Hey 89 Rock -- did you say you had a 1LE Players Challenge Car ? Look for G92, N10, A/C and stereo delete on your RPO, no power windows or locks were typical as well.

Did you know...

That if you have a genuine 1LE PC car then your 305 came from the factory balanced and blue-printed with 1.92 valves, windage tray and various other (by now) quasi-mythical upgrades including close ratio Borg-Warner T5.

Way back when, the 1LE PC 305 made about 260hp (seen this dyno'd) and about 325 lbs torque. The cars were often tested on a mobile dyno after a race as part of authenticity testing (to stop cheaters) at Players Challenge events.

They were delivered to the showroom floor with the engine and tranny chalked, marked and with build sheet attached to the motor. This contained the factory balancing report for rotating assembly, it was slip tied to the TPI unit.

Back in 1990 I almost bought a 1LE PC from Flag Chev (Cascade Crew will recodnize this dealer) in Surrey B.C. off the showroom floor no less (we dickered over the $21k price and I walked... freaking IDIOT ME). It was triple black and would have been a real collector by now. (It gets worse -- I turned down a 1990 Arctic White 1LE PC car with 18,000 kms on it back in 1995. It was never raced. The then current owner wanted $12,000 CDN for it. If only I could go back in time).

A guy I knew had an 1990 1LE PC GTA that he raced about 6 times in Alberta and B.C. I did some test turns on the track with him (me hanging onto the rollbar for dear life -- he couldn't drive worth SH*T). Those cars were FAST. Well, I guess I could go on and on about PC cars.

If you have a PC car, if it is the genuine article you are sitting on a collectors car. Might want to call GM to verify the VIN. Out of the thousands of IROCs built there were only a handful of PC cars -- less than 150 I'd say.

my .02cents worth,
RP.

 

Hmmm.... thats some nice info.. I'd like to see if he's got the 1LE PC car. I know someone in town that has one, was thinking of selling it a couple years ago, but his wife wouldn't let him.. DARN!! hehe

 

In a box in storage under the basement stairs I have a pile of pics taken of PC cars racing around various tracks. One of these days I'll dig them out and find a way to post them.

These races were outrageous. You had to see this to believe it -- about 30 to 50 1LE PC cars (IROCs and GTAs) racing around a track denting fenders, occasionally rolling over (amateur drivers mixing it with pros) and hitting things.

I used to be a 3rd gen freak before it was an internet thing so followed these races whenever I could. That was back in '88, '89 and '90.

A friend of mine was a Porsche fanatic (currently has an '89 928 S4 with all the bells and whistles) who went with mer to see the Rothman Challenge which was Porsche 924 Turbos. I went to see the Players races and we had quite the rivalry going.

There were always Rothman races followed by Players races or vice versa. Interesting, the top track times at Mosport, Shannonville, and Westwood, between the IROC and the 924T were almost identical. Three very different tracks with almost identical times. Says alot for the f-body eh ?

RP.

 

Hey...it does have the 1le rpo and g92 but i could not see a n10 code.........and it doesnt got a/c but does have a stereo and power windows and locks.....but the woenr before could of swapped that in......on the motor it has a gm performance sticker on the tune port injection thigny...im 17 dotn know what its called........if u look udner the car u can c soemtuign on the piping for the exhasut that sued to b opend up but now is weled shut.....the car also sits real low compared to other irocs.........it does have 4 wheel disk brakes......i wodner if it is a players challenge car or not.....i'm gonsn write down all the rpo codes and post them up on here witht he vin #.....soembody on here told me it soudns like a players challenge car jsut cuzz of the fact its got 4 wheel dick brakes and from thats ticker on the motor......

 

by the way.thats me on the top and my old man on the bottom...my old man paid for msot of the car so i had to elt him in a glamor shot...lol.......i let himd rive it around to.......he owns a 97 z28.......hes a f-body mana s well.......were gettin pix soon of both mine and his car doing burenouts side by side......

 

the thirdgen website has an RPO decoder.... I would get some more info on your car... it would be sweet if you had a rare car.. gotta love buying something rare and not even knowing anything about it

Let us know dood

 

Another thing you can do is go to your nearest GM dealer with your vin#. They will give you a complete print out of all options that your car came with. And the nicest thing is that it's free. By law all cars sold in Canada that were shipped here from the States had to have every option listed. I had mine printed out,three pages of RPO's.

 

Hmmm... the plot thickens. No N10 is actually ok as N10 didn't show up till late '89 early '90.

Although the RPO will make it clear it is a 1LE, I do not believe the RPO codes will identify a PC car per se. You may have to look for what is not installed... eg: when you get the RPOs look for A/C and stereo delete and whether or not the car was ordered with power or manual windows. I'll see if I can find out any details on the exhaust and engine mods. Keep in mind the PC car was modified post production so the RPO codes may be of little use. You may have to use the VIN.

Also, PC cars were a Canada thing. The sponsor, Players Cigarettes, did not sell to the US back then so did not sponsor many US races. If it was just a CDN program then GM USA may be of little use to you when investigating the car -- you may have to push GM Canada for info. I'll check into this as well.

RP.

 

If you copy your RPO codes.... go to https://www.thirdgen.org/cgi-bin/rpo/index and enter your RPO numbers, and they will tell you what they mean.

 

how ya doing? you seem to have a bit of knowledge of the players series and the cars, musta been cool watching them rip around the track. anyhow i have a 86 L69 iroc ex players car and was wondering if you had any info on the 86's. i was told that all 74 units were built and sold for this series and were possibly an experimental ile run? do you know any web sites that have the history, rules, car specs, ect. of the players series? it's good to see some documented third gen racing heritage, any info would be great! thanks

 

I am doing just great len, would be doing better if I could put my Bird back on the road -- I am really getting tired of my Toyota Tercel (winter car) and it's wheezing ride....

I do not have much info on the pre-87 PC cars. In fact I thought the races started in late 87 with early production 1LE cars as you say. The problem with the 1LE argument is the first year or two of the 1LE saw less than a dozen built, I think by '89 it went up to about 400 and not all these were suitable as PC cars (some were L98 autos).

Now if there were 85, 86 or 87 PC cars (post production factory modified), well that would resolve a mystery for me which is this -- in one set of pics taken at Shannonville in summer of '87 there are atleast 30-40 IROCs and GTAs filing into the turns (bumping fenders, etc, these were GREAT races). Well, there were not that many 1LEs in existence at that time so there had to be other 'optioned' cars on the track and your car would explain that.

Also, a friend sometime back had a (pristine) '85 IROC with some pretty odd and definitely uncommon package options that were factory issue. Eg: 1.92 valve heads, 4 wheel aluminum caliper disc brake setup, aluminum DS, 3.42 posi, dual snorkel air with factory HO intake (carb'd of course) and 3 inch exhaust. All this was from the factory and I have never seen it repeated. This may have been a prototype 1LE and/or PC car.

I don't know of any web sites that maintain history of these cars which is not to say there isn't any I just haven't looked.

As for the races I can tell you this -- back then the auto world was just recovering from the early 80s and 4 cylinder'itis. Performance cars were generally something that cost $100,000 or had loud decals and failed miserably when you hit the go-pedal. When the IROC and GTA hit the street they revolutionized a generation and were most guy's wet-dream come true (as far as cars go). They went reasonably fast, handled unbelievably, stopped on a dime and had revolutionary styling (they still can turn heads). The best part was they had the chevy small block V8 which could modified to your heart's (or wallet's) content.

The Players races were a thunder contest which is to say they were LOUD. These were street cars that had exhaust opened up in front of the mufflers and I still remember the first time I saw and heard about 30+ IROCs race past the stands at Mosport, well it was racing at it's best. These guys pushed their cars to the absolute limit and threshold of driveability -- the racers that I talked to loved the cars because they were so much fun to drive. As for me I can still remember the way I was thrilled watching a train of these cars go by at 100+mph !

RP.

 

thanks for the info. you mentioned your chums 85 iroc and it sounds to be like mine excluding the al drive shaft. i don't know about the valve size but the engine has the gm perf sticker like 89 rock mentioned if that means anything. btw i got ahold of the original owner "racer" and were supposed to meet for beers! he's got pics, point standings, info on yhe cars ect. i guess i'm buying which sucks, because he's probally one of the richest men around here, anyhow it's a small price to pay to hear what he says later!

 

Small world after all eh ? Buy the man a beer and have some fun !

I checked the 1LE site yesterday and found some 1LE car pics posted by Hunter Motorsports with a phone number attached. So I called Hunter to inquire of the cars in the pic -- I recodnized two of the cars (http://www.1le.net/members/Karl_Hunter/thirdgen_1le_racers.html) on the page.

One was a red '89 T/A 1LE PC car that I raced in at Westwood race Track back in 1990. The owner at that time was my neighbour so I spent alot of time around the car and acted as pit helper from time to time as well. The other was a blue '91 Z28 which was an ex B4C 1LE RCMP chase car that got totalled in a chase on the Sea-to-Sky-Hiway (Squamish) back in '92. The new owner bought it off ICBC (insurance corp) and rebuilt it. I spent some time in his shop working on the car with him. I was surprised to see the cars still around and so well maintained. Next time I am out in Vancouver I'll be looking them up. In fact the '89 T/A is for sale and I have been wondering if I can get the cash together . . . . . . . . . . .

RP.