My 1985 Monte Carlo SS Barney...

[SSLance]

Just realized it's been over a year since I updated my build thread here, and I feel bad about that. I (like so many people) have gotten lazy and usually just post my updates on FB, which I used to complain about then I got sucked in as well. It's just too easy to do that even though I realize and greatly appreciate the value of an actual build thread that can be found easily, saves pictures and details, and can be used for reference sometimes even years later. I'll try to be better with my updates...

Since the 3 link install above I basically spent about 1 year just racing it locally trying to get used to it. My finishes were okay and there were things I loved about the new setup but still things I finally decided needed to be better.

About a month ago I finally started tweaking the setup once again. I corner balanced the car once again (it had been a while), lowered the rear ride height 3/4" and re-aligned the car (also badly needed). I also put the front sway bar back on the stiffest setting.

The results were fantastic, the car lit up especially in slaloms and sweepers. We had a 2 day autocross event in early May and on day 2 I finished P2 out of about 17 cars, 2nd only to Tom Kamman. This was my best finish in a long while and I was really starting to feel it again.

Here was my fast run from day 2. Check out the G meter during the 8 second long 270 degree sweeper...



BTW, you can also hear the new 3" stainless exhaust with Lamineer Flow straight through mufflers we installed last summer. HUGE upgrade even though I hate the dumps in front of the axle.

After that I prepped the car to return to road course racing with NASA at Podium Club . All fluids changed, brakes checked and bled, and a general nut and bolt check. The now 6 year old Stoptech pads are still less than half worn and the rotors still look brand new. I ordered replacements but I'm still going to run these as long as they'll last. I gathered up all my safety gear and headed down for the weekend, much fun was had. It was good to spend some quality time on a road course again and Podium Club did not disappoint.



The best part was I discovered a new thing...Time attack. UMS Tuning that tuned my car last summer sponsors a Time attack session with NASA on Sunday afternoons. Basically you spend the day running in HPDE 3 or 4 and figure out what your best lap times you are running are (I was right around 1:47) then they line up all the TA cars based on fastest time first. I was about 10th our of 28 cars that day. We get the track to ourselves and they release the first 14 cars onto the track about 200 yards apart and we are to keep our pace and distance for the warm up lap, then we go full speed as we come around to get the green flag. We then get 2 full laps of completely clear track at full speed to set our best time then come in. It was a HOOT... Kind of reminded me of autocross only a LOT faster. I screwed up the entry into turn one on my first hot lap but cleaned it up for my second and ran a 1:48.8xx



Over the whole weekend I put 170 miles on my car on track, 48 of those 2.32 mile laps were at speed reaching 130 mph on the front stretch every lap. Sunday morning I moved from HPDE3 to HPDE4 and started near the rear of a 40 car pack as I wasn't sure what kind of cars\drivers would be in that group. Here's a video of me picking my way up through the pack, again, so much fun! All of the drivers on track that weekend were so great to run around...courteous, point bys, Atta boys, everyone was so cool.



That pretty much gets you back up to date (if anyone read this far :D ). I have one more autocross this Saturday then another track day with NASA Sunday the 23rd then I'm done for the summer. I think the only work I need to do on the car is finally either re-seal or replace my steering box as it's really starting to leak a LOT. Who am I kidding... :D I'm sure I'll find more to do to it during the off season!!