ATS 50/50 Camaro

[Rybar]

Tyler you Bastage!!! I was freaking out reading the thread and then finally realized the truth!! Don't ever do this again otherwise you'll get a couple of smacks!!

On a good note, Sooooooooo Glad 50/50 is getting back on track! It was one of my inspirations for sure!

Sweet deal bud, can't wait to crack a beer with you next time in Vegas!

[lil427z]

Originally Posted by Rybar

Tyler you Bastage!!! I was freaking out reading the thread and then finally relaized the truth!! Don't ever do this again otherwise you'll get a couple of smacks!!

On a good note, Sooooooooo Glad 50/50 is getting back on track! It was one of my inspirations for sure!

Sweet deal bud, can't wait to crack a beer with you next time in Vegas!

couple of smacks hell lets beat him. rick k:

[[email protected]]

lol how funny.

[Teetoe_Jones]

Alrighty Boys and Girls. The death threats have started to become less frequent over the weekend, and I feel I can now reward your understanding of my twisted humor with a short story and a ton of pics.

Those who are not aware of my (never-ending-never-finished) Project 50/50 Camaro- here is the cliff notes:

Sept 1999- Car is sent to Wayne Due's Chassis shop in Maryland, WA for a complete tube chassis build based on a C5 corvette.
Mar 2002- chassis is completed and sent to Tustin, CA for carbon Fiber body kit prototyping.
April 2003- car is rescued from crooked body kit shop and delivered to secondary garage for completion of body molds.
Feb 2004- Car is again rescued from 2nd crooked body kit garage and trailed home. All bare steel is covered in rust, vehicle condition is poor.
Feb 2004-October 2008- Car sits in garage under car cover. I try to forget about all the money & time lost on project and wince every time people bring up my failed car on the internet.
Nov 2008- car is trailer to Ironworks in Bakersfield for some modifications to the sheetmetal and rollcage.

So there is the VERY condensed version. It could go on and on for almost 4 pages, some good humored times, some slit your wrist times, some kill everyone within a 3 mile radius times.

Rodger is one of the few people I trust for my personal projects. We met in 2006 and I just knew that this man had talent and determination. Seeing the work come out of his shop for the past 2 years and the numerous 2 hour phone calls we've had discussing our ideas, Rodger suggested I let him have a crack at the car.

He 'stole' it from my storage space during the week of the 08 SEMA show and took it back to Bakersfield. When it arrived the roll cage was promptly cut out of the vehicle. I'll show you why in a few posts....

Here is the car as it sat under the car cover for the past 4 years. All the brown is surface rust from being outside near the ocean for over a year.

Engine setback and firewall:


Rear transaxle cover, rear main roll cage hoop and floor:


Engine compartment with front down bars that don't clear the tires under full lock:


So it needs a slight re do in a few spots. No big deal. More to follow....

Tyler

[Teetoe_Jones]

The roll cage. It was built to standards not completely approved by any racing sanctioning body. One of the reasons for not passing tech would be this little gem:



Yes. That is indeed an entire Sharpie marker stuffed into the non-notched-grand-canyon-sized gap of the tube joint. That is just one of many slight blunders of fabrication that went into my $14K chassis and roll cage.
Other fun facts include:

Inner frame too narrow to fit an actual exhaust system.
Front down bars hit both front tires when turning.
Frame rails made of 2x4 and 3x3 .120 wall metal (tank chassis)
Front A pillar down tubes leave under 10 inches of room for 3 pedals
Large gaps in joints of roll cage
Sheetmetal doubled up in most places for strength (tank floor)
Chassis could be built lighter and stronger with even lower ride height.

Here are more cool pics from the cage:

Don't worry about the MIG wire, it will add strength over time.


What?!? Seriously? Come the 'F' on....


How does this get the thumbs up to be shipped to a client?



Frame pics next...

Tyler

[syborg tt]

Eak

[Teetoe_Jones]

Tank frame by Wayne. None of you can tell me that Wayne didn't build it strong enough. He used some serious wall thickness on the frame rails and added beef like it was going out of style. The car was a bit over weight for my standards, so it got put on a diet.

The 50/50 Camaro before it goes onto the frame table for its new chassis:



Here is the M1A1 Abrams C5 chassis:



It had to be a bitch to cut that thing out in one piece. I'm surprised they were able to do so. If anyone would like it, make me an offer.



Rodger and his crew have done a tube chassis once before and took some lessons from them to create this new tube frame. This is the rear. The front will be very similar. I think he shed 50% of the cars weight just by making a new frame for it.





Tyler

[Teetoe_Jones]

So here is the money shot for me. I've never had a chance to put the HRE 542R wheels on the car before as I never purchased any tires. I plan to race this car so I figured get some tires that will do me right on the road courses.

I picked up some Michelin road race slicks from a former LeMans C5R Corvette to fir the 18x12 and 18x9.5 HRE wheels. Rodger mocked them up on the frame table now that the car is on it. Rocker to ground is 6.5 inches. Roof height will be about 47.5 inches from the ground.







That is all as of Today. Progress will be updated as I get pics from Rodger.

Tyler

[DOOM]

Tyler
Please tell me that those welds were just tacks waiting ot be finished,and not the finished product $14.000.00!!!!!!
Mario

[RobG]

"Cut twice, measure once...that's my motto"

The sad thing is how many other cars are out there with that kind of build quality? Scary.

Looks like the car is finally in some competant hands Tyler. Good Luck with it.