25 hours at Thunderhill Raceway-pfadt vette
12-11-2008, 05:32 PM
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25 hours at Thunderhill Raceway-pfadt vette I usually post in the conversions forum (I have a '67 El Camino with a '98 LS1/6Speed), but I thought I would share my experience with Pfadt racing last weekend. I was invited to be on the pit crew with the team for the NASA 25 hour race at Thunderhill. Aaron Pfadt is a first class guy.
There race car is a C5 with there components used were ever possible, and a 416 LS running on 91 octane pump gas. It was the only corvette at the race.
They qualified very well (I think it was 7th overall) with fuel delivery problems.
During troubleshooting right after qualifying, the chassis dyno showed it was making 368 wheel HP. After the problems were fixed it made 558 wheel HP.
I have never fully appreciated how bad *** the corvettes are until I got to go to this race.
I am now extremely envious of all of you that own one of these street legal race cars.
The pfadt vette would pass as many as 4 cars in one straightaway.
Thunderhill is a 3 mile track, and the vette posted a 1:51.2 lap, fastest in its class, and 3rd fastest overall. The fastest lap time was a 1:43.7 posted by a prototype all out race car.
Unfortunately, the fuel gremlins came back, and caused more problems during the race, and then the clutch let go after repairing the fuel problems. Fog also caused a several hour long pause in the middle of the race.
Thanks for letting me release all of my new found enthusiasm for the corvette.
There race car is a C5 with there components used were ever possible, and a 416 LS running on 91 octane pump gas. It was the only corvette at the race.
They qualified very well (I think it was 7th overall) with fuel delivery problems.
During troubleshooting right after qualifying, the chassis dyno showed it was making 368 wheel HP. After the problems were fixed it made 558 wheel HP.
I have never fully appreciated how bad *** the corvettes are until I got to go to this race.
I am now extremely envious of all of you that own one of these street legal race cars.
The pfadt vette would pass as many as 4 cars in one straightaway.
Thunderhill is a 3 mile track, and the vette posted a 1:51.2 lap, fastest in its class, and 3rd fastest overall. The fastest lap time was a 1:43.7 posted by a prototype all out race car.
Unfortunately, the fuel gremlins came back, and caused more problems during the race, and then the clutch let go after repairing the fuel problems. Fog also caused a several hour long pause in the middle of the race.
Thanks for letting me release all of my new found enthusiasm for the corvette.
sounds like fun. im jealous
12-12-2008, 03:13 PM
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Thanks everyone.
They had modified the fuel tanks to allow for the fast fueling rig connections.
The adhesive used said it was rated for fuel, but it dissolved into silt like particles that plugged up the in tank screen and filter. We pulled the tanks down and cleaned everything really well after qualifying, but more silt stuff filled the screen and filter again. We took the screen and in tank filter out, and installed an external filter during the race, loosing around 2 hours on the track. Later, one of the injectors got plugged up and after getting them cleaned up, it was running the best it had, and a few laps latter the clutch started to slip.
By the way, one of the drivers, Danny Popp, looked at the injectors while we were tapping all the crap out of them and discovered that they could be installed upside down. The injectors were all reinstalled upside down, and the engine ran! They ran it for about a minute to reverse flow the injectors to clean them, and then reinstalled them correctly and it ran like a champ.
Necessity is the mother of invention!
They had modified the fuel tanks to allow for the fast fueling rig connections.
The adhesive used said it was rated for fuel, but it dissolved into silt like particles that plugged up the in tank screen and filter. We pulled the tanks down and cleaned everything really well after qualifying, but more silt stuff filled the screen and filter again. We took the screen and in tank filter out, and installed an external filter during the race, loosing around 2 hours on the track. Later, one of the injectors got plugged up and after getting them cleaned up, it was running the best it had, and a few laps latter the clutch started to slip.
By the way, one of the drivers, Danny Popp, looked at the injectors while we were tapping all the crap out of them and discovered that they could be installed upside down. The injectors were all reinstalled upside down, and the engine ran! They ran it for about a minute to reverse flow the injectors to clean them, and then reinstalled them correctly and it ran like a champ.
Necessity is the mother of invention!
Last edited by elesquan; 12-12-2008 at 03:44 PM.
09-26-2011, 12:10 AM
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Hello fellow LS enthusiast . I would like to ask You about You're El Camino . I have an El Camino and thought it sounded interesting You said You changed it to a rear engine LS1 El Camino . I went to You're profile on here but You have no way to message You so I'm hoping You see this and reply , Thanx
