Rozelle Camaro USCA Buildup

[BigJoe]

very cool JCG can build a hell of a car. I came from riding bikes too, sadly my projects aren't track worthy yet but working on it.

[Panteracer]

Jake
Remember seeing you run at
the Laguna event this year. You were
Spinning it hard. I figured you would
qualify for Optima with your skills

Thanks for the write up and maybe we
will see you at Thunderhill in February

Love the 69 Camaro's but don't tell my Mopar buddies

Panteracer

[Cris@JCG]

Jake- from me & the crew @ JCG.. Thank you for allowing us to build you a very fast 69 Camaro! Seat time will in this car will only amaze people of of your driving abilities.. As Danny Popp stated in a conversation we had this week.. He most definitely has the " Cowboy" part down in his driving!

Roy- Jake is lucky to have such great support from a father like you! It reminds of the relationship I had with my dad.. Looking forward to the other project we will be working on soon!

[89 RS]

Good stuff, definitely worth sharing!

[JakeR]

Thanks again for all the positive feedback guys!

Picking up where I last left off….

Test #1 with the new suspension, wheels, tires, and brakes went incredibly well. The JCG crew have done their fair share of first gen camaros with DSE suspension and have considerable development on the Blu Balz ‘68. Utilizing this wealth of knowledge our car was pretty set up right off the bat, which was good because USCA Laguna Seca was less than a month from this first shakedown.

We tested at the Camarillo airport where you will see a lot of the California USCA crew practicing and that weekend I also met Danny Popp who gave me a few pointers. He also confirmed that I wasn’t a half bad driver. Phew!







While the test went well what became painfully apparent was what the car was lacking most, motor. While the small block in the car made ample power, (540 HP/505 Lb/Ft) it was tired and was blowing smoke after thoroughly wringing its neck all weekend. It was obvious that an upgrade was going to be needed to get us through the season. With two weeks before our first event, USCA Laguna Seca, the decision was made to rip out the small block and replace it with a GM performance parts LS7.



With input from Mr. Stielow, Cris decided to mount the stock Z06 dry sump tank from GMPP in between the radiator and the motor, very similar to a new Z/28. To do so the radiator had to move forward a little over an inch requiring modification to the core support. While this caused a little more work, it seemed to be the best option with our impending deadline and allowed us to keep our functional RS front end.



We also chose to mount the computer on the passenger fender well for ease of access until we got the car sorted.







JCG fabbed up a new fuel tank, fitted with Vaporworks goodies, and air intake.





and just like that it was time for Laguna Seca! Cris finished the swap the night before the deadline and we picked it up on our way to Monterey the next morning, I can’t say enough about how the JCG crew has been able to crank out our projects under a time crunch.



Also, photo credit goes to Casey C. and Cris from JCG for most of the pics in this batch, thanks guys!

[JakeR]

With the first major batch of changes for the year complete, we now arrive at the car’s first event, USCA Laguna Seca. With such a crazy deadline the car had almost no break in miles when we picked it up from JCG while on the way to the event. I drove it for approximately 100 miles of the journey to get a feel for the new setup before pulling off the freeway and loading it in the trailer my dad was towing.

My dad was smiling on the inside, but we were all pretty nervous about how the car would perform.


The car performed flawless all weekend aside from the minor issues like a couple minor leaks that popped up due to constant 7000 rpm abuse. Every little issue we had was quickly handled by my dad or Tony from Wilwood who both worked their butts off to get us the result we did.



\





The road rally had some pretty incredible views:


At the end of the event Mike Maier walked away with the win, followed by Danny Popp, and then yours truly in third, with there being hardly a gap between the three of us. To be competitive in a car with no previous testing against those two drivers was an honor and exceeded all expectations we had going into the event. Looking at the scores if we had taken the time to get our reverse lights working we might have even left with the win! No complaints for the first event though.



That weekend was extra special for us because my grandfather was also able to join us for the trip and got to watch me drive on track for the first time.

After Laguna Seca we drove the car at every event possible, racking up wins at Goodguys Del Mar, the Pomona Street Machine Nationals, and more. Meanwhile, the car was getting a ton of street miles as well, including 600 miles of highway driving to and from the event during the weekend of the Goodguys Del Mar Nationals alone. With multiple track days and autocrosses per month, by the time USCA Fontana rolled around, we were ready. Throughout this time period while we focused on setup we also made some changes such as adding 4 point Schroth harnesses and Recaro seats which are some of my favorite additions to the car.



USCA Fontana turned out to be one of the most fun weekends of my life, taking the win in the GT3K class after a great battle with friend and competitor Jordan Priestley from JDP. Leading up to the event we had dialed in our set up and I had run multiple events at the track in the camaro and my daily driver Mustang which allowed us to set the fastest lap of the day for our class in only our second session on the road course.

The car performed flawless all weekend and my dad, myself, and the JCG crew couldn’t have been happier.








For more coverage of the event and some great shots of the car check out the article Chevy Hardcore did on the car, which was shot while the event was still being wrapped up!

http://www.chevyhardcore.com/feature...et-car-camaro/






Following this event is when we tore the car apart one last time to get it ready for SEMA and OUSCI. That should all be covered in my next one or two posts!

[glassman]

Nice write up Jake! Keep'um coming.....

Hard to believe that event at Laguna was a year ago, i went in the Camaro, but it wasn't ready for the event....

[Vince@Meanstreets]

great stuff Jake,

One stupid question, with the engine set back what radiator hoses did you use?

Thanks and hope to see you at the track.

[JakeR]

Hi Vince,
The motor is still in the original DSE location, the radiator was just pushed forward a bit to make room for the dry sump tank.
The hoses are a custom mix that JCG made for our application, however with how little the radiator was actually moved it had little to no affect on what hoses we ran.

[Beach Cruiser]

The first picture in your thread, the car is wearing different paint. It also looks like you have louvers in the hood? Any details you can share? Is it a factory steel hood or glass? Congrats on all the success!