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Organized Drag Racing and AutocrossDrag racing and autocross discussions and questions. Techniques, tips, suggestions, and "what will I run?" questions.
Hi everyone, I thought I'd start a post to document my 1991 Canadian Players Challenge Series Camaro race car build. Mostly as a way to keep me committed to the project and to ask you questions and vise versa.
You always hear that you should never build your first race car. It's always cheaper to buy something already built, you won't have to go through the teething pains of a newly built car etc. But where's the fun in that? I was always a fan of Mythbusters, so I figured that this is my myth to bust... or confirm.
I have always loved classic cars, I own a few and I am doing a ground up restoration on a 1965 Land Rover right now. So naturally I am attracted to vintage racing. I set out looking for a vintage racecar that I could use on the street as well. I love the first trans am era muscle cars but those are well out of my price range and a replica build would be costly as well. I had a very strict set of criteria for the car:
V8 power
Easy to work on
Accessible and affordable parts
Good aftermarket support
Vintage racing eligible
Street legal
'Affordable'
My research lead me to the GM Motorsport Players Challenge Series Camaros and Firebirds. A Canadian showroom stock series where the cars were sold to the public after the season. How cool is that?! A real rare factory built race car with Canadian racing history. It fit every part of my criteria perfectly and then some. Rare and collectable was just a bonus. I found a car on Craigslist and the owner had consigned it to the classic car auction at the newly built Area 27 race track just outside of Osoyoos, B.C. I ended up being the highest bidder and trailered my new race car home.
In some ways you could say I'm cheating by buying a prior race car. But after 2 seasons of hard racing it was sold to the public and driven on the street for 150,000 + kms. So needless to say it is in need of a rebuild.
This particular car is 1 of 32 built for the 1991 Players Challenge Series as designated by the R7U code. It won 1 race on the Calgary oval in the Western series and was the top qualifier in the very last race of the series in 1992 both being driven by Trevor Seibert.
Trevor happens to be the designer/builder of the Area 27 racetrack where the auction was held and I was able to meet him and talk about the car a bit.
The car still has its race engine from its second season of racing as shown by the yellow seal paint marks. Teams were allowed to run a '91 car in the '92 season as long as the engine was changed for reliability reasons. GM didn't want engines blowing, bad for sales I guess...
My plans for the car are to get it in good running condition and prepare it for some track days and autocross this coming up season and do some car shows. The first event is in April. Then next year take it apart and prepare it for road racing. Cage, fire system, body work, paint, new decals, engine rebuild etc.
Ahh, the earlier days of Race City with the oval pits on the outside of the track. Exiting out of the top of the turn was very challenging. The advantage was lot of room for pits but spectators couldn't see anything going on in the pits.
Race City changed the design a few years later and made the pits in the infield.
I raced around the oval one day by taking a Legends Car rookie school. I found it a little boring and was getting dizzy driving around a circle.
Race city has been long gone for quite a few years ago. The city cancelled their lease and there's now a recycling plant sitting on the location. The original lease should have allowed Race City to operate until 2025.
With the closure of Race City, my closest track is now Edmonton or Medicine Hat. A 2-1/2 and 3 hour drive away. It was nice having a racing facility in my back yard. I live about a 10 minute drive from where the track was.
I would have loved to take the car back there. My nearest Canadian track is 6 hours away in Mission, B.C. Other than that I go down to Spokane, Washington which is 2.5 hours. Area 27 is about 3 hours but no club racing weekends planned, hopefully sometime in the future.
Someday I would love to go to Mission. Track elevation 27 feet. That's why all the hemi cars go there in the spring and fall when the air is good. They race with a density altitude below sea level and they set records.
At least there's a scattering of oval tracks still around the country even if they're dirt ovals. Drag strips are slowly disappearing. Cache Creek closed their doors last year. Kelowna only has a 1/4 mile track and that's a 7 hour drive for me.
Buying a car at auction always made me uneasy. Not being able to drive a vehicle before buying it is a scary thing, you never truly know what you're getting. I insured the car for a day to take it for a drive and get a feel for what I needed to do over the winter. A few things I noticed right away were sloppy steering, eratic oil pressure readings, tach and speedo not working properly, and a check engine light. Later on into my drive I lost engine power going across a bridge, it refired and made it another 2 blocks downtown before dying completely in the middle of an intersection...
It wouldn't be too bad in a regular car, but a car covered in stickers draws a little bit of attention in a small town...
After trailering the car home I've narrowed the problem down to the fuel pump. Of course getting at the fuel pump isn't an easy deal so I came down with a case of the Might as Wells' and decided to clean up and paint all the parts I took off.
Hi everyone, I thought I'd start a post to document my 1991 Canadian Players Challenge Series Camaro race car build. Mostly as a way to keep me committed to the project and to ask you questions and vise versa.
You always hear that you should never build your first race car. It's always cheaper to buy something already built, you won't have to go through the teething pains of a newly built car etc. But where's the fun in that? I was always a fan of Mythbusters, so I figured that this is my myth to bust... or confirm.
I have always loved classic cars, I own a few and I am doing a ground up restoration on a 1965 Land Rover right now. So naturally I am attracted to vintage racing. I set out looking for a vintage racecar that I could use on the street as well. I love the first trans am era muscle cars but those are well out of my price range and a replica build would be costly as well. I had a very strict set of criteria for the car:
V8 power
Easy to work on
Accessible and affordable parts
Good aftermarket support
Vintage racing eligible
Street legal
'Affordable'
My research lead me to the GM Motorsport Players Challenge Series Camaros and Firebirds. A Canadian showroom stock series where the cars were sold to the public after the season. How cool is that?! A real rare factory built race car with Canadian racing history. It fit every part of my criteria perfectly and then some. Rare and collectable was just a bonus. I found a car on Craigslist and the owner had consigned it to the classic car auction at the newly built Area 27 race track just outside of Osoyoos, B.C. I ended up being the highest bidder and trailered my new race car home.
Awesome purchase. Great to hear that you plan to come vintage racing with it. I need some company. I race my 1988 A4U with the Vintage Racing Club of BC at the Rivers Edge Raceway in Mission, BC. Here is a photo of me with original driver Terry Craig (he was pumped to see his old car still racing) and another of car on track . All original players cars are eligible in our club races. So far I'm the only one with an original unmolested car. There are a couple others that have come out but they were quite heavily modified since the original players series. Send me a PM if you have any questions about race prep/club rules.
Awesome thread Koopsy. I'm following and subscribed, might get me going as well! Had a gentleman through last night who was involved in my '88 build back in the day, dropped off a TON of pictures and information. Said he helped Seibert too, never paid attention to the year. I can check in with him if you like. MGPLayer - what was your 1988 car's number? I'll see if I have pics in with mine. PM me if you're interested.
First I put the gas tank back in and the rear suspension back together. Then I started to paint some front suspension parts. I made 'covers' for the spindles so they wouldn't get damaged when sandblasting and covered in paint.
I put back the freshly painted brake booster and heater fan box, new master cylinder, and hooked everything else up. New coolant and window washer reservoirs really helped to clean it up. After the compression test showed everything good I installed new plugs, wires, rotor, and cap. After hooking up the battery and turning the key I could hear the fuel pump and it fired right up! Phew!
After that I moved on to the front suspension. First I made my own bearing race installation tools for the rotors/hubs
Then over the course of the afternoon everything went together very smoothly. New steering linkage, Koni dampers, control arms with new bushings and low friction ball joints, springs, spindles, and brakes.
The old struts never had a brake line 'holder' on them, they just had a zip tie to keep the brake line from getting pinched between the strut and the body. It looked like that there should be some sort of holder so I created my own from some stainless and bolted it to the strut. With most of the suspension and drivetrain items complete I moved on the interior. As typical in most third gens, the speedometer didn't work and the tach read wrong. I found some great info on the forums here about repairing them but I elected to go aftermarket to make it easier and to have some better reliability and accuracy. In my search I discovered SpeedHut gauges. I had honestly never heard of them before but they offered lifetime warranty and seem to be good quality. The best part was that you're able to customize them in pretty much any way you want. I was able to give them a vintage racing look so they wouldn't stand out so much and still keep with the vintage theme. I will post pictures when they arrive. The only downside is that they take longer as each one is custom built. As I wait for those to arrive, I started on the gauge panel insert and installed a quick release hub and new steering wheel. I had to come up with a place for the horn button as the removable steering wheel doesn't have one. I took out the rear defroster switch (who needs that??) and made a little panel to fit in its location. Next is new pedals from sp racing and a Sparco Evo seat.
I was also able to get a new windshield decal made to match the original and also some rims that I painted white. I contacted the original dealer where the car was purchased and who sponsored the car for permission to use their name. I also implied that there may be some sponsorship or promotional opportunities we can explore... but no bites.
I've just heard from Bill Drossos from Area 27, the new track in Osoyoos BC. They are tentatively going to have a Players GM reunion June 2/3 this year as part of the opening ceremonies for the race track. Bill raced the Players GM Series back in the day. Trevor Siebert who also raced the series back in the day is heavily involved in Area 27. There are at least 2 of the tracks club members that have Players Camaros. Spread the word to anyone with a Players GM series car...I'll keep the forum updated as I get more details. http://www.area27.ca/
I've just heard from Bill Drossos from Area 27, the new track in Osoyoos BC. They are tentatively going to have a Players GM reunion June 2/3 this year as part of the opening ceremonies for the race track. Bill raced the Players GM Series back in the day. Trevor Siebert who also raced the series back in the day is heavily involved in Area 27. There are at least 2 of the tracks club members that have Players Camaros. Spread the word to anyone with a Players GM series car...I'll keep the forum updated as I get more details. http://www.area27.ca/
This is so awesome!! I have always wanted one of these. There's a B4C 1LE for sale in my area, but it'd be much more badass to have a true R7U car. Did you get any of the cool brake ducting for the car? Or any other cool items?
Last edited by Mr.ChevyStroker; 08-01-2017 at 01:19 PM.
12-31-2016, 02:24 PM
