GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

You can see them in post #28, a little behind the exhaust in post #46, and peeking out in the last post pic of the iroc wheels. Since they are the only set I've had, it's hard to say how well they tuck compared to others. Of course, the ones that you cut the floor board would have better ground clearance. They are at their lowest point a foot or so infront of the rear tire.

On mine, there are now some obvious scrapes from where they've gone over curbing etc. I'd much rather scrape up the sfc's than anything else, almost sacrificial.

The car is in the air at the moment, I'll try get some more pictures tomorrow.

'87IROCZOWNER69

iTrader: (1)

I almost thought that this was knocker! But then I saw pictures of the inside and how the wheel wells arent gray and some other small details.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/cto/2117518700.html

//<86TA>\\

iTrader: (14)

they tuck right up the the floor pan, they sit lower then the floor pan obviously since the cross from the LCA mounts tot he trans subframe, but i have never had them bottom out on anything, unless you drive over a curb or something like that.

So they do sit lower than most other perimeter styles, but thats not really an issue unless the car is stupid low.

SomeGuy25thZ

the GTA 16's look best! for CMC i think you can only have 16's right? 17's allowed in AI otherwise the zr-1 replicas are nice too

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

That car is posted on the CMC forums. I know that he will take 3250 for it, and that's a heckuva deal!

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

The subframe connectors are ~1 5/8", and since they hug the floor it's at most 1 5/8" lower than the rear floor.

Drivers side


Drivers side


Passenger side (ignore the missing GFX)


Pass side


For reference, the driveshaft and exhaust are not in.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Yes they do! And they (the GTAs) are the lightest stock wheel, so it's a very popular choice amonst budget racers. Stock ZR1s are heavy and I believe the replicas are heavier still! I think AI allows for 18x9.5.

16x8s (at least 16lbs) are the max allowed wheel in CMC1. CMC2 allows for 17x9.5s (at least 18lbs). The desired wheel for GM CMC2 right now is the C5 Z06 wheels (I think) as they are the lightest. Sucks for us third gen guys in that we still have to use a ~2" adapter to run those. Nobody has been running a third gen in CMC2 long enough to say if the bigger/wider/heavier setup (275 on a 17) is an advantage over the smaller/narrower/lighter setup (255 on a 16).

My GTA wheel weighs about 17.6lbs on a bathroom scale. The IROCs weigh in at about 21.2lbs!

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

When I was still back in College Station (~'04/'05), I came up with my idea of how I wanted to paint the car. The faded red wasn't cutting it and red isn't exactly my favorite color. I was watching a Trans Am race and (already an XKR fan) noticed the paint scheme on the Jaguars. On TV, they looked black and silver, but upon searching for them online after the race, saw that they were actually a dark green (that looks black in certain light) and silver. Me likey!


More sweet pics at http://www.conceptcarz.com/view/phot...R-R_photo.aspx

I prefer a dark blue than the green so I snagged a pic of someones blue thirden and started photochoppin. Darkened the blue and added the silver (The white is supposed to be silver)



Not quite right. Thought about adding a big bowtie at the blue/silver break in place of the jaguar. Kinda tacky. What else ccould I do? Well, the car is mostly now a B4C 1LE car soooo...



Next round of photoshop incorporated the TX DPS scheme a bit into the picture.



Almost there. A slight change to the stripes to make them more camaroish, painted louvers, and make the B-pillar even more like the DPS car...


I think that'll work! Part Z28, part DPS, part XKR-R.

Add stickers and you get...





Now, what may look good in a picture, may not look so good in real life. I bought a 1987 Promo Model on ebay and painted it to make sure that this is what I wanted. I fell in love with it instantly and dreamed about the day I could get Knocker painted to match. Well, that day had finally come.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

I went to a few paint shops for quotes. Went in asking for a cheap paintjob for a racecar. One place refused it completely saying that they don't do cheap work. Well sorry, I wasn't about to spend $5k on something that's going to get rock chips the first day on track. Went to a MAACO (Fry Rd & Hwy 6) and talked to the owner there. He seemed competent and I got a good vibe from him. I explained what I wanted, what I cared about and what I didn't, and he gave me an estimate of around $1200. I considered that not bad since they would have to lay out the stripes and basically paint it twice. I even took in my model so we were both on the same page. He was also cool with me dropping in every few days to check on the progress and take pictures. I told him I was in no real rush and had no issues if I needed to be bumped for other work (hoping that could potentially reduce the price and increase the quality a bit). He said normally the turn around is about a week. They make money by turning around cars, so it was nice to know Knocker wouldn't be there for months on end.

Now, I know some people who have had Maaco jobs done where they simple paint over everything. I stripped the car down to what I thought was good enough. Removed the side door moldings, door handles, spoiler, louvers, side markers, drilled out the hood pins etc. Hauled it up to the shop.



I know I'm a little bit weird about certain things. When looking over the car, I asked about the cost to remove the hail damage on the roof. He said it would be cheaper to weld on a replacement roof. M'kay... I'll live with the dents. I requested that the holes in the doors where the molding was riveted to be filled, along with the door lock holes and antennae hole. He asked if I wanted the big visible thru crack in the bumper cover at the corner of the headlight bucket fixed, and I declined. But make sure those tiny holes in the door get filled!



They prepped the nose to conceal the spider web cracks in the polyurethane at no extra charge. Nice.



They also ended up also removing the gfx, something I probably should have thought about and saved a few hours labor charge. Oh well, their labor rate is cheap. Glad they did it, the end result should show that effort.

Demon355

iTrader: (1)

Thread is awesome dude, sub'd for sure! I thought about scooping up a TPI car to build for the CMC but don't know about them racing up here in Canada?

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

I wanted to go with a stock something color, so that if I ever needed a fender or something repainted, it wouldn't be a custom job. I always liked the Navy Blue on a buddy's 4th gen SS. But just to be sure, we went around all the different make dealerships looking and asking for brochures to view the different shades of blue on current cars. I always came back to the GM blue.
The exact colors I ended up going with were 1999 (or 2000) Corvette colors.
28U Navy Blue Metallic / 13U Sebring Silver
Maaco matched these to Dupont colors: B9808 Navy Blue / B9149 Bright Silver

Here it is the first time we stopped by after they had started painting. I told them to untape the brake ducting, that is to be painted blue also, but I was feeling super stoked otherwise that it was finally getting painted.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

A bit later we stopped by again and got to see the progress of them laying out the stripes. Basically, they had taken the point at the BACK of the hood were the raised part ends and made the overall width of the stripes that wide down the length of the car. The nose didn't look that bad, but I couldn't help but think the roof and decklid just didn't seem like the right proportions. I waffled a bit thinking that, even tho it's not exactly what I was looking for, it may look okay in the end.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Thankfully, my then girlfriend (now wife) knows me and said that the decision was up to me, but that I would regret it later and should ask them to change it. The guy who was doing the taping off was shocked at first, until he realized what I was talking about and that it didn't require remasking everything and starting over. I told him to take the width of the louvers +1/x" either side (whatever was easy and flat to tape to) and make that the width of the stripes all the way down.

This was the result. I felt SO much better about this when we stopped by the next time and saw this.

TPI TERR

iTrader: (9)

oohh damn thats ganna look nice!.. whats that covering the parking lights?
and i just checked out the pics of your alston subframe connectors and they look 5x better than the umi sfc.

1992 B4C 1LE

Can I ask about your friend's 1992 B4C 1LE? What's the history behind that particular car? Mine, which I sold years ago, looks very similar. I can't see the images too well from work.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

The brake ducting replaced the parking lights. There is some wire mesh riveted to the naca ducts to keep the bigger rocks and rubber out.

That particular B4C's history is unknown. It's a '92 305/5sp. I know it's not yours because when he first bought it, it had the louver-type grill. It was bought by Costas in '02 (maybe a year or so earlier) from a red-neck who didn't know what he had. Funny story with it. Costas test drove it with a buddy and they felt it didn'it quite pull like a B4C should. Turns out it had a 3.08 open rear.



Most the B4C cars I know of were bought in Texas, probably from DPS. All have been autocrossed. This list is a few years old, so it may not be current. First name is who owned the car last I knew. Most all these people were in TAMSCC at one point of another.

92 305/5sp/white - Costas/(Red-neck)

92 305/5sp - Weiss/Russel

92 305/5sp/white - (Dallas?)/Case/Fair/Ramey/Wirtz

92 305/5sp/dk blue - (Dallas?)/Dean/Mccall/Ewing. Car is an LT1/T56 car now.

92 305/5sp/silver - Whitney/Duck

92 305/5sp - Espinoza/Sen-roy/Contella

92 305/5sp/black - Countryman*/Costas/Miller/Farris/Matteucci/Howsler

92 305/5sp/lt blue - Baird?/Bachman/Matteucci/Marvel

92 350/auto (Dallas?)/Fair/Hood

92 305/5sp/maroon - Robertson(Knocker)/Kuboviak/Rivas

*This car got a good bit of restoration work done and is now sporting a black and white DPS paint job (very close to it anyways)

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Almost done! They had a few more things to do. I won't lie and say I wasn't feeling like a kid at Christmas unwrapping his Red Ryder BB Gun.

Giggity!


It's a tarp!

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Chuck called me to let me know Knocker was ready. Arrived, settled up, and went to pull Knocker around the building to load up. Started up ok and got moving, but then the motor wanted to die. Not fun. Asked Chuck if they had any issues with moving it and he said none. They mostly pushed it around. The one time they did start it, he heard it from the office and went to see who was reving the engine. Well, they weren't, it was simply just really loud with no muffler. I was able to putt along and get it lined up with the trailer to snap some pics. Didn't want to sit there and try diagnose it, would rather do that at home. I think we ended up pushing it up that last bit. Not the first time I've had to push my (or someone's) car onto a trailer, and definetly won't be the last.

Yeah, I was a bit camera happy that day.
















Yes, it's the mighty Ranger that could. 4.0L V6 auto. Highest towing rating combo. It's just at the limit with Knocker. People told me to buy a real truck (Gee why hadn't I thought of that?!?!). Since I forgot to water my money tree, I guess could sell the Ranger, the trailer and racecar to buy a real truck... but then I wouldn't have anything to tow!

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

After getting home and doing some probing, I discovered that the timing was way off. My guess is that the dist clamp wasn't quite doing it's job well enough and the dist rotated. Fixed that and it ran like a champ again. Went forward with plugging it all back together and gave it a quick wash. Before installing the hood louvers, I cut some sheet metal to cover the holes since the holes are looked at as illegal lightening of the hood. Bummer. I installed the 4th gen door handles (from eBay) that were painted at Maaco. Nice direct fit and subtle change. The front side markers were covered in silver racertape before getting put back in. Per the rules, they must be covered with tape or replaced with a facsimile. Some people use clear tape, but the amber would clash with my purty paint scheme.

I made a little change with the taillights. I took the easy way out and painted them from the outside. Gave the amber parts a few coats of Testors Candy Apple Red, then a light coat or two over the red and former amber to match them up. I tried a bit of fine sanding to get them shiny, but kept taking off took much of the paint and would have to recoat them. I think I finally ended up with a coat and stopped. The 'dull' finish would work. Since Knocker won't be seeing the street again, I decided to make the former amber cells also light up when I hit the brakes. I moved/forced the reverse light plug into the former amber cell, then tapped it into the brakelights. I then moved the former amber plugs to the reverse lights and installed an amber bulb. Clear as mud? Now when I brake, all 4 red lights come on. If I hit the hazards, the amber bulbs shine thru the white cells.

It's kinda funny how some racers will tape down the visible red (to what the minimum that is required in the rules) so the trailing car might miss when the leading cars braking point is. As a rookie, I wanted everyone, even the people in the grandstands to know that, HEY I'M BRAKING NOW! I know that starting out, I would be hitting the brakes waaaay earlier than some the more experienced guys.

The pictures below also show my travel windows installed. Made from poly-carbonate and some angle aluminum riveted to it, they screw into the holes where the weather stripping was. Helps keep the rain out when towing and the dew out when sitting outside overnight.



This one gives you an idea of how the color changes with the light/shade.




My work had an employee carshow, so I threw on the 17's for my first entered carshow.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Part of the CMC rules require everyone to have a dyno sheet for their car. Some of the guys in the Houston area made a mini dyno day at a local shop. It was nice to be able to join them since this was the first time I had to do this.

I took Knocker up to Village Automotive to get the required annual dyno. 209hp/276ft*lbs, a bit under the 230/300 limit. Not too bad for an 170k+ mile engine.

White'89

iTrader: (8)

We used to tow a 16ft V8 inboard boat with an aerostar minivan. That ranger will be fine...its mostly the driver.

But as satisfied as you sound with the labor rates that looks like some pretty decent paint work. Now ya gotta try to keep it on the car.

itsMikey

really nice build and read

DAVECS1

iTrader: (2)

Geeze I can't help but thinking you must live near one of the best Maaco's ever. They seem to actually care and have some knowledge and skill.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

I had a Prodigy brake controller and a weight distributing hitch on the Ranger, anything I could do to help. Didn't mean I could keep the A/C on when going up overpasses.

I have to admit I really am impressed with that paint job. It's a bit more than I expected. There arn't any big orange peal or runs in it. Yes, there are some flaws, like the small ridge between the stripes since it's not clearcoated. At the same time, a buddy of mine spent way more than I did at a good shop, and one of his stripes has a slight / at the last few inches on the roof. Sometimes you get lucky/unlucky. For what I paid, it turned out great.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

I was getting more and more comfortable with this road course thing. I've autocrossed for the past 10 years and this is a whole new ballgame. I really like the third gen for this. Very balanced, very forgiving.

Just after the car was painted, I did another HPDE weekend with NASA, got signed off in HPDE2 on the Saturday, and HPDE3 on the Sunday.

Signed up for Comp Licensing (HPDE4) at the first NASA event of 2008 at MSR-H, aka MSR-Houston, aka Mercedes Benz of Sugarland Road Course, located in Angleton Arrived, added my blue tape numbers, and had a good time.

I had the Competition Licensing guy, (Michael, who is actually Marshall's brother who both race in AI and CMC) ride with me for a check out ride. On the out lap I took it easy to build a gap to the cars infront of me. He told me to catch up and that he wanted to see how I did in traffic. Hammer down, I did just that. Passed a good few people, keeping one eye on my mirrors for the really fast guys. All was going well until it wasn't. Going into the bus stop (long left hander to slow tight right hander), I got on the brakes just before I had the car completely straight. The back end started to come around, I caught it, but couldn't make the right hander. The car looped around. Crap! There goes my check out ride.

Michael asked/quized me what went wrong, I told him, and he advised that I should think about going straight off track instead of looping the car. I had considered that, but it was a pretty decent drop off there. 15' to the right the grass smoothed out. Yes, anyways, I'll take that advice from an experienced racer, especially if next time there is traffic around me. Despite all this, he still gave me my rookie permit! That meant that next event I could actually race! They were comfortable enough with me to let me race alongside their cars! Woo-Hoo!!



The guys are all really friendly and had suggested I pit with the rest of the CMC guys. These guys are cool. They share what they've done to their cars, let you take pictures, ask questions and all. I'm sure they keep that last 2% a secret

Now this is a CLEAN car!

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

I had placed my sticker order with a friend of a friend who runs a vinyl and screen printing shop shortly after I did the MSR-H event. Now, the next event was fast approaching (on March 15th) and my stickers still weren't ready. I got the "I really gotta get these out to this other guy" excuse at first. Ok, I'm fine with that, a business should prioritize. But now it was becoming where *I* needed to be that other guy! Finally, on the Wednesday before my first race weekend, $180 later, I was able to pick up my stickers. Needless to say, that's the last time I give him any business.

And no, the cmc was not supposed to be lowercase. No time to fix that.

I first started autocrossing with the #3 (Earnhardt fan), then #28/#82 after I got the 240Z. When we bought it, it had the #28 and the Havoline stickers on it. Kept the #28/#82 when I started autocrosing Knocker (Z28). But, since someone was already running the #28 in CMC, I came up with #32. Started off listing all the available numbers. Didn't want a really high number like #86 (1986 Camaro). #32 just looked good IMHO. Fits too because I took a '86 Z28 + '92 B4C = '08 32CMC.

Compare these to the photshop in post #58

Demon355

iTrader: (1)

Awesome, I'm glad stuff worked out for you! Looks like alot of fun! Is it possible to get a high rez pic of this?

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

What? You don't want a hi-res of MY car?!?! I'm insulted!

http://www.fototime.com/D65F002EB77C1F5/orig.jpg
2048x1536

Another...
http://www.fototime.com/25711C5E11A6867/orig.jpg

And here's one that someone else took of the 19 car... all fancy n stuff...
http://www.nasatxracing.com/gallery/...2FIMG_2679.jpg

Enjoy some more thirdgen racecars I've 'gathered'...
http://www.fototime.com/inv/E6CBBFDFCBA3E96

dannyboyemt

awesome thread! has me motivated!

Demon355

iTrader: (1)

Thanks! Awesome collection!

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

The NASA weekend at Motorsport Ranch in Cresson was to be my first wheel to wheel race. No more point to pass, no more passing only on the straights. It was gonna be fun.

My friend Nick arrives signed up for HPDE1 in his future CMC third gen and pits next to me. I picked up the tires I ordered and got them mounted on the wheels. This is my FIRST new set of tires for Knocker evar! They're so gooey and soft.





First practice session approches. Fired up Knocker to get the juices flowing for a good 10 minutes. Suit up. Wait until most of the cars are gridded and get strapped in. Belts tight, steering wheel locked on, window net up, let's go. Put the car in reverse, back up and... I stall it. Crap. It won't restart. Our crew for the weekend, Cody, and a passerby push it back to my space. My girlfriend pulls the Ranger around and Cody grabs the jumper cables. Va-room! It's nice having a pit crew. I line up in grid and they start sending cars on track. Awaaaaay we go! This is my first time on this track. During the warm up lap, I'm trying to get visual clues of the course, wave to corner workers, get some heat in the tires and brakes. We come around for the green, I floor it and... blah. No power whatsoever past 3k rpm. Dive quickly to pit road as I don't want to stop on course on my very first session with these guys and cause a yellow flag. I didn't even make a full lap.

I pull back to my paddock spot and Cody is ready to do some diagnosing. Turn off the car and the battery is dead. It's not getting recharged. We poke around for a minute and discover the nut on the back of the alternator for the wire that charges the battery is missing! I grab my bag of random 3rd gen bolts and we find one that fits. Jump the car again just as the rest of the CMC guys are taking the checker for the end of the session. I'm just happy that the fix was easy.



My main goal for the weekend is to stay out of trouble and out of the leaders way. It was a good weekend overall. Main thing is I drove Knocker back onto the trailer.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Shortly after the MSR-C event, I added a cheap Summit bullet type / glasspack muffler. It was just too obnoxiously loud without anything on there. This should tone it down just a touch. My super-awesome girlfriend bought me new nose, rockers, and rear emblems knowing that I'd never spend that much on those myself. They really complete the car.

The next event was at Texas World Speedway in College Station. A few weeks before it, I bought a 2001 GMC 2500HD, extended cab, long bed. Now, this was the time when gas was approaching $4 a gal, so I got a really good deal on it. The workhorse Ranger was still in the stable; it just won't be tasked with towing any longer.

The TWS event itself was pretty ... uh.. uneventful, but did have some over heating issues. A little bit of short shifting and plain backing off helped. I was pretty much well behind the rest of the class playing catchup. Unfortunately there were no other rookies this year to play with. Still, I was having fun just being out there.




Gauge cluster panel was ordered online, custom made out of aluminum .


*edit* Somehow I forgot about the contact I had! Not with another car, but with a tire wall.
During a practice session, I was going into T1 (left hander going CCW) coming off the front stretch and noticed a yellow AI car had spun off drivers right. I slowed a bit more than normal, but was also not on my usual line. The rear of Knocker spun around in a heartbeat and I was suddenly sliding sideways to the inside of the corner on the grass right towards a corner station. But I'm thinking it's a ways away, I'll stop in time. Tires locked up, I'm still sliding sideways parallel to the track, with the car rotated 90* from the track. Longest ... slide... ever. I'll stop in time. The corner station (concrete barrier protected by a tire wall) kept coming. I'll stop in... I hope I'll st... oh crap. I just *kissed* the tire wall along the entire length of the car. Put it in gear, whipped it around, waved to the corner workers (who I heard later radio'd in saying "He HIT the corner station!!!) and continued on. The impact put a small crease in the front right fender and popped it in. Later, talking to the AI guy, it seems that he was following a car that was dropping oil. That made me feel so much better since I probably went thru the same stuff. Knocker stepped sideways quicker and with as little warning than I've ever experienced it doing.

sjgrimsley

Subscribed!

NufNuffZ28

iTrader: (10)

Very nice build. I will keep an eye on it!

Do you have pictures of how your rear tow strap is hooked/mounted. I am looking for a way to do mine as we speak. I may have some issues with the rear diffuser that is currently installed on the car.

avilla20

awesome job man....very impressed and motivated!!!!

Project 3.4 Camaro

Nice, I plan to eventually get my car into racing, any suggestions as far as races that 3rd gens can qualify to get into, or suggestions how to get into it?
Also two side/notes advice, Idk if your rules allow it or not, but if you put headlight covers on that completely seal off the headlight pockets it would be more aerodynamic, also I would take off the gfx to reduce some weight and further help aero.

And NufNuffZ28, do you just have a diffuser or full on bellypan and a splitter up front? also did you make your diffuser yourself? I plan to eventually do all that to my car, also if you could post some pics of your diffuser setup, and the other stuff if you have it that would be great.

NufNuffZ28

iTrader: (10)

The car has 4 different things that were done to it when I bought it as far as splitters/diffusers. I am retaining them as I do want to roadrace/standing mile when I get it finished and they look pretty good. I have a build thread on here as well, search my name and you will see pictures of the different parts installed(and removed) from the car.

1)The front is a splitter that hangs below the factory front spolier. It is attached using fasteners that are mounted to brackets that hang from the factory spoiler. It also has 4 strut mounts that help it stay straight at speed(attached to the front of the factory spoiler).

2) Roof rails that are simply attached to plexiglass T-tops using rivets at the appropriate length for over 200mph in a standing mile.

3) Side splitters that are riveted to the ground effects on both sides of the car. They are Carbon fiber and stick out about 2-3 inches

4) Rear diffuser. It is a metal plate that covers the entire gas tank area at the rear of the car. The A1000 pump is mounted to it as is the 4 carbon fiber diffusers that you can see close of pictures in my build thread

As I have gotten a lot of questions on these parts of the car I will get some good and close up pictures of them all soon. They are all off of the car at the monet, but will be back on after it's painted in a couple weeks.

OP, sorry for the off-topic rant I did also want to ask you about steering. My Iroc is equipped with a manual rack, most likely from an S10 or something. All new components were installed including Hotchkis tie rods, etc. Around tight turns moving in a parking lot it is a little tough, but not too bad. I know because of this, me getting my feet wet in road-racing on an autocross track is pretty much out of the question, correct?

As far as road-racing as you are doing now, would a manual setup be workable? I was told it was a quick-ratio setup, but honestly it doesnn't feel like it in reagrds to steering wheel turns, lock-to-lock. I would go back to a Iroc ratio gearbox with power steering but it would be a NIGHTMARE with all of the Supercharger stuff currently on the car.

Thanks

IrocZ'85

iTrader: (9)

Subscribed! Awesome build man!

Project 3.4 Camaro

Classic industries makes/sells a quicker ratio steering box, personally on our cars I think a PS setup is better, simply because of how quickly our cars can change direction, believe it or not there is such a thing as electric hydraulic PS, MR2s and one or two other cars have had them, but I think the setup is fairly expensive, but I plan to eventually do it to take some drag off the engine, also plan to get an electric WP and convert to dry sump oiling down the road.

MNformula350

iTrader: (2)

Awesome Thread Man! Really enjoyed reading it.

Great Job with the Car too. I have been an avid Autocrosser since my dad took me to my first event when I was 16 in my 83 305 CFI T/A. I also have ran a few road courses, but like driving my car on the street too much to go full out like yours.

I look forward to following your progress.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Sure. I know it's not the most sturdy way to do it. Like mentioned before, the stud was replaced with grade 8 hardware. It's fine for flat towing, but I think it would bend the bumper if it was jerked on. The strap just hangs down, so I used something similar to a twisty-tie and wrapped the tie thru a small hold I drilled in the bottom of the cover so the rescue guys can see it from the back.



Ideally, I'd like to have a plate that maybe slips between the bumper and subframe, replace the other 3 studs with bolts, and have the plate have a a hole at the bottom to bolt the strap to.

The big players that I know that specifically have a class for third gens are NASA's CMC and American Iron, and SCCA's American Sedan. Best thing to do is find the next race in your region, go watch, talk to the drivers and get a feel for what it takes.

The rules say you need headlight covers if you remove the lights, and if they were recessed, the covers must be recessed. Some people push it a bit, and put a flat bit of metal or plastic right at the edge of the hood, straight down. I like the look of mine. The aero advantage is minimal.
As far as the gfx, you're allowed only 150lbs of ballast and be at the class min weight. For my car it's 3200 with driver as raced. I'm right now running with about 50lbs of ballast. The gfx don't weigh that much, but even then it's weight down low where you want it. I think it might even hurt aero, tho at these speeds and the other limitations (tires), aero isn't going to play that big of a role in the over all picture. Besides, they look good I'm still running a steel hood too, where most will run the fiberglass one from an 82-83. That just won't work with my paint scheme. Really tho, I'm not at the point (driver wise) where I would see a big benefit that.

NP, I love your car. There have been some people who pushed to allow manual steering in CMC even tho it never came that way, but I don't see the rules changing for that. ASedan does allow it (I believe) and manual brakes. The thought is that no power assist provides a more consistent feel regardless of vacuum or RPM, and it's one less thing to fail.

I autocrossed my '73 240Z with no power steering. Granted, it's much lighter and I would get up on the wheel a bit more, it wasn't that bad or noticeable at all. Once you're rolling, it's pretty easy, plus the adrenaline is pumping. If you can do it in autocross where it's a knife fight in a phone booth, no ps roadracing would be cake. I can't say I really noticed a dramatic difference between the '86 and '92 b4c box either, but it's supposedly there.


I started pretty soon after I started driving too, introduced via a coworker of my dads. Ran my brothers 4 banger '96 Avenger, and even ran my '92 4 banger Ranger. First year or so in college I was still running the Ranger in Monster Truck Class in TAMSCC, and beating the 4.0L V6's. A little bit of experience helped!

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

After the TWS event, I decided to tackle the overheating issue by boxing in the radiator and converting the car from a bottom breather to a front breather.

You can see in this picture where my tow strap is at, a pretty weak unsupported point in the bumper. The turnbuckles were an attempt to keep the air deflector from folding back at speed.



Gotta love rulesets! They state you can only remove 120 sq inches of the bumper, no more than 30" long, and the structure must still be one piece. I got at it with my cutoff wheel and grinder. The two large holes for the fog lights were now one big hole. Took off the bottom vertical lip to help with airflow as well. I did leave two vertical strips (parallel to the airflow) to keep some rigidity in the bumper since this is also where the nose attaches.

In the above picture, you can see the wire mesh that I installed in front of the radiator to protect it from rocks and debris when I put in the LB9. Read somewhere how much of a reduced area difference sizes of mesh actually block. It was quite surprising. Now, most people simply put the mesh at the front most part of the opening, in this case, the bumper cover, maybe for ease of install and replacement? I figure if I start with a bigger area and put the screen in front of that, the reduced area will still be greater than if I left the 'front' opening completely open. That's my theory anyways.

Using what was left of the messed up b4c bumper cover, and my gf's '91 RS project car (that didn't have the nose on it... 2 years later it still doesn't!) I came up with a cardboard shape that filled most of the nooks and crannies.


I can't weld, and I admit my fabrication skills are limited, but here's what I ended up with. Pop Rivets FTW! Took a lot of fit remove trim replace.



If I thought the tow strap mounting point was flimsy before, after removing extra metal from the bumper it would flex just looking at it. Bolted on a 1" (1 1/4"?) square tube right under where the headlight bucket is. Should give a little extra strength to the bumper. The strap (that will go where the hole is) is as close as I could get it to be in line with the frame rail.


All back together.


The middle part is where the louvered grill attaches. I opened up the louvers and hoped that they wouldn't block too much airflow.


The nice thing about this setup, is it's not actually attached to the car. I can drill out the three rivets that go thru the front gfx and the bumper cover can come off. Unbolt the back of the bottom sheet (where the original air deflector was), and all the aluminum parts come off when the bumper is removed.

On the radiator side, I put two long pieces of aluminum to fill the gap on the sides since there is no longer a condenser. A lot of racer tape around the intake was also added to seal it all up.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Just some pictures from the race weekend at Hallet, Oklahoma. This one was the funnest event to date. There were guys that came down from the Rocky Mountain region and the MidWest region. I was actally able to hang with some of these guys! Maybe the racers in Texas are all just really fast. Maybe I'm not as slow as it seems afterall!





Taillights in action


Overheating issue was slightly better, but still hadn't gone away completely. Removed the louver grill, not much change.



There's some slight damage to the passenger fender that I got during the TWS weekend (How did I foret about that?!? Need to go back and edit that post!) . You can push it out and it will stay there and look good until there's the slightest pressure on it, then it'll pop back in. Grrr.


New tow strap location.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

After the race weekend at Hallet, I decided to finally remove the heater. Some time before, I had bought some used caster/camber plates from a fellow racer a while back. When I started removing the blower fan, I just happened to notice this when the hood was up.


Oops. My guess is it must have happened when I dropped two wheels off at Hallet and bottomed out the strut. Never noticed any change in the cars handling. I hammered down the strut tower and replaced both mounts with the stock ones from the B4C. Fortunately, you can get pretty good alignment numbers with the stock setup, and these cars don’t require any insane numbers to turn well.

The heater was replaced with some sheetmetal with my usual MO. Cardboard, trace to sheetmetal, and pop rivet it to the firewall.

Project 3.4 Camaro

Question for you guys that are racing, whats typically the max speed you guys are hitting at the track?

Project 3.4 Camaro

Edit: double post, wierd but it didn't seem to go through the first time but apparently it did..also that question is directed towards forms of racing other than drag racing...I'm wondering for the purpose of aero mods.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Front stretch at TWS I was shifting into 5th just before the start/finish line. Using this page I think one time I calculated it to be right at 120mph based on my 3.42s, tach and I think .74 5th gear (who needs a speedo in a racecar )

NufNuffZ28

iTrader: (10)

Thanks for the compliments... I know my car wold never fit in "class", but I would like to get out there. I also like your brake ducts... Mine are in the air damnand you know how low that thing is!

Project 3.4 Camaro

btw nufnuff, I couldn't find any pics of your bellypan or diffuser setup, I saw one of your splitter that I didn't realize was your car at the time, but couldn't find any of the other stuff, could you link it for me?

NufNuffZ28

iTrader: (10)

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tpi/...ged-tpi-w.html

Pictures of it are in the bottom part of the thread...(its my build thread)