Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

I'm not entirely satisfied with the quality of the videos but it's the best I can do for now.  There are so many video editing programs out there and they're all over the board in terms of capabilities, ease of use, etc.  The one I used was easy enough to work with but when it came to rendering the final product, it fell short.  Anyways....

It was a hell of a fun day with only one major bummer as you'll see in the pics below.  I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn't driving the Viper.  :)   However, with the car in the exact condition it was in when I last tracked it back in 2006, I was able to run a lap 3.4 seconds quicker than my previous best and increase my top speed down the front straight by 5 mph.  My only goal was to run under a 2 minute lap so mission accomplished. 

When you really start pushing the car like that, it will expose any issues/weaknesses that exist and there are many.  It pushes, it throttle oversteers, and in some corners it does both.  It really is an exercise in car control.  The worst issue was a bad intermittent miss at WOT that was never there before.  It was pretty violent.  Almost like fuel cut or something.  I suspect the ignition.  I had to send the dizzy in for repair after it crapped out at Car Craft so that's high on the list of suspects.  One of the other issues I had was the left rear tire locking up under braking.  Just the left and it was shredding the tire.  I kept backing off the rear brake bias but that didn't help much.  Speaking of the brakes, they're totally inadequate for even moderate track use.  Also had problems with the clutch dragging.  Springs are too soft, needs a more aggressive alignment, gas pedal is a mile away from the brake pedal, and more.  Lot's to work on.  I did temporarily fix the gas pedal issue by zip tying a block of 2x4 to the pedal.   Just added to the whole mullet theme of the car.  :)

The car seems to like to shed its moldings now.  On the trip back from Oregon, the left hand windshield molding ejected.  Before we were able to retrieve it, it got run over several times.  It was my perfect condition original too!  :(  So when I went to Brainerd, I made sure to tape down the windshield moldings with this temporary clear paint protection film which worked great.  Wish it wasn't so damn expensive though.  So on my last session of the day, the one with the camera mounted on the roof, I get black flagged.  I though oh crap, what did I do wrong?   Then on the way back to the pits, I saw the problem in my rear view mirror.  Thank God it didn't fly off!   Scratched the hell out of my nicely painted box though.  Oh well. 

I'm really glad I decided to run the car because the track will never be the same again.  They announced that starting in October, the track is going to be widened and resurfaced!!!   It will meet the requirements for everything except Formula 1.  The track will be 10 feet wider which means turn 2 will be faster and safer.   The new smoother surface should help with tire wear as well.   Pretty cool!!!

Be sure to change the resolution to 720p or 1080p for the best quality and go full screen.

-- Edited by Back in Black on Monday 24th of September 2012 12:45:11 PM