A couple s-10's

Yesterday I had my first official track day in the truck. It's definitely the most fun I've ever had in it.
I went to Shannonville motorsport park. They have a couple of different track orientations but the one we ran most of the day was the long track as they call it. It's 4.03km's long with 14 corners.

I showed up 4 hours late but still got in well over 70 laps. There was a good selection of cars there.
Here are some pics,










The event ran until 5 and around 3:30 everyone took off except for myself and the time attack subura. Then a little bit later he left as well and I had the entire course to myself for a good 45 minutes.
I got to mess around a ton and had a blast. It was a bit intimidating at first but everyone was super chill and thought it was pretty jokes I was tracking the truck.

The new rear discs and posi worked very well.


One of the guys running the event drove me around the track a couple of times in my truck to just show me the line. He said he was really impressed with how responsive it was. When I told him what I brought originally he was like "oh umm ok, that's a first" I laughed a bit.

With the new coils and rear bar the truck is planted really well. This is max body roll it saw all day.



I also did some drag racing later that night.





I was having some issues all day though. I could only run at part throttle. I jetted down the new carb and went to far down with it. As soon as the secondaries would open and boost would start to build it would go right lean and bog down like crazy. It was kind of a bummer only being able to run at half power all day but it was still a blast on the road course. The drag racing on the other hand was pretty bad lol. When I put my foot into it too much it would go lean and then heat up to much. So that was another issue I was having. Once I realized this I just took it easy all day and enjoyed it for what it was.

I got a couple videos here is one when I first got out and was trying to figure out my shifts and the line.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7vejJ9Xmc&feature=player_embedded

that is awesome man, sucks about the fuel issue though.  Those stiff springs seemed to work good for the track.

You have a lot of faith in your camera mount. lol  Is that a GoPro?

^ the springs worked very well on the track. The comment I kept getting all day is that it looked like I was just coasting around the track because I was getting next to no body roll at all, then they would look at my tires lol

I'm going to try and get my hands on a set of used r1's for the front. That was my biggest issue with traction all day was understeer.

I rejetted the carb and it's running great again. Night and day difference. I just wish it was like that at the track.
Yes it's a gopro. The suction cup is super strong. I could pull dents out of sheet metal with it.

ouch...and I thought my autocross tires look rough after an event.

Yeah I know 2-3 people with gopros and they love them.  they work great for racing and kayaking. lol

After about a year of searching I finally found a deal on a truck with a solid frame. I originally started out looking for a 2wd drive truck but around November/December I decided it would be more fun to build an awd one.

Picked up this '97 sonoma for $450


It runs and is in really good shape surprisingly. The only real rust on the whole body is on the 3rd cab door. Other then that the paint is just flaking off. The frame is very solid. The original owner always had it oil undercoated, which makes taking it apart nice.

I've been trying to sell everything off of it I don't want. So far just about every body panel is spoken for. I think I'll just end up scrapping the 4.3/trans.


I found a great deal on a set of wheels/tires. A guy used them for a couple events with his z06 and then turned around and sold it and just wanted to get rid of them so his loss was my gain.



18's,10.5 front 12.5 rear. RA-1's, 275/35, 305/35

I'm very excited about building this from the frame up.

looks like good progress while i wasnt looking!

i didnt run my tires quite that hot but i had the same issue on my g-force sports when i tracked it as well.

my original solution was to run 275s up front. which worked, but obviously r1s help as well!

AWD will be fun! Can't wait to see the build on that one. Keeping the 4.3L or going V8 with it?

This is going to be awesome, with yours and your old mans fab skills this thing will turn out nothing short of amazing.

I'm jealous of the real track time, the truck looks awesome!  How did everything (other than tires) hold out with that many laps?  I get nervous after 8 or 10 auto-X laps with mine let alone 70 actual track laps!

I'm getting comfortable with the idea that tires are disposable.  My fronts have been on for 6 weeks and they're almost garbage now 

^ Yes I'm straight hooked now after that day. I joined the local autoclub which has a bunch an event just about every other weekend at a handful of different tracks. Within about 100km's of me their is 4 really nice tracks including mosport which I can't wait to go to.   Everything held up well other then a few issues I was having that were not related to actually tracking it. I was running lean (my own fault) and it was causing it do bog down at wot and it would get hot.

looks like good progress while i wasnt looking!

i didnt run my tires quite that hot but i had the same issue on my g-force sports when i tracked it as well.

my original solution was to run 275s up front. which worked, but obviously r1s help as well!

I tried messing with the air pressure but the problem was the track itself. It had 3 quite fast right hand corners that were pretty rough. The other tires held up very well.  If the track surface was in better shape I doubt that tire would have seen any of the tearing it did.

AWD will be fun! Can't wait to see the build on that one. Keeping the 4.3L or going V8 with it?

Yea I can't wait to get it running with awd. Right now it's just a 2.8 bored/stroked to 3.2 with a little blower on it. I will be going to an ls style v8 with this new direction.

Thanks Wybrow. I'm really excited about doing everything from the frame and getting to design some pieces myself.



Small update but I sold a couple of parts off the truck and scrapped the rest. I sold pretty much the entire body minus the rear bumper as well as the cat, battery and something else small. Which netted me about $400 return which was great. I scrapped the rest and got 200ish back. The truck also came with a full tank of gas which is about $100 around here now. So I got back just about everything I spent getting home. If the wheel didn't break off on the way home and I didn't have to pay $190 for the flatbed I actually would have made a bit of money.


Here are some pics of the tear-down last weekend.





my dogs keeping me company,


These definitely won't fit without some work,













and this is more or less how it sits now. We kept the front control arms/spindles on so it would be easy to roll around. I just need to take the front diff off and then I can start to clean the frame up a bit.



I was trying to sell the 4 wheels for $30. I ended up getting over $60 in scrap for them, go figure.




I've got a fairly good idea of what I want to do and how I want to do it. I'm going to start by narrowing the rear and build from there. Plans change all the time but the vision is staying the same. “It is a bad plan that admits of no modification.”

This build is going to take time mostly because of the high dollar items I would like to incorporate. Me being in school tends to hinder on my money making ability. So I have a lot of time to shop around and keep my eyes peeled for some of these big money items and hopefully get them for a lot cheaper.

I was fortunate enough to find this one already. It's not a big money piece but it's definitely a needed one. Luckily I came across this brand new on the local classifieds for $250. Which is far less then what some are asking for used ones. It's a Borg Warner 4472 AWD transfer case. Exactly like the ones that came on the sy/ty's, bravadas, astro vans etc. With a different input shaft it can handle 9's in the quarter without any issues.












 

Nice progress, I apparently need a DD so I can really get into my truck and accomplish something.

dropping the front RC might help with the front tire tear as well.

^ sorry what do you mean?

Artos having a daily helps immensely.

Finally got a chance to wash the wheels and weigh them.

My current American Racing Torq Thrust M's 17x8's weigh 50lbs each.

The front 18x10.5's weigh in at 45lbs each.
The rear  18x12.5's weigh in at 49lbs each.

So that's 12lbs in rotational weight savings with a huge amount more grip, no complaints here.

Fronts 10.5's vs 8's


and a rear

I went to my first auto x style event on Sunday. It was fun but completely different then the road course day. There was only about 16 of us there so we got lots of runs in. Here are some pics of the cars attending,







"Chump cars" were running the road course, and they were going balls out the entire time, very fun to watch,





some more that running the cones,



It turned out a friend of my dads was driving this M3 and we got to talking. He was nice enough to take me out for a couple of laps in it. Wow I've got to say I was pretty surprised. The brakes were just absolutely incredible. The car was bone stock but it could stop on a dime.







The fastest car at the event that I saw was the porsche it was running consistent 44's to low 43's with one very good run at 41.75. I believe that was the fastest run of the day. I started out a little rough. I missed a couple of turns and locked up the brakes and slid out of the course one time. After putting down a 49 or two I then dropped in the low 48's and then consistently was running 47.50's. I ended up getting down to the low 46's for 2 or 3 runs which I was pleased with. The mustang was running deadly consistent 45's and the M3 was doing 44's with a low of 43. I was pleased I wasn't to far behind them. The civics and crx's were going anywhere from 42's to 50's so I was in the middle of the pack somewhere.






























Then this happened lol. This was on my very last run. I was turning into the second corner and POOF! Yellow smoke everywhere. It was just instantaneous. I couldn't breathe and was just like "holy shit!" Slammed on the brakes shut it down and hopped out as fast as I could.



The fire extinguisher slid out from under the seat and the nozzle broke off. It dumped the entire load in a fraction of a second.




It was so instantaneous. It was just overwhelming. I was driving and then all of a sudden pop and I couldn't see anything other then yellow smoke and I was suffocating. Thank goodness it wasn't the foam type extinguisher. Cleaned up really easily.


Here are some vids,

3rd & 4th run of the event I believe,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYJonSfvx7g

I was running 49's or high 48's. Then slid off the course in the second run.

another slow run,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6bR1TVb7i4

I was starting to get the hang of it a bit here, getting into the lower 47's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDWrp1oppBE


I wish I had my camera running when the fire extinguisher popped. I got in a couple of 46 second runs after that. All in all a great day regardless.

bet that yellow stuff tasted good while driving. bleh. hate it

Looked like fun!  Cool camera angle at the back wheel too.  I bet with more auto-x practice you could woop the M3 

If a stripped down, lowered civic shows up to an event on slicks I don't even bother comparing myself to them.  You may beat a guy that has no idea how to drive but we'll probably never compete well with a car that weighs half as much as our trucks and is half the length.

x2 on the camera angle, i like it.

bet that yellow stuff tasted good while driving. bleh. hate it

Man no kidding! It was crazy when it happened. I took one deep breath of that stuff and was just like holy shit I need to get out of this or I'm going to suffocate lol.

Rentedmule, maybe with some bigger brakes and tires but as it stands I doubt I could. I was really blown away by how incredible the brakes were on the m3. Just big rotors and single piston fronts but wow. 

Here is one more quick vid. I wish I had the camera set up like this when the extinguisher blew. Now that would have been entertaining ahahah,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSyh415sXZA

Small update,

The guy I bought the wheels/tires from came back to me with a set of R6's and a price that was pretty hard to refuse. I was able to buy all 4, for$90 less then what one of the rears cost brand new. Heat cycled twice and tons of life left.



Going to start measuring up the frame and ordering some material for the rear.