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In one of your pics I see a 67' camaro and a newer Mustang both those cars are under 3,000?
Nope, I forgot to mention that, in Vegas they don't run classes, its the final "search for the ultimate street car" so they put everyone in a single class, with regards to the previous posts, out on the road course they group people by experience level rather than class hence why you see all sorts of cars on course at once.
Wanted to bump this up as we're finally nearing race season here in MI (of course its snowing today)
after many sleepless nights and battling with myself based on internet rumors I finally pulled the trigger on some new tires. I'll be running a square tire setup this year so that I can rotate them front to back to try to extend their life (note I'm still driving on last years rivals and they've got at least 50% tread left) I'm hoping this helps give me a crisper turn in and a bit less wheel spin vs the rivals without going to the extreme measures of buying custom 11-12" wide wheels, mini tubbing the back or otherwise trying to find more grip.
Next up (realizing I'm slightly drifting away from the "budget" build side of things, I placed an expensive phone call to Sam Strano, who I can't recommend enough, he was more than willing to put up with multiple phone calls during the off season, discuss options and keep me up to date on his testing. I'm still waiting for the parts to arrive but I choose ridetech HQ shocks with Strano Spec'd bumpstops, front and rear Strano sway bars and a set of TSW Interlagos wheels for the RE-71s
Lastly on the spring-time prep front, Trackspec Motorsports offered me a set of their T1 vents to try out on my car, I just got around to mounting those on a spare hood this weekend in time for a rainy HPDE I attended on Monday. The vents look fantastic and really made a noticeable difference in cooling, I also noticed that the hood doesn't "shake" anymore at speeds above 70mph like it used too. I'll be making a separate thread for these detailing my install since they're so awesome.
also in prep for the HPDE I had read about the common clutch fluid issue and the ranger method etc, so I ordered some new fluid a pack of syringes and nylon hose, I was astounded how dirty the fluid was after only 26k miles (I assume the previous owner had never changed it and that this fluid was original to the car)
The fluid on the left is the dirty brown old fluid, the fluid on the left is the fresh new stuff!
So thats my winter is breaking update! I wanted to bump this up and get it fresh in my memory so I can keep it updated as I install and improve more stuff this year!
Good thread! I have a set of 18x10.5's that I want to run square as well but have been going round and round on what size to go with... I feel like I want to stuff a 295 in all the way around but I'm not sure if that's the best idea.
What size RE-71's did you end up going with?
Oh, and I'd recommend changing the clutch fluid out of the master every time you drive it pretty much (no not on the street)... When I bought my car (had 29k on it) the fluid was black and was almost sludge-like. I ended up swapping to the Tick master cylinder to get over the high rpm no-shift that I was getting, but it only band-aided the inevitable. The pedal would still get really stiff at high rpm and feel funny, and then the clutch started slipping. My 18lb monster flywheel and McLeod RXT have the clutch feeling normal like anything else I've ever owned/driven.
Good thread! I have a set of 18x10.5's that I want to run square as well but have been going round and round on what size to go with... I feel like I want to stuff a 295 in all the way around but I'm not sure if that's the best idea.
What size RE-71's did you end up going with?
Oh, and I'd recommend changing the clutch fluid out of the master every time you drive it pretty much (no not on the street)... When I bought my car (had 29k on it) the fluid was black and was almost sludge-like. I ended up swapping to the Tick master cylinder to get over the high rpm no-shift that I was getting, but it only band-aided the inevitable. The pedal would still get really stiff at high rpm and feel funny, and then the clutch started slipping. My 18lb monster flywheel and McLeod RXT have the clutch feeling normal like anything else I've ever owned/driven.
Good luck!
I went with the 275/35/18 size for the tires compared to the 295 rivals I have now they really don't seem much narrower, I'll try to get a side by side stack of the 4 new bridgestones and the 295/275 rival combo on the car now once the new wheels arrive.
I plan to bleed the clutch fluid after each track day after seeing how gross the fluid was! Ultimately my goal is to extend the life of the slave cylinder long enough that I don't have to pull the transmission to replace it until my clutch starts slipping either from track use or from increased power. At which point I'm planning to overhaul the entire clutch hydraulic system including installing a remote bleeder on the slave.
I don't run a square setup at the track, but using the stock size wheels I run the Nitto NT01. They work very well and are slightly undersized. I run a 3/16 spacer on the back. The 315/18 would work great on a squared setup IMO.
I don't run a square setup at the track, but using the stock size wheels I run the Nitto NT01. They work very well and are slightly undersized. I run a 3/16 spacer on the back. The 315/18 would work great on a squared setup IMO.
I'd love to run something like the NT01 on the track, unfortunately 100tw tires aren't legal for the USCA events and I'm too cheap to have 3 sets of wheels for the car at this point
Gotcha. I have a set of dedicated tires/wheels for the track and street. The 295/18 were not cutting it for the 1/2 mile events so I got some toyo proxes DR's. Taller and wider than my street tire which helped, but now I'm stuck mounting off/on with the street. I don't want to have 2.5 sets of tires and wheels, but it looks like I'm headed there.
The first of 3 packages ordered from Sam Strano showed up last Friday, his front and rear swaybars. the last car I replaced swaybars on was a BMW whose aftermarket bar was smaller than the stock z06 bar so it was quite astounding to see the fattest swaybar I've personally owned, pictures I feel like don't do them justice:
I installed them Saturday which went pretty quick, I spent a bit of extra time cleaning other parts under the car and noticed an exhaust bolt had fallen out somewhere since the install of the headers so I sourced a new one with lock washers.
I did get a small chance yesterday on a practice course to try out the new bars (everything else still the same as last year) and WOW! despite being vastly more of everything this car reminds me of my old Miata, small changes really make a noticeable difference in handling/performance.
Turn in is fast, the car seems to take a set much quicker (although it still could be better but hey stock springs/shocks and squishy rivals) and slaloms have almost no hesitation between direction changes. The overall balance is still about the same just with higher limits (perfect as I'm happy with the balance as it is) overshooting corners results in a bit of push, under driving and getting hard on the gas results in oversteer and nailing the corners just right is nearly perfectly balanced.
Yesterday while I was out playing on the test course I got package 2 of 3 from Sam, some Ridetech HQ shocks:
I chose these shocks because where possible I like to support vendors that support events I attend. That said I still try to pick the best parts for my application regardless of if they support the event, I ran a braille battery last year despite Optima being a title sponsor and I even have an Optima for the car! But the braille was lighter and required for me to hit the 3k weight limit.
After multiple phone calls with Sam I was convinced these shocks would be a good choice and coming from cars with Konis I'm excited to try something new. It also can't hurt having the company that sells the shocks on hand at events if I want to bounce setup issues off them or have questions/concerns about the parts.
I'm hoping to get them installed tonight but won't really have any good feedback to offer from them until after this weekend. I'm attending a car control clinic with my wife so that should give me some good skidpad/slalom type scenarios to try them out in.
I wanted to end this post with 1 more quick shoutout/nutswing/what have you about Sam. Bear in mind that I'm not sponsored by him or anything like that (heck he didn't even include strano parts stickers in my packages!!!)
The attention to customers and level of advice he provides is top shelf. I'd been in contact with Sam since late last fall and never ordered so much as a bolt from him until this spring, during that time we had several phone conversations discussing various upgrade paths and options. Once I finally did pull the trigger and ordered I was amazed to see that the quality of service remained. I've never ordered parts from a company before where I can send a question about swaybar settings at 9 in the morning while I'm making coffee and have an answer before I finish the cup. I'd certainly recommend at least giving him a call prior to placing a suspension order.
As usual even my short updates wind up far too wordy so I'll sign this one off for now!
Cheers,
Brad
Yesterday the final piece of this year's mod puzzle arrived! All winter long I planned on going with a 18x11 18x12 setup but with the RE-71 only going up to a 275 there was no reason to spend the big money on custom wheels and more expensive tires to go the same speed.
TSW Interlagos 18x10.5 square with 275/35/18 square Bridgestone RE-71's.
I bought a trailer hitch for my car over the winter and have a small auto-x trailer from years past that I'll use to get these to/from far away events while using the rivals and oem wheels from last year as my commuter setup.
Glad the wheels got there today, I think those will look bad-*** on your car. I kind of wish I went with those now over the Panorama's I did for my FRC.
Anyway at this point you and I have pretty identical setups on the shocks, tires, wheels and bars so we can compare notes as time moves on. I'm still missing a lot of power for STU as I haven't had time to get my headers done and so on. Waffling about what to do for the NJ Pro as I have another really fun option but that's not a Corvette....
Anyway, get those tires on and be prepared for things to be on a whole 'nuther level from last year!
I second your thoughts on Capt SS (Sam Strano). Good prices and GREAT help! He recommended and shot me a great price on several things including some track pads that worked GREAT! Heck, they were even good on the street.
He is a lot of help for those of us not having enough time or funds to find out what works and what doesn't. Good luck!
Excellent thread with good information. I too am running the USCA series this year but in my 2002 Lightning and it has been a blast. I plan to run my 2003 C5Z next year however may run it at the Fontana event in October.
Excellent thread with good information. I too am running the USCA series this year but in my 2002 Lightning and it has been a blast. I plan to run my 2003 C5Z next year however may run it at the Fontana event in October.
George
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I saw some photos of your lightning on the Optima facebook page! The truck looks awesome and seems to be holding its own!
I saw some photos of your lightning on the Optima facebook page! The truck looks awesome and seems to be holding its own!
I too have seen your car at past events. The truck is a blast to drive and surprises a lot of people. It turns extremely well for a 4,800 pound brick but needs additional power to be very competitive.
I also ran a truck in the road racing arena for awhile. Ran low 13's, had awd and I thought it was fairly fast at the dragstrip (for a truck). Once on the road course, it was very evident it weighed waaaay too much, lacked about 200hp for its weight and lacked serious braking, which was nigh impossible for that much weight, and although I had lowered it and added better sway bars it just was not meant to do battle with vehicles weighing 2000lbs less.
But it was fun...at first. Then I had the terrible idea to turbo it to run low 12's at the strip. Did it, but made the truck almost useless for anything else with all the heat it put out to everything else. Had to pull over in the AZ HEAT even sometimes when it was empty and trailering nothing. Bad idea for a truck I was trying to do everything with.
I've been to a couple of these events helping out friends Mike Maier, Brian Hobaugh and John McKissack. Never ran one though, but that's all gonna change later this year when I run the October Fontana event.
03-06-2015, 02:50 PM
