2005 Corvette Z51 autocross/trackday build in Central Oregon

Lof8 wrote: A C6 track car pulling a pop up camper is the epitome of doing-it-right. I need a profile pic of the rig latched together.

Arrived at Portland International Raceway Saturday night in order to race on Sunday.

Raced in the final autocross of the Oregon SCCA Region season. Won the A-street class to give me a 3rd place overall for the season. I made 2 events all year. Most of the A-street guys and girls race pro pax. I was the only one in my class on Sunday. I did make my goal time of under 40 seconds with a best of 39.656, I had one other 39 second run, several in the 40s and two runs in the mid 41s. They were excessively sideways.

I normally hate these wiretaps but I was in a time crunch and not surprisingly, Wal-Mart doesn't have a plug and play wiring kit for the Corvette. I blame it on the waxers and feather dusters.

Sold/traded my Panasports from my Miata to a Miata guy at the autocross. Hauled them in the camper. Unfortunately they slid forward and broke the table mount in the floor. It's a bummer because the table holds up the sides when the camper folds down so I'll definitely have to fix it.

With the wheels in the back and the water tank full of 10 gallons, the tongue weight felt good. On the way home I drained the water to ditch the weight and since I didn't have the wheels anymore, the tongue weight was heavier. I could feel it. Acceleration and braking didn't feel any different despite losing ~250lbs. Lesson learned. I plan to make a rack that clamps onto the rear bumper to hold my Ranger QuickJack. That will help with the balance and awesomeness factor.

I did some research and learned that a grade 8 bolt is stronger than the standard hitch pins. I bought one and it barely made it in due to length, it is the same diameter as the hitch pin. I had to come in from the right side and flex the muffler over to the right as far as I could. I can file off a few millimeters now that it's mounted and I see how much is sticking out. I could also ditch the washers on either side but I'd prefer not to.

Looks like a fun setup!

harder does not equal stronger...

in fact harder can mean more brittle in metal. (sharp impact like the trailer hitting a bump could shatter the bolt if it's too much harder.)

yield strength in the shear direction is what you care about. Not even tension direction.

http://tinelok.com/grade-5-vs-grade-8-fasteners/

thing is, so long as the bolt is ~the same size you should be fine b/c the shear is so high... (look at teh chart at the bottom of the page... 1/2 bolt has shear ~17K LBS...)

In reply to Mad_Ratel:

It's the same diameter, there is no forward-aft slop. I think it will be just as good, if not better than the standard hitch pin.

1st place in class at the SSCC Fall Enduro in White City

Had a great time camping at the track, there were quite a few others who were also camped out in RVs. I attended their season ending banquet too and won a fluorescent trouble light too! Overall a great group of people that made me feel totally welcome. I also rode along in 2 different 2007 Z06s on Hoosiers. Insane. 70 mph in first gear, my Z51 is at redline in 2nd at 70 mph. I've got some video of the 5 lap race around the outdoor track that I'll post up soon.

I'm jealous, nice group of fun cars there! Sure looks and sounds like fun!

With another six months of being a tightwad, I should be able to have a track day budget again. Winter is coming anyway,..... but the urge to go fast remains.

My sports utility vehicle. Heavy on the sports side, but not lacking on the utility side at all.

Don't you have a van for that now?

I want to ride on those seats.

I was going to take the van, but then I thought, why not burn half the fuel at twice the fun?

SUV

Car didn't start last night when I went to move it into the garage. The battery has always been weak but I hooked up a charger and still no crank this morning. I've had this happen before, wiggling the E36 M3ty battery cables back and forth restablishes the ground and the car starts. I tried rotating the stupid battery clamps back and forth several times with no luck. Car is parked on the street in front of my house. I'm going to look into replacing the battery terminal connections and the battery. The stock cables just don't tighten on the post well enough. BTW there is no corrosion and I have sprayed some terminal protectant crap on them that is supposed to help the connection and prevent corrosion. I think this is the stuff IIRC

In reply to Petrolburner:

I had the issue of the clamps not tightening on the battery terminal of my RX-8 after putting in a new battery. I found some terminal covers that are pretty much a cap that goes over the battery terminal to make it bigger. Worked like a charm.

CGLockRacer wrote: In reply to Petrolburner: I had the issue of the clamps not tightening on the battery terminal of my RX-8 after putting in a new battery. I found some terminal covers that are pretty much a cap that goes over the battery terminal to make it bigger. Worked like a charm.

That could make it an easy fix, thanks for the heads up.

Here you go: http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/autocraft-battery-post-shims-ac110-a14079/6280181-P

The gas shocks that support the hodd gave up the ghost. I had the wind blow down the hood several times when I was messing with the battery cables. I think the speed at which they compressed finished the seals. Ordered two from O'Reilly's for $20 each. Roll-a-Table box has been sitting in the corner of the garage just waiting for its time to be relevant again.

Track day at Oregon Raceway Park this Saturday so I swapped the bike rack for the 2" ball. Slid my right side exhaust pipe back to try and match the left one. The muffler clamp was loose so I hit it with PB blaster, loosened it and then went at it with my cordless impact until it stopped turning. Hopefully it will stay tight this time. Keeping those damn pipes matched up has not been easy. I'll be swapping to my track pads prior to the drive up to ORP. I'll bring the lift so I can change back to my street pads before leaving the track. I fear that this may be the last day left on my track pads. I had hoped they would last longer. I'm also going to get my front tires swapped from side to side. The outer shoulder on each tire has been worn pretty significantly. By swapping them I can put the inside shoulder to the outside and keep running the tires. She's getting her annual oil change too.

Every time I see a battery terminal that wont tighten on the post its because the terminals arent fully seated. Open the terminals as wide as you can, stick a screw driver were the bolt tightens them up and spread it open then make sure you push them all the way to the bottom of the post, will probably tighten up after that.

In reply to Opti:

I messed with them like you described to no avail. The slot where the tightening bolt was looked enlarged. They were essentially damaged from doing their job to the point that they couldn't do it anymore. I swapped new terminal ends on. Update coming soon. Had a great day at the track. Drove home through the snow.

https://youtu.be/ttd8-IZnG80

How do I embed youtube here?

In reply to Petrolburner:

You don't. The link is sufficient though. Very sufficient :)

A buddy was invited down from BC to drive a customer's GT3 RS at that event:

http://www.924board.org/viewtopic.php?t=41064

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xbzixiwzggtwj0g/Chasing%20Cup%20Car.MOV?dl=0

In reply to turboswede:

Different event, I was at Oregon Raceway Park, they were at The Ridge. That Cup car they were chasing sure sounded nice though. There were quite a few Porsches at this event, Caymans look awesome. Perfect proportions.

Is that carpet in the garage?!?!?! Would be so comfy on the feet!

Last week I installed new hood struts. One was blown completely and one was very weak. Now my hood stands up like a teenager's erection.

I've had some random no-start issues, but lately they've gotten worse. I was able to wiggle the battery cables and get the car to start. The battery cable end design is terrible. I replaced them with good old fashioned lead terminals.

OH-oh-oh-O'Reilly's didn't have battery terminal covers that would fit, so I modified the stock ones that were falling off the cables anyway. I heated my favorite screwdriver that had been ground down to an awl years ago, and punched holes in the rubber while it was super hot.

Car started one time just fine. Went to drive it to work, no-start. Bought a new battery. Car started one time. Went to drive it to the auto parts store to return something, no-start. Pissed. Livid. Angry. Looking at craigslist for MR2 Spyders, Boxsters, Caymans etc. Calmed down, googled, found out that it was my automatic electrical steering lock failing. If it doesn't lock the steering, it won't let you start the car. When I removed the battery cables it resets the Body Control Module, and then you can start it. I had a quick disconnect in my electrical drawer of my toolbox so I threw that on. This way I could disconnect the battery without tools if the need arose. It never did. I've started the car probably 25 times since then without an issue.

Cleverfrog wrote: Is that carpet in the garage?!?!?! Would be so comfy on the feet!

Yes. It is comfy-er for the knees, back, insulates you from the cold concrete a bit, better acoustics, probably softer on the tires when parked for days on end etc. $20 off craigslist.

In reply to Petrolburner:

do you just have to be very careful when doing fluid changes or do you do those outside?

My suspension clatters across breaks in the pavement. It gives the car a low rent feel. I'd done some digging on Corvette Forum and it seemed that the sway bar links wear out and make noise. I ordered 4 new ones from Rockauto for like $80 I think. They've been taking up space on the cluttered flat surface I sometimes refer to as my workbench, for a month or two. Maybe three.

Luxury wrenching

There is very little clearance between my hitch and rear sway bar.

This is the rear tire on my chrome rims. They're down to the wear bars and pretty much done. I'm planning on replacing them this fall with Pilot Sport AS3 Plus ZP to match the front tires that have lots of tread left. It's going to be about 7 or 8 hundred dollars to do that so I'll wait until then. At that point it might be a similar price to go with a non runflat tire without the Michelin price tag and get a matching set. The goal would be cold and wet traction.