[Steve91T]

Man what a great day. I've changed almost everything possible over the past 4 years since the car was last on track. I didn't know what to expect. I was just hoping the car wouldn't break. Not only did the car hold together, I was one of the fastest cars out there. I was very happy.

Anyway. I'd like some opinions. Here's some information on what I've done.

Weight reduction 3400 lbs with me in it. No ABS
Bone stock junkyard LT1
Coilover fronts
750 front 250 rear
35mm front bar. 21mm rear bar
C5 front brakes
Carbotech XP20 front. AX6 rear pads
Stock LT1 rear brakes
Stock rear end. Stock torque arm
Rear control arm relocation brackets
Nitto NT01 tires.
Blainfab lexan spoiler


(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v199/Steve91T/Camaro/693D1D30-142A-4F49-A8EC-648FB57F33B1.jpg)

I used my iPhone and harrys lap timer for video. The mount wasn't very secure, so the video is a little shakey, but you get the point. I didn't have time to mount my GoPro. Sorry.

Here's a good video of one of my better laps. The car was a little loose and I was having a hard time putting the power down.

http://youtu.be/ArCBK6b00hQ

Another big problem that I have is one I didn't expect. Tons of axle hop. I felt like a had way too much rear brake. It was a real handful. I was being as gentle as I could and even with that, I could feel the rear end starting to shimmy. If I increased braking at that point at all, or wasn't 100% perfect with a downshift, it would hop. I've never had it this bad before. I used to be able to threshold brake with zero problems with hop, unless I wasn't smooth.

I hopped the axle pretty bad going into turn 14 in this next video. You can see it was the downshift that did it. Also I couldn't put the power down out of 12.

http://youtu.be/QdrHUe6gmrU


So during lunch I decided to change the rear sway bar. I had a 21mm on the car but brought the 19mm with me. So I threw the car on the lift and changed it out.


(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v199/Steve91T/Camaro/D92ADCE1-5443-44E1-86CB-68B4B4C3BD9E.jpg)

Have I mentioned I love that lift!!!

Back out on the track the car felt much better. I couldn't believe how much more traction I had out of the corners. The car also felt much more balanced. I was really happy with how the car was performing at that point.

So this brings me to my last video. I was only a few laps into my second to last session of the day. The car was handling awesome.....until it decided it had enough. Luckily, I got it on video.

http://youtu.be/wupQb3If6sM


I went into the kink the same way I had been all day. Except this time I had major understeer. It came out of nowhere. Notice the two previous right handlers I was pulling over 1g. Everything was completely normal. Then I go into the kink and I only managed .8g. There was no tire noise, no vibration, nothing. When I jumped off the gas the car didn't even try to rotate.

So I go into the pits, check the car over and head back out a few minutes later. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the car. I honestly thought I must have screwed up. So I had back out and I'm taking it really easy. The first right turn I come to I damn near went off again. Same thing. Major understeer to the right only. It felt like I was spraying oil on the left front tire. So I come back in and really check everything over. I found nothing. By this point a bunch of people were taking to me who saw me go sailing off the track. They couldn't find anything either. Our best guess was I just overheated the left front. I let the car cool down for an hour and a half and took it out for the last session of the day. Same exact thing.

The tire looks fine. I didn't pull it off or anything yet. I just loaded the car on the trailer and went straight to my brothers house and drank his beer. I'll pull the wheel tomorrow and see how it looks.

What could cause this? The aligns my looks fine. Everything under the car appeared just fine. It's so bad that I honestly expected to see a broken tie rod or something. Car still tracks straight....just will not turn right.


Anyway, any and all opinions are recommended!

This post has been edited by Steve91T: Mar 13 2016, 01:22 PM

[Steve91T]

Did another track day at the same track this past Friday. The car did fantastic once again. My tires finally were dropping off big time and it must have been in the mid 90's, so the lap times were definitely slower.

https://youtu.be/3rPVKzYGklk

A few guys rented the skid pad and had an instructor giving instruction. Being that this was my last day on my tires, I thought it would be a good time to jump in and join them. I had so much fun I didn't even do my last session. It was such a blast and I learned a ton. Just being able to really hang the back end out for as long as I wanted with no fear of hitting something was huge. I highly recommend it if you get the opportunity.

The red C5 was the instructor putting on a show.

https://youtu.be/0RMv1mB-d40

Then we had two cars on the skid pad starting at opposite ends. Whoever caught the other won. It was really a challenge trying to find the grip, especially with the wet and dry patches. I obviously lost when I spun, and the instructor did victory donuts in front of me. I giggled like a little girl.

https://youtu.be/6tvAjed01ns

We also set up cones and ran the small chicane and had increasing and decreasing turnes. I could have done this all day. So much fun!!

https://youtu.be/A6f-l_K293Q



The next day we got to hang out at my brothers F-16 Air National Guard base and they had an F-16 air show. Here are two videos. My brother flies these things. It's so freaking cool and I'm so proud of him.

https://youtu.be/Pn3n8NaZAig

https://youtu.be/B-LDyN5ERa0