Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

This went down last weekend (July 15-17) and it was a 3-day event that might have been the best one I've ever been to. That's why I wanted to talk about it here. We all know Heidts as a company built on selling Mustang II IFS stuff to street rodders, but now they're building F-body subframes, bolt-on IRS setups, and more. They've chosen to jump into the musclecar market, and this event was their first chance to showcase it.

Friday was a cruise from Heidts HQ to the host hotel near the track. First, they had a car show thing at their facility, and offered tours etc. They had a lot of their new parts on display and were anxious to speak with pro touring enthusiasts. They also offered tours of their plant and served up a nice BBQ. Then we all left to drive to the hotel- about 90 miles.

Saturday was the road course portion of the event. The Autobahn facility in Joliet is incredible. It's a country club, and members join ($35K up front and 5K per year afterwards) to enjoy the place. It has two tracks than can be configured together to be one huge track, and everything there is really nice. The bathrooms are so nice your wife would have no problem using them. The food at the trackside vendor is pretty close to gourmet. The tire walls lining the outside perimeter of the track are made from brand new tires. The infield lawns look nicer than the yard at my house. The place is super clean, no trash anywhere, and is first class all the way. Check it out here: http://autobahncc.com/

The track we used is their North Track- 1.9 miles of flat, smooth pavement. There are some nice turns and a couple tricky parts, but it was designed to be enjoyed by novice drivers. It works. We had a wide range of drivers and cars, and no one got in trouble out there. There's plenty of room for off-track excursions without having to worry about hitting concrete walls or anything. I wasn't super fast, but I had a ball driving the wagon hard. I hadn't driven it on a road course since I finished rebuilding it- I started to last year at Road America but many of you will remember I blew it up on the first lap. This time everything held together nicely and my new Canton road race pan kept oil pressure over 40 the whole time. Usually it was around 60. It didn't get hot (215-220 max) and those big Baer brakes worked great all day and never faded. Not even a little. I was able to take passengers along, so my pal Scott rode with me most of the time. I also took one of the guys from QA1 for a session, since he helped us out with the coil-over install and also with the double-adjustable shocks all around.

We kept tweaking and tuning on the car and it responded nicely. With some shock settings and tire pressure adjustments, it got more stable and confident as the day went on. My learning the track layout and the car's limits also helped. I was able to go after each corner more aggressively each lap. This was my favorite part of the weekend. I'll have a link to share video soon- the QA1 guy was filming while we were out there. It was cloudy and overcast most of the day, which was really nice and not too hot.

Sunday was autocross and speed/stop challenge day. The weather got hot but since we'd only be spending short sessions in the car (vs. 15-20 minute sessions on the road course) it was okay. We'd make 4-5 runs at each challenge and then take a break to cool off (and let the car cool off too). The autocross was tough, but we got better at it (again, with tuning adjustments and tire pressure tweaks). The Speed/Stop is one thing I'm pretty good at, and we finished 10th overall there (out of 32 cars). Not bad, considering how most of the cars were LS-powered F-bodies with experienced drivers and stickier tires.

Overall, we had a blast. The car worked great (once we fixed a couple minor things) and I feel good heading into Car Craft this weekend. I did get to see the car Jeff Schwartz is bringing to compete with (a really nice '66 Chevy II with all the best stuff under it and a lot of LS power) so I'll be gunning for second or third at best.

But if any of you are considering attending a Pro Touring event, this Heidts deal is a great value ($355 for the whole 3-day weekend!) and I know we'll be heading back. There's a lot of time to learn (they break folks up into groups and the 'novice' group was by far the largest) and everyone helps each other out. They had a team karting enduro that was a lot of fun and everyone (passengers included) got to drive some nice go karts on a fast little track. It's not far from us (8 hr drive) and if you want to see what your car can do, this is the best way to do it.