Introducing myself and Barney...

[SSLance]

Been lurking around this site for a while looking for ideas, registered a while ago and finally decided to post up an official introductory thread here.

My name is Lance and this is my 1985 Monte Carlo that my friends have named "Barney" for me (upgrade from "the purple car").





She's been about a 5 year long project for me that started out as just freshening up a real clean 70,000 car. I've basically had the complete car apart and restored except for the master cylinder, dash, headliner and paint. I mostly aimed for the "stock but better" theme but lately have veered away from the stockish look a bit. Once it was clean and fresh, I learned that sitting in a parking lot wiping the dust off of it while people walk by looking at it...just wasn't my style.

After entering in a HPDE at Heartland Park Topeka last spring...the bug bit hard and I've been fixing her up and autocrossing her as much as I could ever since.

Here is a list of the mods with a few pics

Engine is a GMPP Crate HT383 fed by the factory CCC carb and distributor, Sanden AC compressor, Ramcharger elec fans and Hedman headers





Trans is currently the original 200 R4 with a shift kit, but a T56 is sitting on the bench waiting to be transplanted soon.

Rear is a QP 9" Ford with Ford racing disc brakes.

Suspension includes Detroit Speed 2" drop springs front and rear, DSE Upper A arms up front and a Hotchkiss 1" sway bar out back.

Interior upgrades include 2005 GTO front seats and a Retrosound Head unit.





Here are a couple of on track pics taken at the second to last Solo event of this year past.






and my favorite...




Anyway, glad to meet you all. I'll try to get to know more of you and your rides as quickly as I can.

Thanks for having me...

Lance

[SS PUNISHER]

Welcome aboard!

Id use that last pic as motivation to do some suspension work. Lol

[NOT A TA]

Welcome! Nice Monte!

[SSLance]

Here is a snippet of a video from the HPDE track day last spring at Heartland Park that changed the direction of the car and myself. By far the most fun I've ever had in any vehicle of any type.

At the time, I was still running drop spindles up front and eibach 1" drop springs in the rear. During this part of the runs I also had a plug wire up against a header so was running on 7 cylinders (that's why the 'Vettes were so spanking me so bad down the straights).

http://youtu.be/k5BUXiT0hv8

This was during the middle to end of the second of three sessions on the day. Had a great instructor in the car with me who once he figured out that I wasn't going to kill or injure him...really got the whip out on me and helped a lot with getting Barney around the track.

Since that day, I've put much more of an emphasis on making the car drive and turn better starting with fixing the front geometry. Now I just need to do some work on the rear. Can't wait for more track days in 2013.

[Tony_SS]

Welcome Lance!

[SSLance]

Thanks Tony, figured with the new direction on the car, it's about time I jump in over here.

Trying to decide now how far back to go on a build thread? It's been a 5 year long journey already. Seems like only yesterday.

Here's what the bottom of Barney looked like when I started on it





Initial clean up project started





Man, am I glad those days are over.

and after the initial projects were going back together

[BMR Sales]

Welcome aboard Lance!!! the car looks great and the GTO seats look awesome in the car!