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Calling all competitors... Tell us about your events.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who enjoys reading about others exploits. I haven't really posted much about my events, because I feel like they pale in comparison, but I was thinking I'd love to see more about people competing in various events. I'm sure there's others here who haven't posted about their activities too.
Drag, autocross, 1/2 mile, circuit, drifting... I don't care! If you're running or have run at an event, post some photos and/or video and/or text about it. Post info about your cars and builds too if you want. I'm sure I'm not the only one curious to see what others are up to.
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Last weekend I ran a local hillclimb event. I've been trying to run a bunch of club level events this year, now that my car is running well, as I really haven't competed in many events at all over the last ~10 years. This hillclimb was at a good little venue owned by the local MG car club that can be set up in a whole heap of different layouts. This is my third event at the venue this year, all on different track layouts. It's a pretty tight track in a Corvette!
I was very happy with how the car ran, and I think I'm really starting to get a handle on how to get the most out of it. I comfortably beat the class record that was previously held by a 240z (class is for sports cars over 2L, pre 1986, running on road legal tyres). Good fun!
My car has a healthy sbc stroker, factory gymkhana springs and bars(lowered), Global West upper arms, Bilstein Sports, poly bushes and a Borgeson steering box, and I'm running on Continental ExtremeContact Sports in 285/40R17. Nothing too fancy.
That looks like a blast! Kind of like an autocross on steroids. I'm curious about how they separate the cars by group. I'd do that in a heartbeat if we had anything like it here.
I did some drag racing vs. cars and airplanes at a local Father's Day Fly In event almost 2 weeks ago. I only have one video of it on my Youtube page because things have been so busy since. I'll get a couple more up soon, I hope. This was a practice run and was my best race. I won every race, in both my '69 (stats in my sig below) and my '08 Z06.
This race was vs. a buddy in his '57 Chevy gasser with built 383, tunnel ram w/ dual quads, 4.30 gears, and a 150 shot of nitrous. He got a nose out off the line but I went by while pulling 2nd gear. From that point on his nose was either at my rear bumper or at my door. Closest race I've ever had. He said he could see my eyes as we pulled at 130+ MPH. Sooooo close!
That looks like a blast! Kind of like an autocross on steroids. I'm curious about how they separate the cars by group. I'd do that in a heartbeat if we had anything like it here.
I did some drag racing vs. cars and airplanes at a local Father's Day Fly In event almost 2 weeks ago. I only have one video of it on my Youtube page because things have been so busy since. I'll get a couple more up soon, I hope. This was a practice run and was my best race. I won every race, in both my '69 (stats in my sig below) and my '08 Z06.
That's awesome, looks like a great fun event! I enjoyed the in car footage too your car hauls pretty good! I'd like to do some events like that at some point, there isn't many like that held in Australia. I do drive the 2 hours and take the car to the drag strip sometime, just to see what it will do.
Yeh, I guess it is a lot like an autocross on steroids... We don't really do autocross like you guys do in the US, we do have races around flags but they are much tighter first gear only type events, and we call them motorkhanas.
The classes are based on type of vehicle, engine capacity, and modifications. In our hillclimbs there's everything competing from stock sedans and hatchbacks to open wheel racing cars.
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I ran another event a couple of months back too. Drove the car 180 miles Saturday morning, practice Saturday afternoon, competition Sunday morning, then drove another 180 miles back home Sunday evening. Was a big weekend!
Practice in the rain on Saturday:
And my quickest competition run on the Sunday:
Last edited by Metalhead140; 06-28-2017 at 06:22 PM.
Most of my videos are outdated, but there are some on my youtube channel. Hopefully I'll be getting a gopro in the not too distant future so I'll be able to get some fresh video.
I am mostly running my C5Z in SCCA autocrosses these days, but I still get my '69 out once or twice a month for my Corvette Club and other local autocrosses. And usually do pretty well with it.
I haven't mastered going around corners yet.....but I enjoy going straight! I'm "almost" in the 8's in the 1/4 mile and have gone 200 MPH at the TX Mile event.
Most of my videos are outdated, but there are some on my youtube channel. Hopefully I'll be getting a gopro in the not too distant future so I'll be able to get some fresh video.
I am mostly running my C5Z in SCCA autocrosses these days, but I still get my '69 out once or twice a month for my Corvette Club and other local autocrosses. And usually do pretty well with it.
Some cool onboard footage there! The Waterford track looked like fun, and the autocrosses did too, wish we had something like those autocross events here.
You normally run the c5, but you still run the '69 once or twice a month? You must have a lot of events available to compete in! Yes, I'm jealous...
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Jim, I love your car, your posts were part of what made me post this thread! And also the thought that led to me not specifying c3s... What's your next event?
You normally run the c5, but you still run the '69 once or twice a month? You must have a lot of events available to compete in! Yes, I'm jealous...
That's right, in my area May-September there are events pretty much every weekend I could go to with less than a two hour drive, most of them being an hour or less. I just finished a marathon month of June where I ran Saturday and Sunday every weekend of June.
That's right, in my area May-September there are events pretty much every weekend I could go to with less than a two hour drive, most of them being an hour or less. I just finished a marathon month of June where I ran Saturday and Sunday every weekend of June.
Jim, I love your car, your posts were part of what made me post this thread! And also the thought that led to me not specifying c3s... What's your next event?
My next thing is to get back to dragstrip and collect an 8 sec timeslip. Sooooo close it's sickening. I've already got my new plates...but not going to bolt them on until it's official.
It's pretty hot in TX right now...but I've got another track rental lined up for the end of Aug at night that will maybe be a little cooler. Plus there's a nostalgia event in early Aug. I might try as well as one more track rental we're working on for July.
None of these are mine, and I don't get to drive any of them, but I crew on the red 65 (#11), and occasionally lend a hand on the red and white 69 (#13), and the blue Sunoco Camaro.
These pictures were taken a week ago, when we were participating in the Thompson Speedway Vintage Motorsports Festival, in Thompson Connecticut.
Next weekend we will be racing at Watkins Glen, with the Historic Racing Group, part of the SCCA Northeast Region. Instead of the red 65 though, we'll be racing an A Production 71 coupe. The red and white 69 will be joining us at The Glen, but not the Camaro.
My next thing is to get back to dragstrip and collect an 8 sec timeslip. Sooooo close it's sickening. I've already got my new plates...but not going to bolt them on until it's official.
It's pretty hot in TX right now...but I've got another track rental lined up for the end of Aug at night that will maybe be a little cooler. Plus there's a nostalgia event in early Aug. I might try as well as one more track rental we're working on for July.
JIM
Awesome! Do you have 'RUNS7S' on hold for some day in the future...?
Originally Posted by gbvette62
None of these are mine, and I don't get to drive any of them, but I crew on the red 65 (#11), and occasionally lend a hand on the red and white 69 (#13), and the blue Sunoco Camaro.
These pictures were taken a week ago, when we were participating in the Thompson Speedway Vintage Motorsports Festival, in Thompson Connecticut.
Next weekend we will be racing at Watkins Glen, with the Historic Racing Group, part of the SCCA Northeast Region. Instead of the red 65 though, we'll be racing an A Production 71 coupe. The red and white 69 will be joining us at The Glen, but not the Camaro.
Very cool. If you can post some pics then please do! I didn't mean to limit this to drivers/owners, anyone who has anything to post, please do.
I did some drag (bracket) racing yesterday. First time to the track this season. Running kind of slow due to temperature and humidity. DA number was around 2700. My best ET was 12.55. Won the first 2 rounds then lost in the 3rd on a double breakout. I broke out by .01 more than the other guy. I did get to the stripe .01 second ahead, but the breakouts negated that. Oh well.
I ran another hillclimb today, a different layout at the local track, bagged another class win and record. Best part though is that I'm really getting a better handle on the car. I had 6runs, the first was very slippery, but the other 5 were split by just 0.17 seconds... Frustrating when you're trying to improve, but a good sign regardless! I came 19th outright (of 58 cars including a number of open wheelers) and was the fastest person running on regular street tyres rather than semis or slicks.
Enjoyed a drink this evening in the 'trophy' I received today for my class lap record at the last event.
I watched and watched, listened and listened, stop framed.
I would say that you have several items that I would like to ask you about.
Thanks for the analysis! I've only been competing the car for a few months so I haven't been making any changes to the car, and just concentrating on my driving. Now that I'm more accustomed to the car and have my driving to the point that I am getting reasonably consistent times, I guess it's time to start considering what improvements can be made, so I appreciate the input.
Keep in mind that this is more or less my daily driver, I've clocked up 11,000 miles on it since the start of January.
what are your front a rear spring rates and sway bar sizes - you have body roll.
Factory gymkhana springs and sway bars. Front sway bar is 1.125", rear is 7/16". Front springs are 550lb with a bit over one coil removed, somewhere in the ~650lb range. Rear (steel) spring from the factory was 304lb, mine has a shortened main leaf (which would decrease leverage and increase rate), but factor in wear as well and it's probably close to that factory rating.
You have some bending forces causing rear positive camber - what kind of rear strut assembly do you have?
Stock, with poly bushings. I also have some yoke movement, much to my frustration given that I had the rear end rebuilt only about 2 years (though also ~20,000 miles) ago.
What are you camber settings?
-1.5 front, -~0.8 rear
Unless those corner rumble strips are tiny I never heard you driving over them on the apex of any turn?
I do in some cases, but not in most. There's no 'rumble' on these particular strips, they are quite shiny (slippery) and raised. They tend to unsettle the car enough to make it not worthwhile in my (limited so far) experience. There are a couple of turns on the Ringwood track where I use them heavily.
On a course like Tamworth - do you use your left foot for braking? You loose 1/10ths of a second using only your right foot for gas and brake.
Nope. Not a bad suggestion, though one I'd have to take some time to practice.
Do you have a rev limiter and or shift light?
Not really... I do have a limiter set high in the Fitech, it's not a soft limiter so I didn't really want to use it. I am using a 6al, but I bought it second hand and it only came with a 6500 chip, so I have it removed at the moment. I've been intending to buy probably a 7200 chip, when it's running well (which I was having a few problems with at Tamworth) it will happily pull over 7,000. No shift light.
Thanks for your thoughts, I look forward to your suggestions.
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Anyone else been competing their car recently?
I have another hillclimb next weekend, at the same local track and layout as yesterday, but this is a round of the state hillclimb championship here. I'm interested to see how I run against the state competitors as I'm considering running the series next year. I then have another supersprint (similar to Tamworth above) two weeks after that, at Raleigh International Raceway.
I bought my 79 vette new. It has been a sometimes painful learning experience.
I hopped it up right after buying it and the first expensive failure was the original yokes trashing the rear end. I took the rear end out and examined everything. My yokes were worn past the snap rings. I was thinking what a phony setup. the yokes riding on the posi units central pin. The pin had elongated its hole in the posi case and cracked the case.
So I was thinking why don't they build a posi case with a larger diameter pin and if you went to higher spring weight and a better strut arraignment it would lower the pressure on the yoke to posi pin.
I bought the best custom hardend yokes, Vette brakes & Products smart struts, and I had a 500# rear spring made by a local spring shop. After a few more posi units I found Tom's that sold super posi units with a bigger cross pin.
I have a Crane Multi spark ignition box with dial set sequential rev limiter.
I will try and post some in car road racing videos if I can figure out how to compress them.
I bought my 79 vette new. It has been a sometimes painful learning experience.
I hopped it up right after buying it and the first expensive failure was the original yokes trashing the rear end. I took the rear end out and examined everything. My yokes were worn past the snap rings. I was thinking what a phony setup. the yokes riding on the posi units central pin. The pin had elongated its hole in the posi case and cracked the case.
So I was thinking why don't they build a posi case with a larger diameter pin and if you went to higher spring weight and a better strut arraignment it would lower the pressure on the yoke to posi pin.
I bought the best custom hardend yokes, Vette brakes & Products smart struts, and I had a 500# rear spring made by a local spring shop. After a few more posi units I found Tom's that sold super posi units with a bigger cross pin.
I have a Crane Multi spark ignition box with dial set sequential rev limiter.
I will try and post some in car road racing videos if I can figure out how to compress them.
I had the diff rebuilt with new HD yokes with caps, and using solid clutch disks. To be honest, I think what I ultimately want to do is fit an upper link and some telescopic shafts before throwing more money at the diff. I don't like relying on the halfshaft for suspension geometry, nor the extra stress that it puts on the shafts and diff centre.
Uploading vids to YouTube is easy, you shouldn't need to compress them, just leave them uploading. I'd love to see.
Do you have any suggestions or advice for me? I recognise that a stiffer rear spring and some heim joint strut rods will probably be useful at some point. I actually don't find the car too stiff at the moment, even for daily use over the rough country roads around my house. I'm using Bilstein Sport shocks and have thought I could probably use a bit more shock too - but I'm not racing for anything other than fun, so I'm not in a huge hurry to go broke buying expensive parts to replace parts that I've only fairly recently fitted. The car already works well enough to surprise the other competitors at the events I run, I normally beat almost all other street cars, old and new.
Thinking about your comment on rear camber, I do have a ~1/2" plate fitted between diff and strut rod bracket to reduce camber gain, similar to the geometry of the "smart strut" strut rod brackets. Perhaps I would benefit from removing it, increasing camber gain in bump... But it would also increase the camber on launch/acceleration (from squat), so hard to know if it would be beneficial overall?
I have some pics one of the other competitors sent me from Sunday, which aside from being nice to have, are interesting for the car behaviour they show.
Body roll (turn 1):
Static rake/ride height:
Final turn, power on to finish, some body roll (a bit of a slide here I think), negligible front camber due to squat:
Same location as above on a different run, less body roll, again almost 0 front camber:
Heavy braking down the hill into the final turns, note very high front camber:
Turning to head down the hill:
Braking heading into turn two. Doesn't appear the car is diving too badly here (keeping in mind the static rake pictured above)?:
Last edited by Metalhead140; 08-01-2017 at 07:07 AM.
The lower central mounting point of the rear strut rod is a good thing.
Over the years people have posted pictures of their additional upper link strut rod. The rods are the same design as the lower aftermarket strut rods. Something with an adjustable length, until you determine the length needed and lock it down.
Thermal IR temp guns are cheap. It is the best way to setup tire pressure and camber settings. I've never had to use even 1 degree negative front camber. right when you pull of the track have somebody measure the inside, middle, and outer temps of your tires.
How much squat you have on the rear on launch determines the needed spring rate. How much dive you have on the front end determines the front spring weight.
I have the home alignment tools. so changing front camber is easy. On tracks that are ran in a counter clockwise direction with a higher number of left turns I had "ZERO" camber on the front left and .64 right front. with zero toe in front.
I bought the Zero bump steer kit
Solid motor mounts and possibly front a-arm spreader bar work well.
Spreader bar and I have an altered firing order solid roller cam installed
Before I put on flares going 156 mph on the main straight
Flares, road racing slicks, and 4 inch exhaust tips
06-28-2017, 12:16 AM
Calling all competitors... Tell us about your events.
Kind of like an autocross on steroids. 
I'm curious about how they separate the cars by group. I'd do that in a heartbeat if we had anything like it here.
Any events this past weekend?
