pic of autocrossing GN?

[SITHV6]

Some time ago there was a pic of a GN at an SCCA style race track chasing down a BMW what ever happened to this pic and where did it go?

 

[Turbo6inKY]

Dunno, but here are a couple of mine:

 

[turbofish38]

Andrew, I see you are into self inflicted punishment running a G-body in E-MOD. Have you had any success? I would think even with a heavily modified GN you could run C-Prepared with better results.

 

[Turbo6inKY]

Originally posted by turbofish38
Andrew, I see you are into self inflicted punishment running a G-body in E-MOD. Have you had any success? I would think even with a heavily modified GN you could run C-Prepared with better results.

The local EM class is pretty much the island of misfit cars. This past year, I ran my old WRX, my 240Z, and the GN in EM because that's the only class where all three meet. The strategy paid off, I get a year end tropy, but only because I won two events outright in the Subaru and managed to do well enough with the GN to keep everybody else from passing me up in the points, even though they were kicking my butt on the course.

Other cars in the class here this past year:
'71 240Z with an 83 ZX Turbo motor (class winner over me by less than 50 points)
Supercharged Civic
Regular Civic
Supercharged '93 Cobra
a few other oddballs. All of those guys were on Hoosiers or Kumhos. I was running Potenza RE950 street tires on the Buick.

The GN isn't competative. It is severely traction limited. I think with a good set of race tires, it could be locally competative... against the hodgepodge I just listed. A true EM car would destroy me.

The big problem with prepared classes is they hate turbochargers. You have to run through a 52mm restrictor plate if you're force inducted, and you incur a weight penalty. Not a big deal for my still-street-legal car as it is still way over minimum weight, but if somebody were to fully prep one for CP, they'd be at a serious disadvantage over a similarly prepped 305 powered Monte Carlo. In fact, a 305 powered Monte would get to take an additional 300lbs off for being under 5 liters. Since the SCCA multiplies force inducted engine displacement by 1.4 to compensate for the turbo, the Buick has a displacement of 5.3 liters for classing and weight limit purposes. That much weight is a HUGE deal.

Sure, you can turn the boost up to compensate for the extra heft, but that only helps when accelerating. That extra weight kills you when you need to stop and turn. People make fun of my car because entering a turn the front tires are pouring off smoke, and then the smoke switches to the rears as soon as I get on the gas.

There really isn't a good place for a GN in Solo2. They're too heavy, and fixing the stock suspension's shortcomings bumps you all the way to CP right away. I just ran mine because it was fun.

I'm retiring the car from AutoX use for now. The body twist has caused small cracks in the paint on the nosepiece, and that's with all the front end frame braces installed.

 

[turbofish38]

Boy things have changed since the last time I was out which was 2000-2001. Maybe I should pick up a rule book and read it. Back in the 90's a GN or TR could run CP with no restrictor plate and weigh a minimum of 2550# with 10" wide tires. I thought of building one many of times. Yeah, I've retired my GN for the same reasons. I have a massive B-pillar crack on the left side and my rear seat braces are almost ripped in half from the body flex. It would be great to find a TTA to do this with. I cant think of any names off the top of my head but there was a guy named Todd out of the Texas region running CP with a home made TTA and there was someone else who placed in the top 5 in the Solo 2 nationals I think in 01 or 02 with a TTA in ESP. My last brilliant idea was to run a stripped down, no option 4.1NA Regal in HS. That car used to be in FS but they rewrote the rules and put the V-6 G-body in HS with all the 4 cylinder wimpy cars. I picked the 4.1 because of the HP advantage. I figured the worst handling Regal had to be better than a good handling economy car anyday. WTF was I thinking?

 

[turbofish38]

Check with Bob BM Computer Src
He used to have some video of his GN chasing down Vipers and other fast cars at an open track event at Sebring FLA. He posts over here and on the other boards under this name. BM Computer Src

 

[Turbo6inKY]

Originally posted by turbofish38
Check with Bob BM Computer Src
He used to have some video of his GN chasing down Vipers and other fast cars at an open track event at Sebring FLA. He posts over here and on the other boards under this name. BM Computer Src

Open tracking is a whole different animal. There's enough space there for horsepower to help you. I'd love to do it with the GN, but even with the Wilwoods, I just can't trust the brakes to reliably stop the car from over 100mph repeatedly. I've boiled them on large Solo2 courses.

There's just too much mass in the car to switch directions as quickly as you have to do in Solo2.

If I can find a solid roof 83-87 Grand Prix, I'm going to strip it and build a CP car. Problem has been finding one.