[Smitty2919]

Well from the first time I took a ride in my brother in law's 87 road race prepped Vette, I was hooked. I had a 03 Mach 1 5spd at the time and WANTED to race it. For one reason or another I didn't and was too nervous to break something. Next car was a 04 GTO M6 that was good for nothing but straight lines and cruising in comfort, plus being $$$ to modify other than engine and trans related. At this point I got the itch BAD and on a drive home from being at Mid-Ohio with by mother/father in law doing ride-alongs. I said to my wife "man I'd really love to do that someday". Her comment "Well why don't you? Do something about it." Which basically meant "Put Up or Shut Up" in a nice way...

That night the GTO went up for sale. 2 weeks go by until I traded for a 99 Cobra 5spd plus cash to get a cheaper platform that I knew and beat on that...well at 110K mi and the less than desirable 99 IRS...that took a hike for a 95 Z28 M6 with 60k mi. I should have for a F-Body a LONG time ago. The driving position vs the Mustangs are much better, the feel of the car is much better as well.

What I started with:
(IMG:https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/t1.0-9/1472860_732816749223_689502629_n.jpg)

(IMG:https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/t1.0-9/1469840_732816829063_989692030_n.jpg)

60K mi
B&M Shifter
Pacesetter L/T's and catless mids
Borla Adjustable catback
Front strut brace
K&N CAI
Bolt in SFC's
Adj PHB
Staggered ZR1's 17x9.5 17x11
Stock shocks/springs and boxed rear LCA's.

Since then I have done the following:
Custom CAI (because I can and wanted to something "different")
Square setup on factory SS wheels with Nitto NT555's 275/40/17
Added catch can
Added PS cooler
Removed borla muffler and tips and replaced with Hooker Max Flow muffler with hidden tip
LS1 front brake swap and SS braided lines (front only)
Added Oil Pressure and Water Temp gaues on A pillar
Dyno Tune made 311/346 at the wheels

How it sits now:
(IMG:https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/t1.0-9/10003279_760355072203_7413266042514964638_n.jpg)

(IMG:https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1.0-9/10151865_760007892953_1485670537_n.jpg)

Making that stock suspension do work!
(IMG:https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/t1.0-9/10153803_760008421893_979298018_n.jpg)

(IMG:https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/t1.0-9/10155001_760008681373_1513999466_n.jpg)

(IMG:https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1.0-9/10003964_760007738263_1893165921_n.jpg)

I had a great time and learned a lot about car control. Saturday was a Test and Tune, Sunday was first official points event. Saturday I got about 6 or so runs and Sunday only got 3 in my heat. Had Zero car issues, weather was nice except for damn wind and was able to take my wife for a run. Good times!

BUT now I have a big problem...I made a large "wish list" for car goodies (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

This post has been edited by Smitty2919: Apr 7 2014, 04:57 PM

[Smitty2919]

Yep I am hooked. While I made a big wish list, no mods will be made this season for the exact reason CrashTestDummy mentioned. I'm sure there is plenty of things I can improve upon. Only until I can drive better than the car will allow will I add mods.

The CAI/Tune/gauges were simply to make sure car is running correct so I COULD beat on it. The cooler was simply to prolong the life of the PS pump.

It was all concrete slabs at an airport. So it was nice and open with no light poles to worry about and plenty of run off space if you made a mistake.

I by no means am planning to be real competitive right now. This season will be simply to learn and have fun and figure out what class I want to be in. From the stuff the car already has I was in ESP or FSP.

I need to figure out what class I will run and what cars I will be against if I go with springs/shocks, Watts Link, torque arm relocation mount, race seat steering wheel, rod/poly rear LCA's

For a DD I think that is as crazy as I will go. MAYBE those mods are a little too much for a DD I don't know.

Other thing I'm kinda bummed about is that I won't know if I am getting better or not. The course will never be the same at each event and I will only have 3-4 runs per event to drive. So I will only have 3-4 runs to make a direct time comparison to. I know I ran a best of 110.553 Sunday for THAT course design. Next event will be a different course so I can't say that a 109.xxx is better or worse than my 110.553 time. Plus there is no way for them to say "the average time for this course is 105.xxx" So if I ran a 110 on a 105 track, I know where I stand OVERALL. It's not like road racing where I can run a 2 minute lap one weekend, come back the next weekend and run a 1min55 sec lap, which obviously will show I drove better since the course did not change lol.

The GOOD thing is every run I made, I progressively made better times...so I was happy about that.

This post has been edited by Smitty2919: Apr 7 2014, 06:27 PM

[trackbird]

Other thing I'm kinda bummed about is that I won't know if I am getting better or not. The course will never be the same at each event and I will only have 3-4 runs per event to drive.

Figure out who the fast guys are (pick someone in your class, find a guy in a Corvette, etc) and watch where you are relative to their times. One of the guys who helped me when I was a novice ran a Corvette on non DOT sticky tires. At the end of 2005 I actually beat him by about .5 seconds in raw times (him in the Corvette and me in my SM Camaro Z28). We weren't in the same class (he likely had the faster car) but I managed to beat him raw time to raw time. I had never caught him before. And I could usually judge my times based on his times. You'll learn "I'm usually 1.6 seconds slower than driver X on a 55 second course", etc. Pick a few cars with experienced drivers and track times as you close in on them (or at least get closer).