale's Sunbeam Tiger





great event Thanks to Rob, Black ink media, the sponsors, TCI, comp cams, Ridetech and the rest!

it was a good start of the season!

[Rod P]

Here,s the front wheel update.....width change from 17x8 to 17x9.5 and now the Camaro runs 275-40-17 all four corners you can see there still just inside the fenderwells

[Rod P]

Like I said another Great weekend! and a smooth start to the new Goodguys race season, I had a few updates to the car for the new season, the biggest change is the front wheels width, I stepped up to a 9.5" wheel and a 275-40-17 tire, I rolled the fender wells a little. During the first run the turn-in was almost to great, the car was turning so quick it made the rear end a little loose, so I added a little toe in and that smoothed it out some, with the wider front tires the steering input from me had to be smoother so the car was less jerky....after my shake down run the adjustments worked and I ran faster,




It was a weekend battle with a freind of mine from Southern California Brett Cambell from the Fab53.com shop it was a good day saturday and and afterwards we went to Rob MacGregor's motor home for a corn toss game and some beers



Brett was also going faster all weekend and his final run sealed it I couldnt get Jane to get there without one more run, I ran only 5 runs all weekend, 1 less than everyone else because they moved me inside the show grounds next to the Pros and they said because I was moved I lost that turn in the line-up

heres a pic of Brett on his winning run


I gave it one last run and the timing was over at 12:00 sunday and I finished in second



Time to pack it up and head to Del Mar Goodguys

[GregWeld]

Do you do autographs??