57 Chevy Black Widow Makes its first auto cross runs

[rat_rod_russell]

I just made these passes this weekend. My slow runs besides the inexperienced driver, this chassis is Jim's soft chassis so it had no sway bars. It's mainly for the guys who what something stable for highway speed and good braking. I'm also running General brand tires. I'm 22, I'm on a budget. This was only my second auto cross and I'm taking a school at the end of the month so Look for some more video later, with some better times hopefully.

-Russell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiLFn1Guyq8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWbaT-vJHaI

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/08/001-1.jpg

There are some more photos from my auto cross this weekend in my build thread.

[compos mentis]

I think its neat someone 22 years old would build a tri five..especially in this style. I'm looking forward to learning from your build. Way to go Russell!

[rat_rod_russell]

Sorry I’ve been away for so long. I got the Autocross bug and I've been adding to the chassis left and right, my options, write or race, stupid question I know. So last race of the season was a few Sundays ago until March so I thought I would fill you all in. The car was nice for driving I’d had it over 120 on several occasions with the Basic chassis and it worked just like Jim designed it Like a modern car, a good ride and you feel the control available to you but with it being brutal to the driver.

So I got hooked on the road racing after my first couple of autocross, I stared going to every event in a 100 mile area and took a class at the new road course in Austin The Driveway. That opened another option for practice. Once you take their class you can go buy 20 minute sessions for 25 bucks with the instructors on hand and they’ll give you pointers and ride with you or even drive your car to give you examples of lines and how you might want to handle your particular car. “Your going to take the class in this?” The funny part was that I was only 4.5 seconds behind a C6 Z06 corvette with slicks and a none novice driver, I had smaller street tires, 100 less HP, and about 100 pound heaver. I was pleased.


https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/12/widowdriveway01s-1.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/driveway/widow-driveway-01.jpg) https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/12/widowdriveway02s-1.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/driveway/widow-driveway-02.jpg)


But once you really wanted to throw it around, ya, it needed sway bars and some other tweaks. So I started by adding the solid 30 mm front and solid 18 mm rear Corvette sway bars to the car and that helped by maintaining the body between its un-sprung weight. To mount the rear sway bar we added adjustable 4 bars too so we could have a place to mount to and adjust the bite of the individual tires. Limited slip differentials slip on one wheel for a little bit so this allowed me to tweak the passenger’s side wheel to slip a little until the drivers wheel cough up good and get a good even launch it also reduced the wheel spin exiting corners at the road course. Dad decided that we wanted to make this available to our customers looking for a little more bit so we called it the Sport Kit and made it an option for the bare frame and rolling chassis. So I'm getting to step up around here with the design and setup.

The next step was fine tuning the shocks to control the car even further and balance so I added the dual adjustable shock from QA1 and now I can really tweak the car for the corners depending on the tires, temperatures and course conditions. Did a final spring ratio bump for the sportier handling and there you have it and now it’s another option for the guys looking to carve corners and have some fun at the road course or autocross in their shoe boxes.

So how well does it handle? Once I got some half way decent tires on the car this last weekend. I took the average of my peek G scores on the big corner of the course logged on my Maxx Q GPS data logger. I averaged 1.18 g’s with a 1.26 g’s on my last pass being the topper. So now I need to find a good pavement for a skid pad test and get some seedy state numbers for the masses. You can check out my video from this weekend. And Yes, I drove the car to San Antonio and back. Find some one who's driven the east side of San Antonio and ask them how bad the roads are.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/12/race_datas-1.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/sasca_12/race_data.jpg)

Here's the Video From Sunday
http://videos.streetfire.net/video/Hot-Rod-Jims-Black-Widow_204593.htm?ref=07d9adf6-ef07-4af0-94e7-9af700aefb56

Spokes event # 11

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/12/001s-1.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/spokes_11/001.jpg) https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/12/002s-1.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/spokes_11/002.jpg) https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/12/003s-1.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/spokes_11/003.jpg)

SASCA event # 12

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/12/001s-2.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/sasca_12/001.jpg) https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/12/002s-2.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/sasca_12/002.jpg)

So now I'm playing with some more engine tuning to get a few more ponies, Build a fuel cell with better baffling and maybe finish out the interior. I'm thinking about selling the car since I found a 55 and I could do a little more rearranging with the motor and transmission for perfect balance, O and I have a line on a LS7 that I would love to kill tires with :rotfl:

-Russell

[compos mentis]

Russell, can you post some closeups of SASCA event # 12. Looks like you've got bigger tires and wheels?

[BA.]

very cool to see a young guy with such a cool old car.

good on ya for DRIVING it and enjoying it too!

[rat_rod_russell]

Russell, can you post some closeups of SASCA event # 12. Looks like you've got bigger tires and wheels?

Decent wheels and tires I would say. I have the back tires off my little brothers 57 pickup project on the front of my car, Nexus 275/40/R18. And the rears are the front tires for my dad's 57 hardtop project MeTTeor with Michelin Pilot Sports 275/35/R19. From my POS generals its a serious upgrade. Sorry I don't have anymore photos.

The story. I was going to balance the car, I had just gotten the scales from a buddy of mine who races dwarf cars. I pulled into the shop grabbed something to eat and went into my room / office. I come back out and there's a huge hole on the front drivers side sidewall. I don't know what I hit but it was Saturday night about 10 P.M. and I was going to race Sunday morning come hell or high water. Both of there projects are so far out that they both let me borrow their tires and wheels. Good thing they both like the C6 Z06 wheels. :headbang: Ahh good tires, If i got the same brand all the way around I don't know what I'd do.


-Russell

[BossaNova]

Awesome, awesome, awesome!

Thanks for sharing!