My 1985 Monte Carlo SS Barney...

[SSLance]

Results from Saturday here...

https://dk1xgl0d43mu1.cloudfront.net...pdf?1502571663

[SSLance]

This upgrade is something I should have done a long time ago. Getting the rear spring rate and ride height we wanted...along with the preferred shock travel meant having no preload on the rear coilover springs. In fact, at full droop there was about 4" of gap between the top of the spring and bottom of retainer on the shock body. It got to where I carried a rubber mallet with me and if the rear of the car had been lifted, I'd smack the spring on the side to seat it again on the upper retainer.

This caused some wear on the shock body itself from the spring rubbing it when not fully seated (among a couple other issues also). So when I pulled the shocks off to send them back to ridetech to get re-valved with the latest Ron Sutton Secret Sauce valving this week, I decided it was time to fix it properly.

BTW, HUGE kudos to Bret and Jeff at ridetech and Ron for getting my shocks in, repairing and re-valving them and back out the same day!! Really appreciate you helping me with my limited time table to get this done.

On page 183 of Ron's new catalog are RST # 7750-A & 7750-B shown here, a spring divider and take up spring.



http://www.ronsuttonracetechnology.c...alog/?page=182

Here they are installed on the car with suspension at full droop.





and with weight fully on springs...



No more carrying a hammer with me to reset the rear springs into the perches...or damage to my shock bodies.

And stay tuned... I'm working on a plan for a MAJOR upgrade being put in place to happen very soon... Hopefully get things rolling early this week...

[Streetbu]

Looking good Lance!

[Wraith]

Looking great and can't wait to see what is in store!

[Typhoon1015]

Looks good Lance. I had to do the same for my chevelle last year. I did hyperco take up springs and some locators that I found all on amazon. I have a 325 rear spring rate now and it works pretty well with the stock mount 4 link.

[SSLance]

Stuff is about to get real... :D




Everyone knows I've needed a brake upgrade on Barney for years...MANY years in fact.

Ever since finding out about Ron Sutton developing a kit to adapt Stoptech brake kits onto Pro-Touring cars, I've known that's what I wanted for Barney. I only want to do this once and I want to do it right!!

The issue causing the long delay in installing them was there isn't a kit available to adapt the brakes to the stock G-body metric spindles I currently have on the car. I spent SO much time dialing in the front end geometry and the steering based on these stock spindles, I was hesitatant to just install another set of spindles...knowing what it would take to keep the geometry optimized. What you see in the picture above is everything that I'll need to use to dial the geometry back to (and hopefully even better than) what I currently run.

This is no small undertaking but with Ron's guidance, some perseverance, and probably a few choice four letter words...I hope to have the new spindles installed in the next week or so.

Then... THEN... We can get around to upgrading the brakes to the best brake kit out on the market... Stoptechs...

I can't wait!!!

[Ron Sutton]

Stuff is about to get real... :D

Everyone knows I've needed a brake upgrade on Barney for years...MANY years in fact.

Ever since finding out about Ron Sutton developing a kit to adapt Stoptech brake kits onto Pro-Touring cars, I've known that's what I wanted for Barney. I only want to do this once and I want to do it right!!

The issue causing the long delay in installing them was there isn't a kit available to adapt the brakes to the stock G-body metric spindles I currently have on the car. I spent SO much time dialing in the front end geometry and the steering based on these stock spindles, I was hesitatant to just install another set of spindles...knowing what it would take to keep the geometry optimized. What you see in the picture above is everything that I'll need to use to dial the geometry back to (and hopefully even better than) what I currently run.

This is no small undertaking but with Ron's guidance, some perseverance, and probably a few choice four letter words...I hope to have the new spindles installed in the next week or so.

Then... THEN... We can get around to upgrading the brakes to the best brake kit out on the market... Stoptechs...

I can't wait!!!

You can see Lance's new front brakes HERE & rear brakes are HERE.

[SSLance]

[Ron Sutton]

Lance Hamilton just got his StopTech Brakes designed & optimized for Pro-Touring Cars by Ron Sutton Race Technology.

These are the ONLY brake systems that do ALL this:
* Provide more braking force than a ZR1 or C7 Corvette
* Have the most Rigid Calipers, Big Piston Area & 14" Aero Rotors & Hats
* Designed specifically for Manual Brake Pro-Touring Cars doing "Triple Duty"
* Utilizes ONE PAD for Street & Autocross with great cold bite & Track Days up to 1200° with zero fade !!!
* These Pads are new "Adhesive Technology" = low dust, low squeal, long life, low cost AND don't eat up rotors!
* No other brake system on the market today compares

Learn more here: http://www.ronsuttonracetechnology.com/catalog/?page=94

[SSLance]

I just can't stop staring at them...







Rotors, calipers and spindles with steering arms reversed all fit beautifully...tons of room everywhere. The dropped adjustable centerlink would not clear the triangulation brace mounting pad and the tie rods ended up being about 2" too short because we flipped the steering arms out to get more ackerman. Longer tie rods are on the way and then I'll get the bumpsteer adjusted and head on to the rear brakes.

Huge thanks to "Ronstar" for being available for several calls along the way today. Just try to reach any other parts supplier or suspension specialist multiple times on a Sunday afternoon!!!

[andrewb70]

Sexy!!!

[SSLance]

The main part of the difficulty of this brake swap was the swapping of the spindles to a spindle that would take the brake package. We had the front end geometry pretty dang good with the stock metric spindle but in order to bolt these fabulous Stoptech brakes on, a spindle change was necessary. Because of a tight time frame for install, I told Ron I needed a spindle with the least amount of changes necessary to get the geometry back to or better than I had before, he chose the ATS tall.

Basically the ATS is a 1" drop spindle that is also 1" taller than the G body spindle. To compensate for the 1" drop, Ron had me change my tall lower ball joints for ones 1" shorter.



This was not only super simple, but also put the lower control arms in exactly the same spot as before so I didn't have to adjust ride height after the swap. I'm sure he'll say it was for geometry reasons but whatever. :D

So the spindle is in, ride height same as it was before, now it was time to work on the steering. The ATS comes with a modular steering arm that is curved as it extends away from the spindle. Instructions say to mount it with the curve pointed toward the center of the car. Ron told me to swap them and mount it with the curve pointed out to increase the ackerman. Ron also sent me a new slug adjustable center link and all new rod ends and curved tie rods to try to optimize the steering geometry. Unfortunately, my crossmember has a nub sticking out to attach the triangulation brace to which was in the way of the new centerlink.



With the steering arms pointed out, that meant the tie rods needed to be about 2" longer...fortunately the bump steer kit I had before was able to extend the tie rods out far enough to reach. Everything clears with no interference anywhere and I was able to dial the bump steer back to close to previous specs very easily.







Where I pause the lift is pretty close to ride height. From ride height to full bump it toes out about 3/16" and from ride height up it toes in just a touch if at all. Check out that camber gain though!!

In the interest of time once again, I called this good enough and moved forward with the rest of brake install. I'll revisit fine tuning the alignment specs when I have more time.

So spindles and steering locked in, time to install the calipers. Pretty straight forward here but couple of things I found interesting.



See that top left piston sticking out? I'm assuming it has a knock back spring behind it because when you push it in, it immediately starts to spring back out again. This made installing the brake pads interesting for sure. I finally figured out that a putty knife is a pretty good tool to use to hold the piston in while sliding the pads in place.



Here is the bridge reinstalled.





One more thing, I had some questions about how much unsprung weight these huge rotors and calipers added...so I weighed the G-body spindle, caliper and rotor.



Then weighed the new Stopech 14" rotor, 6 piston ST60 caliper and ATS Spindle.



Virtually the exact same weight! All the added brake force with no added weight. Woot!!

Front is done except bleeding and greasing, I'm starting on the rear today. Wish me luck with the calipers fitting inside the frame rails. Today will either go pretty smooth, or stop in a hurry based on that.

[SSLance]

The rears are pretty much mocked in place. Still trying to decide what to do with the flex lines before I button everything up. While the pic I posted above shows a bunch of room between the caliper and frame rail, I forgot that the brake line comes out of that side of the caliper.

I think the lines i have will work for now but to really be neat and tidy a shorter line with a straight banjo instead of an angled banjo fitting might be a better choice.

First off, lets talk about the backing plate Ron designed and how slick it is. Putting a brake backing plate on a 9" with Torino axle housing ends can be difficult. I've had the fight many times with my Ford Explorer brake kit which is similar in design in some ways...but then way different in other ways. The axle bearing is pressed onto the axle and whatever you use as a plate has to also double as the retainer that holds that bearing in the axle end. Ron designed this plate to be two piece so you can take it apart, place it over the axle behind the bearing then put it back together again. SO slick!!

You then reassemble the e-brake setup on the front side of the plate with the axle on the bench and it's ready to slide into place all in one piece.













The next battle with this setup is getting wrenches onto the e-brake cable ends to tight the cable housing to the bracket. This setup makes it super easy to just rotate the whole backing plate one hole around getting the bracket from out behind the shock brackets so you can get a wrench on it.



Just one nut on a Tee bolt holds this all in place while you tighten the locknut on the cable end. Then just loosen that nut again and roll the plate back into place.





Here's the caliper in place...



Think I'll end up moving the caliper down one more hole to the bottom ones just to take up some of the slack in the flex line and give me a comfort zone between the banjo fitting and frame. It pretty sweet looking though, isn't it?

Hope to button it all up tomorrow... If all goes well, I may even get to race it in Topeka on Saturday.

[SSLance]

This upgrade was a LONG time coming. I've been racing this car in earnest for over 5 years and have needed a brake upgrade for at least the last 4 years. I knew of several options that were fairly bolt-onish but at the same time they only offered a moderate upgrade over what I had...I wanted more. I wanted to only do this once and to do it right.

When I found out about the Stoptech Big Brake Kit Ron Sutton was developing and especially when I held the ST60 calipers in my hand about this time last year at SEMA, I knew that was the direction I wanted to go. All one has to do is to search for "brakes not stopping good" threads on any PT forum and you will see so many people not happy with their big brake upgrade kit's performance. I wanted to avoid that completely. If I was going to go thru the trouble to redo the whole front geometry to put a big brake kit on, I wanted it to be right the first time.

During the bed in process of the pads the first time out of the garage, performance was confirmed! The brakes are night and day different over what I had before and frankly, as good as any other car I've driven both on course and street.

Even though this system was designed for a manual setup, I am using the factory G-body power booster master cylinder (for now). I can rest my heel on the floor and with just my toes on the brake pedal bring this car to an immediate stop with just moderate pressure and pedal throw. Locking the brakes up is NOT an issue either. :D It will take some getting used to for sure and I have a little bit of prop valve adjusting to do to dial in the rear brake bias...but I'm confident they would work great on course or on track right now as they sit. We may at some point in the future play with a different size power master cylinder or even a manual master cylinder but for now, they work just fine.

Unfortunately they won't be debuting in Topeka this weekend. My carb flooding issue is still present so it is coming off today and being sent off to remedy or replace. This saddens me but at the same time I'm super happy to have completed this total brake upgrade in a little less than 5 days total. That speaks to the quality of this package Ron put together and the fantastic set of parts it includes. This was my first attempt at a Big Brake install and while I learned some things along the way...for the most part it was pretty much plug n play both front and rear.

Thanks to Ron for all the help...and for developing the BEST Big Brake Kit on the market today.

[Motoracer838]

Lance, the brakes are pure porn. Have you given thought to fuel injection, I can't imagine that the negative G force you can develop now is going to help the fuel issues.

Joe

[SSLance]

Cleaned up and ready to race...

[SSLance]

Had a great day at the track yesterday. Went out on a completely untested setup with new brakes, new shocks and new steering geometry and the car was balanced and driveable right away. the only thing I tuned on during my 4 runs was rear brake bias, started out with too much, took WAY too much out then slowly put it back in after each of the last 2 runs finally getting it pretty close.

Times were good enough for 13th in PAX out of 175 drivers, 15th in overall raw time. I was VERY pleased. The carb issues seem to be taken care of as well (thanks Bob).

Here's the video my fastest run, what a fun course!! We ran this EXACT same course at this event last year and my times were about 1 full second faster this year over last. That tells me that both the car and the driver just keep getting better.



Great picture captured exiting the final corner on the final run of the day...



Here are the PAX results

https://kcrscca.org/results/solo/201...vent12_pax.htm

The RAW time results

https://kcrscca.org/results/solo/201...vent12_raw.htm

And the final class results.

https://kcrscca.org/results/solo/201...2_fin.htm#camc

Ended up 6 tenths off of Keith in his National Championship winning 2011 Camaro on 335s square with my 32 year old G body on 275s... Pretty dang happy with that.

Now it's off to Phoenix in a week or so to start a new chapter of life. Can't wait to get my feet wet in a new racing environment. Hope to fly back in and co-drive with my KC racing friends whenever I can though, gonna miss the racing camaraderie we've developed here over the years. Also hope they'll come out to the PHX and co-drive Barney with me out there when they are down for the season here.

[SSLance]

As much as I like my new big Stoptech brakes (and trust me, I LIKE them a lot...) I think I'm more happy about the steering geometry changes... I'll try to describe to you how it changed after adding the new ATS spindles and reversed steering arms, but I'm not sure I can do it justice.

I see autocross cars on course all the time with a ton of static camber dialed in to help the outside front tire grip in corners, but at the same time...you look at the inside front tire in a turn and maybe 1/4 or sometimes even less of that tire's contact patch is on the ground. The owners or drivers will say "Well, the inside front tire isn't doing anything anyway, so what does it matter?"

If the inside front tire grip in a turn doesn't matter, how can doing something as simple as adding Ackerman make such a dramatic change in the way my car turns?

Every car that is setup to turn should already be optimized to get 100% of the possible grip from the outside front tire...that is a given. After that, the only way to get even more front grip is to help the inside front tire. After this latest change to my car, I can tell you that when you do, you WILL feel it!! I first noticed the difference when I went to my testing track (large cloverleaf interchange with 25 mph long sweeping corners). Mid corner, steady speed about 85 mph, I could put just a little bit of steering wheel into it and the front would turn and almost simultaneously the back would step out just a tad and the whole car stayed perfectly stable. You could feel the inside front just digging in every little bit of wheel you put into it. My eyes opened right up...it was that much different.

The only real change to the steering geometry after adding the spindles was the addition of a bunch of Ackerman. I'm not sure how much I added, heck...I set the toe alignment with a tape measure and didn't touch anything else on the control arms after the install. I know this though, I almost didn't have enough tie rod length in the adjusters after flipping the steering arms around. The ride height ended up exactly the same, travel the same, maybe a bit more camber gain at full compression, everything basically the same except the added Ackerman. We accomplished this by putting the driver side steering arm on the passenger side and visa versa, this made the steering arm curve to the outside instead of the center of the car increasing the amount the inside front tire turns in relation to the outside front tire.

I autocrossed the car with the local SCCA Region for the first time last Sunday. We had a super fast course with two LARGE and fast braking zones. One had a sharp 180 degree turn at the end, the next had a hard 90 degree turn right...then the whole back stretch was a long wide spread out slalom...all perfect to test a car out on. The only knob I adjusted on all day was brake bias, way too much rear brake early, then not enough so I kept putting it back in a little at a time.

What I found though is I could carry WAY more speed into just about any corner, and when I turned the wheel, it just turned and stuck. I got to where at the end of the second straight I'd brake early...then let off the brake and just carry max speed into the hard right. It stuck EVERY time and the Ackerman helped turn in tremendously. In just 4 runs, I never did find the limit in front grip...there is so much more there...it will take the driver more time to get used to all the new found grip.

Results showed I finished 6 tenths off of Keith Lamming and 5 tenths off of Patrick Darling on a 45-46 second course. Not too bad at all considering they are accomplished drivers on 335s and 315s and I'm on my puny little 275s and in a heavy car with 57% of the weight on the nose. Just goes to show, a properly setup car can be fast...even without being perfectly balanced front to rear. Setting your car up to get as much grip from the inside front tire as possible is just another tool to have in your bag of tricks.

[andrewb70]

Lance,

Thank you so much for offering such detail in everything that you do. There have been discussions on various forums about how everything is moving to web 2.0 social media. But tech like this can't be found on FB and Instagram!!!

Awesome.

Andrew

[SSLance]

No problem Andrew, and I agree...social media is great for small quick stuff and staying in touch with people, but flat out sucks for anything a bit more technical.

So many people have been so helpful to me during this journey, I feel I have to pass as much of it along as I can to others to help them with their journey. It's better if we all learn together IMHO...