Yes. This.


Costas
cars and such...

thanks everyone for the kind comments and following the thread

brake cooling time!
I started with Lambert/Quantum Fog light ducts and some race mesh



added a slim aluminum cobb LED DRL light to replace the fogs and add some style. i just wired them to the factory fog light plugs.


ducts and mesh in


lights test




surprisingly bright


bumper/splitter re-enforcement installed


ducts on fog ducts, and grill misc stuff reinstalled


factory under bumper duct inlet, i cut off the tube 1" inside of the wheel well (inside bumper)


and here it is with the fog light ducts connected to the factory wheel well duct with the wheel well pulled back. the silver line is where the wheel well intersects the hard duct.
you can also see the LEDs wired to the fog plug and the factory opening for the brake duct now disconnected.


after 4-5 test fits the bumper is back on finally!

next was time to install the spindle ducts.
first i had to remove the wheel speed sensor and cut off the bracket.


bracket dremeled off


upgraded the factory padlets to 1 piece hawks. had great luck with these on the camaro on track.


Lambert/Quantum competition spindle ducts installed. kit also came with the peices to fully enclose 360 degrees, but i chose to leave those off. also came with tie rod heat shields. left those off too.


factory plastic wheel well duct connected to the spindle duct. keep in mind the suspension is at full droop here. the two line up pretty close when at ride height.



rotor and caliper reinstalled. pic from the back side. seals against the rotor hub pretty good.



wheel clearance at ride height. TONS o room. at least an inch everywhere. way better than i ever had in the camaro.


finished pics coming soon!

finally got some finished pics!

Damn she looks good!

That's wicked. Well done!

WOW ! Nice work

Those light are super bright ! do you have a link to them ?

thanks guys!

i deleted the link yesterday, but these appear to be them http://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-20cm-Car-Auot-L...CDC&vxp=mtr

So awesome. I can't wait for the track day videos to start showing up!

assuming the rain holds off my first track day is in 10 days!

Well i finally got the Z06 to the track at TWS

i took it easy in the morning sessions, putting around in 4th and 5th. this meant coming out of the corners at around 2500-3000 rpm

the lack of feel i noticed on the street, sadly continued over on track. no feedback or feeling, and felt like i was on iRacing Sim. the Rival S's also didnt squeal but i probably wasn't at their limit, so i had no audible warning either. i have the square 10.5 X 18 Z06 wheels with 315 Rivals on.
the light weight steering on the street was different on track. it was much heavier, but still no feedback or car feeling.





even with short shifting at 6k i was hitting 150mph at the end of the front "straight". the camaro did 135. 140 on a perfect lap. it moved around alot at that speed, darting left and right moving half a lane easy and bouncy. not sure it was the alignment, the shocks, or simply the extra speed.




the lack of body roll and weight transfer was very apparent compared to the camaro. proby some of the lack of knowing what the car was doing feeling.









in the morning sessions i was running 2:09s running 4th and 5th. in the afternoon sessions i was running 3rd,4th, 5th and was running 2:05s. the camaro average lap time was 2:02s and my fastest lap times were 1:59s. the vette is 400lbs lighter, an extra 100hp and 315 tires vs 285s on the camaro. i thought even in this first shack down the vette might turn a faster lap but not the case. hopefully the lap times will come down once my confidence in the car goes up. i was noticeably rolling out of the throttle early, and rolling back in late in the videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKwsTJEfMqg

unfortunately on the 3rd afternoon session it all came to an end with loud ticking. i pulled it into the pits and parked it until the next morning. went to tractor supply and bought a come-a-long and got her loaded on the trailer and headed home. by the time i looked down the oil pressure was lower but still good. still in the 30psi range but fluctuating.




heres the vid from the lap that the ticking happened.
at :44 the ticking starts
at 1:15 it gets worse
at 1:39 i get a misfire and finally hear the ticking....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeuQFm0RPY4

Man I'm sorry. That tick sounded pretty ugly. Hopefully it's just a lifter. Any idea what your water and oil temps were?

So here what I think. I think you were comfy with your Fbody and now you are in a very different car requiring some adjustment. I think you'll learn to feel the car again.

Your hand position was driving me nuts. The over use of shuffle steering was a habit that I didn't even know I had until I started filming myself. And even when I thought I fixed it, I was still doing it. Try to keep 9 and 3 as much as possible.

I also think you have a car that far exceeds your capabilities. I mean no disrespect, it probably exceeds the talent of the majority of the people at track days. I never saw you anywhere near the limit. I think you weren't feeling the car because you were so far from the limit. TWS looks like it has some relatively slow corners with tons of run off. Nothing but grass to hit. Why not start getting on the gas earlier and earlier in those corners and see what happens? Same with carrying more speed into the corners?

Hang in there, get that engine healthy again and get back out there. Maybe next time try to find an instructor who really knows cars similar to yours.

So, WTF are you running at? Great secret on what part of the world you are in.

Say what?

temps were up. i wanna say 225 water, 265 or 285 oil. but im not for sure. ill be honest i wasnt watching and worried like i was in the camaro.
lol my instructor that passed me from blue group to yellow actually mentioned my hands. it comes from when the camaro kept throwing belts before i got the manual/fixed tensioner. i would go into a corner and loose power steering and have a major pucker moment. so i started clocking my hands to have better leverage for when i lost power steering to keep the car on track. never got out of the habit.

theres no doubt the car far exceeds my talents. taking 6 months off certainly didnt help either. average corner speed at TWS is 70-90mph for the infeild.
the reason i was never comfortable driving in hard was i could never feel if the tires were gripping or sliding. i just cant explain that lack of feedback. it really feels like a video game. so i would go into a corner so slow i knew the tires were gripping, and i would wait so long on exit until the car was already straight and rolling inline to start re applying. and of course the lap times and video show that. its embarrassingly bad/slow driving.

i do plan to try to force myself to push more next time. but id be lieing if i said the the financial difference in the two cars wasnt in the back of my mind.

also the gearing on the camaro was PERFECT for tws. i was only doing 1 gear change per lap for the "oval" so the entire infield i would do in 4th with my 4.10s. so i could fully concetrate and maximizing braking and cornering. yet still come out of the corners hard and in the powerband.
with the vette i was having to down shift to 3rd several times per lap and i KNOW it was costing me time. cause i was waiting so carefully fully letting the clutch out as not to upset the car.
ive got alot of relearning and new things to learn for sure with the new car.
i wish gears in a Z06 wasnt a $3000-4000 upgrade (you have to put in a base model rear diff to be able to change gear ratios)

One should not work an incredibly-long week, then come home and enjoy the start of the weekend with way too many 'Ritas, then go perusing web forums!!

I kept viewing those on-track pics of that beautiful car thinking 'Where the heck is that place, it looks familiar?', but couldn't place it. I now realize it's TWS.

Good News!
Tore into the motor starting with the passenger side valve cover and boom, the #1 exhaust rocker bolt was backed out!


appears to be no other collateral damage other than where the rocker hit the valve cover.


ended up taking out all 16 rocker bolts and locktighting them and re-torqueing to 22 ft lbs.

AWESOME !!!

Sounds like you lucked out. I am assuming the threads on the bolts and holes are in good shape. I always Loctite low torque hardware.

Great news

Took the Z out to a NCCC autocross in Waco at Baylor stadium.


unfortunatly on the first run my exhaust some how popped off both sides of the X pipe at the first set of cones. limped back to the pits and got it fixed missing the first and second runs.


get in line and started run #3, boom exhaust pops off again at gate 3. this time only one side. i move the clamps over the lip and get them to clamp down tight this time.


Finally get some runs in and in the afternoon post my fastest of the day a 47.8
the 1st and 2nd place points leaders were there running low 46s so i was happy. most of the feild was running low 50s. got to really push myself and the car for the first time. getting more comfortable with it. went over the limit a few times

my fastest run
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2L-8cBwW84

Nice! Our car has shucked it's exhaust a couple of times. Once at the Nationals. Corner workers brought the muffler to us, still hot. Luckily, that was before all this stupid sound crap.

That old BP Corvette looks familiar. I wonder if it is one we used to see in the '80's when BP was a class? IIRC, it was silver then.

https://scontent-dft4-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31....amp;oe=5951478C

Beautiful car. Probably not the same one, but the one I knew was owned by a Houstonian who was a NCCC member. It was _many_ years ago, though.

even with the valves open on the stock NPP exhaust, the car wasnt loud enough for me.

i picked up some 3" Dynomax mini race bullets and turndowns
getting the car high enough in the driveway to get the stock exhaust out was quiet tricky. passenger side was even harder than drivers side.


plan was to also shave a TON of weight.



bullets on


turn downs (for what!)


now im used to a loud car, my SS was usually always the loudest car at the track. running a single 12" Dynomax bullet dumping under the rear seats.
but this was TOO loud even for me. it sounded like 7 nascars and 2 prostocks all fireing up at the same time! theres no way i could ever drive anywhere without being immediately pulled over.

the camera could NOT pick up how loud this thing was. shaking the ground. my wife had ear plugs in filming this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3FseXZrjo8

Oh c'mon! You should have at least ripped down the street just once!

haha yeah i should have. but oil was stone cold.

well i pulled a last minute thrash session and got the stock exhaust put back on the night before and headed back to TWS last weekend.



and after reading a thread on c6 z06 aero lift, i also removed the front air damn under the radiator/nose. it seems to help. wasnt near as dancy and it was the first time.

the auto cross really helped me and i was able to push much harder this time. was comfortable enough to start throttle steering on exits again like i did in the camaro.
was pushing hard enough id have to do a cool down lap for the water and oil temps after 4 or so straight hot laps. going to need to address that.

i found myself doing more of a stop, pivot, and squirt style driving in the Z06 than i did in the camaro, camaro i did more of a flowing miata style driving. but for some reason this car makes me slam on the brakes, pivot, and then gun it. not sure why, but i noticed it.

was the first time ive ever seen the debris flag for low flying buzzards crossing the paths of the cars on the back stretch. that was a weird one.

found out the Z burn 5 gallons of gas for every 20 minute session.

heres some footage compilation of some of the laps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-ubEN3KlBQ

Lap time update!
backstory: i use race chrono app for my lap timing. worked great in the camaro (glass t-tops).
well i noticed since using it in the Z06 its been acting weird, it will only records 1 to 3 laps per 10 lap session and the lap times were much slower than i had hoped for 2:04 to 2:09 and very random. (1:59 was fastest in camaro)
well during the video editing i mark the time for the start of each lap for each view.
well i noticed one of the lap markers was exactly 2 minutes apart. and then after that the next two were 1:59s! matching the fastest of the camaro!
well when i got to the 5th gopro footage and i had two laps that were 1:57!!! i checked them twice on both cameras that were rolling and i got 1:57 each time for both laps.
i couldnt figure out why i felt like i was hauling and the lap times were so slow. i don't know if the roof is carbon fiber like the fenders and not allowing good GPS signal or what. but a huge relief that the new car has already paid off in lap times! i couldnt figure out what i was doing wrong. stupid technology.



bad news is on sunday on the last session before lunch i got an engine light on the dash, and the car started to run rough, getting progressively worse. so i loaded it up and brought it home.

Oh, you were at the PDS event @ TWS in blue group. I was in the red CRX that was painfully slow down the straights. Your car sounded really good, even inside my car haha.

sweet! come find me next time, i always pit at the front gate.
yeah i was in yellow group with the camaro, but asked if i could step down to blue with the new car until i get up to speed with it.
but to be honest im thinking about staying there. yellow group always has to run with blue or white, so its always a packed track.
you be there may 6th weekend?

I hadn't run with PDS in a while, and the new schedule is funky. I remember every run group getting their own time on track back in the day, but it seems like yellow and white get screwed and are always sharing. I saw you parked next to the gate, I just didn't realize it was you haha. I'm not sure about May 6th, I burned up my old auto-x tires at the last event, and I'm not sure I'm ready to cook my current RE-71's and I don't have the cash to buy another set.

Did you figure out what was wrong with the Vette?

yeah only good thing about there PDS is you get 8 sessions per day instead of everybody elses 4.
but yeah yellow and white never get clear track.

code ended up being a 02 sensor heater code. got it replaced, but havent got to drive it yet to see if it fixed it.

well in an effort lower my oil and water temp, and to reduce the high pressure packing under the hood causing my front end aero lift at high speeds on the track, i picked up a 5th gen camaro SS heat extractor vent (part #22828242)


started by checking clearances with some string. there was none. but the strings were 1/2" below the hood line, and plus i forgot the hood has a bulge in the middle.



started by tracing the vent onto a piece of paper, then offsetting in .6" with another line for the actual hole



marking front to back


marking side to side center


pattern cut out and taped into place. 6.5" from back of hood to the start of the opening (just inside under hood structure brace)


traced with sharpie


BUTT PUCKER!!!!!!!! took one deep breath and drilled four 1/2" holes.
tape to protect paint


took my jig saw and cut it out. worked perfect. super clean cuts.


under side. bent up some 1/2" x 1/8" aluminum and bolted it in


painted the aluminum brackets black, and cut out the factory hood insulation for a factory look.

finished!











took it out for test drive on the street and after warmed up you could see a 6"-8" heat wave shooting out of the vents at stop lights. after sitting for a few hours back at home, the hood was stone cold, and you could still feel heat coming out of the vents.
anxious to get back to the track to see if its more front end planted, and if my temps lower

Nice....looks good

Hmm, you sure you won't have all that hot air from the engine/radiator blowing over the intake before it's gone forever?

I do agree, though, it looks nice. I was tempted to install one of those on our 3rd Gen, but am waiting to see if simply opening the hood between rounds will help as opposed to exposing the engine compartment to the elements.

I would have removed the hood insulation, too. That's road-hugging weight you really don't need, and it's just keeping the heat in.

Looks good! Personally I would have picked up an extra hood to cut up but I guess C6s aren't just sitting in junkyards!

Curious about what CTD said about hot air going past the intake, still has to be better than just sitting there but maybe vents towards the sides would be better?

I know other LS* engines actually have a plastic 'faux intake' looking cover on them, perhaps the C7 does too, so there is some protection there, but I'd think the heat would still be there. But if the extractor is pulling heat out, the engine compartment may just be a whole lot cooler to begin with.

This needs instrumentation!!

I think anytime you let hot air out and bring fresh air in, you're doing good.

Clean install!

Yes!! We need someone to put heat sensors everywhere under the hood and do some extensive before after testing!

I've been reading about the LS engine covers and the general concensus is that they hold heat. Not sure if it is any significant amount but looking at the early LS vette style, they would hold the most heat over the fuel rails which would not be desirable.

Well the fuel is cycled through there pretty quickly, and pre-warming the fuel before it hits the intake port might be a planned thing. As might the whole insulation capability of the cover. I think the cover also quiets a lot of injector noise that some may be concerned about.

well before buying it, i had heard alot that the C6 seats were crap, and after doing some track time in them they were right.
ive been eyeing some cheap race seats on ebay for a few months, i wanted fixed position fiberglass seats. but sadly when i was finally ready to buy the ones i wanted(NRG) were sold out everywhere.
but these "Invictus" seats poped up that hadnt shown up in any of my previous searches. the shoulder area was a little narrower than i would have preferred. these also came with the side mounts which i wanted. most of the side mounts i saw sold separately were in the $125+ range per seat
i liked what i saw and the dimensions fit so i offered them $175 per seat and they immediately accepted.
when they came in i was happy with the quality.


i took some measurements and drew up a design in CAD for the mounting rails. i kept them low as possible as id read helmet/roof room was an issue.


picked up some 2" X 1/8" steel and after two evenings had the rails made.


kept the rails super low. the rail and bolt head actually touch the carpet. mounted with grade 8s.


painted


mounted


i was out of time and money before the next track weekend, so didnt go to harness's yet. picked up these seatbelt extenders to use as buckles to bolt to the cars floor.


unfortunatly when i tried to bend the hardened steel male buckle it snapped when i went past 35-40 degrees. so i welded them up at about 50-55 degrees to clear the seat rails. bolted them to the floor and worked perfect!


in! after these pics i unbolted the shoulder harness and ran it threw the upper harness hole. i didnt like not feeling the strap on my shoulder.




best news is i got no dash lights or chimes with the stock buckles and electrical connections no longer existing. i was worried about that. i do have an airbag light from the missing/unpluged seat airbags.
also i have a good 1-2" of helmet clearance with the roof.

Weights:
Stock driver seat with air bag, motor, and rails : 49lbs
stock passenger seat with airbag and rails : 39 lbs
Invictus seat with homemade rails : 22 lbs
total weight savings : 44 lbs

That flat bar will just bend if pushed on, weld some gussets all along the sides of the rails, from front to rear mounting studs.

Add washers on the oval holes.

Toss the welded buckles - high carbon steel is brittle - that's why it snapped when you bent it. The weld is brittle too, they will break in the HAZ.

And route the belts THROUGH the belt slots. Where they are can be damaging to you in an accident.

Alan beat me to pretty much all of that.

Those seats are going to wobble around on those brackets. And the welded buckles are junk. I see a little porosity on one end and the edge isn't filled up. And the weld has that grey color you get when you weld high carbon steel (that tells me the weld is very brittle). Toss those, they will get you hurt. Put the stock seats in for the weekend and finish this part once you've refilled the fun money account and you have more time.

I don't understand the cheap China seats in such an expensive, fast car. You're going to get yourself hurt doing stuff like that.

headed back to the track last weekend and got to try the latest round of mods. hood vent and seats.

hood vent:
the vent did work and helped a bit with cooling but not a huge difference. at when stopped you can defiantly see the heat pouring out of it. it took a tad longer to get to the uncomfortable water/oil temps. and allowed me to run at the top of that range a bit longer, but im guessing no more than a 5-10 degree difference in MAX temps before i did a cool down lap. conditions were identical at 85 ambient before and after. not sure if the cooling effects would be more pronounced on a 100* day. i do fell like it helped with the front end aero lift though. between the hood vent, and removing the air dam i really didnt feel the dancing i was getting before from the front end at top speed.

seats:
seats and mounts did great. super solid. the lower portion of the seat really held me in place very well. but as i suspected the narrower (than most race seats) shoulder width didnt hold my upper body as good as i would have liked in hard cornering. better than stock, but i still had to hang on pretty good, and my shoulders were sore as hell from it.

the place was more packed than id ever seen it. with lots of new cars. including this Superlite SL-C. must have been a new car shake down because he was off pace all weekend. i thought the nitto Envos were an odd choice for such a high end car. LS3 powered.









this guy also showed up. i think he was lost


Lap times:
with my previous issues with the lap timer, i moved my phone to a suction mount in the windshield. this seemed to solve the issues, i was getting consistent lap times/gps signal.
Saturday it said i was running fastest of 1:57s, and by sunday my tires were gone, this was there 4th and final weekend. but it said sunday i was running bests of 1:58s. i was really have to tip toe exits sunday. felt like it would spin at any time applying power.
however when i came home to look threw all the gopro footage i was only seeing bests of 1:59s. i think it may be time for an external gps sensor.
however there was one lap showing a 4 second difference in the start/finish times on the gopro so i ran it threw my editing program and did frame by frame start and finish and it said i ran a 1:56!

i couldnt believe it. thats 4 seconds faster than my best ever in the camaro.
i don't have it confirmed by gps timer, but at this point i have more faith in the footage than the timer. sadly the timer wasnt running during this session.

this is that lap.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afKO9xDhMoE

and for the first time ever the vette lasted the entire weekend without breaking anything! super stoked about that. shes finally getting there. had a blast.

1 weekend of fun = 3 hours of rubber scrubbing....

A friend with a '15 1LE kept having troubles getting his external GPS sensor to get a signal when velcroed to the dash of the car. He finally broke down and built a suction-cup mount for the thing, and now mounts it on the roof of the car. He says he's had zero issues since with a GPS signal, and the blue-tooth sensor has had zero issues connecting to his tablet he runs Solo Storm on. He's even run the car at standing mile competitions, do no issues with the sensor disappearing in the wind.

Just a thought.