First post new to the forum.
Plan is to enter a few more events with this 4th gen road race car.

It's 2500lbs, with a 4th gen Camaro kevlar and fiberglass body with a Pancho Weaver chassis.
The only Camaro production parts on the car are the rear taillights.

358ci 18 degree 750hp at 8200rpm. I short shift it at 7600, geared at 7800rpm for 165mph.
Weismann 5 speed dog box H pattern.
Clutch not used on up shifts, just used on heal toe down-shifts.
I'll share more photos or videos next time we take it to the track.

 

New rolling chassis dolly so we can still work on it and push it up against the wall.
Also frees up the lift for the other 3rd gen Camaro racecar that we are working on.

 

Dope!

 

Welcome to the forum! Love to see this type of build on here!!

 

Very cool. Pancho’s cars are the best. He’s the most creative chassis builder out there.

 

Holy **** that is sweet! Welcome to the forum!

 

The logbook for the 5 had the Raybestos corner worker flags on the hood so we recreated it to match the logbook photos.

I took the liberty of having some fun in my passive aggressive way and added the Sorry 'bout that.
Seems many times when you finally pass someone they never expect you to be there, and might be surprised to find you right beside them.

 

From what I gather Pancho (or Fred) is still building a few Trans Am cars.
He takes advantage of a weight break for cars that still use a manual transmission.
Boris Said won with Pancho's car at COTA this year.
Which gave me more respect for Pancho and Boris to beat the other cars that use the modern paddle shift transmissions.
I like the manual shifting with no syncro dog rings, no clutch upshifts and heal toe down shifts.
I'll drive my home driving simulator when I want to paddle shift.
Boris slamming gears in the yellow Challenger.

 

A few years ago right after I got the car.
New engine and rebuilt pedal cluster, improved shoulder harness mounts, collapsible steering column, offset shifter and a custom fit driver's bead seat.



The hidden costs of a new race car.
It was too wide for my old enclosed trailer.
So got a bigger trailer, a bigger truck and had to redo my driveway, trim the roof on the corner of the house all to make room to get it all behind my house into the detached garage.
Even then we had to add 1/2 inch wheel spacers to the trailer wheels and cut and reposition the trailer's inner fenders and push them out as far as possible.
Fits now with an inch to spare on each side.

 

Last week the 5 was digitized for a future video game.
I got paid $500 for 2 days access.
That tops the $400 I got for winning drag race in '89. lol

 

Any more progress on this beast?

 

The 5 car is next on the list for some fine tuning.
We had a track day planned for the 5 in December at California Speedway roval.
Unfortunately that weekend was rained out.

Since then I found out the shock valving on the other race car an 88 Camaro was not quite right.
This made me want to check the shock valving on the 94 Camaro too.
So waiting for a space at the race shop to have the 94 Camaro shocks checked on the shock dyno.
After a shock re-valve, then the race shop can put their set up on the car, ride height and corner balance, alignment.
Since the race shop has an engineer I'd like to have him tune the suspensions on both Camaros.

Basically the 88 Camaro service has taken longer than expected and this has delayed the service on the 94 Camaro.
Many backordered parts delays on the 88 Camaro during the pandemic.
The 88 was the priority as it had been accepted to the Monterey Reunion in August.
The 88 service may be completed just before the Reunion event but time ran out to reassemble it and test it ahead of Reunion.
Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion | Aug 12, 2021 | Salinas Events Calendar (whatsupmonterey.com)

This fall plan is to have both race cars perfect and ready to race.
Like to be at Sonoma with CSRG this fall with one of the Camaros.
October 1-3, 2021
18th CSRG Charity Challenge at Sonoma Raceway
Schedule - Classic Sports Racing Group (csrgracing.org)

Thanks for checking in.

 

How far off from a production car is the body, looks a bit wider, and the nose/skirts, but where there other changes - roofline, windshield angles ect?

 

Not sure, Windshield may be close to stock size and location and it has the stock taillights.
I doubt much else is similar to a production Camaro.
The body is Kevlar, no factory steel parts.
Body parts were designed to be easy to remove and then easy to reach and work on the anything.
Body fits nicely around the rear 14x29 and front 13x27 slicks.
A stock Camaro would have fit in the trailer but the race car was 2 inches too wide before we modified the trailer fenders.

 

Can you still get off the shelf panels?

 

In the past I have got a door panel for my 3rd gen Camaro from Derhag.
He seems to have a few older body molds.
http://derhaagmotorsports.com/

That's part of the hidden cost and storage hassles of race cars.
I have a loft the size of a 2 car garage that has most the body molds for both Camaros.
The 4th gen Camaro came with a spare Kevlar body that was $5k.
Another buddy that had a similar race car shared the cost on the spare body.
Unfortunately he ended up needing a few body panels over the years.
So the deal was before he took a body panel we had a mold made of the panel.

The 3rd gen Camaro came with almost all the the original body molds from 1988.
The older molds are in great shape but I would not want to risk damaging them to make parts for sale to the public.

 

My race shop is Bryans in San Diego.
https://www.bryansracing.com/
A long time Richard Childress employee that now has a family run shop.
Travis Byran for the last 15 years has had his own race shop in San Diego.
He has a shock dyno, fabrication skills, a CNC machine and lots of set up experience.
When they could not find a new 2 inch reverse thread axle nut for my other race car they just made one.

Bryans installed a new spring and shock set up on the 5.
Jacking down the front end, front shocks with full rebound and softer springs.
When driven very low front ride height due to the front shock rebound jacking down the front when loaded.
It's a common set on these cars that I have not tried.
I went from 650 front springs to 400.
Rear springs are still 500.
In October we try it out at Big Willow.

It's a set up that requires you to remove all front rebound before strapping it down in the trailer.
If you leave all the front shock rebound in it as the car bounces along in the trailer the front rebound will jack the car down and loosen your tie down straps.
So just before putting it into the trailer you must dial out all front shock rebound to keep the trailer tie down straps tight.

The other big change was I had Bryans removed the Radial steel belted slicks and set up the car for Bias Ply slicks like on my other Trans Am car.
Bias Ply slicks accept bigger slip angles and imho are just more fun to drive on the limit.
The bias ply slicks are a little cheaper and a little slower than radial slicks.
For me having 2 race cars with the same type and size slicks just makes sense.
At one time I had 3 race cars with 3 different size slicks.
It was not cool having 3 different sizes of expensive slicks drying out in the garage.
Now with only 2 race cars on the same size and type slick, tire management will be mo' easier and economical.

 

I'm sure, as many tires are you guys are probably going through it's gonna make things a ton easier.

 

VARA big bore bash last weekend at Big Willow.
Saturday finished a distant 2nd (to my new driving mentor Ron Esau) out of 41 entered.
Unfortunately the go pro turned itself off as the green flag waved.
New full front rebound (front jacked down) and softer springs set up on the car from Bryans racing was very fun to drive.
https://www.bryansracing.com/

 

That looks like a lot of fun and a very nice setup you have there