I had to...

[rustomatic]

My sickness was in gestation for some time. After driving the (1992) Corvette for a season or so, in a number of environments, I decided I really liked the chassis, brakes, steering, etc. All the other crap had to go. I added 13 inches to the length, with a new 2x3 frame in the middle, along with a 2011 5.3 LS and its 6-speed auto (cuz shifting has gotten old, along with me) . . .

Oh, and the engine's about a foot back from normal now. Seating will be interesting. I may become my own back-seat driver.

Said ill-handling chassis ruled autocross for like a couple of decades--they also make pretty good track cars, especially with a bit of extra wheelbase (see C5 improvements not related to rear trans mount). On the dorkiest level, they also ride pretty nicely . . .

No more freaking rod ends!

We can also blame Belgian beer or Black Velvet, but really, law school drove me to this cluster . . .

[Flash68]

I had a C4.... for 6 months.... what a POS that was.

[DBasher]

Originally Posted by Flash68

I had a CAMARO.... for 6 months.... what a POS that was.

Fixed it for ya, HEY-O!

I'm sure the lil Falvette will turn out great. If not at least you'll have learned what works or doesn't and know how to fix it..... looks to me like you're just honing your skills for when the law school thing doesn't work out.

[DBasher]

Just because, good times.

[rustomatic]

Sweet pics, Dan--the black & white is kind of romantic! I may have to steal them for other purposes.

What's funny is that it looks like the car's almost not corner-diving in those pictures. So much of my handling-based fury came from those stupid, weak 2-inch leaf springs . . .

One of the things that really hit me with the C4 was its balance in corners. The chassis seemed to load evenly (without any driver effort) when being whipped through turns, which I made sure to do well ahead of my choice to rip things apart. Necessarily, GM engineers had a lot more to work with than I (in brains and parts), so I figured that using what they came up with would be a bit better than anything I'd produce on my own (or worse yet, bolt on) in 20 years.

I'll look forward to seeing yours develop in a more normal way, maybe . . .

[DBasher]

Since you didn't ask....here is the rest of the sequence from that part of the course, I have more on my home computer. I know I've looked at and compared the photos between your car and Craig's....it actually paid off being too lazy to find another spot to shoot from.

Bummer you couldn't stick around for the color day, Sieg REALLY tuned me up for Sunday.

[craig510]

Danger thread hijack in progress!

I don't remember seeing those picks of my car on the autox. I think you posted a sequence of the speed stop when my old UCAs were bending. I was not really going for it on the autox because I still wanted to finish the event and my alignment was all screwed up, but it would be interesting to see the difference 40# of rear spring rate would make. You can see how Paul's car is dumped over on the rear tire unloading the inside front and over working the outside. On the medium/low grip skid pad, my bet is the car was understeering. If you take that same setup out to a high grip concrete it will initially understeer, then start to oversteer as the inside rear unloads, makes the car a real handfull.

I am currently finishing up the design work for a Falcon MOD2 rocker arm suspension and already bought my JRi's so I will be able to dial it in for next season.

[DBasher]

Well first of all, how's the painting comin along?

I'm up, er maybe downloading pics now...I'll start of with these.

[DBasher]

[DBasher]

Few more, just because.