Gen 1 Camaro/ASA Stock Car Build

Rears. 

That gets me caught up with documentation I believe. Plenty left to do but it seems a bit less intense with a few major items ticked off the list. April Summit Point is not in the cards I'm afraid but I am shooting for May at VIR now. 

In reply to jh36 :

That thing just looks mean!

I know you have plenty of hood clearance, but I feel like it needs a hood bulge/cowl induction just to tie the look together?

Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to jh36 :

That thing just looks mean!

I know you have plenty of hood clearance, but I feel like it needs a hood bulge/cowl induction just to tie the look together?

I know what you're saying and have had the same thoughts...especially with the addition of the flares.  I could have ordered a yenko style hood for the same money but didn't. Swing and miss. 

In addition to looks, I think the added contours would reduce flex at speed. There are some aftermarket solutions, or I could fab something up. I also will need some vents which will add to the curb appeal I think. 
 

Metal & fiberglass expand and contract at different rates. I would be cautious using the metal flares glassed to the body. Very likely to get ghosting in the paint as a minimum, and cracking quite possible where the metal & glass meet as you flex the front section installing/removing it from the car repeatedly.

NOT A TA said:

Metal & fiberglass expand and contract at different rates. I would be cautious using the metal flares glassed to the body. Very likely to get ghosting in the paint as a minimum, and cracking quite possible where the metal & glass meet as you flex the front section installing/removing it from the car repeatedly.

I hear you...and I appreciate your advice. It may have some issues, and I will report back over time. A couple of things that I think are applicable:

1-I am wrapping the car with vinyl. Hopefully that flexibility factor is in my favor. 
2-I sort of doubt I'll go more than a couple of years without some sort of repair, so if needed, I can mulligan. At least, history would say that is true. 
3- it is a race car

I don't want it to suck, but this will be a wheel to wheel race car. If I have ghosting or hairline cracks, it will still be the best race car I've ever had!  If it really looks awful, I can make fiberglass versions using these as molds I guess. 

Also slightly embarrassing but true, I really want to get this on track and see what other issues I have. I have about 4 weeks to finish up and a lot to do. 

Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to jh36 :

That thing just looks mean!

I know you have plenty of hood clearance, but I feel like it needs a hood bulge/cowl induction just to tie the look together?

On this point, here are some ideas. I'd like to get some opinions and maybe more options. 
From VFN, where I got my body:

Also from vin:

From Summit, and other places, things like this:

I would imagine none  help aero, but I imagine they would help stiffen the hood and look better than a flat panel. 
Thoughts?

Dang this thing is pretty cool, I have an idea now if I ever rebody mine 

In reply to jh36 :

Of those hoods, the Sunoco cowl-induction hood is closed to what I imagined, but I wonder if it's height would obscure your view on right-handers?

Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to jh36 :

Of those hoods, the Sunoco cowl-induction hood is closed to what I imagined, but I wonder if it's height would obscure your view on right-handers?

They make 2" rise version which I think would be ok. I also had a weird thought of maybe blocking off a section and dumping the air into the cockpit rather than the engine compartment. Sort of a u-shaped trunk line. I think you and I may have bounced that idea around in the aero section a while back. 

Anyone make a L88 style hood for these??

In reply to jh36 :

I agree with both points. It sounds like you're heading down the right path to me. 

When I was building my car I really thought I wanted an L88 hood (I used to have one on the car).  For me, I wound up with a 1.5" cowl hood (hard to find) because I sit so low in the car, anything bigger starts becoming a sight line issue.  I know they aren't as cool, but if you don't need room for an air cleaner, I'd stick with a flat hood.

Gimp (Forum Supporter) said:

When I was building my car I really thought I wanted an L88 hood (I used to have one on the car).  For me, I wound up with a 1.5" cowl hood (hard to find) because I sit so low in the car, anything bigger starts becoming a sight line issue.  I know they aren't as cool, but if you don't need room for an air cleaner, I'd stick with a flat hood.

Looks like VFN makes scoops to attach to the current flat hood...so, sort of best of all worlds.  I don't have to sell or return what I have, and they aren't too pricey.

They do a 2" rise cowl induction, and the Yenko is 2" rise also.  

I always have liked these on C2's.  It has a lot of surface area to tighten up also.  Blue hood and black scoop/bulge might look good.

I really like the flat hood actually, I think it's sleek.

If it were my car, I'd leave it flat, do the yenko style if I needed more clearance, and only put a cowl hood on it if I really, really needed it. But that's just me.

cmcgregor (Forum Supporter) said:

I really like the flat hood actually, I think it's sleek.

If it were my car, I'd leave it flat, do the yenko style if I needed more clearance, and only put a cowl hood on it if I really, really needed it. But that's just me.

I appreciate the feedback.  Well, with time being what it is, I am going to run the stock flat hood at the first event or two at least....lead times on the parts are 3 months.  I am going to put some ribs across the underside to stiffen it.  I do like the look of a contour on the hood though.  

ctk339 said:

Dang this thing is pretty cool, I have an idea now if I ever rebody mine 

I checked out your project...and I am now thinking now of following in YOUR steps with my second chassis.  That thing is awesome.

With just a few random hours to put in the shop between family time, spontaneous business and yard work, I got a bit more done on the front clip framework, adding a couple of notched pieces and some side attachments. 

Lots of final welding to be done but the theory seems be holding water. 

Next on the docket…AIR IN.

Getting the air into the radiator and the intake needs to be determined now.  I can see three options available.

Here is a rough sketch of how the original NASCAR body worked.

The nose hung out pretty far and allowed for a nice angle for the box to gather up air.  The box had two sections, one for the radiator on the bottom,  one for the intake on top, simply split with sheet metal.

All of the following options are compromised in regards to the x-axis.  The nose is considerably shorter, so the angle of the box is much steeper. 

OPTION 1

There is room to pick up air under the air dam and above the splitter.  Roughly, I think I will have about 2” to play with.  To equal the area of the original intake, I will need to increase the width, making the sides of the airbox angle in.

OPTION 2

The original car had openings for oil coolers and such under the front bumper.  This would require me to split the box down the middle into two sections, because there are two distinct cutout opportunities.

OPTION 3

The original grill location would be a fairly flat angle on the top with a severe angle going to the bottom of the radiator area.

In reply to jh36 :

I like options 1 & 2, but I have no real clue how they'd function. I know creating a low-pressure area somewhere behind the radiator is also important to get good airflow though, so you may need some vents behind the front wheels to help extract the hot air?

Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to jh36 :

I like options 1 & 2, but I have no real clue how they'd function. I know creating a low-pressure area somewhere behind the radiator is also important to get good airflow though, so you may need some vents behind the front wheels to help extract the hot air?

Yep...and TracSpec Motorsports has a set of Gen1 Camaro hood vents that are on the purchase list!  I'm thinking these will do at least a couple of good things...cool and keep the lift pressure on the ultra light FG hood more under control.  I will add radiator efficiency to that list.  I used their vents on my 944 and they did some surprisingly good things for sticking the front end on fast entry.

Option 1  is good on at least two counts.

1-It has no penetrations on the front, so maybe the strongest.  (On the other hand, it is a flat front so maybe having air come in through an opening there would be an advantage?)  

2-It seems that gathering the air from the top of the splitter would be efficient.  

On the negative side, the angle is steep, so I'm not sure if that creates a big problems with eddies or flow.

Option 2 seems like the best angle of attack, but the penetrations on the front are split in two, making the duct work pretty complicated, and maybe present problems with clean air flow.

I may run this by a couple of engineers at work and see what they have to say also.  I've messed around with airflow in spray booths and dust collector systems enough to know that I have a lot to learn!!