My '69 Chevelle/Winston cup car

[383Ram]

MY GOD I think I need to go change my shorts.

[hgs_notes]

Excellent! Congrats on getting it in and out of the garage under its own power.

[884x4Sub]

Got it up on the trailer last Sunday. A little scraping of exhaust but it made it. It has never been up there before. Have to weld on some loops for tie downs to the rear frame rails and put some D rings on the trailer, nothing too big. 4500lb winch I bought from Costco for $50!! didnt even breathe hard and it didnt rip the front bumper off! lol

[884x4Sub]

After building for 4yrs the Nascar Chevelle leaves my property for the first time and goes to its first car show Oshawa Autofest something like 1200 cars. No awards but it attracted A LOT of attention. It was really a great couple of days. Couple of offers to buy it.

Most common question was "What are you going to do with it?'' When they heard it has 700hp it was "Can we hear it run?" When I explained it is a road race track day car they pretty much all understood. Maybe some day street legal but its difficult to find someone around here to insure it with the full roll cage.

[flashed]

That Chevelle is BADASS ,love it .

[884x4Sub]

With a 110" wheelbase and low ground clearance my "various planks and pieces of 2x4 stacked up on the ramps" method of getting the car up on the trailer was not working. I could get it up there but it took over a half hour and cleared by millimeters. I needed something else. I came to the conclusion I needed longer ramps for less angle. I put an add in the "Stock Car Parts For Sale in Ontario" Facebook page with a pic and dimensions of my current ramps and got two responses. Both were nearby. The first set needed someone that could bench 400lbs to lift them, no thanks. The second set was right on the money and for $40, sold.

In total there is now just over 10ft of ramp and the car has a solid 1.5 to 2" of clearance at all times. I no longer even look at ground clearance I just make sure it comes up straight as the tires only clear the inside of the trailer fenders by 3/4" on each side. I found the ramps needed to be joined together so I made the hinge set up. The tubing is actually 1/2" black iron gas pipe (like I dont have any of that around ) welded them on then filled with Permatex Cold Weld. That pin slides in, they dont go anywhere they move as one. That is a 6x6 and 1/2" plywood they are sitting on. I beveled the lower ramps with a zip cut for a seamless transition from road to ramp. There is no ramp kick up at all. I will probably drill some holes in the top end of the upper ramp and through the trailer for some carriage bolts to quickly locate the ramps but there is no hurry they dont go anywhere. Takes about 20min to load or unload the car now. Problem solved

sorry about the pics had to play with them to minimize the shadows.

[884x4Sub]

Chevelle makes Speedhunters top 10 builds of all time...kewl

http://www.speedhunters.com/2014/09/...timate-builds/

[884x4Sub]

Ok back at it. Might as well finish off the trailer....stuff. Here's the winch setup. Welded that receiver to the trailer and made up the removable stand for the winch about three yrs ago so I would know if it was going to work or not. I like it because I can remove the winch and put it inside the shop or in the truck at the track when Im not using it. The aforementioned $49 4500 lb winch doesn't even breathe heavy pulling the car up. The trailer needs to be painted. I'll get around to it.

The original idea was to use chains at the front in the "fixed" position because they are simple, strong and cheap. I was not happy with them as since they have no give whatsoever if the car is off to one side even 1/2" on the trailer one chain will be loose. I didnt like it. So four regular tie downs it is.

So were back to my original question I ever posted here on CC.com. all those yrs ago. On the open trailer thread I asked if you should tie the rear of your car to the trailer by the rear axle or the frame? Responses were varied but it seemed the frame was the answer. One of the guys referred to my car as a "Track Hooptie" IIRC. Never heard that term before or since and to this day dont know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. What is the origin of that term? The loops are actually cut down leaf spring axle U bolts. They are a little beefier than muffler clamps a lot of guys use. All in all Im very satisfied with the loading/winch/ramp set up now. On to the next thing.

[884x4Sub]

Speaking of tires. The tires in all the pics Ive ever posted are four plus yrs old now. David the Nascar guy has always said he doesn't like the Hoosier bias's and I should at least get a set of Goodyear bias's. I took his advice and contacted a local GT2/3 racer who sells used Goodyears from the Nascar Canadian Tire Series cars (NCATS) for $200 a set they are supposed to last two weekends.

The Good boots are a #D2265 and are supposed to be 1.5 to 2 sec a lap faster than the Hoosiers around 2.5 mi Mosport. I saw why David doesnt like the Hoosiers. You can see how soft the sidewall is, no pic but the Goodyear has a substantially stiffer sidewall! By hand the Goodyear sidewall will only move about 1/4" and the whole sidewall moves as one, way stiffer.

This was backed up by David. He said his team mounted a GoPro to watch the front tires. He said with the soft sidewall the driver would have to "wait on the tire" to get finished rolling over before the car would start to actually turn. David said he wants to send me up a few sets of Cup radials from Sonoma or the Glen and make it really go. Im not there yet.

The NCATS series grew out of the old Canadian CASCAR late model series. The cars are a Late Model type 3 link with a glass body not a Nascar truck arm/metal body. Early NCATS had a Camaro clip. They run across the country probably a third of the races are road courses. As well as their own races they are support races for the Nascar Trucks at Mosport and for the Toronto Indy. They have a 600hp Nascar spec engine and GM single piston Late Model type brakes. Min weight 3000.

[884x4Sub]

Engine finished product. The only thing missing is the rad overflow tube to the base of the windshield, its there now.

[884x4Sub]

Had a harness bar and passenger seat mounts professionally installed. There was nothing whatsoever to mount the passenger seat to so we mirrored the nascar tubular steel seat mounts from the drivers side. New RJS 5 point belts with center twist release on both sides. Originally wanted the Simpson belts cause their a little more Nascarie but the RJS had the same rating and were WAY cheaper , whats up with that?

[884x4Sub]

Future plans call for a full fire suppression system but for now I bent up a little U shaped aluminum mount on the brake for a fire extinguisher and zip tied it in. When needed you just rip it out. I tested it twice works great. Even when the suppression system gets here I will keep this one. It's not in the way at all when driving or entering/exiting the car. Handy to put out a fire where the system doesnt reach like a brake fire or a little grass fire underneath the car or something.

[884x4Sub]

Took the car to a local stock car guy to have a set up put in it to David 's specs.

3.5 deg neg camber LF
1.5 deg " " RF

5-6 deg positive caster both wheels

1/16 to 1/8 toe out

Ended up with 50/50 LS to RS weight
Cross weight 50%
Front weight 51.8 % with a half tank of gas
Total weight 3303 no driver
__

[884x4Sub]

Plans for next year. Install 12:1 steering box from current 14:1. Install Accusump if required. Install fire system. Get all gauges working. Fuel press, volts and oil temp aren't hooked up yet. Install lexan quarter windows and rear spoiler braces. Install brake lights. Install GoPro
__________________

[884x4Sub]

Made it out to the track a couple of Sundays ago to Toronto Motorsports Park in Cayuga Ont. between monsoons. A tight dead flat 3km course with one half decent straight. At that point Mosport was closed for the season so I took what I could get.

The good? Car has BIG balls all over the place VERY fast and power all over the rpm range. No flat spots whatsoever carburetes excellent. Chassis is very poised never gets upset. Quick left right transitions or changing your line mid corner is met with a "hey no sweat, whatever you wanna do" attitude from the car. No grip grip grip gone bull**** at all. When it starts to slide its very gradual and easy to modulate with your right foot. Very confidence inspiring a car you could drive the livin' hell out of. love it.

The bad? The first session when I put my foot in the brakes after a couple of laps the car almost shook my eyes out of my head so I went in. Figured out I must be rear wheel hopping so I took a bunch of back brake out of it. fixed. Then when I layed into the brakes it was very darty, not good at all. Later on the phone David said I have too much toe out. But because of this at the time I couldnt charge corners to any real degree. Oh and even with my $$ custom roadrace pan oil pressure drops from 60 to 20 in the quick left rights. I was hoping I wouldnt have to put the Accusump on but.... Then it started to pump oil out the breather which dripped down on the collectors and made a nice smoke screen out the back of the car. Time to call it a day. Yes I neglected to put baffles inside the valve covers covering the holes that lead to the breather....effed that up. ez fix though.

All in all after all this slugging I was delighted to finally drive the thing, took the wife out she thought it was awesome too.


click on the two vids below

[jb1016]

This is awesome, glad to see you're out flogging it! Congrats on the Speedhunters recognition too.

[884x4Sub]

Originally Posted by jb1016

This is awesome, glad to see you're out flogging it! Congrats on the Speedhunters recognition too.

Thanks man!

[67swb72klb]

congrats on the project looks like you were having fun with it

[Dieselwrencher]

That's awesome! I'm glad to see you got to take it out and get a feel for it. That has to feel great after all the hard work!

[yahoos]

This thing is awesome! Great build!

[67ChevyRedneck]

It's hard to put into words how badass this really is... have fun with it!

[884x4Sub]

Thanks very much guys I appreciate it!

[884x4Sub]

Its funny people ask me all the time "What am I going to build next?" "Nothing" is my reply. It certainly has been a long road . The building has been fun and if I did it all over again there isnt a thing Id do different but I dont consider myself a "builder" Im more of a "driver". Now that the car is up and running the first phase is complete and now were on to the second phase, DRIVING it! Im looking forward to working on the set up, learning to drive the car fast and beating up on porsches and whatever else gets in its way.

People also ask me if Im going to drive it on the street. It actually wouldnt take all that much to make it street legal. But the biggest hurdle has been finding someone to insure it with the full roll cage. They dont want to touch it although there is still a couple of avenues I havnt gone down. And I would want to have insurance all signed and sealed before I went to all the trouble of lights, wipers, mufflers and all that. Doug

[yahoos]

Either way keep us posted with pics as you can.!

[884x4Sub]