1970 GTO Version 2.0

[blakgoat]

Andrew I am Jealous, for you to go on a cool trip like that.
it was cool hanging out with you,
cheers Imran

[JEFFTATE]

The freight company just showed up with my Richmond 6 speed. I will be heading out to Pigeon Forge tomorrow morning to get it installed and measure for the driveshaft. So far so good.

During my internet search for information about driveline vibrations I came across this very informative document published by Spicer. It is full of important information about driveline alignment, etc...

Spicer Tech Paper

Andrew

Andrew , thanks for posting this article.
It is chocked full of relevant information.

[andrewb70]

Andrew I am Jealous, for you to go on a cool trip like that.
it was cool hanging out with you,
cheers Imran

Imran,

It was a pleasure to meet you. I hope that our paths cross again very soon.

Andrew

[andrewb70]

....

PS It was good to hang out with you at RTMC!

Likewise David. I hope to see you at RTTH in September.

Andrew

[wmhjr]

Great writeup!

[andrewb70]

The good folks at Lane Automotive had a photographer during the entire event and I want to thank him for taking these pictures at Gingerman.





I really love going on a road course and not just an autocross. Autocrosses are OK, but nothing compares to being on a technical road course, like Gingerman, and learning the proper line around every corner. I wish that I would have taken an experienced driver along on one of my sessions. I have no doubt that my time would have improved by seconds. In fact, I was given a quick tip on how to successfully navigate one of the corners and that tip alone was worth 2 seconds on my subsequent session.

Good times...

Andrew

[dusterbd13]

i owould strongly reccomend signing up for an HPDE or two. usually the ones run by the porsche or bmw clubs are the best, at least in my area. you get one on one in car instruction, classroom, and enough sessions to flat wear you out. at CMP (one of my local tracks) weekends are only 300 or so, and usually you get 5 40 minutye sessions a day for two days.
it teaches you sooooooooo much about your car and your driving. worth every penny. ive tracked my old s10, my old mazdaspeed, and had my dakota out for a few sessions. have yet to get out with my duster.
my dad is actually an instructor for hpde's and the street survival course with nasa and a bunch of other clubs


id make sure that whoever you go with (club wise) runs a good event. usually the corvette forum guys are all over the hpde stuff, and can steer you in the right direction local to you.

and if you can, run VIR with tarheel sports car club. hands down the best event and group of guys ive ever run with.

michael

[andrewb70]

Just saw the latest issue of PHR magazine and on the last page I got a little ink from the coverage of the Motor State Challenge.



A big thanks to Robert McGaffin for covering the event and to Johnny Hunkins for including a picture of my car in the coverage.

With some luck I will be at LS Fest next weekend!

Andrew

[andrewb70]

This past weekend I drove to Bowling Green, KY to attend the Holley LS Fest. Everyone from Holley and FM3 did an amazing job with the event. It was great to see so many old friends and meet some new people. My main goal for the event was to have a good time. The LS Fest offers something for everyone: drag racing, auto cross, speed stop challenge, drift exhibition, country cruise, and show and shine.

On Saturday morning I did a session of autocrossing and it was a good reminder how much I dislike the experience. My car is really not set-up for it and it wallowed around the course like a pregnant yak. Give me a high speed road course and I'll be a smiling fool...

I also participated in the True Street class of the drag racing competition. True street is a good time because it starts with a 30 mile cruise followed by 3 rounds of drag racing. The drive really does a nice job of separating real street cars from race cars. Lingenfelter Performance was the lead sponsor and drove their LS9 powered 5th Gen Camaro, which completed the drive without any problems. Once we were back at the track everyone drove directly to the staging lanes where adjustments to the car were no longer permitted. Everyone runs on an index, meaning the goal is to get as close to a whole number time as possible without going over, over a three run average. So technically there is an unlimited number of classes, but realistically it broke down into 13 second, 12 sec, 11, 10, 9, and overall winner.

Earlier in the day, during practice sessions I ran a best of 12.65@111mph, but my very first practice pass was a 13.038, so the natural place for me to compete was in the 13 second index. On the first round pass I ran a 13.002. Second round was a 12.998. That put me at a perfect 13.000, but I had to race one more round. If I went under 13 seconds that would have been over for me, so the goal was to run as close to 13 seconds as possible without going over. On my last pass I ran a 13.038, which put me at 13.012 for a three run average. That was good enough for the win and a $100 bucks in my pocket. Good times...

I want to thank my good friend Bill Howell for bringing my car. If it wasn't for his kindness I would never be able to do this event.

[dropit69]

Awesome Andrew Congrats on the Win..always loved that GTO !!!!!!

[irregal83]

Amazing story, pictures and car. thanks andrew!

[Jims78elky]

Way to go Andrew, your GTO build has always been a inspiration,it just keeps getting better. Congrats on the win, it shows that well planning and hard work pays off!

[gearbanger]

Dude, that is a pretty awesome day. It is always nice to pick up a little cash while having fun! Kind of like going to the casino and walking out with the same amount of money you went in with.

I am glad to see you having fun with the car. Time to increase your ratio of time enjoying/time spent working on!

[Tony_SS]

Sounds like too much fun... this is inspiring me to finish mine up for my 200 mile trip in 2 1/2 weeks...

[ponchopwr70]

12.65 at 111 is pretty good! Love the car but i'm a little bias. I agree with you on the autocross thing, although I do ok I'm dieing to go to limerock. So hows that driveshaft holding up? How many rpms where you leaving the line at? Were you on street tires? I have a whole list for the winter of upgrades. My driveline angles are really pissing me off, even when I go with a 9" (pinion is .75 lower) I'm still goin to have problems so a cv shaft is most likely in the works. Hows that richmond shifting? I'm sending mine back something is not right spent about $100 in fluids with zero change in the shifting grind!

[csouth]

The benefits of being a bachelor and living alone include being able to have a bunch of car parts in the living room and not hearing "THE DISPOSAL IS CLOGGED!!!" LOL

Besides the engine swap I am doing some suspension mods. I already have some coilovers in the front. The springs in the front are 550 lb/inch. They were marginal with the big block. I think they will work very well with the L92, so for now I am not messing with them. In the rear I currently have some springs that I got way back in the day, from HO Racing.

Who remembers them? If you do, your old!!!

I wanted the ability to adjust the ride height in the rear and more importantly have the ability to properly set the corner weights once the car is done. There are all kinds of solutions to accomplish this, I chose a very nice product from Budzter:

https://www.budzter.com/index.html

Not cheap, but the quality is outstanding and it is a true bolt on. No hacking of the rear is required and its fully reversible. I like that. The spring is 9.5" tall, 175 lb/inch from the Coleman Racing catalog.



Andrew

Love reading your thread. I wanted to use these on my Cutlass, but seems he's not making any sets right now because of coating issues.

[andrewb70]

Love reading your thread. I wanted to use these on my Cutlass, but seems he's not making any sets right now because of coating issues.

Thanks for the compliment Chris. If you do get the spring adjusters, I suggest using some thrust bearings between the springs and the adjusters.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/HAL-7888-109/

They will make adjustments a lot easier. I wish I had done this when I installed them...

Andrew

[csouth]

Thanks for the compliment Chris. If you do get the spring adjusters, I suggest using some thrust bearings between the springs and the adjusters.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/HAL-7888-109/

They will make adjustments a lot easier. I wish I had done this when I installed them...

Andrew

I just pulled the trigger on some SPC springs from Marc at SC&C. I called Budzter and the gentlemen said he stopped making the adjusters because he can't get them coated anymore . He was willing to sell me them uncoated, but he didn't recommend that being I'm in Michigan....I'm still saving the link for future reference.

[andrewb70]

I just pulled the trigger on some SPC springs from Marc at SC&C. I called Budzter and the gentlemen said he stopped making the adjusters because he can't get them coated anymore . He was willing to sell me them uncoated, but he didn't recommend that being I'm in Michigan....I'm still saving the link for future reference.

I don't recall them having any sort of exotic coating. It looked like black oxide to me, which isn't very resistant to corrosion anyway. I would just rattle can them. Seriously...

Andrew

[SShep71]

Im going through this with the SPC upper A arms. Cross shaft is black oxide and 2 weeks outside covered with no rain and they are completely rusted.