My accounting won't be as detailed as Dave's has been in the past, but it was an awesome weekend. I was a little upset that I couldn't run with the other thirdgens because of something as trivial as the year of the car, considering it is the same as all the years before the cut-off date of 1989, but I spoke with Jimi about my issue and he said to email a compelling argument to have a rule change. They chose 1989 since some cars started coming out with "performance" mods such as ABS etc. but none of the third gens ever got that. I think the argument should be that a generation of car should be allowed in GTV (Vintage) so long as it is essentially the same as the rest of the cars from the start of the production. Really, the only thing my car has that earlier cars do not, is an Air bag, and that's not a performance addition.
So the whole time for Autocross, Road course and Speed-Stop I was always at the bottom of the list in the GT class, it did make it super easy to find my times :lol: There were three other 3rd gens there, one being Dave, another IROC and an 84 TA made to look like an 86-90. I compared my times to all of those guys and I did pretty well considering all of them had bigger engines than I do, and suspension mods. My car is essentially to WS6 specs but I have Koni yellows and Global west delrin bushings in the front A arms and I put on the steering brace that I bought a long time ago, but wouldn't fit with the stock dual TPI fan setup. I also only had 500 treadwear tires on my R15 wheels. I wasn't there to compete with those guys though, I was there to just have fun, it was just nice to see that I was doing pretty well against my "peers" and this was my first time competing.
Saturday the first event, again, was the Autocross. I have been to autocross before to spectate and have I have never been all that impressed with the "value" of it, but I had never been in the drivers seat. I can definitely say that I am a fan of it now. We got 10-11 runs in total for the day. I got 10 and from the beginning of the day to the end I dropped two seconds without getting any instruction/help/pointers from anyone. I think if I had someone that could sit in the car, or if I rode shotgun I could pick up some more time. Tires would definitely helped me pick up some time, they would get slippery when they got hot. Still the slowest of my thirdgen peers, but only by less than a second. Across the board I was fairly consistent though, My high time was 37.283 for my first run, and I was going slower on purpose, to a best of 35.213, but the rest of my runs were all in the 35.xx. All considered, I think I did pretty well and had a great experience. I did kick the Ford Torinos ass in the autocross though, lol and he had a high dollar build :lol:
The next event was the road rally. Nothing too eventful, just a ~35 mile ride down to the Wildwood sign and back. At the end of a (for me) hot day it was nice to just cruise with the AC blasting. It was so nice as soon as it hits your skin8-)
Sunday was the Speed-Stop and the Road course. I was really looking forward to the Road course, and it didn't disappoint. I can't say much except I did way better than I thought I would. Again, I feel the tires held me back and not having a proper racing seat, but I also didn't know the line to take most of the time. The seat was a part of not taking the proper line. I was holding on to the steering wheel for dear life and I was using my knee to brace myself from not sliding. With my gearing I basically stayed in 3rd all the way around the track except the front straight, where I would upshift to 4th, then start braking at the crows nest and then downshift into 3rd again going into turn one. I couldn't believe how well that BONE STOCK 4.8 performed. I was going 110+mph by the end of the straight. During my first outing on the track I lost power steering though. All the RH turns I didn't even notice, it wasn't until I got to turn 7, the hard LH where I had a hard steering wheel. I thought nothing of it though until I came back into the pits where I had to muscle it to get around. Also, during the first run, I realized the moment where the tires were done in the 3rd lap, too hot and slippery, but I continued on as best I could. When I got back to the paddock, I checked the PS fluid, it was "full hot" and it wasn't foamy or look like there was air in it. I let the engine cool for a while and then jack up the front, nothing appeared to be binding, so I think I just killed the stock pump from overheating since there is no real PS cooler in the 3rd gen. I have that one return loop that goes in front of the radiator, but that's it. If I ever decide to take this car again, I will definitely put in a cooler for that. I was also impressed with the stock 4th gen cooling system, I am running a stock 4th gen radiator and fans, the radiator is actually Mike's from his pewter car and I bought a set of stock replacement fans. I would glance at the temp when I could on the track and I never got over ~220. I am actually also not running water based coolant. I am running Evans waterless coolant. I remember when I posted that I had bought it for the other car, someone said it can make the cooling system seem smaller than it is since it doesn't transfer heat as well, but that must not be the case since I never ran over temps that I would be in traffic. Between that statement and the stock sized cooling system, I was very worried that I would overhead quickly, but I am quite surprised and happy with the performance. I also have the "Torque" app on my phone, paired with a PLX bluetooth OBDII adapter, and I would check the temps afterwards, and I was only in the ~220 range still with all that latent heat. I would definitely recommend the waterless coolant to anyone.
Despite the loss of the power steering, I decided to go out on the track one more time. I was kind of low on fuel at this point, since i had done the auto-x, road rally, some speed-stop and driving to/from the hotel several times and I was actually 70 miles into the tank when I got there. I thought I would have enough even with the 70 miles out of the tank, to do the whole event. I was under/around 1/4 of a tank when I went out on track again, and I have to say GM really did a great job with the 4th gen fuel system. I went out there pulling some lateral G's and I didn't even have a stumble. I only went 3 laps the send time out, even though I was in NOVICE, there were some high dollar cars out there ON MY ASS on lap 3 and I felt like the tires were getting lose again, so after the long bowl (turn 12?) I came back in. If I had more fuel and hadn't lost power steering, I would have gone out for another session, but I wasn't about to put 93 octane in the car from the track at over $3 a gallon, when I am running 87 in the car otherwise, lol. It was OK though, I wanted to do more speed stop.
The Speed-Stop was also on Sunday. I actually pulled out of line from the first session of the road course, we hot lapped right out of the orientation on the road course, which was supposed to be only 2-3 laps, but I think they gave us 6 instead. The speed stop was a different format this year. Instead of going alone and only one "direction" they had two setup side-by-side and a left habd and a right hand turn. You would come in and do the RH turn course while you would go head-to-head with the person in the LH turn. They had a drag race tree with pre-stage and stage lights to drop the green light to start. You were a few feet behind the start timing light, so it was basically impossible to red light the start. After you did your RH lane, you would come back around the timing trailer and get in line for the LH lane. I hot lapped this course a bunch of times. This was another course where I didn't see what the big-to-do was all about, but once you get there it was a different story. I improved a little at first and cut my times down, but I was held back by the tires after a point. Plus my gearing may have hurt me a little. With the 3.45's and the gearing of the T56, I had to do the course in first gear the whole time, if I shifted into second I wouldn't be in a good RPM once I got to the turn to be able to power out of the last corner. So I was in a higher RPM and had to feather the pedal to not break the tires lose or drift the car towards the finish, although it was a lot of fun doing that anyway, lol.
This was another place that the cooling system did not disappoint, I hot lapped the speed stop a lot of times in the afternoon, with the low fuel tank! and I watched the temps the whole time, I wouldn't go over the ~212 mark where I have the second fan come on, I have the first fan set at 205 or something. This is also another place the GM 4th gen fuel tank shone, I was just above "E" after my second outing on the road course, Dave was having fueling problems with the low tank in the speed stop, but not even a hiccup for me.
Overall I had a blast, I did have two bad things happen to me though. I rolled my ankle on a rock and sprained it, plus lightly sprained the other ankle when I fell. Also, I burned my mouth eating a hotdog from the concession :kneeslap:
I seriously think anyone interested in Motorsports should make the time to come support events like this. Even as a spectator there is a lot to see, and as a volunteer you get right next to the action. Even if this isn't your "thing" it may just get you interested. My cousin came out on Saturday to watch, he has been programmed from childhood to be a straight line guy and after Saturday, he says he wants to change his Chevelle to be able to participate in stuff like this.
I have learned a lot after my first event and has given me pause to re-consider choices I was going to make on my Camaro build. Even though I already got aftermarket seats for the car, I need a real racing seat and likely 5 point harnesses, I am going to go full "track" car instead of cruiser and I need a PS cooler for sure. I also need some 18 inch wheels and sticky tires.
Here are the results if you would like to look. If you want to see any of my times specifically, just scroll right to the bottom :kneeslap:
