reboot04

Thanks Mike - I was kicking around most of the day and should be much of tomorrow. If you happen to be back shoot me a PM and I'll make arrangements to meet with you at some point.

Someone mentioned to me today that I hadn"t posted any interior pictures. The show is not the perfect place for interior shots but here is one that's not bad - but still does not do the new Marquez Design dash justice:

mramay

iTrader: (4)

Sorry I missed you but I didn't know how to get in touch. Looks like I'm done with SEMA for this year - I'm giving my badge to someone else so they can see the show. We'll find another way to see each other. By the way, what's with the Digital Dash? I'm putting an LS6 into a Benz and that display unit will fit in a Mercedes instrument binnacle.

Here's another one of the interior (my flash worked).

will01

James, great car and it looks even better in person (got a chance to see it while I was at SEMA). With the high level of build quality, I keep forgetting you will be racing it in the near future!

Looking forward to some action vids or photo's in the near future.

reboot04

will01

SEMA ended yesterday at 4 pm and this morning at 5 am we were on our way to the Optima Ultimate Streetcar Invitational at the Spring Mountain racetrack in Pahrump, NV. It was an awesome event featuring 24 absolutely increadible cars competing on the 2.3 mile roadcourse and an autocross course set up by one of the best autocross racers in the country.

It was a late night last night and an early morning this morning but I think that we did well for our first time out. I am sure that there will be some pictures - and possibly some video - by tomorrow to be sure but for now, I need some sleep...

V8Rumble

iTrader: (9)

Whaddya know - my car DOES have something in common with that one (besides the LS engine) - we chose the same steering wheel!

(Although mine's black, rather than silver...)

Shawn MacAnanny

iTrader: (12)

What kind of 'gauge' is that in your dash?

68topls

iTrader: (5)

How does the black Gold Trak compare to like a tru trac diff?

WILWAXU

iTrader: (6)

James,
Awesome to meeting you last week! Great seeing the car at the show and watching it run around the track on Saturday.

That's a RacePak.
http://www.racepak.com/

Shawn MacAnanny

iTrader: (12)

Wow that thing is amazing! $2,200 for it and $250 a sensor haha. That would cost more then my engine haha. That still an awesome dash i definately have it if i were rich lol.

reboot04

Now that I we are home and the OneLapCamaro is safely home and in my garage (awaiting some trouble shooting and a transmission tear down) I thought that I would post some thoughts, comments, and pictures from the last couple of weeks.
__________________________________________________ _______________

As many of you know (or now know) we were invited by Optima Batteries to attend the SEMA show as their guest. We had been working to have the car ready for the show since mid-summer but it is amazing how quickly the show came up on us. About three weeks before the show I was ready to throw in the towel – I even went so far as to warn Optima that I wouldn’t be able to attend – because the last thing that I wanted to do was bring a car that was incomplete or less than satisfactory to anyone – including myself. After a long weekend of discussions around the shop - and across the country – we decided to pull out all of the stops and make a no-holds-barred run to get the car ready to go to ‘Vegas. At that point in time the car wasn’t running, wasn’t wired, had no glass in it, had no hood and was, to be honest, a long ways away from being together.



Chris Heighton at Heighton Restorations pulled out all of the stops, both personally and at his shop in Beiseker, Alberta, to get the car together in time for the SEMA show. For three weeks my days consisted of getting up in the morning, going to work, and then heading out to the shop until midnight to thrash on the car. Chris’s days were often 16 or 20 hours a day working to get the car together. Weekends were set aside, wives were abandoned, and everyone who we could recruit was called upon. I redid the tally today - in those three weeks before loading up the trailer we put no less than 600 hours into the build. We got the wheel alignment done at 1 in the morning a week before the show so we could test drive the car before the final assembly; when it was time to do the test drive, it was snowing but we went on with it anyways. Shane and Don at the shop set their own plans aside to help out in the last week - I can’t thank them enough for that – to make this happen.

reboot04

On Thursday morning before the show we loaded the trailer up and hit the road to Las Vegas. Calgary and Las Vegas are, strange as it may seem, a direct route practically from door to door. My driving directions were, essentially, turn on I15 and drive 1200 miles to the strip. No turns, no side roads, nothing but climb this hill, go over that mountain and stop when the neon lights get really bright. The 24 hours that we spent in the truck together was more time than my wife and I had spent together in the last month but, around noon on Saturday we arrived at American Touring Specialties.



On Saturday afternoon I had the pleasure of spending time with Curtis, AJ, Steve C, Steve R, and a host of others including Blake and the guys from Killer Customs before reluctantly skipping the evening cruise to try to catch up on some sleep.

Sunday morning it was back at ATS to meet the guys from Optima and help out however I could at the shop – which probably wasn’t much – before heading to the convention center to move into the show. Before heading over we snapped a couple of pictures with Penny and the ATS shop car in the parking lot…

reboot04

Sunday afternoon we got moved into the show and set up – we actually ran out of gas as the front tires hit the carpet because we spent what seemed like an eternity driving around the convention center trying to get to the right entry door. Monday we cleaned up the car and got a sneak peak around the show without the hoard of people milling about and without the booth girls slowing that same traffic down – definitely the easy way to see the show without distractions.



Most of the show from there was a blur. I can’t describe how cool it was to show people like the Ring Brothers the car and talk about some of the work that went into different parts of the build. It was unbelievable how many board members dropped by or called and stopped to look over the car – Anthony, Larry, Scott, Frank, and a host of others – it was great to see you all again or meet you for the first time. I think that is one of the coolest parts of this hobby and what I think makes this community so unique – the people and the ‘family’ that we become despite being scattered across North America.



On Wednesday morning I got a call from the guys at Sony Playstation letting us know that we had won the Gran Turismo award in the Domestic category. A cool honour to be sure but now a week later I am still not sure that we did or not. Long story, kind of confusing, but regardless, not the point if the show. Missed a great party that night though.

reboot04

Friday we dumped some gas in the car and headed over to Tyler’s for some last minute work before heading to Pahrump for the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational. When I got to ATS we were third or fourth in line for a turn on the lift. Bad Penny was there getting some work done on the front sway bar; Larry was there with MotiV8r for a little bit of everything and FUEL was there after an incredible thrash to R&R the clutch for some tweaks and a trip to the dyno.

We were there to try to troubleshoot a strange sound that we were getting from the transmission at around 60 mph. Checked pinion angle and everything else that we could see before packing it up and hitting the track with more hope than common sense. We did quickly scale the car after Rupp set the bar really low with something around 3200 and change (I think); we rung the bell at a hefty 3500 plus – not an impressive number but it is what it is.

Saturday morning at 5 am saw us at Tyler’s again, this time for the drive out to the track. Despite the early hour, the shop was a hub of activity. Tyler and Tom had spent most (all) of the night working on FUEL – rebuilding the rear end in the wee hours to get Dave on his way to event. At 5:30 Steve spun Bad Penny around and lead the pack to the track with Curtis close behind, I am so impressed by Steve and Bad Penny and can’t wait until I have the OneLapCamaro to the point where I can drive it 300 miles to an event like SEMA then drive it 75 miles at 5:30 in the morning to an event like the Ultimate Street Car Invitational (which he as we all know wins) before driving back to ‘Vegas at rush hour on Saturday night.

reboot04

The Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational was an incredible event and I am honoured to have been invited to participate despite our relatively poor showing. We knew that we had transmission issues going into the event and they definitely hurt us on the road course. I had about 50 miles of highway driving on the car and a few shorts stints in Las Vegas going to and from the show and knew that the car was going to have issues. I was right. The first thing that I found was that there was an issue with the brakes; I would say that I had 80% of the brakes that I expected or needed. Could be pressure, could be fresh pads, could be fresh rotors, could be pedal ratio, could be master cylinder sizing - don’t know at this point. All I know is that while I had some brakes, I wish that I had more. That hurt a bit and definitely made me think twice at the end of the straights and heading into the curves. The much bigger issue that we encountered was with the transmission – or clutch – which slowed us up even further. While I had no issue up shifting, I could not get the transmission in gear while downshifting. There are a couple of 2nd gear corners at the end of some 4th gear (or more) straights so the inability to get the car into gear at speed hurt a bunch. I have a couple of not so fond memories screaming at the top of my lungs at the car while pushing or pulling on the shifter with both hands trying to find any gear. So, if you were there and were wondering why I seemed to be down on power in the turns 8 through 10, there you have it.

Telemetry from the Racepak dash would later show that although my maximum velocity on the back straight was only 104 mph, we did see 1.4 lateral-G’s on several occasion and there was one corner were we held 0.6 G’s or more for over 12 seconds.



The Autocross was a completely new experience for me. I had said before the event that I had never participated in one before – which was true – but what I hadn’t told anyone was that I had never even seen one live before. I talked to Mary Pozzi before my first run and she took the time to walk the course with me and suggested that I walk it a couple more times before running it with the car, She also gave me some really valuable advice on how to run it and how to make the most of the course. It helped and although it is too late now if I had another run or two I already know what I would do differently.

At the end of the day, I had a great time at the event and am more than satisfied with how the car performed on its maiden voyage, I hope that I have the opportunity to take another shot at the track once I have the bugs sorted out and have more confidence in the car’s abilities.



Tom Holt was great throughout the day, offering advice and assistance at every opportunity, Probably the greatest disappointment was when I took Tom out on the road course for a couple of laps only to be turned back at the starting line because the track had been oiled down.

reboot04

When the event was done we quickly loaded up the trailer and headed back for home. That night was a short drive to Mesquite because my wife was under the weather and we were both dead tired. I hit the pillow around 10 pm and was woke up at around 11 by the sounds of sirens. I took a peak out the window and saw the truck and trailer surrounded by police cars and fire trucks in the hotel parking lot. Damn. Thankfully it had nothing to do with me; it was just the Burger King next door which was now on fire. Damn. Ultimately no harm to the truck, trailer, or car. Twenty more hours on the highway with a mix of rain, sleet, and snow and we were home, safe and sound.

Recharge the batteries for a couple of days and I’ll start tearing into the brakes and transmission.

Sorry for the long winded post, lots to cover over the course of two weeks, before I end through I have to thank a bunch of people who made everything possible:

Chris Heighton and Don and Shane at Heighton Restorations
Tyler Beauregard and Russell at American Touring Specialties
Pascual Marquez and Marquez Design for the awesome interior
Rick and Hector at Rick’s Stainless for the killer gas tank
Jay Harris at Littlefuse for giving us access to their new ISIS wiring technology
Mark Magers at Lateral Dynamics
Cam Douglass at Optima Batteries
And all of our other sponsors including Ididit Inc., Tilton Engineering, and RFR Custom Fabrication (thanks Matt!)

Again, it was a pleasure meeting everybody and I look forward to the next time that we can all get together and shoot the breeze.

Cheers,

James

knappbunch

that pic with you and big red is now my screen saver. love it.

reboot04

Here is a plot of the telemetry from the last time trial on the road course at Spring Mountain - three laps worth:



The green line is GPS Speed. Maximum that I saw was only 104 mph and from the data it was at under 6000 rpm midway down the back straight. I know that I was babying it (especially with my brake problems) but darn, I didn't think that I was taking it that easy.

The blue line is engine RPM. Like I said above, I was under 6000 rpm most (all) of the time. Lots more legs left...

The red line is lateral G's. Maximum positive (right) was 1.4, maximum left was 1.

It's interesting to look at it after the fact, it shows me two things... one - I was being way to easy on it and two - there is a lot of potential left in the car.

frojoe

iTrader: (10)

1.4 lateral G's... wowzers!!!!

tiresmokinV8

iTrader: (6)

This is such a sexy build. I love the look and that color definately sets it off. I dont know if you mentioned this even though I read through all 15 pages yesterday but what color is the paint?

V8Rumble

iTrader: (9)

I have GOT to get me one of those!! Info please?

Thank you.