Getting closer........

[Jim Nilsen]

It's been a long time since I have done an update. I got more invloved in just looking and posting in the events section. I have had a few up and downs with the car and those who see me at the events know but I figured I should get an update to those who think I drove off the track.

I have had a blast with the car doing events and haven't done much to the car other than try to keep it going and able to make events.

I did pretty good last year and got 5th place at the Goodguy's Joliet event and also did well at the Heidt's event and the Midwest Musclecar Challenge.

Then came the warmest winter ever and on december 1st I went for a drive with Matt Altamore(Bowtie67) and proceeded to blow the engine up and get put on a flatbed and taken home.

It took me awhile to decide what to do and in Febuary I bought a 383 stroker engine from Mike Redpath at Musclerods.
It then took me 3 months to do the exchange of the engines and get ready for the Motorstate Challenge. I had myself entered in touring class to be on the safe side in case the new engine wasn't tuned well enough or other problems needed to be adressed. Then came the call from Jeff from the SCCA guy in charge of the run groups. He asked me if I really wanted to be in touring class because he could see from my past times at the other Motorstate events that I was a pretty fast guy in his words. So I told him to put me in advanced because the car seemed to be doing well.
I get to the event on saturday and when the list of groups was presented I found myself in group 1. I about got as nervous as a cat in a boat with an island to swim to. I thought holy crap, then asked if it might be able to get moved to another group and the answer was to just see how well I could do.
So I get in line toward the end of the row and thought , Here goes everthing. Once on the track I could feel the new power of the 383 was doing way better than I had expected . I wasn't having to point by anyone for quite awhile until Billy Utley and Danny Popp blew by me. Up came the next session and I ended up going off the track in turn 3 and the water temp gauge went to 260 and I pulled off the track and went to the paddock area to check out the car. It was just the communications cable from the gauge to my Racepack and was fixed by just moving it to a different position.



Then came the next 2 sessions. I was hanging with the Heidt's Camaro driven by Vaughn West and Ron Schwarz's 66 Mustang. They weren't leaving me behind and I wasn't holding anyone up. I really couldn't believe what was happening. I was in group 1 and holding my own. I kept getting better lap by lap and all of a sudden Ron pulls to the side and let's me go by, When I got back to the paddock Vaughn was telling me that I was doing awesome and had him all but 3 of the corners. I was pinching myself trying to make sure it was really happening. The Cormaro had finally reached the goal I had been trying to reach for the last 3 years. I actually ran times within a couple of tenths of Ron and his Mustang and Tom Farringtons 66 Chevelle who are both OUSCI invites.

I have had to look back and realize that it took 2 blown engines and a lot of luck,Thankyou Mike Redpath for the great deal on the engine, to geto where I am now. I had so many hopes to have had the interior completed with better seats and the nomex interor along with a new set of sway bars since I don't even have a rear yet but know I need one.

So there you have it. You can go to the Motorstate Challenge in the racing events section and see the youtube videos of how it went. I want to thank everyone for all the help and encouragement that helped me get to where the car is today, and I hope to be able to actually do something to the car other than just keep up with putting new engines in and general maintenance.

I'll try to post up more as things actually do change on the Cormaro

[MuscleRodz]

Sounds like you had a great time. Been wanting to go since the beginning. We will have a car or two ready for next year so watch out!

[Martin71RS]

It's nice that all the hard work pays off! ;-)

[Jim Nilsen]

Sounds like you had a great time. Been wanting to go since the beginning. We will have a car or two ready for next year so watch out!

Sounds like I better spend all the money you saved me in all the right places, like more seat time on the track!!!! I have a lot more left in the car with all the extra power, if I can just start braking later and get a better exit out of the corners I'll be a lot faster. I bet if you got me a MuscleRods sticker my car could still beat you! LOL.

It will be good to meet you, hope to see you there.

[Jim Nilsen]

It's nice that all the hard work pays off! ;-)

All the hard work pays off but it would be a lot better sometimes if I didn't feel like I was beating myself over the head for not being able to do the things to the car that would give me more confidence behind the wheel. It's amazing how much just believing that you have what you need to better can make you feel more relaxed and let you concentrate on your driving. I knew I had more power and was able to think about the corner speed instead of the straight away speed. It also doesn't hurt when you can follow someone who is faster rather than blocking them. You learn a whole lot more when you can follow someone fast for a whole lap. If I could just get Brian Finch to take his time around the track for a few laps and let me slowly learn more I could probably pick up half of the time from what I can do to what he does and pick up a a couple of seconds easily.

If all goes well this winter I hope to have the things I have wanted to do to the car done that have held me back inside my head and be able to relax about how I feel about the car. When I look at the cars that I want to hang with I always see my car falling short. I need better brakes and a bit more in the suspension department to be able to slow down faster and dial in a lot more cornering speed.

The title of the thread still holds true to what I hope the car and my driving skils can do but the margin is down to tenths of a second instead of laps behind. I do have to admit that one of the bightest moments I have had with the car is when I saw the blue flag at the Autobahn Raceway when I was behind the ridetech Chevelle and the Hiedt's Camaro and there was noone behind me. To have them have to let me by put a big smile on my face that lasted a good while. usually when I was seeing the blue flag there was a trian of cars behind me.

It's always good to hear from you Martin , thanks for all you support.

[Payton King]

Jim, glad it is all finally coming together for you. It is always a long road getting a car sorted out. Seat time and instruction are the best modifications you can make to your car. People have a tendentcy to chase after the coolest new part to make them go faster when most of the time it is the dude behind the wheel.

Hopefully I will see you at an event soon