Cresson 3.1
2nd time driving the car
301HP, Blued R1R street tires
fastest laps of the day, both with passenger and both with a lift. with my rookie *** driving.
Incredible car! so perfectly balanced, i never wanted more anywhere. so confidence inspiring! what a blast!
2:28.72 & 2:28.71
I could drive this car all day! and thats the plan! #WRL

 

So which one is going to Hallett?

 

lol neither. vette short block is done, awaiting long block assembly. and im not driving to Oklahoma with a car for the first time, not even knowing if it will pass tech.(M3)
albeit the M3 would be awesome at Hallet

 

I know your intent for the BMW isn't sprint racing, but if I were in your shoes I'd be inclined to do just that with the Vette being down. Why not just get it tech'd locally? If the belts, net, and fire stuff are up to date you might get a pleasant surprise. At that point, you'd know whether or not it's worth the asspain to get it prepped the rest of the way.

 

its definatly the plan to also have it Nasa/sprint race ready. its just not currently.
the biggy is the cage needs some more welding.
i have new nets and fire suppression ready to go in.

 

Bummer, that sort of thing is a 100% deal breaker.

 

New Karcepts MCS Coilovers
after a ton of research settle on these. and after a bunch of sources, i settle on 750/650 spring rates.









with the LS swap, the front sway bar, even with being relocated has to be bent to clear the shocks. couldnt find a good way to do this. Went with the Karcepts front sway bar instead. miraculously it misses the coilovers!



on the diff went with an OS Giken LSD, Powerneed billet diff caps, and Tim Kelly stud kit. and Gikens own oil.







CSF Radiator and G Plus oil cooler, i did cut the lower neck off and had it rewelded at an angle on the radiator to better clear the relocated steering rack mounts.
Gates hose #23371 is a perfect fit for lower rad hose. From a 06-08 Hyundai Sonata.



new Enkei and RT660 tires


Wilwood 6 piston race kit


so much goodness in one pic!


and with a few odds and ends wrapped up the car After 6 months the LS2000 pulled out of the garage under its own power and drove around the neighborhood! New motor, new diff, new firewall, new brakes, new coilovers, new blade sway bar, new wheels/tires, new radiator, new oil cooler, new digital dash, new steering wheel and seat, new clutch and flywheel, new stand alone ecu, new motor harness, complete body/chassis harness removed. I think the only thing we havent replaced is the rear sway bar in this shell!

 

was gonna post vid of me reassembling the body, but one clip of me shirtless i was like NOPE

a few progress pics instead.

previous owner had cut the trunk floor out, this wasnt great for exhaust fumes. cut and bent up some aluminum and covered the openings.


cutting the bumper


ran wires from pedal switch to taillights, wired so all 4 lights come on with brakes. camera didnt do well with LEDs there all bright red.


previous owner had removed all the ABS wireing as well. so i contacted ASM and they were able to make me a stand alone ABS harness since i dont have any factory Honda wiring any more.


body back together.


in for first race alignment. we were .1 short on camber in the rear, but .5 a degree short on passenger front. drivers front i was able to get what i wanted. odd, nothing looks bent. ordered offset front balljoints to get the camber i need up front (right). offset bushings werent enough.

 

12 months, a new motor, an ABS failure, and a wheel coming off, the vette is finally back!

Been a long time coming, but good to be back behind the wheel shaking all the rust off.

Decided to build a splitter for the car, the next race was at NOLA and seemed to be a fast track it would benefit from. (ive never been there)
1/2" Birch plywood


18lbs 10oz.
i have an ACP Carbon splitter that is actually 1.5" smaller that weighs 14lbs 14oz. so 4 extra pounds for something WAY cheaper and replaceable isnt as bad as i thought it would be. worth the trade off


made some Lowes mounts


1/4" All-thread to hold up the wings


Painted


being my first time to NOLA my laps where nothing to be proud of, but decent for my first time and enough for the weekend. i was strong the first half of the lap, but left lots of time on the table on the 2nd half. from entering the Esses on to the finish line i was slow.
But after 12 months i was just there to get back into the saddle, test the car with lots of new parts, and thats exactly what we did.

my fastest lap of the weekend. Race 3, Lap 3.

Had a Porsche GT4 and Thunder Roadster in my class. I only focused on them. Was lucky enough to snag Pole and win both my races in class, and 5th overall.


had my family there supporting and helping all weekend which was awesome


2 races left in the season, excited for them!

 

NASA race at my home track of Cresson

Day 1
Sadly the weather was terrible. i think the high was 50 degrees and misting all day. so practice, qualifying and Race #1 was all wet. and all i had was slicks. luckily i only spun once or twice.
we threw the towels we had over the tires trying to keep them warm between rounds.


for race #2 it looked like was gonna be wet as well so we threw a bunch of wing in the car to try to help, luckily the track went dry just before we went green. so i got one dry race that day, with basically no "at speed" laps. unfortunatly all the extra wing made it understeer, but we made it to the checkered.
My parents and buddies Joey and Devin Barber helping crew.


Day 2
Sunday morning we woke up to blue skys and sunshine and just a bit cool. perfect weather for racing, sadly in the very first warmup practice, the clutch started getting lower and lower, until eventually i was having to lift the pedal off the floor between every corner so i came in.
Slave cylinder had blown and our weekend was done.


this weekend did open my eyes to a problem ive complained about since the first track day ever with this car. no feeling or feedback from the car. i cant tell what the car is doing. i think this offseason its time to finally address that.

my fastest lap in the only dry race of the weekend. had a bunch of wing in the car so its understeering in the fast sections.

 

big update
it became obvious the S2000 cage and wing werent going to come in, in time for the new series i wanted to run. Gridlife GLTC. and the first race was at COTA only 1.5 hours from me. so i decided to overhaul the WRL E36 to convert it to a GLTC car. basically went threw the whole car just tidying up everything i didnt like about it. also all new safety gear and fire suppression system. also decided to repaint the front end.


next step was to have it dyno tuned. needed to reduce the power by about 90hp from 308 to 217 was our target for GLTC class.
Art of Assembly handled all the tuning


the mega flat torque and HP should make it a pretty strong contender.


Next stop was COTA for a test day 2 weeks before the race to test, just about everything that was new about the car. Buddys and parents came out to support and help


found a few issues. i was losing power every lap. so much so after 4-5 laps i could no longer use 5th gear. not enough power to ever get there.
also snaped off the gas pedal trying to shove it threw the firewall. found out i was a good 6-9 seconds off pole pace. id have work to do. but overall a successful test weekend.








also picked up a new Garmin Catalyst

 

Race weekend!
managed to catch a nasty flu the week before, but i wasnt gonna miss this!

i didnt know this until the end of the weekend but i was down 10-19HP and on too narrow of tires. car had 255s, but i was legal to run 275s due to my weight. neither certainly didnt help my pace.
also had some other issues that put me at the back of the pack every race.
didnt find out until the end of the weekend in Race 4 when the car wouldnt run. that a low battery had been the cause of alot of my issues. including the DBW gas pedal going dead on the pace lap every race.





i was still losing power every lap. couldnt figure it out. my shift point for 5th would move about 100' every lap. until i had lost so much power i could no longer reach 5th gear. it wasnt water temp pulling timeing. nor was it oil temp. both were 185 in the races. so that only left IATs. turns out a little googling at the track, and these motors are notorious for heatsoaking the IAT sensors. so all i had with me, i used. and it worked! had full power for the entire last race! the towel was enough to slow down the heat, keeping it away from the IAT sensor to let it not pull timing.







Finally in race 4. the final race of the weekend i had sorted most of my issues and was in a position to finally get to where i thought i should be in the finishing order (some amazing drivers in this series!) but when i got to grid the low battery finally reared its head, with not enough juice to even idle the car/ignition. so i sat on grid while everyone pulled away for the final race.

a few clips of some of the fun


but despite all the issues, i still had a blast. it was so nice to have so many cars in my class to race. always someone to run. really enjoyed the new series.

 

New Livery!
this has always been the plan since i bought this car, and i finally sent my vinyl guy some measurements, and he shipped me the bulls. cut the yellow circles out myself separately.


Watkins Glen!

FRIDAY
i made a dream come true. For over a decade Watkins Glen has been a dream of mine. Ive got thousands of laps here in iRacing, but never real life. The 3 day tow wasnt fun, but the track is incredible! Sim really doesn't do the elevation or especially the banked corners justice. And the armcos are much more in your face. And the amount of commitment is way higher irl.
What a weekend ahead. Checked an item off my bucket list! Looking forward to more laps and our races!








a few of my qualifying laps
Excuses: only had about 10 laps total prior to these. under tired, and 215hp.
my laps start at 5:50

After this is when the rain moved in. the heaviest damn 14% chance of rain ive ever seen. steading rain for two days keeping everything wet and soaked.

SATURDAY
Well, it just wasnt meant to be 😔 dispite my hopes all 4 races were raining. Really disappointed after all the time and money invested, but also something i couldn't control. The nexen tires im running while the fastest in the dry, are notoriously death traps in the rain. And if im being honest the high speed close walls track was a bit too risky in the wet for me. Made the choice to sit them all out. Lots of cars were going in the wall all day.
I did go out and attempt Race #3 in the rain, just to say i did and not have regrets. just putting around half throttle in 4th gear in dead last. when the leaders caught me i came in early to stay out of there way. Looking to sell this car soon, and risking damage just wasnt worth it for me.
Good news is i did get to see it, and make a few dry laps in practice and qualifying on friday. And the car lives on for another day. Just wasnt meant to be this time. Said my sad goodbyes and were on the road back to texas.



stoped by the National Corvette Museum on the way home. cool place. first time there. set the 4th fastest time on there simulator on my out lap, but ran out of time on my hot lap so it didnt count. was on pace for fastest time ($10 for 5 minutes)



once again this weekend shined light on a problem ive struggled with for nearly 10 years. fear.
i dont have any fear of bodily injuring or even dying on track. but oddly i have a massive fear of car damage and being on the limit, or out of control. i just cant mentally push past about 7/10ths pace. and this makes me slow.
i know i have the talent and race craft from iRacing. i can podium just about anywhere because there is no fear or consequences. but in real life i just cant break threw this mental barrier. its something ive GOT to get figured out. im sick of it holding me back (even in the dry)
not sure ill ever go back to watkins, as much as i love that place, that was a long *** tow.

 

That's awesome! I want to hit the Glen so bad, almost made it last year with a local group but plans fell thru. Oh well, for now just on iRacing. I did that NCM sim last year and got 6th and my then 11 yo got 18th (he does iRacing a lot too) It was funny because there were a bunch of the typical Vette types getting slow times and my son destroyed them and they couldn't understand why!

 

UPDATE!
a year to the day after i pulled the LS2000 out of the garage under its own power, i finally got to test drive it.
This Sunday i went to COTA. this is the first drive ever other than around my block.
other than the worn out rear toe links on the car (came on it) the car did really well. felt good right away. the manual steering(a first for me) was surprisingly doable. although i did feel a bit of gyro effect on the wheel when id stab the front brakes, would cause me to be a bit late to the apexes. id also feel the wheel jerk a bit more in dips in the track, than i would in a power steering car.
had issues with 3rd gear, it just wouldnt stay in gear. i was suspicious of this from my drives around the block. it didnt always like to go into 3rd. easy fix with a rebuild.
other that than it was impressive for a first build.





video! went great until it didnt!

 

Looked fun, something in the valve train? ​​​​​​​
COTA is on my list.

 

New Car!
After about a 6 month search i came across a car that met my criteria. Wanted to try Mid engine (not rear 911) and the famous dual clutch Porsche Trans.
A 2009 987.2 Cayman S with PDK, Paddle Steering wheel, and Chrono package with both Sport and Sport+ modes. This was the last Cayman to have hydraulic steering, which i also wanted. Things escalated quickly and i booked a flight to go look at it 2 weeks later. It was everything it was presented to be.







I was in Texas and the Car was in Cali. Flew out to LAX (ive never been to Cali) and he picked me up in the car, and my test drive was 2 hours threw Canyon roads (another first for me), ending back at his place we exchanged cashiers check and title and i hit the road about 8pm
This is when things got real. far from home, no passenger/navigator. i was doing this. spent about 2 hours just getting out of LA traffic.



then for the next 2.5 days this was my view. just desolate desert. no civilization. there was a poedunk gas station every 2 hours. and a tiny town every 4 hours. in the entire 2.5 days there was only a radio station 3 times. it was just me alone, listening to every noise, contemplating this unknown car worse case scenarios in the middle of no where.
but it made it back to Texas without a hitch. despite one self inflicted tire pressure panic.



I remember stoping at a gas station, minutes from the guys house in California. the bathroom had a code lock on it you had to get from worker. it was 987. what a coincidence. i remember paying $5.50 a gallon for gas, and she asked me if i wanted a bag for my sandwich and water, which i thought was odd. only to find out they charge for plastic bags in California....any who.

i Made the same mistake i did on my Z06. bought a low mileage cream puff that looked factory new.(will full intentions on gutting and racing) hell even the drivers side seat bolster is still perfect.

The tires were 9 years old, so the first thing i did was order a set of track stickies for her. next put on race pads, and did a 100% flush with SRF brake fluid.





and off to COTA for first track test!

the staggered tires and no camber, she pushed pretty bad, really bad. but the turn in/responsiveness and brakes were damn good though!


PSM
now. threw my months of research i knew even when you turned PSM off (porsche stability manegement & traction control) that it was never truly off and it was watching and intervening in the background, but everyone said that the optional Sport+ mode (which i made sure to get) set the limit SO high that id never reach it. well my very first outing in a low preped car it was fighting me HARD. every slow corner exit it was draging the rear brakes and cutting engine power. i couldnt slide or spin a wheel if i wanted to. felt like a stock 98 civic on corner exits. VERY slow. ironically which is the whole reason i bought a porsche, for there incredible exit grip and speed.


Sadly in 15 years no one has been able to solve this, at least not on PDK cars. this is where i am now with the car.

 

You certainly have had the assortment of race cars.
I am a fan of the Vette and the LS S2000. 10 or more years ago I questioned myself if I should of followed many in our local PCA and track a GT3 with PDK.
No regrets, not missing PDK or all the car saving nannies.
Those are great street and track cars I just prefer a full cage dog ring H pattern and no nannies on track and a car I can repair at home without technical training or special tools.
At one time I had 3 race cars that all used different size slicks.
Now I have 2 race cars that use the same size slicks, much more simple tire management.

After so many gutted production cars you seem overdue for a nice TA2 style race car or my favorite a vintage Trans Am race car.
Today I believe TA2 attracts the biggest fields in Sedan racing.
https://www.racingjunk.com/category/...a4/5900?page=2
Those cars require some track experience and you appear ready for the step up.
At any rate enjoy the adventure and keep us updated.

 

thanks! im definatly familiar with TA2 , Trans AM and SVRA as well. we go to there COTA races every year.
for some reason not a big fan of the TA2 to drive personally. i actually dont know why. the cockpits do look insanely Closter phobic in person. but great to watch. and plenty of competition up and down the feild.
i would enjoy some vintage stuff. a nice 1st gen camaro. in fact a few weeks ago, went down the rabbit hole of research what it would take to build one from a bare repro cab.

 

not sure how it happened (well GLTC races overlaped some NASA races) but i havent driven or raced the Z06 in all of 2023. but were gonna finish the year strong with 3 races. first of which was NOLA.
love this track, fast and flowing. my style. and only about 10 hour tow.

this weekend was also different for me, for the first time in 4 years i was focused on my performance, not tow rig breaking down, trailer blow outs, car failures etc. i wanted to push ME.

Nola always has the best sunsets and noticeably fresh air.


Practice didnt go well after a couple laps the car wouldnt take throttle while trying to limp it back to pits died on track. got towed in. no practice.
Turns out the intake had vibrated off, taking the MAF with it. couldnt run without knowing airflow i guess. fixed that.

Then in qualifying my Hood cam unlatched and flew up. but i kept sending it. unfortunalty 2 laps later the car got MUCH louder, last time this happened it was the motor letting go. luckily this time it was just the exhaust came off. drove it into pits and got if fixed, but sadly again no practice. was gonna have to relearn the car and track in the races.

Race 1&2: Finished 2nd in class and 3rd overall in both races. got decimated by a local Porsche GT4 RS Clubsport in first. i think he was 5+ seconds ahead.

Race 3 got my fastest lap of the weekend. worked on pushing my comfort level, and acheived that.
Race 4: We won! overall and in class!!! (ok so half the feild had gone home, but half of racing is having a running car left at the end)

couldnt have done it without my familys support and help.
had a great weekend and accomplished my goals.