And the fun continues...

[CarlC]

James,

If you don't mind a bit of company I MIGHT be able to come out and play on PCH with the Camaro tomorrow depending on your timing. PM me....

[Steve1968LS2]

We shot the car today for Camaro Performers at California Speedway.

Here's a shot not good enough for the magazine as a teaser.



Beautiful Car!

[James OLC]

Fired you a PM Carl.

It was a really fun experience at California Speedway yesterday with Steve. I think that we made his job a little bit tougher since part of our job was to direct the light where he needed it - unfortunately, it's been six months since we last saw real sun and we were slightly confused by it...

As ususal, a touch of new car drama with the '67 when I blew a fuse trying to roll both windows up at the same time - sigh...

My favorite shot (by my wife) from the day and my new desktop background...



It was another long day but we're finally in Newport and getting ready for a cruise down to Huntington before the Goodguys show tomorrow.

We'll be somewhere between the Mighty Muscle corral and the autocross all weekend.

[James OLC]

Some random parking lot shots from today (and yes, I forgot almost everything Steve taught me yesterday, especially wrt the front wheel)...







Went for a nice 50 mile cruise up the Pacific Coast Highway in the middle of the afternoon with no issues (aside from my 57 mph vibration). Temperature never got over 185 - which is a nice change from my old dinosaur big and small blocks. It's still having a fast idle issue but I think that is because of my redneck IAT sensor location.

Nice way to end the week... now bring on the weekend... I'm tired of feathering first and second gear!

[Brandon Miller]

I'm a diehard Ford guy but that shot is pure sex. I'd give up a Ford for that.

We shot the car today for Camaro Performers at California Speedway.

Here's a shot not good enough for the magazine as a teaser.



Beautiful Car!

[WS6]

good luck getting everything sorted out James. I love that car.

[James OLC]

Well the weekend was awesome...







I was really honored to be awarded the Muscle Machine of the Year finalist award for the event.



The autocross was increadible (photo by Steve Rupp)



and I was happy enough with my 31.7 pass... although I know I can get more out of it.

It's now in the capable hands of D!ck and the crew at Best of Show to try to sort out some of the problems that cropped up over the weekend. I`m back on the road and dreading another drive through Montana.

[CamaroJesse]

Damn I love this car!

[WS6]

safe travels James

[James OLC]

Well, we did find a new issue at the autocross in Costa Mesa - if you check out one of the YouTube videos posted from the event (either in the Costa Mesa thread or on my YouTube channel) you can hear a crappy sounding whack whack whack sound.

First impression is rear end (like a loud snap from the differential) but the jury is out for right now.

You can really hear it in this clip:



although I suspect that the camera placement and way that the splitter is mounted to the car makes it sound worse than it might be.

Other developments...

The good news is that the transmission problem seems to be resolved - both the clutch and the TOB are behaving themselves.

Unresolved... the brakes are better than they were at Spring Mountain but they are still less than 100%.

The bad news is that the car has developed an irregular miss. It's popping through the exhaust every once and a while... seems like a plug issue but I don't think it's major.

[James OLC]

The initial review at Best of Show suggests that the rear end is ok but there is a definate issue at the front of the car...



It appears as if there is some significant deflection (one thing or a combination? the jury is out) in the front corners. Although there is lots of static clearance it seems that under dynamic conditions the bolt attaching the tie rod end to the steering arm is grazing (to put it mildly) the inside lip of the wheel.

HRE wheels is checking everything ouy and hopefully its resolved in time for Del Mar. (HRE wound up rehooping the fronts and giving some additional clearance on the inside. In the future some ZR1 hubs may be the order of the day)

***
When I got to Best of Show in San Marcos I found that three plug wires had hit the exhaust and were intermittently shorting out. Three bad plugs - three bad wires. I was able to piece together some replacement wires with a small block ford set that Steve had brought for D!ck and reusing the LSx colil ends from the old wires. A bit of a bandaid but it should be functional for now.

[Steve1968LS2]

Glad we could get the One Lap Camaro ready in time for Del Mar.. love the car and it will just keep getting better. Especially once Dave Pozzi tinkers with it

[James OLC]

Like Steve suggests, we were able to get the car together the Thursday before Del Mar and had the Camaro in the optima batteries display (when it wasn't on the Autocross course)





I had the chance to get a lot of time on the Autocross course on Friday and Saturday...

Taken by Hotchkis who were are behind the Autocross 110%... and a great bunch of guys to boot


Taken by the guys at ridetech (www.ridetech.com)


A couple more issues came to light...

On Friday we found that the front end was too tight to the wheel - the ride height settled a bit over time (or so it would appear) - and the front tire got cut up by a fender bolt. Nothing disasterous and we were able to raise the ride height.

On Saturday we found that one of the valve stems worked loose over two days of abuse (it was new following the rehoop earlier that week). Luckily the tire went flat at the end of my last run... close call but again nothing disasterous.

The best news... no more whack whack whack.

The car is at an undisclosed location in Norther California getting an adjustable rear bar fabbed up from a stock Hotchkis peice as well as some select other improvements at Pozzi Racing. Woo Hoo!

Coming soon... the Streets of Willow and a couple of open track days.

[CarlC]

Hey James, does that mean May 2-3 at Willow? I hope so, it should be a great time. Hopefully the heat stays away a little bit longer.....

[lt1chevelle]

cant wait to see the car at the GG show in may

[Larry Callahan]

the best news... No more whack whack whack.

lol!!!

[Steve1968LS2]

Hey James, does that mean May 2-3 at Willow? I hope so, it should be a great time. Hopefully the heat stays away a little bit longer.....

I plan on being there but my oil cooler is coming along slowly.. so I might have to do a few laps.. let cool.. repeat..

[James OLC]

Hey James, does that mean May 2-3 at Willow? I hope so, it should be a great time. Hopefully the heat stays away a little bit longer.....

That's the plan right now Carl - hopefully we have everything sorted out by then (which I am sure that we will). It should be a lot of fun!

Steve, just throw that big old nitrous bottle in the trunk... back in the day that was my "emergency overheating" solution...

[Martin71RS]

James, it is nice to read (not nice for you I mean) that I am not the only one having to do a lot of fine tuning and fixing small things once the car is on the road. People think a car is ready when it is built but forget it is the small things like this that take a lot of time to get it right.

I love your car!

Martin

[Code Red]

very nice