USCA - Optima Batteries - NJMP August 25-27

[Blackbirdws6]

Muuuuch better post. It sounds like you had a good time and really pinpointed a few items that will help you go quicker next year. If the only thing to go was your ankle and the PS, I'd say that was a solid outing.

Can't wait to see the media as well.

[PolarBear]

Originally Posted by Blackbirdws6

Muuuuch better post. It sounds like you had a good time and really pinpointed a few items that will help you go quicker next year. If the only thing to go was your ankle and the PS, I'd say that was a solid outing.

Can't wait to see the media as well.

The ankle was more of an annoyance. It is actually worse today than yesterday.

I was a bit surprised about the PS pump. I have over 3000 miles on the car since the swap and build with no issues. It may have just been a POS reman and died, will never know now, but I know other guys have killed PS pumps in autocross and road.
I also have the iron pump instead of the aluminum one, I was trying to save money when I was buying all the parts. I didn't really care about weight for a daily. Maybe that will be better. I may go with a Turn One pump for the Camaro

[Blackbirdws6]

Originally Posted by PolarBear

Maybe that will be better. I may go with a Turn One pump for the Camaro

Sounds good.

[PolarBear]

Well, no in-car videos I lost my memory card during the day I re-traced all the places I was during the day and I don't see it in any parking lot. My last hope is that I dropped it inside the building at work and someone picked it up. I am going to talk to the cleaning guy this afternoon and see if he found it

[IROCZman15]

whew, so I took a few hours out tonight to upload and sort out photos from the three cameras I used this past weekend. I have just got a GoPro, so I did not have the editing program. Sorry guys, videos will have to wait a day or so. I did do a bulk photo upload to flickr.



https://www.flickr.com/photos/123927...57685958158483



I know it will just look like a bunch of spontaneous photos there, but ther is a story. Man! there is a freakin story. PolarBear did a great job of it, and just because I have to re-copy this narrative many places elsewhere, I will just do a full blown narrative..(in a day or two). sorry if it overlaps his. Here is a link to the quickly uploaded basic photo album, and I'll include a few cool photos too just because.

MAN!!! WHAT A COOL EVENT. Talk about putting your car through the ringer.. this is a brutal weekend for the car, and even more-so for mine because I street drove it there 3.5 hours (filled with 200+ pounds of tools/gear/etc) then hammered on it for two days in an event I was absurdly uncompetitive at, and then street drove it home with gear. (and drove it to work the next morning too!). pro built high end cars were blowing superchargers, the red c5 corvettethat was whooping my ass on the road course... it blew a throw-out bearing and was d.e.a.d.d dead.. a turbo Grand National knocked his motor down hard, a modern challenger with an actual crew team and a spandex girl had their car catch on fire. one of the racers who is frequent and sometimes runs multiple vehicles at each event had his front wheel splinter off . soem cars did not make it back from the road-rally (a cannonball run type challenge to prove these cars are street cars) anything can happen.

it is VERY DEMANDING ON VEHICLES. This is not trailering your car to a dragstrip, running, and trailing home. This is a very different animal. I will easily say that I am not fast on the road course because I have no top end horsepower with my setup, but to be hanging with these cars in the turns and bear and I during autoX and speed stop.... hell yea.. hell f'n yea

This is by far my favorite car event of the year. I had a fantastic time... the entire time. I had some low fueling issues on the speed stop, and my knock sensor would falsely sense knock, and go into LIMP MODE on the big track, but I battled through it.

IMG_7494 by David Martin, on Flickr

IMG_7498 by David Martin, on Flickr


DSCN5700 by David Martin, on Flickr


DSCN5714 by David Martin, on Flickr


DSCN5718 by David Martin, on Flickr

DSCN5719 by David Martin, on Flickr

[IROCZman15]

a few more

the TA bear was mentioning:
DSCN5720 by David Martin, on Flickr



DSCN5725 by David Martin, on Flickr

Mills makes 500+hp and has a 175 wet nitrous shot on it; it being a gutted, home built pro-touring LS track killing machine
DSCN5729 by David Martin, on Flickr

IMG_7508 by David Martin, on Flickr


IMG_7512 by David Martin, on Flickr

IMG_7516 by David Martin, on Flickr

IMG_7517 by David Martin, on Flickr

IMG_7521 by David Martin, on Flickr

[IROCZman15]

IMG_7528 by David Martin, on Flickr


IMG_7529 by David Martin, on Flickr


IMG_7538 by David Martin, on Flickr


IMG_7551 by David Martin, on Flickr


the UMI Performace Gang. I spent a bit of time talking to them and I have a LOT to learn and a LOT to tweak to get my car on kill.
IMG_7552 by David Martin, on Flickr

Scaled. full tank of nitrous, some gear, and 3/4 tank of 93 octane .
IMG_7555 by David Martin, on Flickr

IMG_7557 by David Martin, on Flickr




There were 23 cars in the GTV class. alllll were badass except mine.
IMG_7576 by David Martin, on Flickr

[IROCZman15]

IMG_7577 by David Martin, on Flickr


IMG_7579 by David Martin, on Flickr


IMG_7587 by David Martin, on Flickr


IMG_7591 by David Martin, on Flickr



IMG_7592 by David Martin, on Flickr


IMG_7593 by David Martin, on Flickr


IMG_7597 by David Martin, on Flickr


IMG_7600 by David Martin, on Flickr



IMG_7602 by David Martin, on Flickr

[IROCZman15]

some more

IMG_7603 by David Martin, on Flickr


DSCN5731 by David Martin, on Flickr


IMG_7619 by David Martin, on Flickr


IMG_7626 by David Martin, on Flickr


IMG_7631 by David Martin, on Flickr


IMG_7633 by David Martin, on Flickr

IMG_7642 by David Martin, on Flickr


IMG_7653 by David Martin, on Flickr


I packed the garage hand-tools I though I might need (and luckily I didn't) all in my trunk so I took out the complete 1900 watt amp and the 2 12" subwoofers. Lots a LOT of points for this in the "design and engineering " section, and I am fine with that. There is NO way I could have took all my gear along with the sound system. SACRIFICES!


IMG_7665 by David Martin, on Flickr



me vs a C7 corvette. speed stop event


VIDEO. click on it.

IMG_7673 by David Martin, on Flickr



other videos of event to follow.. along wit full blown written recap

[WayFast84]

Thanks for sharing all the pics, I am pretty excited to find out about this in NJ. I saw it on Roadkill a few years ago and have been dying to set up the bird for these kind of things.

When do they normally post the events for the year?

[sweetbmxrider]

Awesome shots! Man, I have to make it out once. Just to watch, looks like a killer time.

[PolarBear]

That fat guy in that yellow Firebird....
You got a lot of great shots, and of my car, thanks!

A side note, I found my memory car, so I will eventually post up some of my in-car action. I have to combine a lot of the files since the camera breaks them up to keep them smaller.

Originally Posted by WayFast84

When do they normally post the events for the year?

If you follow them on Facebook I think they announce the new starting year, they don't always get the track rental they want, so the track lineup varies each year, I would start looking in March-ish if you're not on FB

[BonzoHansen]

Cool pics Dave!

[Blackbirdws6]

Great pics and story Dave! Sounds like you had a really good and memorable time. I will need to make it out next time.

[IROCZman15]

The series will be airing a 1 hour episode for each event starting in about a month on MAVTV

I used to have to pay for this network, but the past 3 months, I have been able to get it for free on Verizon. Maybe it is an accident, maybe it is legit for free. Check your local listings. MavTV. I think it is channel 810 on Verizon Fios. It has all sorts of awesome motorsports action (tractor pulls, top speed boat racing, motorcycle action, etc)

[PolarBear]

Yesterday I watched the video of the interview with Ken Thwaits, and my car was in the background for a good part of it, starting at -1:55

https://www.facebook.com/showtimemot...2465776917707/

[Jersey Mike]

Originally Posted by IROCZman15

MAN!!! WHAT A COOL EVENT. Talk about putting your car through the ringer.. this is a brutal weekend for the car, and even more-so for mine because I street drove it there 3.5 hours (filled with 200+ pounds of tools/gear/etc) then hammered on it for two days in an event I was absurdly uncompetitive at, and then street drove it home with gear. (and drove it to work the next morning too!). pro built high end cars were blowing superchargers, the red c5 corvettethat was whooping my ass on the road course... it blew a throw-out bearing and was d.e.a.d.d dead.. a turbo Grand National knocked his motor down hard, a modern challenger with an actual crew team and a spandex girl had their car catch on fire. one of the racers who is frequent and sometimes runs multiple vehicles at each event had his front wheel splinter off . soem cars did not make it back from the road-rally (a cannonball run type challenge to prove these cars are street cars) anything can happen.

it is VERY DEMANDING ON VEHICLES. This is not trailering your car to a dragstrip, running, and trailing home. This is a very different animal.

This is the real test. Anyone can slap some bolts together and call it a build, but to actually make something that can be in the discussion of an "ultimate street car" is really notable.
You and James should be proud of yourself and your cars for making it out of there alive. Props.

[BonzoHansen]

I found this online just now

[Paul Huryk]

Power steering overheating/cavitation has always been a problem for 3rd gens on the road course - our CMC guys all run big PS coolers to keep their steering units happy.

If you get the right tires on those wheels - there are some good options to make the class rules happy - you could pick up some good time and not have them get slippery in the heat. I can hep you with those choices.

The 3rd gen high g fueling problem is a tough one - you worked around it with the 4th gen system, but the other options are the 1LE baffled tank or keeping the tank 3/8 full or better. Some choose to put in their own tank baffles.

What are the suspension rules for the class? There are some easy parts that will make a huge impact on your lap times - assuming the rules allow them.

Originally Posted by PolarBear

My accounting won't be as detailed as Dave's has been in the past, but it was an awesome weekend. I was a little upset that I couldn't run with the other thirdgens because of something as trivial as the year of the car, considering it is the same as all the years before the cut-off date of 1989, but I spoke with Jimi about my issue and he said to email a compelling argument to have a rule change. They chose 1989 since some cars started coming out with "performance" mods such as ABS etc. but none of the third gens ever got that. I think the argument should be that a generation of car should be allowed in GTV (Vintage) so long as it is essentially the same as the rest of the cars from the start of the production. Really, the only thing my car has that earlier cars do not, is an Air bag, and that's not a performance addition.

So the whole time for Autocross, Road course and Speed-Stop I was always at the bottom of the list in the GT class, it did make it super easy to find my times There were three other 3rd gens there, one being Dave, another IROC and an 84 TA made to look like an 86-90. I compared my times to all of those guys and I did pretty well considering all of them had bigger engines than I do, and suspension mods. My car is essentially to WS6 specs but I have Koni yellows and Global west delrin bushings in the front A arms and I put on the steering brace that I bought a long time ago, but wouldn't fit with the stock dual TPI fan setup. I also only had 500 treadwear tires on my R15 wheels. I wasn't there to compete with those guys though, I was there to just have fun, it was just nice to see that I was doing pretty well against my "peers" and this was my first time competing.

Saturday the first event, again, was the Autocross. I have been to autocross before to spectate and have I have never been all that impressed with the "value" of it, but I had never been in the drivers seat. I can definitely say that I am a fan of it now. We got 10-11 runs in total for the day. I got 10 and from the beginning of the day to the end I dropped two seconds without getting any instruction/help/pointers from anyone. I think if I had someone that could sit in the car, or if I rode shotgun I could pick up some more time. Tires would definitely helped me pick up some time, they would get slippery when they got hot. Still the slowest of my thirdgen peers, but only by less than a second. Across the board I was fairly consistent though, My high time was 37.283 for my first run, and I was going slower on purpose, to a best of 35.213, but the rest of my runs were all in the 35.xx. All considered, I think I did pretty well and had a great experience. I did kick the Ford Torinos ass in the autocross though, lol and he had a high dollar build

The next event was the road rally. Nothing too eventful, just a ~35 mile ride down to the Wildwood sign and back. At the end of a (for me) hot day it was nice to just cruise with the AC blasting. It was so nice as soon as it hits your skin

Sunday was the Speed-Stop and the Road course. I was really looking forward to the Road course, and it didn't disappoint. I can't say much except I did way better than I thought I would. Again, I feel the tires held me back and not having a proper racing seat, but I also didn't know the line to take most of the time. The seat was a part of not taking the proper line. I was holding on to the steering wheel for dear life and I was using my knee to brace myself from not sliding. With my gearing I basically stayed in 3rd all the way around the track except the front straight, where I would upshift to 4th, then start braking at the crows nest and then downshift into 3rd again going into turn one. I couldn't believe how well that BONE STOCK 4.8 performed. I was going 110+mph by the end of the straight. During my first outing on the track I lost power steering though. All the RH turns I didn't even notice, it wasn't until I got to turn 7, the hard LH where I had a hard steering wheel. I thought nothing of it though until I came back into the pits where I had to muscle it to get around. Also, during the first run, I realized the moment where the tires were done in the 3rd lap, too hot and slippery, but I continued on as best I could. When I got back to the paddock, I checked the PS fluid, it was "full hot" and it wasn't foamy or look like there was air in it. I let the engine cool for a while and then jack up the front, nothing appeared to be binding, so I think I just killed the stock pump from overheating since there is no real PS cooler in the 3rd gen. I have that one return loop that goes in front of the radiator, but that's it. If I ever decide to take this car again, I will definitely put in a cooler for that. I was also impressed with the stock 4th gen cooling system, I am running a stock 4th gen radiator and fans, the radiator is actually Mike's from his pewter car and I bought a set of stock replacement fans. I would glance at the temp when I could on the track and I never got over ~220. I am actually also not running water based coolant. I am running Evans waterless coolant. I remember when I posted that I had bought it for the other car, someone said it can make the cooling system seem smaller than it is since it doesn't transfer heat as well, but that must not be the case since I never ran over temps that I would be in traffic. Between that statement and the stock sized cooling system, I was very worried that I would overhead quickly, but I am quite surprised and happy with the performance. I also have the "Torque" app on my phone, paired with a PLX bluetooth OBDII adapter, and I would check the temps afterwards, and I was only in the ~220 range still with all that latent heat. I would definitely recommend the waterless coolant to anyone.
Despite the loss of the power steering, I decided to go out on the track one more time. I was kind of low on fuel at this point, since i had done the auto-x, road rally, some speed-stop and driving to/from the hotel several times and I was actually 70 miles into the tank when I got there. I thought I would have enough even with the 70 miles out of the tank, to do the whole event. I was under/around 1/4 of a tank when I went out on track again, and I have to say GM really did a great job with the 4th gen fuel system. I went out there pulling some lateral G's and I didn't even have a stumble. I only went 3 laps the send time out, even though I was in NOVICE, there were some high dollar cars out there ON MY ASS on lap 3 and I felt like the tires were getting lose again, so after the long bowl (turn 12?) I came back in. If I had more fuel and hadn't lost power steering, I would have gone out for another session, but I wasn't about to put 93 octane in the car from the track at over $3 a gallon, when I am running 87 in the car otherwise, lol. It was OK though, I wanted to do more speed stop.

The Speed-Stop was also on Sunday. I actually pulled out of line from the first session of the road course, we hot lapped right out of the orientation on the road course, which was supposed to be only 2-3 laps, but I think they gave us 6 instead. The speed stop was a different format this year. Instead of going alone and only one "direction" they had two setup side-by-side and a left habd and a right hand turn. You would come in and do the RH turn course while you would go head-to-head with the person in the LH turn. They had a drag race tree with pre-stage and stage lights to drop the green light to start. You were a few feet behind the start timing light, so it was basically impossible to red light the start. After you did your RH lane, you would come back around the timing trailer and get in line for the LH lane. I hot lapped this course a bunch of times. This was another course where I didn't see what the big-to-do was all about, but once you get there it was a different story. I improved a little at first and cut my times down, but I was held back by the tires after a point. Plus my gearing may have hurt me a little. With the 3.45's and the gearing of the T56, I had to do the course in first gear the whole time, if I shifted into second I wouldn't be in a good RPM once I got to the turn to be able to power out of the last corner. So I was in a higher RPM and had to feather the pedal to not break the tires lose or drift the car towards the finish, although it was a lot of fun doing that anyway, lol.
This was another place that the cooling system did not disappoint, I hot lapped the speed stop a lot of times in the afternoon, with the low fuel tank! and I watched the temps the whole time, I wouldn't go over the ~212 mark where I have the second fan come on, I have the first fan set at 205 or something. This is also another place the GM 4th gen fuel tank shone, I was just above "E" after my second outing on the road course, Dave was having fueling problems with the low tank in the speed stop, but not even a hiccup for me.

Overall I had a blast, I did have two bad things happen to me though. I rolled my ankle on a rock and sprained it, plus lightly sprained the other ankle when I fell. Also, I burned my mouth eating a hotdog from the concession

I seriously think anyone interested in Motorsports should make the time to come support events like this. Even as a spectator there is a lot to see, and as a volunteer you get right next to the action. Even if this isn't your "thing" it may just get you interested. My cousin came out on Saturday to watch, he has been programmed from childhood to be a straight line guy and after Saturday, he says he wants to change his Chevelle to be able to participate in stuff like this.

I have learned a lot after my first event and has given me pause to re-consider choices I was going to make on my Camaro build. Even though I already got aftermarket seats for the car, I need a real racing seat and likely 5 point harnesses, I am going to go full "track" car instead of cruiser and I need a PS cooler for sure. I also need some 18 inch wheels and sticky tires.

Here are the results if you would like to look. If you want to see any of my times specifically, just scroll right to the bottom

[PolarBear]

Originally Posted by Paul Huryk

Power steering overheating/cavitation has always been a problem for 3rd gens on the road course - our CMC guys all run big PS coolers to keep their steering units happy.

If you get the right tires on those wheels - there are some good options to make the class rules happy - you could pick up some good time and not have them get slippery in the heat. I can hep you with those choices.

The 3rd gen high g fueling problem is a tough one - you worked around it with the 4th gen system, but the other options are the 1LE baffled tank or keeping the tank 3/8 full or better. Some choose to put in their own tank baffles.

What are the suspension rules for the class? There are some easy parts that will make a huge impact on your lap times - assuming the rules allow them.

Of all the things to fail, I didn't expect the PS to go, I expected to blow up the engine with the "low" capacity of the conversion oil pan I have before anything.
As far as rules, there aren't any for the vehicle SPECIFICALLY, just the 200 treadwear on the tires. I wasn't really "ready" for the race since I was also preparing for my trip the following weekend. If I go again, I will likely have some aftermarket suspension pieces, and at the very least, some strut mounts and a track alignment for the front end. I actually had planned to swap the lower control arms and PHB for the race, but I ran out of time.
I will have some better tires for next time too, I was also running out of money working on two projects concurrently.

[IROCZman15]

yea, I was suprised about your power steering issue too



as for my fueling issue, it was definitiely due to the stock tank and low amount of fuel I had in it while doing "high" G driving. It remedied itself after I added about a half tank of 93. I will certainly need better 200 treadwear tires. Falkens, BFG rivals, or the Nitto NT05, sometime over the winter. Probably going to upgrade to Koni Yellows and bump the camber a bit. That said, it is a long way away till this event next year..and i would like to get some autoX sessions in either this fall or the spring, to just improve my driving, and test a few things.

Just the other day after coming home from a nice car show in Califon, I peeled the stickers off the car and washed it... only for it not to fire up!?!? Turns out the MSD Digital6 Plus ignition box decided to be a jerk. I did some minor troubleshooting of it, but ran out of time to look into it and test it more. I pulled the stock ignition control wires from it and bypassed it (essentially back to stock spark voltage etc now). Fires up. Problem is, without that box, I can't/won't use the nitrous since the box I have dialed in 4 deg of spark delay. Thank GOD this box didnt act up when i was on the track or driving to/from the event. VERY ODD that it started acting screwy after a car show and a good 2 hours of driving the car that day. I'll recheck all wiring, and do some of the tests MSD recommends to troubleshoot it. So, until I remedy this... I prob wont be on a track or autoX course.

I have most of the videos from USCA uploaded to my youtube account, the only ones I am missing are the actual go-pro ones from the road course sessions. they are huge in size, so I just did all of the smaller/shorter ones first.

I need to find a good video editing program that is easy for a non-computer guru like me to use. I want to edit out some of the down time moments (under black flag, pre race gridding, etc) but the program that comes free with GoPro camera won't do it.. it can only chop the video into smaller individual videos. also to add text, and possibly a side-by-side or picture-in-picture feature

I am brand new to GoPro, but even though I have the hard plastic case on with hard plastic rear cover, there is a LOT of wind noise. did not expect this. am i doing something wrong?

[PolarBear]

Originally Posted by IROCZman15

Just the other day after coming home from a nice car show in Califon, I peeled the stickers off the car and washed it... only for it not to fire up!?!? Turns out the MSD Digital6 Plus ignition box decided to be a jerk. I did some minor troubleshooting of it, but ran out of time to look into it and test it more. I pulled the stock ignition control wires from it and bypassed it (essentially back to stock spark voltage etc now). Fires up. Problem is, without that box, I can't/won't use the nitrous since the box I have dialed in 4 deg of spark delay. Thank GOD this box didnt act up when i was on the track or driving to/from the event. VERY ODD that it started acting screwy after a car show and a good 2 hours of driving the car that day. I'll recheck all wiring, and do some of the tests MSD recommends to troubleshoot it. So, until I remedy this... I prob wont be on a track or autoX course.

I wonder if somehow this is also linked to your limp mode issue? Maybe you should push a little and see if it acts up again? Not like beat on it, but see if you can get it to replicate

[IROCZman15]

true. I also am convinced that my oem replacement fuel pump is not happy anymore. I might plan on upgrading to a bigger one.. but might want to do research since I eventually (hopefully in a years time) plan on going to a 406 or 421 EFI controlled small block making 500ish hp and then throwing a 200 wet shot on it. not sure what size/rating pump i'd need for that just yet. not a bad winter project to get done ahead of time.

Originally Posted by PolarBear

I wonder if somehow this is also linked to your limp mode issue? Maybe you should push a little and see if it acts up again? Not like beat on it, but see if you can get it to replicate

[PolarBear]

Well, I DEFINITELY cooked the power steering pump. When I was removing it it was all greasy in the bearing area, so some of the grease came out of the sealed front bearing. Also the fluid was completely brown and smelled bad, considering the fluid was clear when it went in, with a slight yellow tinge. I swapped out the pump and put in new fluid and I magically have power back. I didn't purge the system since there was no metal in the old fluid. I will drive it for a day or two and suck the fluid out of the reservoir, then change it again in a few days after that.

[BonzoHansen]

Originally Posted by PolarBear

Well, I DEFINITELY cooked the power steering pump. When I was removing it it was all greasy in the bearing area, so some of the grease came out of the sealed front bearing. Also the fluid was completely brown and smelled bad, considering the fluid was clear when it went in, with a slight yellow tinge. I swapped out the pump and put in new fluid and I magically have power back. I didn't purge the system since there was no metal in the old fluid. I will drive it for a day or two and suck the fluid out of the reservoir, then change it again in a few days after that.

http://www.magnefinefilters.com/NEW-...xoC074QAvD_BwE

In the return hose. Dave Pozzi convince me to use one.