Project: 'Merica, Fiberglass and V8s

[D_Eclipse9916]

Enough miatas!

Figured I would throw up a project thread to derail the invasion of girly cars, and inject some gold chains and hairy chests to the equation. I have had this car for a couple months now, but did not start a project thread. Hoping against hope that I wouldn't have to work on the damn thing. Hint: WRONG!

I bought this already prepared for SCCA's Autocross class SSP. Called Super Street Prepared. This has all the fun cars such as Porsche GT3s, corvettes, elises etc with some allowed modifications.
Quick Modification List:
-A/C Removed
-Stereo/speakers removed
-Sparco Seats
-Sparco Steering Wheel
-Vararam Carbon Fiber Intake
-Headers/cat-delete/stock Titanium cat-back
-Danny Popp Tune
-Koni 3013 shocks
-2x sets of CCWs, one 18x10.5 set all around, one 18x11F/18x12R.

Car weighs in around 2900lbs, about 400rwhp, and in autox runs 315/30/18 Fronts, and 335/30/18 Rear hoosiers (13" wide! hock: )

1st. My friend convinced me to buy this car saying it was all setup, ready to go. I could jump in and win Nationals. Well we know how that goes! I picked up the car and its A) Dirty as sin with almost a 1/4 inch of dust in the interior, nasty sticky stuff on dash about 3"x3", and on Hoosiers that are so old, you could barely sink your nail into the tire.

The irony is not lost that I picked it up with my new to me trailer that has "Ford Performance" on the side with my GM truck.




Naturally, as I do with most my cars I pick up, on Saturday in Tennessee and drove straight to Richmond for an Autox Sunday.
1st mistake, told Jake he should co-drive. :wink: 2nd Mistake, underestimate V8 power and shitty tires
The car is ALL over the place. In order to reign it in a bit, I am launching in 2nd gear, and still blowing away the tires till the first turn gate. And then any application was sideways. There was a slight offset straight, that at 50mph, I would nail into the throttle (going straight) and would pitch the car sidways. Instatorque = awesome. Unfortunately it scared the ever-living SHIT out of Jess and she refused to co-drive somehow thinking that the car would eat people. Not kidding, I have never seen someone so scared to drive a car before.

My reward for letting Jake co-drive ended with a large punt of a cone which cracked my front bumper, on my 6,300 mile car. Yay but that's how it goes when autoxing in 30 degree weather.

So I brought the car home and called Sam Strano, mr corvette autoxer extroardinare. He convinced me to not do any changes, but to throw on newer tires and give it another go around. So the car sat...outside right as we get a snow-storm.
Sad Car


The next autox was the one I Was coming down to JMU for the car show. I grabbed the CCW 18x10.5s and spent about 3 days cleaning/polishing/painting as they were pitted, scratched, and faded purple. They came out awesome!


I also :gasp: cleaned the car and much to Jess' chagrin, threw on the SSP spoiler. (actually does have a big effect on autox courses). But she would soon change her mind as after the car show we went for a drive. Jess has really only known me with track cars, and to not really just go on "cruises". She enjoyed the drive-in part, and just going for a fun drive.





The next day was the autox. After the last autox I bought some scrubs that had a bit better life and threw them on for the autox. I also didn't grab a codriver as I was worried about how nasty the car was at the last one. Throw some walls in closer and it was not worth the risk.

Well, the car changed dramatically with decent tires. A few small handing issues, but it was a rocketship. The wide Hoosiers providing tons of lateral grip on a crappy gravelly course and the 400rwhp blasting me to each corner. Many rides were had, all with huge grins





On the 1st run, I had already grabbed FTD away from another Hoosiered Z06 and the next 3 runs would extend my lead of Fastest Time of the Day to 2 seconds, and Fastest Time PAX by 1.2 seconds. Not too shabby!




I then prepared for the upcoming NJ Meadowlands Pro Solo. For those not familiar with this format, it is a Nationals autox with SCCA where the start is done by a drag tree. No "launch at your own time", you are losing time not coming off the tree. To make this even more fun, the course is split A/B mirrored courses, so you are racing heads up next to another person. Since this was a Nationals Event, competition was fierce!

And Yes, since it is a drag start, you are allowed to warm up your tires.



In-Class Competition was Saturday. I pulled out a win on the last run as I got adjusted to the car.



Unfortunately the car started to do this (diff smoking):

And this happend (broken header air injection port)


Quick surgery fixed the header


Unfortunately for Sunday, which was for the Super Challenge, I had qualified with a win on Saturday. I got knocked out as the diff was letting go and I just couldn't put down power, which also tripped ABS into limp mode. She was done, but I had won my class and 2 more Hoosiers!


That brings us to now. I ordered an OSGiken for the rear that I plan on installing in the next couple weeks. The car goes to SCCA Nats in Nebraska without me but with my codriver, as I will be on my honeymoon.

[Mike]

fuck yeah. i need to buy a corvette already. am i too young?

[.RJ]

Thats pretty rad to jump into a Pro and get a win, with a new car and not a ton of AutoX seat time this year - good job!

[BLINGMW]

Pro-solo has always sounded fun, and better for spectating too I would assume. I've never seen one! :dunno:
Well good job. As usual!

[Jake]

To be fair, either you or Jess claimed the bumper was already slightly cracked and I just finished it off

That first-day-of-ownershipocross was insane. Couldn't put a damn bit of power down and just roasting tires no matter what gear was selected. I had a blast even if I did mangle things a bit

[Beej]

fuck yeah.

Ditto that. I still remember my first ride/drive in a C5 Z. Helluva car...I haven't paid attention to the pricing in the past year or two, but they've gotta be tough to beat in terms of bang for the buck. And only 6300 miles! hock:

I caught glances of it on facespace, but I'm glad you started a project thread. Impressive driving, too!

[Senor_Taylor]

It was unreal watching this car tear up Verona after the car show. I'm glad I got to work one of the stations during your last runs.

To give everyone a sense of the speed of DJ in this, we had to red flag him to keep him from catching up to the car in front of him.

[ScottyB]

FINALLY. was wondering when i could see the whole story of this beast. i still cannot believe it doesn't even have 7000 miles on it. i thought that kind of stuff only existed in plastic bubbles in the basement of some rich oilman or something.

I still remember my first ride/drive in a C5 Z

same. first ride i got was in one at an atlanta autocross years ago. it was on r-comps and when he took off it was literally the first time i've ever been physically uncomfortable trying to fight the g-forces inside a car. it was literally performance on a different plane than i knew how to process at the time.

i don't know what it is about that picture but the vette literally looks predatory right here

[Mike]

i should totally become your twinny. the new roof, stove, and seismic retrofit can all wait.

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[D_Eclipse9916]

aside from the tuuuuurrrible interior and seats, okay and "alright" steering feel; the car is just stupid fun. You can't help but giggle like a schoolgirl every time you drive it.

[D_Eclipse9916]

So unfortunately between the wedding/road race car/home renovation; I really didn't get much use out of this car. I put it up for sale, but the SSP class is possibly going away, so it was a hard sell. SSR is thriving however.

That being said, I am returning it to SSR. This basically means returning it to stock. Picked up a set of minty c5 z06 seats, and arranging for steering wheel/carpets in the next couple weeks. On saturday I get the stock headers/midpipe to throw on, and sold the one set of CCWS (keeping the other for daily driving/selling with car). Still working on a hood/trunk deal, and hoping to find buyers for the throttle body/intake/aftermarket headers/aftermarket clutch/front spring.

The car is an absolute blast to drive, and I have put about 4000 miles on it in the past 8 months. However, I would like to simplify my life; and in that quest the z06 might go, and the LS1/M3 is definitely going. I guess I will just have to see how the behavior of the car changes and if I will like it more stock. Or give in to my wife and pick up something a bit nicer.

In the meantime, she has to sit under a bmw flag between drives :lol:

[Scott]

Or give in to my wife and pick up something a bit nicer.

Keep driving it yourself and get the wife something a bit nicer

[D_Eclipse9916]

Or give in to my wife and pick up something a bit nicer.

Keep driving it yourself and get the wife something a bit nicer

Nicer... aka something "more" fun :twisted:

The wifey has decided she would like diamond earrings over a nicer car for herself. Jeep has only 20k miles so :dunno:

[*insertusernamehere*]

The first time i read it I thought it said

Or give it to my wife and pick up something a bit nicer.

I mean... I'd say i read correctly

[rherold9]

Or give in to my wife and pick up something a bit nicer.

Wasn't she too afraid to drive it?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[D_Eclipse9916]

Or give in to my wife and pick up something a bit nicer.

Wasn't she too afraid to drive it?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

To be fair it was 30-something degrees out, shitty tires, and I wasn't sensitive with the throttle to inspire confidence. 60mph straightaway and hit the throttle and it went sideways. I thought it was fun, she did not :lol:

She has driven the GTS2 race car on track, autocross and tracked the LS1/M3. It was more just really bad conditions.

[D_Eclipse9916]

While I debate to sell it, I am converting it back to SSR. This is basically a stock class with the only modifications being shocks, a sway bar (front OR rear), tires, and a cat-back.

God this thing sucks to get on the lift...may need to mount permanent bump-ups to the floor to reduce the pain. Has to go up on first two wood blocks, then add the third afterward because you cant fit all 3 at once under the car.


Got some stuff knocked out over the holidays
-Radio went back in along with all the speakers
-Stock Steering wheel back in (holy mother of balls that thing was welded to the column). With a steering wheel puller it broke out the threads, and we had to drill and tap for a bigger bolt. Tightened down and it looked like it was going to pop the new threads as well so we hit it with some PB blaster and I just kept whacking away at it with the sledge till it came loose.
-Stock seats went back in
-Ordered Strano front sway bar
-Picked up stock headers to go with some stock mid-pipes I have laying around
-Oil Change





Car is a lot "scarier" in the stock seats because they are basically futons and you go everywhere.

Still to do:
-Stock intake/intake box
-Put A/C back in
-Exhaust swap
-pull clutch/flywheel and put stock one back in
-pick up set of stock wheels
-pick up stock front spring and replace
-Pull every bushing on suspension and replace with new OEM (corvettes burn through suspension bushings)

[JPolen01]

Car is a lot "scarier" in the stock seats because they are basically futons and you go everywhere.

This is all I can think of
[img]http://www.popsci.com/sites/popsci.com/files/styles/medium_1x_/public/import/2013/images/2011/04/Driver's%20SeatResized.jpg?itok=G39nOxAk[/img]

[D_Eclipse9916]

Car is a lot "scarier" in the stock seats because they are basically futons and you go everywhere.

This is all I can think of
[img]http://www.popsci.com/sites/popsci.com/files/styles/medium_1x_/public/import/2013/images/2011/04/Driver's%20SeatResized.jpg?itok=G39nOxAk[/img]

Add in the scent of fiberglass and glue, throw a v8 on it and that's basically the car. Hence why its so fun :lol:

[D_Eclipse9916]

Small Update:

Got a set of SSR Legal C6 knockoff wheels and slapped a set of 255 R7s up front and 315 A6s rear just for the autox, not ideal but was what I had in the basement. The real setup will be 295 A7s Front, 315 A7s rear.



Mounted up the Strano Front Sway bar, small increase of front rate, but I figured it was worth it for $150 used

I also splurged and bought the super rare Corsa Race Titanium cat-back exhaust. Its uh, loud. Sounds fantastic and love it. I am sure there will be video shortly of it.

Car made it through the autocross and cruise down and back up on 211. It was heavily down on grip with the small 255s up front and being R7s they never came up to temp. Would have been better on some street tires, but these were throwaways so I might as well burn them up. It was also pretty impressive that the car fit 3x 18s and all our gear for the weekend (left 1 wheel and tire in my buddies car to bring down)



The clutch is finally giving up the ghost. For the past year I couldnt go over 35% in 4th/5th/6th. Not ever a problem with the gobs of torque this thing has so I didn't bother replacing. I bought a new flywheel/clutch/pressure plate in case it got worse. Well, this weekend finished it off. Couldnt go over 20% in 5th or 6th (making uphills at 1500rpm impossible on the backroads), and then within about 15 miles of home, 3rd/4th gear over 40% gave up the ghost. It needs it before the next event.



As for selling it, everytime I do these cruises and then autox, it makes me not want to sell it. It is stupid fast with proper tires (even got FTD this weekend with shitty tires). Cheap to maintain, cheap on gas (28-29mpg on highway), and definitely makes the right noises. Not nearly as fun driving in to rosslyn everyday since this winter has made the roads horrendous and already bent an outer barrel on one of my CCWs. What a fantastic car for the $ though!