Well, i pulled the trigger and put a deposit down. Go to pick it up Thursday night.
I started a build thread of sorts,
My guess is the learning curve will really start Friday when i can get it into the shop.
I appreciate your willingness to help guys!
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
I'm sprinting over now!
I'm going to go back to the brake master topic.
At the last test, I started getting used to the pressure required at the end of straights to slow the car. It takes at least twice the pressure that I'm used to in my Porsche, but I found a great advantage....trail braking can be much more consistent with this set up...it is very easy to apply light pressure, consistently.
VIR is up next with longer straights, faster gearing and more work needed on the brake pedal, but I'm very curious how this car will feel with left foot braking in the roller coaster and just before oak tree. My guess is, I will like it.
jh36 said:I'm going to go back to the brake master topic.
At the last test, I started getting used to the pressure required at the end of straights to slow the car. It takes at least twice the pressure that I'm used to in my Porsche, but I found a great advantage....trail braking can be much more consistent with this set up...it is very easy to apply light pressure, consistently.
VIR is up next with longer straights, faster gearing and more work needed on the brake pedal, but I'm very curious how this car will feel with left foot braking in the roller coaster and just before oak tree. My guess is, I will like it.
The instructor/coach in me likes what you're finding. It's easier to over modulate with low pedal effort. If it takes a great deal of pressure to make a small change, you're less likely to go further than you intended. As I mentioned once, there "must" be a reason that size M/C was installed.
In reply to HalfFast :
Jack, only DOUBLE the pedal effort? My e36 takes little to no effort; like just relaxing my leg weight on the pedal would be too much. But this GTA Camaro thing requires actual quad engagement to the extent I can feel my back getting pressed into the seat.
I think I'm getting used to the pedal effort too. And I noticed one other thing. If I get on the brakes a little too softly, the pads take a bit more time to come up to their optimal temp for that braking event. The car will slow down as the pads heat up and then suddenly they'll grab more as they get enough heat in them.
True, it's a little difficult to put foot pounds on it, but it is more than twice the pressure. Maybe x4. I'm looking carefully at pads this weekend as well.
Good day in the shop and a few hours of family time to boot.
Driveshaft is installed and trans fluid level checked.
Alignment double checked and good that happened. Somehow I was sporting about 1/2" of toe in up front. I put 1/8" of toe out and locked everything down tight. (With help from son James)
Trimmed up some fiberglass to mount window net hardware, firmly attached my shift boot and made a phone mount onto the cage to receive signal from my Racepak CL1....tested and operating. 
The last thing on my list was to put braces on the back window, but I decided to pass. With the vent holes cut, I feel safe and I like having a clear rear view. Not to mention, it would be more difficult to clean. I can always add them later.
Looks great, Jack!
BTW, I was looking through Politi's pics from the SP event. There's one of your car in T5 where it's clear you were using a lot more steering angle than normal. Also, notable, I thought you commented that you thought the body was rolling a lot but it looked pretty good to me. Just eyeballing, it looked like about an inch up on the inside and an inch down on the outside. I think mine is rolling more.
In reply to jimgood :
Good observation...I was plowing hard at 1 and 5. 10 felt dicey too...Toe was crap and pressures were off. Not much right going on in that session, so that makes sense! I'm looking forward to vir. I think I have the gearing for the longer straights too.
jh36 said:
As JG moves down the road with the GRM tubeframe project, we will all benefit from his investigations and discoveries.
Fair warning, Jack: UTCC is basically my last committed event with the Corvette, so immediately after that things start getting pretty real with the ASA car. Expect me in your face asking all manner of dumb questions whenever I'm not actually in my own car at VIR.
JG Pasterjak said:jh36 said:
As JG moves down the road with the GRM tubeframe project, we will all benefit from his investigations and discoveries.
Fair warning, Jack: UTCC is basically my last committed event with the Corvette, so immediately after that things start getting pretty real with the ASA car. Expect me in your face asking all manner of dumb questions whenever I'm not actually in my own car at VIR.
Darn straight! The questions you ask me now will pale in comparison to those I hit you with when you start digging deep into your tubeframe. Look forward to seeing you and the gang there. Look for a grm centric bus-bash-grill-fest post soon.
I mounted a hitch plate in my enclosed trailer for my winch. Now I can easily move the winch to the trailer of my choice, or directly onto my truck.
I cleaned the car up a bit and loaded her in the trailer.
Tonight I will prep the bus and pack tools and make a battery hold down.
Hyperfest was fun. It was a great event. I don't know the attendance numbers but it was the most people I've ever seen there. I'm glad it's doing well since it is a great way to introduce the public to road racing. I spoke to several enthusiastic future NASA racing members.
Hanging out with GRM staff ....also excellent. Good company, Aunt Millie's pizza...hard to go wrong there.
i gave rides in the GR86. More on that in another section.
I was focused on the guitar booth and 86 rides on Saturday so just used the Camaro for display purposes until Sunday. I prepped everything on Saturday, so just uncovered the car on Sunday morning and headed to grid at 8:15 and was met with a small stream of water coming out from under the car. It didn't take long to spot a small but steady stream coming from the top back corner...right under the head, passenger side. Game over.
I rolled back to the paddock and watched/helped Ed in Spec3 the rest of the day, did a slow pack and rolled home mid-afternoon.
Not the weekend I hoped for but that's the way it goes. I have a feeling this happened somehow around the same time the driveshaft came loose. When the car came off the rollback at Summit Point, some water came out but the radiator only took about two pints to get back to full so I didn't think much of it.
I spoke with GRM folks, paddock buddies and other LS racers. Seems like the obvious is true. Welding it might work but isn't the best. A new block is probably a good idea.
Other options are...unlimited. I could pop an LS3 and have all advantages that come with that. That would likely make the car quicker and also more dependable.
Weirdly, because I live in the middle of nowhere, I have a race shop 5 minutes from me that specializes in LS engines and those guys love the Camaro. I went by yesterday and Marty gave this advise. "You have to pull the engine regardless, so pull it, bring it here and.let me try and weld it. If that doesn't work, I have a block and we can build it up if you want."
I leave for faraway lands Thursday and have night meetings this week so it's a long shot to get this done for a couple of weeks. But that's where we stand.
an image from a more peaceful time:
It was great to meet you.
That really sucks about the engine. Hopefully its its something simple
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
Great to meet you too...that was fun. I'm glad you got to crawl around 36 a bit. Jim and I are here for you!! (but it seems that you have more competent support on hand already)
I hate this happened, Jack. I guess on the bright side, a build day is in the future.
This was a bad weekend for LS engines all around- around the same time down at Bristol Forests Rally an LS 944 rally car popped its' engine for unknown reasons. Blame the universe, or possibly a voodoo curse from one of the other open 2wd competitors that hit more targets than intended.
In reply to jimgood :
Our glasses are half full! I will post if/how far I get before I fly on Thursday. My guess is I will take the body off and start the pull when I get back in early June.
Just another chapter in the saga...that's why we do this stuff, right????
Maybe it was the full moon
I'm totally bummed. I wanted to give you a rabbit to chase in June...
If Jim runs SU I may post and show him what the Silverado can do.
Current situation
Oh, I'm RUNNIN' STU!! IT'S ON!!
Shake and Bake!!!
In reply to jh36 :
It sucks you had an engine failure, but if those aren't two beautiful cars(and one really cool RV) in a single pic:
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