New Howe GT1/SU Camaro under construction
 

Thought I would share details and pics of a new Howe type 2012 Camaro under construction at Bemco by Woody Wood. A cost effective build using a Howe ASA/GTA type chassis and the Howe 2012 Camaro body. Woody and Steve Branton modified the tail section behind the shock mounts to accept a removable section for the fuel cell (22 gal Nascar ATL).

The drivetrain was removed from the customers road race truck and as much as possible will be utilized. The motor is unique in that is one of the small block chevy's that utillizes the LS type heads. In this case aftermarket LS3's. It runs a Holley 4150 carb as used on GT1 motors. Transmission is a road race Jerico coupled to a Quick change rear end. The rear suspension is a three link with a Watt's Link. Brakes will be Brembo's up front with Wilwood's in the rear.

For additional cost effectiveness, the wheels will be 15" aluminum wide five fitted with 15x12 and 15x14 modified short track rubber. At about 600 buck a set, it is similar to the GTA type rubber.

The car will weigh about 2500# minus driver and with about 700 HP at the flywheel should make short work of most straightways.

http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...Chassis003.jpg

Will look similar to Ralph Tommasso's Bemco Camaro

http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...CamaroNJMP.jpg

Damn that is HOT :cool:

Bosco...when you going to stop building s@@t and start racing it! That Corvette ever get out of the garage?

I'm not building it, Woody is.

The Vette has been on track 3 times, handled and drove well, but the side type headers and exhaust made it almost impossible to last more than about 5 or 6 laps in her due to the heat generated to the cockpit.
We have now changed to a stockcar type crossover header system we think will help a lot.

We have had a bit of bad luck with the Vette the last couple times we tried to race her. Had a lifter fail, which took out the cam. Went back to the engine builder, took several months to get it back, and then had a rocker fail just driving it over to tech at Daytona. Looking to just take her to a test day at Sebring or Roebling soon and then make it to the V8 StockCar race at Charlotte in August. I am putting together a nice late model stock car road racer as well, but it is on the back burner for a bit.

Did you get another racer?

awesome how much do you think you will have into it when done?

Derek, the car is for one of Woody's NE NASA customers. Since the customer is supplying most of the hard parts. (off his late model road race truck) the price is EXTREMELY affordable, but not my place to say.

Woody would probably tell ya, he is real easy going.

three eight six 985 1002

Lee had given me info on the howe camaros i was surpised they were priced decent. Would be fun if i lived in the south and had so many accessible tracks

For a racer, central Florida is one of the very best places to reside.

Daytona, Sebring, Roebling, Palm Beach, Homestead, Road Atlanta,
Atlanta Motorsports Park, Savannah Harbor, Barber all within easy reach.

I was told the howe bodies fit the latemodel type cars well, but not the asa cars because they have taller greenhouse and are narrower. Did you make any modifications for the body to fit?
Is the fuel cell a non-standard (usually $$$) piece or an off the shelf?
Also, do you know if howe sells their car as a roller and/or kit as opposed to the turn-key one they advertise?

One of the Late models I have is an ex Autozone elite series car. Perimeter frame and would have fit the Howe body except the main hoop and center section was too wide. Other late model types I believe can fit.
The ASA "types" that we have used were of that basic design but slight customs for road racing and were never actually ASA cars. (built with main hoop about 1 inch shorter) Gregg Rodgers in Texas and maybe others have modified actual ASA cars to fit the Howe body.
Woody would have no problem handling that as well. On the latest build Woody wanted to use an ATL fuel cell that was in house to save the customer money, versus purchasing a custom built cell, so he reworked the rear section behind the suspension pick up points. No big deal for him.

Howe will build you from a bare chassis to a roller to a complete running car. Whatever you want, they do beautiful work. You would not believe how fast the Camaro Cup cars from Europe were at Sebring and Palm Beach with less than 500 HP. They were on 17" wheels and tires, were lower/lighter than GTA/TA2 types and handled beautifully.
No doubt a Howe Camaro with GT1 motor and Rubber could be a very effective SCCA GT1 machine. No, it won't beat a Derhaag or Ave Trans Am Corvette, but at 1/3 the price or less it would be a fast piece.

My old car is for sale and I'm thinking about doing "sumptin' stoopit".

very :cool:

pretty neat! :thumbs:

All the "Goodies" have been stripped from Larry's road race truck!

http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...ocamaro001.jpg

The Camaro chassis was sandblasted and repainted in Gray. Interior sheetmetal is being installed.
http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...chassis001.jpg
http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/u...chassis002.jpg

Did you guys paint or powdercoat the chassis? I'm in the middle of re-doing my father's Panoz and wanted to paint the chassis white like I did the cage in my Z06. However, considering powdercoat due to the size of the job.

We paint ours, I like being able to touch it up.

Plus it saved about 700 bucks

The gray above was a gallon of rustoleum from lowe's