I was nearly late leaving for work watching all 15 minutes. I can't believe that they placed you in with Hondas????????

What kind of lead did you build up on the Camero?

I'm working at both this weekends Pre-historic and the 14th -17th at Laguna Seca. We are taking 10 cars. I'm assigned to the American V-8s The Gt-40, Lola t-70, and a Bizarinni. Yesterday I did 7 hours of dyno plus R&R time on a 331 ci going back into a Chevy Lister. Within the rules and stamped steel rockers, iron double hump 462 heads, the equivalent to one of the duntov factory solid cams. We were able to squeak out 411 hp @ 6400 rpm and 358 TQ @ 5000 rpm. The 4 hole wood spacer on top of a Weiand single plane was good for 11 hp where the non spacer made 400.3 hp @ 6000 & 6200 rpm.

You aught to come up. I'll save you a parking space next to our transporter.

 

72 ray what tires are you running in those pics

 

ctk30,
I'm using some old Hoosier TD's 25x10x15 front and 26.5x9.5x15 rear. My wheels have a 4" Backspace.
Here's a link to the tires NEW. I was getting these from a local track as take off's.
https://www.rsracing.com/rscatalog/a...rt-vintage.asp

gkull,
I just kept the camero in my mirrors. I think I warped a rotor, the car was shaking badly under braking and getting worse as the race went on. Lot of heat build up slowing down so much.
My plan is to get the car back to street worthy as soon as i can. Probably won't make it to Laguna Seca with the car but am interested in coming up anyway. Send me a IM with info on how to get in touch with you.

 

Do you use J-56 brakes with titanium pucks and 600 degree brake fluid?

This last SCCA event I was in was near 100 degrees without a cloud in the sky. I've been trying to think about my braking do the easier on and off to not upset the corning balance of the car. the worst mine got was a slight spongy feeling so they were on the verge of boiling the the 600 degree. I need to get

 

I finally made it to Road America last weekend and it was a blast. Too bad my camera mount wasn't up to tech. inspection, so I had to remove it. I was definitely one of the slower vettes there that day. Almost everyone in my run group had C6Z06's, but there was two C4's (one was a ZR1), and another C3.

I had to take it a bit easy on the car because I had an 8 hour drive home afterwards, but it was a fun and challenging track. If you get the chance to run there, go for it.

 

I had my car weighed on an official state cert scale and had nearly perfect 50/50 with me in the car and full 25 gallons of fuel. total of 3184 pounds.

I met up with Cluchdust is Vegas. He has two items to stiffen the front end. Spreader bar and rear motor plate behind the motor and in front of the tranny.

Getting rid of the mechanical fan allows the motor to change rpm faster.

I also run a smaller dia. damper pulley.

That's true..

 

Hey Turtle, Ray or Kalway... Quick question.
I too am going to buy a cheap set of track-day steelies but on the Summit/Cragar steelies (in the link) the backspacing is 4.5.
Before I pull the trigger on these, will the stock/oem trailing arms & ebrake clear the 4.5 backspace?

TIA,
Andy


http://store.summitracing.com/partde...459+4294793320




(Oh... I am looking at the 17in wheel on 8" rim) Just a direct swap w/o adapters or spacers. So I can swap tires at ease on track day

 

Andy, I bought the cheap 10X15 steel wheels from summit to mount my 10X25.5 front and 10X27 rears. They were 4.5 bs They did not clear the stock calipers so I had to run them with 1/4 spacers. No big deal because threads still come through the lug nuts.

If you want to do cheaper racing on slicks the Hoosier scrub tires for $75 each + shipping is the best bang for the buck.

My lap times from last year to this year are very simular. So i would say that the hoosier 15 inch slicks have simular traction to my hoosier 295/35 17 and 335/35 18 The cost difference is $1300 something for 17&18 R6's and the $75 knockoffs are about $360 mounted and balanced. So unless you have bigger front brakes that require 17 inch wheels my advice is to stay with the 15 inch

 

i have 9" craiger black soft with 5" backspace about $60ea. I wish i could get them in 10" or 11".

I put 275/40/17 on wiich is pushing the limit of a 9" rim.

Getting a wide tire on is important and you don't want to force a wide tire on a skinny rim. It'll just roll over on the sidewall.

 

This may be the oldest continual thread on the forum. I have changed vettes 4 times since this thread started.

 

BUMP... since it is July already.

thought I'd post a few pics.

In another thread on the C3 tech forum, I do a step-by-step of how the cragar soft 8's (17") do not clear the factory/OEM style calipers. I wished they did as I bought some awesome sumitomo tires (160 rating) to go on them for cheap. No such luck. The wheels scrape the calipers. For those that have asked me, Turtle runs an aftermarket brake system. Hence, why the cragar soft 8's fit his car. I have the oem style brake system/calipers. hence why the soft 8's don't fit my car.

My car is very similar to the majority here. BIO: It is basically an upgraded street car with the VB&P upgrade kit:

550# front coils
new steering box
new poly bushings
front sway bar
very small/skinny rear sway bar
new oem brake system, lines and calipers
Hawk HP+ brake pads
ATE Super Blue Racing Brake Fluid
360# rear VB&P mono spring
Tremec 5 speed (from a forum vendor)
Bilstein Sports
290hp crate motor .30 over
Stans Tri-Y headers
True Dual 3" exhaust


I only do AutoX and a couple of HPDE events per year. The last 3 years I would simply run on 255-60's on the factory alloy 15" wheels. These are loud squeelers & loose at best!

Like many, finding a decent tire/wheel combo for a C3 is tricky.

The positive side of NOT using the cheap Cragar soft 8's is the weight.
THOSE suckers are heavy! 40lbs each! add the tire weight and you've instantly added a bunch of new weight to an already sluggish & heavy car.


So... I bought some lighter aluminum wheels 15x 8.5 and mounted them to Goodyear DOT racing bias ply Sports Car Specials from JB racing tires in WI. The difference from street rubber to race tires is NIGHT AND DAY! Unbelievable. Turtle is correct in saying a main #1 priority is rubber (aka tires) also true is the HP issue. The car is plenty fast enough with its mild cam, intake. headers & carb tunings etc... Braking & handling are what is most important (imho) getting this car ready

Here is a pic of the car with the wheels & tires.



They sit the car lower by nearly an inch too! Lower cog








Like I had mentioned, it is a street car. I wanted to upgrade the braking, handling and performance to match the styling of the C3.
It is NOT a dedicated race car. I just want it safe to do the few number of autoX and track days as possible.
I do most of my shifting at 3500-5000 rpm's. I don't want to fry out the motor. I like to hear the true duals bellowing out the SBC sound while going down the straightaway at 120mph! What a treat!

There is nothing funny about being in a giant & beautiful C3 when the brakes get spongy and the red BRAKE light pops up on the dash.


take care & safety first

 

Got the C4 suspension transplant done this spring, and finally had the chance to do a test and tune session at a somewhat local track last Saturday. I just found out recently that Gainesville Raceway has a road course on the property, in addition to the well known drag strip.
Was real happy with the initial handling of the car. Very balanced, and the classic C3 rear twitchiness that I had dealt with for years was gone. It was nice to drive the car and not always worry about when the rear was going to try to pass the front.
The new brakes felt good. I've got Wilwood calipers all around, and C5 master cylinder. This package is about 50 pounds lighter than the C3 brakes. I need to do a bit more track time on this setup to see if I need to adjust the brake bias. On occasion I had a touch of rear lockup. Hopefully a change in pad compound is all I might need.



Tweaking the toe-in between sessions.



Right now I'm upping the front bar size. I started with the original '69 15/16 inch bar. The handling was neutral, but I had more body lean than I liked. I put the 1 1/8 inch bar in there from the former suspension. This ought to bump up the roll stiffness. I'll see what happens to the car balance after the next event.
Going to install a (C5) p/s cooler. The rack got noticeably warm after a couple sessions, so hopefully the cooler will help the service life of the rack.

 

So, we had the HPDE day here at PIR and I gotta tell you guys... Getting a serious set of Racing Rubber does the car justice!

Seriously, these racing tires make this car 100% more viable on the track. The tires are GoodYear Sports Car Special "aka Blue Streaks" Bias ply tires.

I was told by the flag worker that I was getting my Right Front tire off the ground in turn 12. I couldn't believe it and thought he was embelishing the story. Until other people in the pits were commenting on it and I finally saw this picture. There is no way the other tires would let me carve the corners like these. Unbelievable.

Anyway, here are a few pics:


Vette & Porcsche 911







Hawk HP+
ATE DOT4 HP blue brake fluid
VB&P 360lb rear spring
550# front spring
new OEM rotors, calipers
new poly bushings

I am thinking that if I do another track day with these tires, I'll probably need to rod ends (for safety sake) as I was pushing a lot of pressure on all four corners. Safety first!

 

Cool, that is great. I'm surprised at how much the car rolls. It's great to get a photo of your Vette in action so you can see what it's doing. It sounds like you are having fun and that is the most important thing but making it faster is a good part of that fun, eh?

 

Did that happen.?? I was losing so much good track time because of that very problem. Stock calipers are now boat anchors. The wilwood dynalites fit ANY wheel.

I'm sorry the soft 8 17's didn't work. I swear, i bolted on the rear before yanking the stock caliper and it cleared by a hair. The wheel physically turned without any grinding. I would think you could have clearanced the caliper with a hand grinder.


Do you drive those slicks to the track? My problem is my favorite tracks are 600 miles away so i would need to drag a trailer with racing tires on.

 

turtle, no worries at all. All the help & advice from you & others is huge. I know I can sefely speak for others & say how much many of us appreciate this thread


Yeah... The red brake light. Hmmm, that happened last March during a Team Continental Road Racing school I did at PIR. I was using crappy 'car quest' ish Brake fluid DOT3. By the 4th run of the day (each run was 35 minutes long) my pedal was getting softer and softer until the unthinkable happend!..... The red BRAKE light popped on, pedal went straight to the floor on the back straight and I slid accross the grass, pulling the ebrake to a slow stop! Thank God I didn't get hurt
The good thing was that this happened in a very controlled school /track environment. As it turned out, the brake fluid probably boiled coupled with I appeared to have had a leaky brake cylinder and loss of pressure/air entered the system. Once that happened the brake control valve "clicked" on over.
After the car cooled the next day, I turned on the ignition (didn't turn car on) and firmly pressed on the brake pedal until it got very tight and "pop!" the control valve clicked back over and the light turned off.

I have since then obviously replaced the brake calipers & I will only use ATE Super Blue DOT4 Racing Brake Fluid. I will never use anything else. That was all the warning I needed.


oh... I did drive the racing tires to the track. Very twitchy. I will probably not do that again. I'll have them trailered to the track I think. I live 18 miles away from PIR. Plus, those gummy tires are like magnets. Rocks, dirt, cigarette butts, bugs, glass... you name it. They stick like peanut butter.


this is what they look like on the side. They stick out pretty far. No touching, scraping, rubbing... but barely


not to mention, the GoodYear lettering on the side looks bada$$

 

What is the dry and wet boiling temp on your DOT4?

Willwood 580 degree is under $10 per pint. I use Motul 600 degree. Air ducting is your next line of defence.

 

Hi George, the German brand I use: ATE Super Blue Racing DOT4 Dry:536 and the Wet is:392

still higher than DOT 5 I believe. Regardless, it has been the only one which has held up. As for brake ducting, I keep trying and failing. I just need to see another C3 upclose & personal which hasn't chopped their front bonnett all to h#ll.



http://www.shotimes.com/SHO3brakefluid.html
these taurus guys are pretty sharp btw.

 

Now that you have tires you need to cure the body roll. When i had stock type suspension. My vette did pretty good with 420# rear with Smart struts set in the lowest race position. Front 550# with a 1 1/8th sway with poly mounts and adjustable end links with a small amount of movement before the sway bar came in.

If you could find some 600-620# front springs it would be even better

 

maybe so. But, I am not sure if I'll go that far. I like it as a streetable car. Already when I go over speed bumps I have to prop my weight up on my elbows to prevent rupturing my spleen or hurting my teeth (and lower back) :; . It's already pretty firm on bumps. Especially with the hard sidewalls of those race tires.

But, more importantly, as you know, turn 12 at PIR is a ominously deceptive (and hard) corner.
Look at this Spec Racer Miata (40 yr newer technology, bajillion pounds lighter & nimble) and it too has roll. You can see I apex a bit earlier than he does. Partially due to weight & speed of a V8 Vette. But, he looks like he could be popping a wheelie too!