Quick Change Camaro at LS Fest West

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Ever wonder how long it takes to install Speedtech's Road Assault front and Torque Arm rear suspension? We say about half a day, and depending on how early we can get in a couple "before" autoX runs on the stock suspension, we're hoping to be ready to hit the track before the autocross shuts down for the day. Possible? Stop by the Speedtech Corral at LS Fest West and find out live! If you can't make it to the event, we will be posting live on our facebook page!

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So here's what's going on. We've lined up this clean street cruiser 67 Camaro from Instagram's @Camaro.Family that's sorely needing a serious suspension upgrade. It currently has a mostly stock front suspension and leaf springs with Caltrac bars out back and they want to convert to a full Pro Touring set up. Nothing on the car is ideal for that type of handling so it all comes out!

Going in up front will be our Speedtech Road assault package, consisting of our geometry enhanced tubular control arms and front high rate tubular sway bar, Viking's bolt-in coilover conversion, and our billet tie rod sleeves. Out back we will be yanking the leaf spring suspension to install one of our track proven famous Torque Arm systems, including our exclusive bind eliminating Articulink rotating trailing arms, fully adjutsable panhard bar, a new Dutchman prepped 9" Ford rear axle, and Viking coilovers. Backing all this great suspension will be 14" Baer Brakes, Forgeline wheels and BFG tires.

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This exact kit is in the '68 Nova we brought to the Super Chevy Suspension and Handling Challenge where Mary Pozzi said "Handling was absolutely spot-on as the car was so easy to compress into a corner. It was trustable and gave a confident “hero” feel, and I finally was able to realize just how developed this suspension is with that awesome torque arm handling the load. From corner-entry to track-out, the car went where it was pointed and enabled me to focus on the upcoming turns and proper driving lines to get there." She continued, " Of all the cars I’ve threaded through cones and apex-clipped as part of the Super Chevy Suspension & Handling Challenges held over the past eight years, this car is in my top three of all time." This simple, easy to install system is great for both the beginner just getting their feet wet in PT to those that want a genuine street car they can be confident with when hitting track days. It's also packaged price so that most anyone can afford it.

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To keep up with the action, click HERE (https://www.facebook.com/Speedtech-Performance-113050685377479/) to like our FB page or we'll see you there!

[BADNBLK]

I can say I'm very pumped to be so close to the "action" on this on and get to see the progress in person! I can't wait!

[Ben@SpeedTech]

It should be a lot of fun. I hope Speedtech fans and those that are privy to other brands alike stop by and check it out. :)

[1965_SS]

It should be a lot of fun. I hope Speedtech fans and those that are privy to other brands alike stop by and check it out. :)

It was awesome to meet you there! Very cool to see the car get transformed...........and man what a huge improvement it did on the track!

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Updates-

We had a blast putting this car together at the booth like this, a challenge we'd never tackled before. We really wanted to show everyone just how easy it is to upgrade from a stock, clunky, poor handling and driving factory suspension to something that literally could be competitive and fun on a race course. As mentioned we teamed up with Scott Timmons from Instagram famous Camaro Family, Viking Shocks, Baer Brakes, Dutchman Axles and Forgeline Wheels, to see just how long it would take two guys working outside under a canopy, using only hand tools and a 110 volt home garage style welder, to install Speedtech's complete Road Assault front and Torque Arm rear suspension. The answer was right about 8 hours! How's that for a quick change?

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Scott started out early in Cali and met us at the event Thursday evening. Never seeing the car in person before the event, Friday morning Speedtech's sales leader and track driver Jay started with a few good autocross "before" runs leaving the suspension just as the car came to us. An aggressive well seasoned race driver, Jay's best time was 39.5 seconds, and when compared to the other cars at the event was very respectable considering how the car was set up. Right after a quick cool down period Jeremy, Speedtech's Rod Shop lead tech and Ryan, Speedtech's lead welder started tearing out the old stock style suspension a little past 11 AM. Working with typical hand tools found in any home garage builder's tool chest the reassembly work continued throughout the day.

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[Ben@SpeedTech]

Once the old was out, replacing the front suspension with Speedtech's tubular control arms and sway bar was fairly easy and straight forward. While in there we replaced all steering linkage and added a set of Baer 6 piston 14" brakes and BFG Rival S 245mm tires on Forgeline wheels. Out back the work was a little more involved, including about 30 minutes of fitting and welding in the rear crossmember that strengthens the rear frame rails and provides the Panhard Bar and Coilover Shock mounts. From there the Speedtech exclusive Articulink lower trailing arms were fitted into the leaf spring pockets. Next up was assembling the Torque Arm center link onto the Dutchman built 9" Ford axle and the complete assembly was bolted into the car. Finally the panhard bar and rear Viking Coilovers were bolted in and the outer ends finished off with matching Baer rear brakes. The car's existing dual exhaust required some slight modification to clear the center link and Ryan knocked that out with his 110 Volt Hobart welder plugged into the semi's generator. Just as the event was shutting down at 7:30 pm the rear 315mm BFG tires on Forgeline wheels were bolted on and everything was given a double visual check over. In just about 8 hours two guys with hand tools and a basic welder in a home garage type setting completely transformed the entire car.

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[Ben@SpeedTech]

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Saturday morning consisted of final setting of the ride height and cross weight on our race scales, a guess base setting on shock valving and then a wheel alignment with our trackside alignment kit.The car was ready to roll and was taken for a quick drive around the Las Vegas Motor Speedway grounds to bed in the new brake pads and then we went directly to the autocross grid to await our turn.

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Right out of the box the car turned a mid 35 second time, and over a few runs and simple between run shock dial adjustments the car saw a best of 35.08, a near full 4.5 second reduction! We felt we could have easily continued runs and broken into the 34s, but at 35.08 we decided to stop there to try to win the event award for the lap time closest to 35.00 seconds. That drop in lap time was pretty significant on a half a minute course, and we ended up less than 3 seconds behind the event winning race prepped suspension 1100+ hp Camaro.

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In the end we feel we've proven that even our entry level, essentially all bolt in suspension systems on a stock subframed Camaro or Nova with even a stock pull out used LS1 powering it can turn a classic car with poor old school handling into a very competitive street and track car, it can be installed at home in as little as 8 hours, and it can be done at a cost that fits most any working man's budget. Click here (http://www.speedtechperformance.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=product/product_id=530/category_id=23/mode=prod/prd530.htm)for a few more pics

[Peter Mc Mahon]

That is impressive! Good work guys

[Build-It-Break-It]

Is there any video on the Quick build?

[dontlifttoshift]

What size Rivals were on it before the swap?

[Fastlife831]

Did you guys mini tub as well? Or did the 315mm rear tires fit the stock location without mods.

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Scott said his old tires were 225-50-17 all around, and the new combo was 245s and 315s on 18" wheels. Scott had already had it mini tubbed before before meeting up with us, something typically required to get much bigger than a 275 under the car.

[ITLBTU]

Did you do a test with the original tires and the new suspension? I'm just curious how much the tires helped with the times. I also noticed that you kept the stock front spindles? How did you correct the bad geometry on the front end? I really like the Torque arm rear suspension. I have an old "Shock Wave" on my 69 Camaro and I've never been too impressed. It's better than the multi/mono leaf rear but it's still my weak link. Do you sell come of the components so I could use most of what I have already?
Thanks, Greg

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Thanks for the Qs Greg. We did not test it with the old tires and new suspension. A lot of the geometry correction is built into the control arms and comes through the alignment, although adding AFX spindle would have really been ideal. Probably the best thing is give us a call and one of the guys can walk you the best all around scenario for your specific car. 435-628-4300.

A couple of folks have brought up the tires, perhaps thinking they made a large part of the improvement? Yes the wider and stickier tires helped reduce the times but they're a small part of a large equation and perhaps will see their greatest improvement on a well tuned car. One thing to note on this car is that the alignment was way less than autocross standard, for example we were only around 1.5 degrees of caster where most cars will run 5 to 8 degrees, the LS1 Camaro headers caused clearance issues and we just couldn't get anymore out of it. Someone building a car like this with a proper alignment would likely have seen even more improvement. Remember too these runs were with parts right off the shelf put on the car in a parking lot, our best guessing on everything from spring rate, shock valving, rear control arm settings, tire pressure etc. and with a not so great alignment. I like what Nick Relampagos, who had the orange 2nd gen Camaro with our ExtReme suspension said to me- he's been racing on this new suspension now for several months and thinks he's finally getting the tuning closer to where it needs to be. It's too bad we didn't have more seat time like that with the Quick Change car, it's a blast trying to find a car's sweet spot on suspension tuning and achieving lower and lower track times.

[ITLBTU]

Thanks for the Qs Greg. We did not test it with the old tires and new suspension. A lot of the geometry correction is built into the control arms and comes through the alignment, although adding AFX spindle would have really been ideal. Probably the best thing is give us a call and one of the guys can walk you the best all around scenario for your specific car. 435-628-4300.

A couple of folks have brought up the tires, perhaps thinking they made a large part of the improvement? Yes the wider and stickier tires helped reduce the times but they're a small part of a large equation and perhaps will see their greatest improvement on a well tuned car. One thing to note on this car is that the alignment was way less than autocross standard, for example we were only around 1.5 degrees of caster where most cars will run 5 to 8 degrees, the LS1 Camaro headers caused clearance issues and we just couldn't get anymore out of it. Someone building a car like this with a proper alignment would likely have seen even more improvement. Remember too these runs were with parts right off the shelf put on the car in a parking lot, our best guessing on everything from spring rate, shock valving, rear control arm settings, tire pressure etc. and with a not so great alignment. I like what Nick Relampagos, who had the orange 2nd gen Camaro with our ExtReme suspension said to me- he's been racing on this new suspension now for several months and thinks he's finally getting the tuning closer to where it needs to be. It's too bad we didn't have more seat time like that with the Quick Change car, it's a blast trying to find a car's sweet spot on suspension tuning and achieving lower and lower track times.

I hope I didn't come across as critical, I was just curious. When I made the changes to my Camaro, including the AFX spindles, I couldn't compare my old wheel tire combo with the new because of the big brakes up front... It was a very nice improvement on your car... I will be sure and call when I get to that point.
Greg

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Not at all taken that way Greg. It's tough to convey tone in a post, I was worried I might get misinterpreted, but it was meant to be supportive and positive.

I just wanted to clarify that we were excited in the times the car turned under the circumstances and feel the suspension made a vast improvement. Plus the tires did add to the total time reduction and I didn't previously address that. There's a lot of newbies out there much like myself when I first converted to PT that may not understand why you buy the suspension you do, how it works, how geometry plays a roll as do tires. I wish we had the ability to test the old tires on the new suspension but it was the same situation you've dealt with, the brakes were too big. Good luck with your projects!

Concerning tires, from personal experience when I went from Nitto NT 555s to Falken 615s in the same size a couple years ago I picked up a couple seconds + and was hanging with the cars that smoked me before. I also changed rear axles and went from 2.41 open rear gears to a 3.42 posi. Hard to say exactly how much difference the better tires or the steeper posi helped, but it definitely felt stickier and I was able to push the car harder than before. Rivals and RE71s seem to be the winning tires now but Falken has recently stepped up their compound so we'll see how that pans out.

As Greg likely already knows, 3 factors make fast cars- a well matched system of parts, alignment and tires; "listening" to what the car wants in tuning; and lots and lots of practice working on one's driving skills. I think the latter two will really help Scott and the QCC Camaro kick some tail in the future.