1967 Nova SS

[RadLS67]

I'm new to this site but i've had this car for going on 2 years now. Got some modest/decent improvements over the way i found this car and have a LONG way to go. To start i found this car with a 383 (race gas motor) and powerglide, heidts front clip, 10.5'' slicks, 8.5'' 10 bolt and needing attention throughout the whole car. Started out buying the car and replacing all the rusted and flaking sheetmetal with reproductions, taking the interior down to bare metal priming/sealing then dynomating under the interior. Selling the 383 and powerglide and replacing the whole chassis wiring harness. I found a suitable engine/trans which happend to be a 2001 camaro LS1 & 4L60E with an S&P standalone harness already installed (which strangely enough i found in a 1992 GMC safari van) Threw in some billet pedals, shifter, autometer nexus gauges, c5 corvette wheels, front sway bar for the clip and reproduction bumpers grille etc. I'll post a few pictures of what i have already done. Any comments, suggestions, thumbs up etc would be appreciated.
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[RadLS67]

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[Motown 454]

Welcome! It looks like you well on your way. What you've done so far looks great. You'll have a great ride when your done.

[ProSwede]

Nice car! Use to have one of these a longtime ago...(also an 67 SS)

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2012/02/Nova2-1.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2012/02/Nova1-1.jpg

[70Uglybird]

66-67 Nova's are one of the nicest looking cars on the road! Subscribing on this one, want to see how it turns out! I'm not a huge fan of the c5 postive offset wheels on classic cars but if you go low enough I think that car can pull it off!

[RadLS67]

Thanks guys! I don't really know too many people in my area that are part of the "pro-touring crowd" but i recently purchased a hydroboost unit, a quick ratio powder coated power rack and pinion and hopefully i can get some lines made up for it. Once i get those in and driving i will probably be tearing it down for paint and body work. I'm thinking of the new "crystal red tintcoat" (the maroon you see on new camaros) and all the trim, bumpers etc going to a "cyber grey metallic". The wheels are kind of temporary until i can get some forged wheels in the same size. Lots of pictues to come!

[RadLS67]

Here are a few more pictures with the front end assembled, bumpers put on, LED tail lights in and in "drivable" condition".
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[RadLS67]

Any suggestions on new wheels, brakes or body modifications?

[craigs73]

love the car have you checked out stevesnovasite.com??? anyways i would suggest new gen wheels... john..the owner is a member here and he would be greatfull to help you out....what color you going with so we can get an idea of what wheels to suggest?

[wellis77]

I love these Novas. Very cool.

[csouth]

Lov ethis body style Nova. The power to weight ratio with that LS will be real nice...

[RadLS67]

@ Craigs73: I'm looking at GM crystal red tintcoat (the semi metallic looking maroon paint on the new camaros) and all the trim bumpers etc in a GM cyber grey metallic. I would love some newer/modern looking wheels as that is the look i am going after. I was thinking some really clean/smooth split 5 spokes with a decent lip on them in chrome.

[ACONLP]

looking good fellow Houston member

[streetkar]

subscribed
!!!!

[Blown73]

Sweet! Glad to see more 67s on here! Subscribed!

[darkgable79]

Any suggestions on new wheels, brakes or body modifications?

Welcome from a fellow Houston area member.

I think Rushforth wheels would look nice. He's a member on here as well. Great guy to talk to and he'll help you out with any ideas.

[RadLS67]

It has been quite a while since ive been able to get some pics up. But Since my last few posts i have come along ways with the car, here are a few pictures of the car when i had it driving before it went under the knife again.717797178171783

[RadLS67]

Now for the good stuff, got a lot of parts in. Got a set of Wilwood 6 piston front brakes and CPP power steering rack. Got my TCI "torque arm" rear suspension (Included 9'' housing, 3.73 true trac posi, wilwood 4 piston rear calipers, aluminum double adjustable coil overs and 31 spline axles) As well as procar seats and GForce harnesses.

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[RadLS67]

After driving and enjoying the car for a while all the parts needed a new home so it went back on jackstands... After basically disassembling the car i started by replacing the frame rails with 10 gauge mandrel bent boxed rears. Replaced the front frame rails with the same material. Installed the rear end/suspension. Then installed a 6 point roll cage that i hand built out of 2'' .125 wall mild steel tubing. (First cage i ever even attempted making) I know that the cage isnt really legal but i dont intend to go faster than a high 11 sec pass, i also didnt want to have to climb over or deal with door bars on a street car. The reason i installed it was for a big piece of mind, needed a harness attatchment points and wanted the car to be as rigid as possible.After that i had a friend do the body gaps on the whole car (being half new sheetmetal needed it bad) He also filled all the holes in the firewall not being utilized, shaved/tucked the bumpers and got the doors/trunk/hood to pretty close to perfect.71794717957179671797

[RadLS67]

Here are some more pics...
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[Anchor]

I like what you've done with the chassis underneath regarding the TCI gear. I plan to do the same. Basically make it one piece all the way to the front clip.

[rickpaw]

Nice project. I live in Summerwood, not too far from you, so if you need a hand, let me know.

[RadLS67]

@anchor: i've seen your build threads your 67 is going to be an absolute monster!

@rickpaw: Yea you live right by lake houston? The car is all broken down to go into paint, id like to get it into a decent paint shop here in the next 2 weeks. I took the car by mo muscle in the woodlands just for $hits and giggles.... quoted me 34k to be painted there. Also took it by chaotic customs, they are reasonable and the owner is a pretty cool guy. Any suggestions on paint shops in the houston area that do good work for a decent price?

[rickpaw]

[QUOTE=RadLS67;973103@rickpaw: Yea you live right by lake houston? The car is all broken down to go into paint, id like to get it into a decent paint shop here in the next 2 weeks. I took the car by mo muscle in the woodlands just for $hits and giggles.... quoted me 34k to be painted there. Also took it by chaotic customs, they are reasonable and the owner is a pretty cool guy. Any suggestions on paint shops in the houston area that do good work for a decent price?[/QUOTE]

I live off of Deussen Parkway, near W Lake Houston Prkwy. I moved here from Portland Ore area 1.5 years ago so I don't know a good paint shop here in Houston. Had my car painted in Oregon. Several guys in the local firebird club had their cars worked on by Moe's Muscle. I heard they do good work, but as you know they charge dearly. They maybe overbooked, and just quoted you some high price to see if you bite.

[RadLS67]

Yea that was my impression on them as well.

For now i guess i will keep trying to get a deal on good paint and do small things to the car here and there. My cam kit for the LS1 should be in when i get home from work Wednesday. I also have miles of wires to solder/ clean up.

Also if you or anyone else in the houston area interested and arent doing anything Saturday there is a pretty neat car show right by my house that i will be at called the texas hot rod hoedown. My car wont be in it this year as its in pieces but there are usually some pretty slick cars out there.

[rickpaw]

Any updates on the Nova? I did not know you have an LS for the Nova. May have to pick your brains on the swap. I have to pull the Pontiac engine out of my Firebird, and been thinking about an LS swap.

[RadLS67]

Yep came across a shop in crosby that started doing the work around 3 weeks ago. Finally settled on the GM cyber grey metallic (the 2010+ grey camaros and vettes) PPG code was a WA637R i beleive. Whole car is being stripped, prepped, painted, painting the inside of the doors, painting the cage, being seam sealed finally sealing and undercoating the bottom. Im leaving the dash alone for now until i finish planning the layout/design of my center console and dash, then have it painted to match the inside of the doors. The bumpers, grille, doorhandles and light bezels id like to paint the look of brushed aluminum to match center of the wheels. As well as paint the trim around all the windows in a gloss black.

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Here is a picture of the wheels im going to order. 18x8's up front and 18x10's out back with some nitto rubber.

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@Rickpaw: As for your LS swap inquiry, im a HUGE fan of LS swaps. I think they are worth every penny and drop of sweat getting them into these old cars. People can argue for days on SBC/BBC/LS motors but for me LS motors and late model transmissions are the only way to go. My 2 cents worth on your pontiac would be to find an LS2/6spd or an LS2/4L65E pullout from an 05-06 GTO to put into it. If you have any questions about the swap, need a hand or need some help tracking down some parts just send me a message on here.

[rickpaw]

Nice color choice, and wheels too. I'd like to see it when it's done.

I already obtained a 5.3/4l60e drop out from a pick up. Will send you a pm later.

Tu

[RadLS67]

UPDATE:

Just stopped by the body shop last week. The car is stripped down to bare metal and should be seeing some primer this week. Once primed it will start going through body work. The good news is that the car is completely rust free and the body is in decent shape.

Since the car is now on a jig i was able to pick up my front suspension/subframe. While its out i am sand blasting and powder coating all of the pieces,
replacing the control arm bushings as well as replacing the ball joints and tie rod ends.

Sorry i didnt get any recent pictures, seems like i forget every time more work is completed....

[rickpaw]

Radley,

Any updates? Is the car painted yet? I'm half way thru my swap right now.

[RadLS67]

Its been a while since ive been able to give an update. The car is currently still in paint jail, in the middle of bodywork and should be done in september. I broke the front suspension down and got everything powder coated as well as installed new bushings, ball joints and cotter pins. I still need to get some quality tie rod ends but i figure i will have them put on when i do the alignment.

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[RadLS67]

On a side note i helped out a friend by building his motor for his s10. Its a 406ci sbc with a 3500 stall and 700r4, should be a nice little burnout toy until he gets some slicks and rear suspension.

Not sure if the attached video will work or not...

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[TomMLS1]

Howdy neighbor. I'm right down the road from you in Baytown, out past RPR.....another fellow Nova nut....I've built a few...If you need any help on te LS swap, let me know....

If you get a chance check over at Steve's Nova Site, my user handle is TomM there. Here's a good link to the LSx section, some good stuff in there that is Nova specific.

http://www.stevesnovasite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=112

T,

[RadLS67]

@TomMLS1: Glad to see another LS nova guy in the area. Im really hesitant to sign up to forums, not exactly sure why. Im only on protouring.com and ar15.com. Im itching to get my car back from paint jail and start piecing it back together.

[no go nova]

Nice project I'm also on SNS good ppl. I have a 66 with a 67 front I'm trying to build no go nova

[no go nova]

Also you tried your nexus gauges yet?

[MidnightSpecial]

Oklahoma State fan I see.....I am a Mississippi State fan. I look forward to our matchup on the 31st.

If we win ill come back in and talk crap.

If you win ill continue to comment on the car and act like that game never happened.



Oh and sweet car!

[TomMLS1]

@TomMLS1: Glad to see another LS nova guy in the area. Im really hesitant to sign up to forums, not exactly sure why. Im only on protouring.com and ar15.com. Im itching to get my car back from paint jail and start piecing it back together.

No need to join, but there is some good Nova specific info there. Subscribing to see you get it finished.....I have in laws over in Crosby. I would be interested in what body shop you used, and to see the final outcome.

T,

[rickpaw]

Looking forward to see the Nova finished. Bet you can't wait.

[RadLS67]

Also you tried your nexus gauges yet?

I will say one thing, the gauges are expensive without a doubt. But other than that they are awesome, ive got quite a few compliments and people asking me about them. They work great, you can change the background color, adjust dimming, set warning points for the gauge to flash red (low oil pressure high temp etc.) and have playback. The coolest feature that i havent got the chance to play with yet is with the remote you can put a memory card in and record everything the gauges see when you go to the track and upload it to your computer for data logging.

[RadLS67]

Oklahoma State fan I see.....I am a Mississippi State fan. I look forward to our matchup on the 31st.

If we win ill come back in and talk crap.

If you win ill continue to comment on the car and act like that game never happened.



Oh and sweet car!

HaHa, yea my dad and i were wanting to go to that game pretty damn bad but we will be out of town for a trip to the lake with the whole family that weekend... It should be a good game though.

[RadLS67]

Looking forward to see the Nova finished. Bet you can't wait.

I am chomping at the bits to see it all smoothed out and painted! It should be out of paint late next month so im slowly cleaning up the engine/trans and wiring harness to get ready to get the car back into the garage.

[RadLS67]

Oklahoma State fan I see.....I am a Mississippi State fan. I look forward to our matchup on the 31st.

If we win ill come back in and talk crap.

If you win ill continue to comment on the car and act like that game never happened.



Oh and sweet car!

Looks like miss state choked a little! lol

[RadLS67]

So i decided the little ls1 needed a cam swap... Got a comp cam kit (cam, pushrods, trunion rocker upgrade, springs, retainers, keepers and spring cups) Now im trying to track down a decently priced used LS6 intake with a ported/polished throttle body to slap on top.

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[rickpaw]

Any new updates Radley?

[RadLS67]

Yea, the guy that was painting my car turned out to be a real winner... After 9 months of excuses and the guy not caring i pulled the car from his shop and am currently taking him to court... I feel like ive wasted 9 months of my life. Ill probably give more details after the court case is settled. On a lighter note i took the car to another guy that taking care of buisness.

I ended up picking up a matched heads and cam package for the ls1 and pulled/sold the cam and springs i already installed in the motor. Should be a really fun little 430-440RWHP street setup.

Meanwhile while im still waiting and i have garage space i went crazy with my corvette and im doing a TSP cam, PRC heads, TSP longtubes/xpipe, intake, throttle body, clutch and a tune.

[RadLS67]

A couple of pics with the car stripped back down
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Etching primer down
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Getting the body work knocked out
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I decided to kind of splurge a bit on some billet hood and trunk hinges.
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And like i said from my last post i started tearing into my corvette. For any of you that have done heads and/or cam swap on a corvette you know how truly fun this job is... :hammer:
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[rickpaw]

Glad to hear you're moving forward again, despite the 9 month delay.

Keep us posted.

[RadLS67]

Wow, its been a day or two since I last updated this thing. ALOT of big life changes have came up over the last year. But after working a lot on the car it is finally back on the road!

To start paint was finally finished up in October, here are some pics from when I picked it up.

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[RadLS67]

Here I cleaned up the engine and gave it a good 2 coats of silver engine paint. Once it was in the car I had my painter smooth out and paint the Katech LS valve covers and slapped those on. Also threw on the headers/intake/fuel rails/radiator etc etc.

[RadLS67]

I made a little panel/pcm holder out of an aluminum jegs electronics tray. The pcm sits directly below where the hvac controls used to be, the control panel sits in front of that. Planning to make a center console to conceal all of it but still have accessibility through a removable cover/door. 109566

Here I was going through some final soldering/wire grouping to maintain some of the chaos of both chassis & drivetrain harnesses
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Here are some real pieces of art! A huge shout out and thank you to Jason @ Rushforth wheels for working with me on my order. These have to be the nicest wheels i've seen in a while! (Rushforth "livewire" wheels with brushed/cleared centers, perimeter hardware and polished lips)
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A view of them with Nitto NT555 (285 35 18)rear and bf Goodrich g force TA's (245 40 17) up front.
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[RadLS67]

So drove the car up to the local tuner by my house (with no glass, headlights or stickers) and got it on the dyno. After a bit of tuning I ran out of injector at 4k rpm. I guess I wasn't expecting a set of heavily ported/milled 853 casting heads with larger stainless valves and a tweeked 228r cam to do so well on power. The 28.5 lb Z06 injectors are from what I here good for 375rwhp and maxed them out. Ordered and received a set of FAST 36lb injectors but have been pretty lazy to put them in. I started cleaning up all of the glass for the car with some foaming glass cleaner, a razor blade and some lint free rags. I took the window tracks and regulators cleaned them up with some WD40/wire brushes/alcohol gave them 2 coats of rustoleum flat black, all of the tracks/gears/wheels got a liberal coat of grease and went to town installing them. Still have a lot of work to do on the car but for the first time in a long time I think I can see a tiny light at the end of the tunnel!

[Blue Bayou]

I know this is an old thread but I'm looking for some updates... Very nice build!

[RadLS67]

Alot of update action. I will try to break it up into segments as much as possible.

I got all the glass installed, all of the trim and bumpers were powder coated a flat silver and ironed out a few kinks after putting a few miles on the car.

[RadLS67]

Feeling confident and happy with the cars performance i signed up for the optima search for the ultimate streetcar in mid July for the Circuit of the Americas event in Austin TX august 6-7. I was still missing a few pieces of trim and hadnt finished the interior but felt confident in the mechanicals enough to beat on the car.

I purchased a "built" 4L60E and converter from what i beleived to be a very reputable builder several years ago. I put around 2K MAYBE 3k miles on the trans with an appropriate sized transmission cooler and good fluid over the several years since i purchased it. During paint i sealed up the transmission and put it in the corner of my garage. After assembly i took the car out one day to a car meet a few miles away and when i went to back in I placed the car in reverse but it took extra throttle to get the car to move. It acted like the brakes were on or a band in the trans was applying when it shouldnt. When i drove the car home it acted fine for the first half of the drive but then started to not want to shift into 3rd at wide open throttle. I checked the shifter detents and all felt firm and clunked into each gear, i repositioned the shifter linkage to make sure it wasnt in a bind, checked hot fluid level, checked with a scanner to make sure there weren't any DTC or the trans was in limp mode. Next i dropped the pan and checked all solenoids and changed the oil and filter. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary but the problems still persisted.

Being a few weeks before the optima streetcar challenge i decided it needed to be pulled and at least fix what was wrong with the trans. I called the builder and since it was out of the warranty date they said they would go through the trans and rebuild it completely for the cost of shipping and $900 or so in parts and labor. Not wanting to ship the trans to pennsylvania being so close to the race i got in touch with a friends trans builder here in texas. During dissasembly he sent me a few pictures that made my skin crawl.134453
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[RadLS67]

So after seeing the trans needed serious help i had the new Texas builder (Grimm Performance Transmissions) order parts needed. List included new wiring harness, clutch packs, bands, billet oil pump, Sonnax smart shell, valve body seperator plate and seals.

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All of the parts came in rather quickly except for the billet oil pump which delayed assembly a good solid 2 weeks. Once the pump came in he assembled the transmission, threw a quick coat of paint on it and had a friend go pick it up.

[ah64pilot]

Moar!

[RadLS67]

While waiting on the transmission a buddy of mine suggested i swap a set of ARP rod bolts for stock LS rods i got in a trade into the motor since the trans was pulled. Being a weak point of the LS1 i agreed so we pulled the motor, swapped out the rod bolts, cleaned everything up and evened out the paint.

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Went ahead and bought a new beefier flex plate, a circle D 3200 single disk billet stall converter and some ARP converter bolts as well.

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[RadLS67]

Before we got the transmission in i went ahead and added a trans cooler in series with the current one in the radiator and a power steering cooler, lines and new adjustable pump since the LS1 pump seemed to be overpressuring the rack. I also cleaned up the headers, installed new spark plugs along with all new fluids.

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[RadLS67]

We finally got the car driving around and breaking in the new transmission for a few hundred miles 2 days before the optima streetcar challenge. Not really completely happy with the tune i got a remote tune from Pat G (the absolute best LS tuner around here IMO) did a few data logs and car was acting great.

[RadLS67]

Back in 2014 i was laid off from my career as a drilling fluids engineer offshore for Baker Hughes. After working a few dead end jobs i was hired on with AT&T around March of 2016 in hopes that the oilfield turning around. While working for AT&T i put in to take Aug 5th off months in advanced so that i wouldnt be rushed and have enough time to trailer the car to Austin to set everything up on Friday. Needless to say when the time came around i was on my 2nd manager and i was under strict instruction that even though i put in for vacation that i would need to work that Friday. Having stayed up until 2 or 3 am and being up to go to work around 6 or 630 for days in a row getting the car ready Friday rolled around and I didnt even hear my alarm go off. Woke up around 9am, called my manager and told him that i was late and couldnt make it into work and that i would see him monday morning to deal with the consequences. Turned my work phone off, tossed it onto the kitchen counter and absolutely not a care crossed my mind about it all weekend.

Very thankful to my friend that just opened up his new shop Triple Threat Racecraft for all the help working on the car with me and trailering the car to Austin.

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[RadLS67]

We rolled into Austin the evening of Friday Aug 5th, checked into the hotel, dropped the trailer off and drove into town for dinner and a few supplies for the next day. That night we came back to the hotel, unloaded the car and drove it around to get some more data logged to adjust the engine and trans tune accordingly, after an hour or so the car was pulling and shifting great so we filled up the car with premium and drove back to the hotel.

[ah64pilot]

I want to go to the next one with you! Don't leave without me! Sure wish I hadn't missed this one.

[RadLS67]

Day one: We get up, make sure we have everything, stop to get some breakfast and drinks and head to the track. Having only seen pictures of the track and seeing a video or two online I was absolutely shocked when we showed up. I realize that Circuit of the Americas is one of the better brand new F1 tracks in the US i had no idea just how big and beautiful it was, to put it plainly i was blown away...

3.4 miles
20 turns
130 foot elevation change

So we get to the parking area, sign in go to pull the car off the trailer for tech inspection and my luck cashed in. Really wished i got a picture of this but my transmission line down by the transmission ruptured and puked a solid 3 quarts of ATF onto the trailer before i was able to kill the car. I had extra hose but 1 quart of ATF and zero clamps to get it back on. Immediately we unhooked the trailer and sent my buddy to the nearest parts store for ATF and clamps (a solid 45 min round trip) needing to tech in only 30 minutes i cleaned up all of the transmission fluid out of the engine bay and trailer. Then i started going around to the larger trailers asking to see if anyone had hose clamps and was able to grab 2 from another driver, slapped them on and added the 1 quart of ATF. Just had enough to limp into tech and passed tech with no problems. Added all the appropriate decals for the event including 2 #63 Todd Rumpke green stickers to show support and solidarity for a huge competitor in the series that was battling cancer. My buddy finally showed back up, added a few more clamps just to be on the safe side, topped off the trans and was ready to begin.

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Day one consisted of a speedstop, autocross, road rally and the Lingenfelter design/engineering judgment. Having no time to actually test the car and adjust suspension and brakes i went straight into the speedstop. Pulled up to the start got the go and the car chirped the tires twice and took off, came into the first turn a little quick and got a bit of under steer, got a little oversteer in the 2nd turn and stopped in the box without issue. Went back to grid, adjusted all 4 coilovers and brake bias. Did another 3 runs and picked up a full second with each pass getting more and more aggressive trying to find the limits of my driving and the street tires.

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Went and ate some lunch to come back into the autocross portion. With the outside temp being around 100* we kept a close eye on my intake air temp (still havent finished a good cold air box yet) at one point on the run i beleive we saw my IAT's get to around 174* which was killing power and running chances of knocking. Trying to cool the car off in between runs was able to get some good times, very good wheel time and come to know the limits of the car and my driving.

Went through the Lingenfelter design/engineering with little expectations the judges seemed very interested in what all i had done to the car but dinged me quite a bit for having a few obvious flaws (no horn, no finished interior, having a hung brake light switch and not having my turn signals work correctly) Honestly i was just happy to be there and in the midst of some truly great drivers and great people in the industry.

The road rally was ok. When you tech in you get your drivers license placed into a sealed envelope that you keep on you until you complete the road rally. This gives them indication of wether or not you had been pulled over for any reason docking you of points. Was a simple 30-40 minute round trip in south Austin traffic to a parts store where they would mark you as arrived and head back to the track. Times dont really matter being on the street so go point A to point B and back to point A without getting pulled over. Went accordingly without a hitch other then ALOT of stares from the public seeing a steady stream of pro-touring cars drive by.

Around dusk they opened up the inside of the track so we could set up trailers around the garage areas in prep for the next day. Dropped the trailer and changed diff fluid in the rear end.

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[RadLS67]

Day two: Started out the same as the day before. Got up early, got some breakfast and drinks and headed out to the track. We reserved a garage in pit lane (one of the coolest parts of the whole trip) where we had a fully lit 2 car garage that the F1 racers use. Epoxied floors, bathroom, power outlets and most important SHADE. We set up chairs, ice chests, tools etc. attended the drivers meeting then killed some time making sure the car was tip top.

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The whole day was devoted to just time trials. Broken up into expert, intermediate and novice groups we got a time sheet to know when to grid. Each run group got 2 - 30 min runs in the first half of the day and 2 - 15 min runs in the later half. My novice group gridded in no particular order for an orientation lap to get acquainted with the track followed by the first 30 min lap. Cruising around half speed distancing ourselves from each other we got the green flag to go and i was set in kill mode. Each lap got more aggressive than the last. A lap or so in i had a 69 camaro on my tail and was doing everything i could to not impede his laps as the novices couldnt pass unless there was an issue or the track flaggers appointed it. Finished the 30 minutes, drove into the garage, put the car on ramps and put my fan up underdeath the rear end to cool it off as much as possible. I sat in a chair pounding water and gatorade, chain smoking ciggs with my hands kind of shaking for a few minutes trying to calm my nerves and hide my freaking out of how insanely awesome i was feeling :seizure::seizure::seizure:

The grand stands were massive (usually seats in the grand stand during F1 go for thousands) but had free roam of the place for the event. Was able to watch how truly fast some of the cars were like Danny Popp in his C5 scream by the stands on the straight with time in between runs.

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Got called to grid for the 2nd run and didnt realize they grid us on lap time. Got to grid and talked to the worker there and i told him id rather stay towards the back of the pack so that i didnt hold anyone up, he just laughed and said i gridded 4th out of 16 cars or so and that i was running faster than i thought. So i got 4th in line with a bit of swagger seeing the competititon in the novice class.

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Ripped around the track and had a few issues with the rear end vent wanting to puke a bit of fluid from the rear end getting to hot with not really much to do except cool it down in between runs. All in all was probably the most fun ive had in my life with my clothes on.

We ate lunch, did our last 2 runs of the day and decided to pack up and head back to houston as i had to go back to work the following morning. Got a few great pictures of the car down on pit road and a few that have popped up in various places since.

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[ah64pilot]

Did you meet Michael Schumacher?

[RadLS67]

I want to go to the next one with you! Don't leave without me! Sure wish I hadn't missed this one.

Might need to get some brakes and that 4L80E to run decent on that track. No, I havent met Mr. Shumacher but i met Danny Popp and Brian Hobaugh!

[rickpaw]

Awesome car Radley. I participated in Optima challenge last year at Texas Motor Speedway and had a blast. I wanted to do COTA this past August but did not have time/funds.

Would love to get together with you sometimes and check out the car.

Tu

[Michaels 69]

What happened when you went back to work?

[RadLS67]

What happened when you went back to work?

Lol went back to work on the following monday. Manager was upset even though work load was extremely light and everyone went home early that friday. Got a written reprimend, wasnt there but maybe another month or so anyways. Since I quit i went back to school full time to finish out my bachelors. Of course now that im in school full time things are picking back up in the oilfield...

Tu, sounds good. Im trying to get a few cars together to go for a decent cruise, ill be sure to shoot you an email when we pick a date with good weather.

[rickpaw]

Shoot me a PM when you want to get together. The local firebird club normally do a cruise after the new year as well. I'll let you know if they do it again this year.

Tu

[RadLS67]

Woooooo! 10k views on my build thread!

[RadLS67]

Drove the car around for a while the other day and went to adjust the front coilovers a little softer for the street and found my passenger side shock was broken and leaking. Gonna take the wheels and coilovers out to try and see if there is any suspension bind. When i installed the front sway bar and wilwood drop spindles everything seemed correct. Will order some adjustable ridetechs here soon and update with some pics.