Hey everyone. Im back from my school sooner than expected. My car will be out here within the month. I CANT WAIT. I really want to run it down the 1/4 sometime. how do things work at the strip? i've never been to a drag strip before. not even to watch. when my car was shipped they circled every single ding and dent. how embareassing is that. i cant wait to see your cars. how often do you guys get together?

 

Welcome!

Are you at the MCBase?

Good luck on getting the groups together, sigh. I tried pizza, beer and yakiniku without success!

 

Yea im out here at Kaneohe Bay.

What if i went to the track. would i run into the members there

 

We have drifters, but I don't think anyone does 1320's on a regular basis.

 

i hate to sound stupid but this wont be the first or last time.

What is drifting???

 

Does KBay have a military/MWR salvage yard, like the Army?

 

I dont think so. im not 100% sure though cause i have seen a big lot of cars sitting. im not sure what they are doing there. ill ask around

 

Drifting is an art form of controlled sliding around a racecourse. The object is not speed or low ET, but artistic expression. Having done road racing, I understand and enjoy race-drifting, but I've not developed a passion for drifting as performing art.

Recommend you go to the raceway park when our Camaro guys run, it's pretty impressive to see them come blazing into a decreasing radius, reverse-bank turn at 70 mph, burning rubber all the way through. There's three or four guys here really into it with ThirdGens. For me, I'd prefer a tubbed pro-street pounding 8-secs, heh.

 

Please do, we've found the Army auto salvage yards to be a good source of ThirdGen parts, mainly because the typicaly military age group likes high performance cars.

 

Ive never been to a salvage yard on base but im sure it would be a great place to find parts. there are a lot of 3rd gens here on base

 

I keep meaning to hit the Schofield yard up, I might actualy be otu there Friday or Saturday, finding things for the Firebird before I turn it over to this guy who wants it. I hope I can score a light control module for cheap - new I'm hearing 200+ for them. I sure wish I had the older relay system...

 

Come to the racetrack this week Saturday, Oct 9th between 9am and 3pm, bring $10 and a helmet if you want to ride.

 

So far we only had one successfull meet. I think we should all meet up at my house next for pizza, beer, & helping me fix me & my wife's car lol
Don't worry Ed, we'll have another successfull get together yet!



I'll be there to film & watch! And Shawn, I'll have the rims for you also.

 

I'm not one for drifting, but I should go out there and watch, just to see what all the fuss is about. THen I should go autocross again, but only after I get some suspension stuff out of the way. And tires. And rims. And brakes. And...

We should get together again, take some more pictures, maybe meet somewhere for lunch or whatever and droll over each other's cars. Bring a towel though, some have nice paint jobs.

 

and some need paint hehe.
well only mine...

 

I need paint too, it's all oxidized and I have rust spots/primer on the hood.

 

Rainman, I have never been to our local track either. I'd like to check it out very soon as well.

We should get another cruise goin'. I'll have a lot more time to work on my car soon. (Getting laid off next week... probably too much web surfing?)

Scott

 

OUCH, that sucks. I think you have to just about KILL someone here to get fired... Hope you find another job shortly.

 

i would love to get together and go to the track or even just cruise around.

I swear the wont get my car here fast enough. I really want some other opinions on my car. there is something strange about it. everything i read about the stock TPI engines doesnt describe mine at all. i have read about how they fall flat on there faces after 60-70 MPH but i can cruise in mine at 80 no problem and if i want i can be at 100 pretty quick. i havent done anything to the car since i bought it except cut the screens of my MAF but ive noticed other things about it. its got an accel coil and it already had a TPI airfoil. i was told the engine was rebuilt a few thousand miles before i bought it and i dont know if it was bored out or had a new cam put in.

 

I know I've been past a hundred once, didn't take too long to get there at all. Uncle Ben's clown and some beat-up Porsche were duking it out, I decided to see if I could catch them. I did. I let off once I realized I was doing 104 MPH! The steering got a bit sensitive, but the car was fairly glued to the road and felt pretty solid, too. If the Porsche had got out of my way, I could've gone faster, but I don't know if hte car would've stayed stable - I could be telling you I went to 120+ and then a tire blew, and I'd be eating out of a straw for weeks adn have no GTA right now.

However, the TPI setup is designed for the smaller 305 engines, the plenum and runners are the same exact parts between the 305 LB9 and the 350 L98. The L98 will run into a problem around 4800 rpm's, it can't breathe as well as it should, and torque starts to drop off pretty quick. Sure, you can still spin the motor faster, but all you're doing is making noise, your well past the torque peak and wasting your time, unless you get to shift into another gear, and enjoy the rush of torque again. I find that (for example) in second gear, I really feel a nice shove into the seat at around 3500-4000 rpm's, but then it sort of tapers off and doesn't 'feel' as powerful. Mind you, I'm still accelerating, but just not as quickly as before. Also, if I have the gas mashed to the floor, I won't be able to shift into OD, and I'll be pegging out the engine in Drive - I'll have to let off just to let the transmission shift into OD, and stay at half-throttle to keep it in a more favorable high-speed gear. Of course, half-throttle restricts you even more then WOT does... Getting a Corvette servo helps that a lot, I think it raises the cut-off point for OD shifts to two-thirds throttle, right?

You have a much lighter car them mine, the GTA's are the HEAVIEST out of all the third-gen cars ever made. Leather power-adjustable seats come with a cost. I'm sure your car, with a rebuild, had some go-fast goodies shoved into it, maybe it was cammed or whatever, maybe some gapless rings, or even a higher compression ratio. Who knows? I wouldn't personally cut off the screens on my MAF, but then agian, I'm paranoid about a component that costs a few hundred dollars to replace. Better spark might help at higher RPM's, no doubt, and an airfoil may help a little bit. You would have to ask the guy you brought it off of exactly what was done to it. Maybe he saved receipts? Wouldn't hurt, just so you know what you got under the hood and all, and bragging a bit never really hurt anyone, did it?

 

The stock 350 TPI kinda falls flat right around 125-130 mph. But that's just my opinion from on hand experience. Took my old 89 IROC for a long test ride on H3 going toward Kailua a few years ago. I did that before I got married & had a daughter though. I'll only be going that fast at the good ol' 1320 down Kukuni St. (kinda cool they named it huh)from now on.(If only I could run that fast lol!) hmmmm...too bad we all don't have a blower like Shawn's Z

 

I'm still debating on whether or not to include a blower on my future stroker build-up, it would be nice, but I think the GVOD fulfils the 'exotic piece of equipment' category nicely. I'll consider it if I can cram that AND a Super-Ram under a stock hood.

 

Nah my blower is all bark no bite right now. The engine combo is not matched well for forced induction. It starts boosting around 2500rpm and right when it hits full boost at 4500rpm the stock TPI/cam/heads combo falls on its face. Not to mention the tuning is lame. All bark no bite. I hope to make it a little better with a HSR and a blower cam, hopefully make power all the way to 6000 unstead of 4800. But those stock heads will always be holding me back from making some real power. And at 130k on the clock, I dont think this L98 is going to last much longer ...

Oh and Anthony, bring your helmet.

 

Shawn, you bought the Z with the blower on it already right?

oh well, its a shame its all bark no bite, but still, what kind of gains do you actually get out of it in bark mode?

 

Yup. Car already had the blower, the paint, and a set of 17" ROH ZS wheels. All I did so far was tint, suspension, and new wheels. I'm gonna do the interior next and then focus on the engine / tranny. According to the Vortech website and the Tech data on this website (as a baseline) the car should be making 340hp and 430tq at the crank. But considering the miles and sub par tuning, I'd guess 300hp at the crank. My goal with this engine and stock heads is 400rwhp @ 7-8psi. HSR, blower cam, good exhaust, 749 ecm w/ custom tune and redone fuel system and I should be able to reach that goal. Well I'm hoping anyway!! hehehe

:lala:

 

Ever considered turning it into a 383? Almost garaunteed to make gobs of torque, especially with a blower on it. But yeah, the stock heads and intake setup are not designed for rpm's past 4800... Oh well, at least you don't have to worry about winding your engine too high up and blowign it up, with that TPI-imposed 'rev limiter' and all...

 

I have always wanted to build a 383. only problem is that if i did i would be buying new tires every week for the first month

 

Yup, I can see that happening with me... It happened a lot when I first had the car, I wasn't used to it when I took turns, and would chirp a lot.

 

Yo Rain, what's your name again? It feels odd to call people by our "call signs."

So who's down for this weekend? I haven't driven my car in a few weeks, and I'd like to go stretch her legs....

Scott

 

My name is Randy. Im not sure i ever told you guys.

I would like to make it out this week end but i dont think it will happen. once my car gets her you can count on me being there a lot.

 

Sup Randy. Now we got your name

 

Didn't see anything special there....

Hehe, next time?

Scott

 

Sorry, I went but I didnt drive. Friday night one of the motor mounts broke on the drift car while doing whacky stuff on the backroads. Couldnt fix it in time and didnt want to push it and possibly break the other mount too, so I didnt drive. Sorry you drove all that way and didnt get to ride.

 

My car is getting close. i was digging and the boat my car is on should be in port this sat. and i will probally get it a few days later. Im so excited.

How often do they let people run their cars down the strip? i cant wait to get a baseline down for my car. I just found out one of my friends can weld so im going to be adding SFC's and LCA relocation brackets soon.

Sorry i didnt make it to the strip this weekend. i didnt have a ride.

 

No problem Shawn. At least I found the track! (Thanks to Anthony.) Next time right?

Randy, I'll go baseline my car when you do yours. I just need to get a battery hold down thing. Will a battery strap work okay?

Scott

 

And hopefully I'll have my car ready by next time too It should be fun!

 

I know you need a battery clamp for autocross, if you still have the battery in the original location, I think there should still be the old hold-down holes for the clamp - get a clamp and bolts off another car, perhaps?

 

Was it a poly mount?