After the Silver State Classic event our next stop was the Goodguys Rod & Custom event in Pleasanton, CA. This was going to be our first autocross since adding the rear sway bar, increasing the spring rate on all four corners and tweaking the brake bias so we were cautiously optimistic that we were heading in the right direction.



When the dust cleared on Sunday we (both the car and the driver) were both showing improvement – running a low 37 second lap which put us less than a second behind Mary’s winning time in her ’73. We also identified a couple of more places where we can get more out of the car… we’re still pushing in the corners and will increase the rear bar rate to get the car to (hopefully) respond a bit better. We’ve also got too much front brake which is in turn putting too much weight on the front and making the push worse… we’re going to swap master cylinders to try go increase the rear bias. It’s also time to do something about the tuning in the car… Painless has helped us out with a closed loop tune for the MEFI4B and we need to get the idle sorted out before we all lose our minds… it’s been nearly a year… it’s time.

We have also (we think) made some headway with our other ECU related issues and will put our theory to the test next week. If we’re right we should make some power and might have solved our engine cutout problem – we’ll see in a few days.

Next weekend were heading for the American Autocross Series event in Marina, California. David and I will be putting the car through it’s paces on an autocross course that should give us some running room and really let us see how close we are getting on our setup.

 

WOW thats beautiful!!! great job!

 

wow, really nice work

 

What front sway bar is this?...



Any pics of the ATS sway bar in there?

Oh and needless to say, the car is just a fantastic piece of machinery.

Thanks,
Joe

 

The car came together awesome, and beautifully! Looks stunning and i bet its a Blast to drive! I cant express my self in words how awesome your car is. And how mutch i desire to build some thing like this one day.

 

The one in that shot is a standard Hotchkis 1-1/8" hollow bar.

I can't seem to find a pic of our bar installed on Jim's frame, but we had to rework the living hell out of it and we still have yet to pull the trigger on production. Think anyone will buy a $600 sway bar?




I don't think most would.

Tyler

 

I don't know if I would buy one right now but I sure would like to borrow one for a day or two...

 

not sure but DSE is offering an $800 splined front sway bar for the A-body guys... So you're $200 ahead of the game.... not sure how may they sold...

 

Over the last six weeks we have been preparing for this Silver State Classic Challenge and this weekend we finally got our chance to try out some of the changes that we had made and I could not be happier with the results. With less than a week to go before we had to leave for Ely, NV Currie Enterprises built us a new 3rd member with a True-Trac replacing our(well and truly blown up) old differential. David was able to get a few miles on it before loading up in the trailer but there were still some unanswered questions as we hauled the car across "The Loneliest Road in America" to our destination.

Friday morning we prepped the car for tech:



and spent some time drooling over Cameron's ride for the weekend:


it's a former Mark Martin road course car that made it's way through Borris Said who used it for driver training before winding up with Cameron. Yes... it is the real deal and yes... it is awesome!

Since the transmission and rear end were still new most of Friday was spent on the highway outside of Ely - breaking in the new parts. We managed to put a hundred miles or so on the drivetrain and brought the car up to speed a few times - and it felt great. Friday night was the cruise through town which is a lot of fun - nothing like 135 badass cars snaking their way down Ely's quiet main street.

Saturday morning saw us preparing for the Optima High Noon Shootout - a standing mile competition which is made all the more challenging given Ely's 7000 foot elevation. When we ran in the spring we encountered an issue with the engine cutting out at 148 mph - we had spent a lot of time working on that issue so my fingers were crossed in the staging lanes as we waited for our chance to run. In May we were the oldest car in the competition and this time was no different, the competition consisted of a V8 Porsche, a couple of Vipers, two NASCARS and a whole lot of Corvettes...


...including a couple of new ZR1's.

As soon as we got there we got the familiar feeling that we had (once again) brought a knife to a gun fight


We new that we weren't a serious threat to win the event but wanted to see what we could do in the standing mile. We were the first car to hit the track (really a two and half mile stretch of 2 lane highway) which means that we had the fastest pass... at least for a while


Our second run yielded another 160 mph run so we decided to park the car and safe ourselves for tomorrow. At 161 we were still pulling hard at just under 7000 RPM in 5th...

 

Sunday morning started with a 35 mile cruise from Ely to the pre-stage grid at Lane's Truck Stop in Hilo, NV at the start of Highway 318. It was just before 6 am and still dark when we set off... which would have been less of an issue if we hadn't taped the hide-aways shut for the speed runs the day before. It only took a couple of minutes to figure out the problem and fix it but it was a big distraction first thing in the morning.


7 am - Lane's Truck Stop. It's hard to imagine a greater cross section of cars in any one place...

And from Lane's it's a short 2 mile drive to the final staging area on 318


This is most of the 115 mph class - starting with the 2006 Mustang at the top of the picture we were joined by a 2003 350Z, a '69 Olds Cutlass, an '08 Subaru WRX-STI and a '65 Shelby clone. I think that our class probably had the oldest average age of any group running.

Team Optima was there representing:


The OneLapCamaro running in the 115 mph class with Jimi Day handling the navigator duties.


Cam Douglass was driving the 2006 NASCAR Chevrolet with Craig Wibbert navigating in the 150 mph class.


and the Kepler brothers driving this awesome 2006 Z06 - also running in the 150 mph class. Steve was driving while his brother Mike was navigating; Mike is also drives the incredible Optima Batteries rig.

Cam and Craig were the first of the three to hit the open highway...
followed by Steve and Mike...

We weren't far behind...
.
90 miles... 115 mph average... 46 minutes 57.39 seconds...

Our strategy was to put 25 seconds in the bank heading into the narrows which meant spending much of the first half hour somewhere between 120 and 130 mph. When he banked our time Jimi told me that I had to drop down to our target... it was tough... the car was great at 125 and I could have stayed there for the whole race. We took the narrows at a comfortable 95 - 100 mph, exiting 8 seconds or so fast. With 10 miles to go we were withing a second of our target and with 1 mile to go we were only 0.07 seconds away from our goal.

When it was done the car had performed perfectly and the only problem we had was a couple of bugs on the front of the car...

other than that the car ran flawlessly and it was a comfortable drive.

As soon as we were done Jimi and I drove down to the gas stop as Ash Springs where I filled up with gas for the return drive to Lund while Jimi and Cameron and the rest of the Optima crew headed to Las Vegas. The return trip was 115 miles of desert at what seemed like a painfully slow 70 mph(ish). I admit that I did speed up a bit through the narrows but that was about all.

 

When it was all over, as you know, we finished a respectable 2nd in the 115 mph class. We were 1.2 seconds off our time (fast... my fault - I must have misjudged the hill beween the final mile marker and the timing lights) but still managed to bring home the hardware. This was Jimi's first time navigating although he had run the event six times before as a driver. This was Jimi's first podium finish (and obviously mine as well) so we were both stoked despite being slightly off the pace.

Steve and Mike wound up finishing 4th in the 150 mph class, only 0.197 seconds off their target; Cameron and Craig wound up 8th, 0.443 seconds off the pace. Most importantly, everyone finished safely and without issue. We all ran the High Noon Shootout (results are not officially out yet) and completed the 90 mile run without a hick-up so that is a success in itself.

I have to thank Cameron Douglass and Optima Batteries for their support over the weekend and Jimi Day for his awesome navigating and advice. Most of all I have to (once again) thank David Pozzi for his support and great car preparation. A lot of effort went in to getting the car ready for the event and David was there every step of the way. Thanks everyone - It was a great time and a great result.

Next time we'll shoot for the 130 mph class (or so) and see how we do... should be fun!

 

just got finished downloading the IQ3 data and thought I would post some of the telemetry:

In the mile...

• Top of 4th gear - 130.6 mph at 6925 RPM (97.7 % throttle)
• At the mile - 161.97 mph at 6706 RPM (also 97.7% throttle)
• The entire run took approximately 31 seconds and it took 14.6 seconds to go from 130.6 to 161.97 mph.

During the run on highway 318

• Cruising at 120 mph was at 3900 RPM with 25.5% throttle

 

I wanta move to a warm weather state.

 

Yeah... so do I

 

I read this entire build thread yesterday and like most others ... its breath taking and inspiring. Congrats on a great job with great results, Gl with your future events... you seem to be learning Auto x quick for someone that's never been there and done that.

 

Awesome car! Congrats on finishing 2nd too.

 

Silver State challenge - awesome pics!

What kind of safety equipment do you need to be in the 130mph class?

 

just a question, but why wouldnt you just swap a cam into the ls7 and make the same amount of power for alot less money?

 

Thanks - the Silver State Classic Events are a lot of fun and make for a really cool weekend.


130 is the lowest speed in the Grand Sport division which is 130 to 150 mph average with a 165 mph max tech speed and is where the rules start to include more safety equipment... fire extinguisher, 5 or 6 point harness (with harness bar of some kind), arm restraints or window nets, roll bar, Z or W rated tires, and then for the driver and passenger - helmet, one piece suit, socks, gloves. There are lots of little things but nothing major up to 150 (which we're good to go for now).

 

Sorry OT....
Any idea if this would work?

C6 Shark Bar...