Pete's Camaro

[Stuart]

Great work Pete

[pjs65]

Thanks Stu

The track session went really well although i was i bit nervous to start with about how the brakes would be , so the first couple of goes i took it steady . The brakes were fine so for the rest of the session i tried to get on track for as long as possible as there was no need to let the brakes recover . They were as good on lap 10 as lap 2 and i felt that there was always more braking left than i was using . Previously i would do 3 laps and the pedal would go soft and i would have to back off but there was none of that , this meant there was more time to get the hang of the corners . Another plus was that i didnt have to park in the paddock with smoking brakes , so i guess the cooling ducts worked . Having more time to work out the corners meant that iam not scared of Riches anymore so instead of wafting around it in 4th i now boot it through in 3rd . I can also get round the Montreal hairpin without understeering into next year by not trying to boot it around , i can thank Christians lesson with Maxx for that . With all the improvements in braking and cornering it started to show up a lack of straight line speed as i could gain on cars it the corners but they would pull away on the straights . The car weights over 1500kg , has a 3.08 rear gear with a 40 year old 260 hp motor , up the finish straight i was crossing the line as i changed into 4th . I think over the winter i will swop the 3.08 gear for a 3.42 or 3.55 gear which i think will be better suited to track use .All i all it was a really good session helped by the great weather , and the usual excellent marshalls . Had to laugh at the end as a car that span off on Coram got towed rearend first back to the paddock , as it slowly passed by the passenger leaned out and shouted "IAM STILL ALIVE" . Pete

[Stuart]

Nice update and great to hear that your brakes work properly now. With more seat time to build confidence, and improved gearing (or better suited to track use I should say) you should be terrorising plenty of cars on circuit next year. Have you ever run your car at Santa Pod Pete?

[Monster]

Yeah nice update. Great to hear that all the hard work and effort paid off and you had a really good session on track. I know from experience how satisfying that can feel. Would like to see some pics of the car with the new spoiler on....

[pjs65]

Nice update and great to hear that your brakes work properly now. With more seat time to build confidence, and improved gearing (or better suited to track use I should say) you should be terrorising plenty of cars on circuit next year. Have you ever run your car at Santa Pod Pete?

I have been to the the Pod but not for a while , i don't think that there are many yank owners who have not been there . It's one of the first things i did was to go there and i actual went with Sean and Ollie when they had their Hondas , thats a few years back now . Terrorising other track users i can't do that iam a grandad you know , but i do think a matt paint job and some sharks teeth might help with that .

Yeah nice update. Great to hear that all the hard work and effort paid off and you had a really good session on track. I know from experience how satisfying that can feel. Would like to see some pics of the car with the new spoiler on....

Iam well pleased it all works as the brakes have really been holding me back , thats the problem they weren't . I will do some pictures at the weekend when i get some time , i want to get the car into work so i can make some new door cards out of Ali . There is meant to be some pictures on the MSVT site but so far they have only put the daytime ones up , they did say up by Friday but nothing yet . Pete

[pjs65]

When doing trackdays what gets mentioned alot about the Camaro is its size and weight , i usually say it weights 3200 pounds or 1500kg because chevy quote 3150 kerb weight . On another stateside forum i found a post about how much these cars weight and a small block powered coupe like mine is about 3200 to 3300 pounds . These weights came from an aftermarket suspension company who were weighting cars at various events , so the figures are accurate and they also did the front/rear weights. These cars thought had air con , cd players and sound deadening etc whereas i have none of that . On the post one guy weighed his car which he uses for autocrosses and it was 3000 pounds dead , this is like mine without a heater ,radio ,soundproofing and has light bucket seats . His car is a 67 which is about 50 pounds less than a 69 but even so 3050 pounds is 1390 kg which is a bit less than i thought . Because the weight thing gets mentioned alot i have been trying to put the car on a diet and have been gradually removing unecessary parts or replacing things with something lighter . One thing i have noticed is that i don't scrape the exhuast now when i reverse out of the garage , so the car has gained some clearance in the process . There is still a fair bit more that can be done such as fiberglass panels and ali engine parts and i still have the rear seats in . Something that will be be a bit more difficult to address is the front/rear weight distribution because the front carries about an extra 300+pounds or 150 kg than the rear . Anyway one thing i have done recently is to replace the door cards with ali panels , the old one's were rough and bugged me a bit and its something i have been wanting to do for a while . Pete

[Stuart]

Nice and neat...great work Pete.

You really surprise me on the weight of the car. I always imagined them to be so much heavier (circa 1700-1800kgs?) so maybe it's just the way that stock cars seem to control the way the weight moves under load (changing direction, stopping etc)

I keep looking at the American companies that put modern engines, brakes and suspension in classic bodywork and that must be something special if one had the cash

I had alloy door cards on the BMW but soon painted them black. Will be interesting to see if you leave them bare like that or cover/paint them.

When is the car next out to play?

[john B]

Looks good Pete but they do look cold.....as Stu said some paint might help with an optical illusion.....

[pjs65]

Thats not a bad idea painting them black and TBH i wasn't 100% happy with the plain aluminium look plus you have to keep polishing the stuff , i see what you mean about the cold look John .
There is a big weight difference in these cars depending what they are built for , there is no safety equipment like modern cars so once you strip them back there is not much left . Once you start adding aircon , custom interiors , ICE , soundproofing , 6 speed tranny , heavy duty 9 inch axle etc etc then the weight soon mounts . Some of the early Mustangs are posted as being down to 2700 pounds or 1250 kg whereas a big block Camaro with all the extras 3900 pounds or 1775 kg . The poor handling is down to loads of things like poor suspension geometry , bad weight distribution , heavy live rear axle and leaf sprung rear . Iam trying to improve mine and working from a low base i hope to improve things quite a lot . I haven't booked a trackday yet but i will do soon as i have just done some front end adjustments and iam keen to try it out , i will post that up later .
Stu you mention about the fitting of modern engines and suspension for these pro touring type cars , for me the scene has gone crazy and there is no limit on what people will spend . It started off as making cars that would handle better and fit more modern engines but take a look at some off the stuff on here , its gone way past that now http://www.lateral-g.net/forums/forumdisplay.php4?f=16

[Stuart]

Great link, thanks (Not sure that's good news for me seeing that at gone midnight but anyway........)
I always enjoy watching anything from Nelson Racing Engines as these guys seem to continually crank out a superb standard of cars. The look of a 60's car with the power that would make a Veyron blush? What's not to like