The OneLapCamaro - SEMA and the Optimal Invitational

[James OLC]

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.
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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.

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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.

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[James OLC]

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.

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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…

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[James OLC]

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.

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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.

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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.

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[James OLC]

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.

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[James OLC]

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.

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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.

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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.

[James OLC]

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

[Steve1968LS2]

One of my favorite cars.. truly stunning and it was an honor running with you at the track and even better getting to meet you.

I'm sure, once your car is sorted out, it will give Penny a run for her money. lol

Glad you made it home safe, keep in touch so we can get that photoshoot done.

[skatinjay27]

glad you made it home safe!
and it was a pleasure to you meet you and your wife, and to get my hands on the one lap camaro! lol

yea it suck you havent got a chance to know the car better to show what its really capable of doing! but theres plenty of time to do that now.

[class67]

All the extra effort and long days/nights payed off in my opinion.....that is a beautiful car!

[Flash68]

One of my absolute favorite cars, not just Camaros.

[XLexusTech]

James Congrats on the car as well as the successful thrash for SEMA. You made it and that int itself deserves cudos.
YOur car is one of my favorites.
Question for you, any chance Sony will honor you with a car in thier game.
How killer would that be! A protouring camaro in a video game!

[James OLC]

One of my favorite cars.. truly stunning and it was an honor running with you at the track and even better getting to meet you.

I'm sure, once your car is sorted out, it will give Penny a run for her money. lol

Glad you made it home safe, keep in touch so we can get that photoshoot done.

Thanks Steve,
I really appreciated the opportunity to get to know you and Penny a little bit. You've built one heck of a machine and it's more than proven itself over the last couple of weeks.

I'll start going through our trouble spots this weekend and try to at least get the know problems sorted out. Then it's four months of clean up while the snow ruins my fun and then I'll look to bring the car down to warmer climates. We'll stay in touch for sure.

[James OLC]

Thanks everybody, I am really happy with how the car came out.


James Congrats on the car as well as the successful thrash for SEMA. You made it and that int itself deserves cudos.
YOur car is one of my favorites.
Question for you, any chance Sony will honor you with a car in thier game.
How killer would that be! A protouring camaro in a video game!

No chance (at this time with this car).

[Damn True]

James,

Congrats man. We are all really proud of you and your team for getting the car together at all, but doing so and having it look as good as it does is simply amazing.

Awesome work.

[CarlC]

Bugs and gremlins are normal. No worries, you will work them out. It was great to see you again at the show.

But the real question is have you been afflicted with Track Day disease?

[BossaNova]

Awesome car! Wish I could have seen it in person.

[Damn True]

Bugs and gremlins are normal. No worries, you will work them out. It was great to see you again at the show.

But the real question is have you been afflicted with Track Day disease?

Over on CC.com they call it the "Go-Fast Crackpipe"

[moreHP]

I took several long looks at the car while at SEMA and it was indeed one of my favorites from the show.

[Pagani]

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.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/11/picture209-1.jpg

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.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/11/picture2010-1.jpg

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.
Your camaro and big red is a great picture
What kind of engine is big red running now?
:worship:

[David Pozzi]

James, the first thing I thought during my short ride in your Camaro was, how smooth it felt. It's got to be a great car for both crusing and on the track. There is always a sorting out proccess, Penny had some new gremlins too.

I'm amazed by the quality of the work on your Camaro! Outstanding!
I really wanted a ride in it, but had my head full of things about Penny and at one point if I hadn't brought Penny up to the autox line, Mary would have been disqualified, they were on the last call for cars and she was busy with the course timers, etc.

I really hate bringing an untested car to an event like this. We really lucked out finishing. I always say, I'm happy if I bring back as much car on the trailer as we came with.
David

[James OLC]

Bugs and gremlins are normal. No worries, you will work them out. It was great to see you again at the show.

But the real question is have you been afflicted with Track Day disease?

It was great talking to you Carl - your car has been an inspiration throughout my build.

I've had the bug for a while now, the Camaro is supposed to be the cure...

[James OLC]

James, the first thing I thought during my short ride in your Camaro was, how smooth it felt. It's got to be a great car for both crusing and on the track. There is always a sorting out proccess, Penny had some new gremlins too.

I'm amazed by the quality of the work on your Camaro! Outstanding!
I really wanted a ride in it, but had my head full of things about Penny and at one point if I hadn't brought Penny up to the autox line, Mary would have been disqualified, they were on the last call for cars and she was busy with the course timers, etc.

I really hate bringing an untested car to an event like this. We really lucked out finishing. I always say, I'm happy if I bring back as much car on the trailer as we came with.
David

Thanks David,

You are, of course, 100 percent correct about being fortunate to leave an event like this in the same shape that you arrived - new, untested car or not. I has said from the beginning that my objective was to shake the car down and see what it was capable of. I wish that we were in a position to really push it but we just did not have the time. Hopefully we have another opportunity to represent...

We'll have to get together when I bring the car down in the spring.

Thanks very much for your advice and for showing all of us what these cars are capable of.

[CarlC]

....the Camaro is supposed to be the cure...

Yeah, right. That like saying a bigger, faster, cooler crack pipe will cure the fix. Don't worry, it gets worse.

Your car is superb.

[James OLC]

Yeah, right. That like saying a bigger, faster, cooler crack pipe will cure the fix. Don't worry, it gets worse.

Your car is superb.

Who told you about my plans for a bigger, faster, cooler crack pipe?

Thanks Carl!

[LMDGUY]

great build! the car even caught my gf eye.. wish i coulda stayed for the optima challenge but with a broken hand and 2 extra passenger I was ready to get home..

[James OLC]

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

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/11/Spring20Mountain20Telemetry-1.jpg

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.

The good news is that I think that I found my brake issue (we'll know tomorrow)... fingers are crossed.

[skatinjay27]

holy! i didnt know your car can record all that!!!!!!!:hammer:
thats crazy... so where was the "MR fusion" hidden then? lol

[Chad-1stGen]

Fun reading about your experiences and of course I love the car

[Pagani]

It will be interesting how your car will perfected(modded) in the coming years

[David Pozzi]

James, I was looking at your lap times, you knocked about 3 seconds off each lap. You just need more laps in the car plus fixing a few things. :twothumbs

[James OLC]

Thanks David, it's really cool to look through all of the data and see the trends that show through. I don't know if Penny's logger tracks it or not, but with the MEFI4 plug in, it records the throttle position sensor data so you can see where you are on the throttle the whole time. I'll post the last laps data with speed, throttle, and rpm in a few.

I got the first issue sorted out today. The brake pedal ratio was set at 4.5:1... fixed and now we are at 6.25:1. That alone would have made a world of difference...

[James OLC]

Final timed lap:

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/11/final20lap-1.jpg

Red is GPS Speed (0 to 200 mph scale)
Green is RPM (0 to 10,000 rpm scale)
Blue is Throttle Position (0 to 100%)
Yellow is Lateral-G (centered on 0)

As always, a two edged sword. I can learn a lot from the data but it ticks me off to look at how often I was 100% off the throttle. Then again if I had 100% of my brakes I would have had far mor confidence coming up into the corners...

[killer69]

James
it was good to see you againand to see the car done. it's amazing!!! i think you will get alot of mileage from it both drving and satisfaction.

[James OLC]

James
it was good to see you againand to see the car done. it's amazing!!! i think you will get alot of mileage from it both drving and satisfaction.

Likewise Blake, it was great to see and all the guys from Killer Customs. You brought some awesome cars and some really cool new products to the show. I was looking over the new torque arm setup from Speedtech and think that I might want to try that out on the '67 that I'm starting on next week.