[Joshinator99]

Originally Posted by arpad_m

Ahh, the camera angle is really misleading then. You are fully exonerated , but do drive the beast (same thing I keep telling myself, heh)

Originally Posted by JoeCamaro444

If nothing else, this thread is quite the journey! Seriously, though, amazing build and awesome results along the way, although you want some more. 😁
I am a MA resident as well, born and raised in and around Boston. Now in southern MA. I was hoping to locate a good high performance shop, that did good, clean work, and was proficient in the 6th gen realm. I’m keeping your go to shop in Spencer, in my Camaro folder of info, for future needs! Good luck on your next runs! I look forward to more updates!

Thanks Joe! Appreciate you following along.

[Joshinator99]

So I loaded up the car for what will likely be the last track day for 2023. Although I got my main upgrades (new Whipple 3.0 and 15” conversion) done pretty early in the year, the amount of rain we got in New England this year was insane. It rained nearly every weekend all summer long and ruined virtually every track date I tried to make. We finally got a nice day today to work on my short game, but too warm for any hero runs with a DA of 2100-2200 all afternoon. That said, finally got a decent 1.52 second 60’ time and new personal bests of 9.48 and 150.23 MPH! Now the big question is: do I cage and chute the car…? Guess that’s a decision for this winter.

[jlaudio11]

Congrats on a new pb! If you’re consistently fighting traction problems it might be worth running a bias ply tire. I run quick time pros to meet dot class rules but also for street and back of the track traction. Everyone says radials are faster and more stable, so far my car has ran well and not felt too sketchy at the higher speeds. Me personally, I might put a chute on over the winter but will probably hold off on a cage. Just a matter of how strict your local track is, how much you value that feeling safety, how you feel about actually living with a cage in the car etc. I’m not sure how much you cruise the car or if you just race, but I have mine out to dinner right now.

[Joshinator99]

Originally Posted by jlaudio11

Congrats on a new pb! If you’re consistently fighting traction problems it might be worth running a bias ply tire. I run quick time pros to meet dot class rules but also for street and back of the track traction. Everyone says radials are faster and more stable, so far my car has ran well and not felt too sketchy at the higher speeds. Me personally, I might put a chute on over the winter but will probably hold off on a cage. Just a matter of how strict your local track is, how much you value that feeling safety, how you feel about actually living with a cage in the car etc. I’m not sure how much you cruise the car or if you just race, but I have mine out to dinner right now.

Thanks!

I just don’t think my local track is very good in terms of track prep. My car spins almost instantly, even launching in 2nd gear and on 15’s. It’s insane… so I might have to take a look at those bias ply tires.

I think I put maybe a grand total of only 400 miles on my car this year. I just don’t drive it on the street much but I’m worried that if I cage it, that will drop to zero…

[Joshinator99]

So after being parked in the garage all winter, it’s time to start thinking about what’s next. My brother got access to a nice set of race car scales, so he brought them over and we put the Camaro on it. 3880 pounds is the verdict which isn’t terrible considering the ice tank, supercharger, roll bar, etc. Time to see if we can get that down a little bit…!

[radz28]

That's all you've added?!!! WOW!!! Can't wait to see the improved times!

[Joshinator99]

Originally Posted by radz28

That's all you've added?!!! WOW!!! Can't wait to see the improved times!

Well I haven’t done anything since my PB back in the fall, this was the weight the car was at then. I’m just using it as a baseline before making some tweaks this year. Still waiting on DSX PI of course, that was supposed to be a major part of the plans for this year… :( But yeah, getting some weight out should help too although it seems a bit lighter than a comparable ZL1 already.

[Joshinator99]

Felt like a little more airflow never hurt and since I already had the bumper cover off, it was a great time to do it. Should be good for 15-20% more airflow over the stock upper grill just by ditching the bow tie too.

[Joshinator99]

Been a little delayed updating my journal, but one of the changes I did this year was get rid of the ice tank. It was really a band aid for my overspun Kong-ported Whipple 2.9 blower. With the new Whipple 3.0 in place, there’s just no need for a crap-designed (typical Weapon X quality lol) 100 pound boat anchor in the trunk. I’m now running the Afco triple HX upgrade. It may technically be a slight downgrade at the strip, but I don’t care. Ice tank life wasn’t for me. I suppose if the car ever goes to hardcore drag racing duty I may change my mind but for now this is fine. With virtually any amount of E, there’s no need to worry about IATs (within reason) and running too cold actually hurts alcohol vaporization. And I suspect I saved 70 pounds or so too. Guess we’ll see. But I got them installed and got her back together, hanging out with my wife’s Mustang GT and my ML63 AMG in the garage. Poor new ‘24 Expedition Limited has to sit outside lol.

[Joshinator99]

So I finally got out a couple of weeks ago for some first-of-the-year runs at the drag strip. I haven’t been at the track since last October…nine months ago! So I did some shakedown runs (alongside my brothers new twin turbo ‘23 Mustang GT) at Lebanon Valley Dragway. With the boost controller set to 50% for the first run, I did a 10.39 @ 140. Not bad for only 12 psi! Nice clean run, so I turned it up to about 65% or so. That yielded a 9.9 @ 145. Again, nice and smooth run. So I bumped it up to 75% for the next run. About halfway down the track I got a quick puff of water mist from under the hood that sprayed across my windshield…so I shut it down and went back to the pits. Turns out I had the old 10A fuse from my original intercooler pump from a few years back installed! When I took out the ice tank and moved the pump from the back of the car to the original front location, I never checked the fuse size in the wiring… The CWA150 requires at least 15A.

So the fuse blew and the pump stopped, causing the water/Water Wetter combo to boil over (no coolant), smoking the plastic reservoir and dumping a good portion of my intercooler cooling circuit…so my day was done unfortunately. But that’s a pretty cheap & easy fix in the grand scheme of things. The fix has been done (bigger fuse and new reservoir, intercooler circuit refilled and purged out) and hope to get her back out to the track in the next few days.

[Joshinator99]

Went back out with the intercooler pump situation resolved and got a few runs in, all in the 9.5-9.6 range at 148-150 MPH. Tried to up the boost but transmission wasn’t having it so I’m going to go through it before pushing any harder. Kind of bummed as I was right at my personal best with 2 more clicks available on my boost controller…

Also got to see some shakedown runs from my new “nemesis”, my brothers twin turbo ‘23 Mustang GT Premium… sweet ride that’s going to break some hearts once it’s dialed in. A measly 9 psi shakedown run was 10.5 @ 137 so this will rock and roll at 20+ PSI…! Now I just have to figure out how to stay in front of him.

Me dispatching a Procharged C5 Z06:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/e3bATySXXCfPw95S6

Solo run:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/XnsJZwferXnXMXWo8

Jake’s Mustang run:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/dcJgLitK9cpyf8JR9

[arpad_m]

Originally Posted by Joshinator99

Went back out with the intercooler pump situation resolved and got a few runs in, all in the 9.5-9.6 range at 148-150 MPH. Tried to up the boost but transmission wasn’t having it so I’m going to go through it before pushing any harder. Kind of bummed as I was right at my personal best with 2 more clicks available on my boost controller…

Also got to see some shakedown runs from my new “nemesis”, my brothers twin turbo ‘23 Mustang GT Premium… sweet ride that’s going to break some hearts once it’s dialed in. A measly 9 psi shakedown run was 10.5 @ 137 so this will rock and roll at 20+ PSI…! Now I just have to figure out how to stay in front of him.

Me dispatching a Procharged C5 Z06:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/e3bATySXXCfPw95S6

Solo run:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/XnsJZwferXnXMXWo8

Jake’s Mustang run:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/dcJgLitK9cpyf8JR9

Great runs Josh, your car already hauls like there's no tomorrow The Mustang was fast, too, if its turbos can indeed be jacked up to 20+ psi, you might be in trouble.

Those WOT shifts sounded very good, too, except maybe one in the solo run that dragged out a little, not sure if that's what you referred to or it got worse when you tried going even higher with the boost. What more can you do about the trans? Tune adjustments only, or are you planning to rebuild it for more power?

[Joshinator99]

Originally Posted by arpad_m

Great runs Josh, your car already hauls like there's no tomorrow The Mustang was fast, too, if its turbos can indeed be jacked up to 20+ psi, you might be in trouble.

Those WOT shifts sounded very good, too, except maybe one in the solo run that dragged out a little, not sure if that's what you referred to or it got worse when you tried going even higher with the boost. What more can you do about the trans? Tune adjustments only, or are you planning to rebuild it for more power?

Thanks Arpad!

Good listen, yeah my shifts did indeed start dragging at the end of the day. So I just did a fluid dump and filter change the other day and I’m going to do some data logs at low boost to see how it’s behaving. Worst case I’ll pull the trans and have Pure Drivetrain do a full build on it plus get a new torque converter too. It’s only money.

[dmcmahan60]

I am jealous:( Beautiful car!