Got six runs in today,
77.640
71.984
71.371
69.421
67.930
67.784
Each run got quicker, remember this is my second Autocross ever. I never did get a cone penalty, so there is likely time to be saved by cutting the cones closer.
I am working the Barracuda pretty hard, I probably have 1/2 the horsepower of most other cars and no where near the tires or brakes.
This winter I will be looking at adding an electric power assist, on the low speed corners I just can't spin the steering wheel fast enough to get the car around.
But keeping this all in perspective, the goal of the SCCA CAM class is to provide a place for folks with Classic Muscle cars to drive them in an Autocross.
Us Slant six folks will always be: Out Horsepowered, Out Spent, and lack a lot of the fancy parts, but we can also smile after a good run and recognize improvement.
It is fun. I did set selected by the officials to get weighed today, came in at 3085lbs. Don't know what brought that on, they probably just were not familiar with the car.
Posted below are a few photos, the Thunderbird was a screaming corner carver, powered by a turbo 4 cly.
There were 5 Cameros and a couple of Corvettes that had the GM Careers decals on them. I spoke with one of the drivers.
GM provides the: cars, tires and fuel to Engineers employed at the GM design centers in the Dertoit area that are interested in competing in Autocross.
I asked how many folks want to do that. The answer was "about a thousand". To whittle down the candidate base interested persons are allowed to practice and test in GM cars on a track at the GM proving grounds, the very best drivers are selected by a statistical capability analysis of the test results. The cars are then specially built and developed by the drivers and selected support Engineers. I was told much of the development time is done on their own time, but GM provides the parts and mechanical and lab analysis tools.
A neat perk for the youngish Engineers interested in Autocross.
And here are a couple of videos of the Barracuda
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz-FqsWmScc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUl-bxYmaeg
| Attachments: |
|
081222 Grissom 1.jpg [ 85.2 KiB | Viewed 1945 times ] |
|
081222 Grissom 2.jpg [ 138.27 KiB | Viewed 1945 times ] |
|
081222 Grissom 3.jpg [ 117.88 KiB | Viewed 1945 times ] |
|
081222 Grissom 4.jpg [ 76.63 KiB | Viewed 1945 times ] |