SCCA Camaro

As I mentioned before, the rule book for SCCA is thick and, for a beginner, daunting. For my first race, after spending some time trying to decipher from the PDF rulebook what class the 1968 Camaro should be in, I decided to just show up and let the friendly people at the SCCA tent tell me what class I would be in. It turns out they don’t see too many early domestic cars at our particular club (only about 10 percent of the cars on any given race day are domestic; of these, most were born in the last 10 years) and they weren’t sure what to do with me and my Camaro. After they spent some time pouring over the same rulebook I had struggled with, they decided to put me in the generic class for altered domestic cars that are still generally street-driven: E Street Prepared, or ESP. This was fine by me, and I appreciated their putting me in a class as it was farther than I got in the task. I competed mostly against other domestics in ESP for my first three races, which I liked; there were opportunities to face other f-bodies as well as mustangs.
However, upon some time familiarizing myself with the cars I saw in my first three races, talking to some of my fellow competitors, and some further research on the internet, I determined my car was no longer legal in ESP due to the extensive modifications I had made to the Camaro. Basically, these are the classes for a Camaro autocrossing in SCCA Solo II:

FS (F Stock) if bone stock (yeah right).

ESP (E Street Prepared) allows lots of modifications, but must run original motor and no subframe connectors. Extensive suspension changes are not allowed.

SM (Street Modified) most anything goes as long as the engine manufacturer matches the body manufacturer.

STU (Street Touring Ultra) allows pretty much anything but you must run street tires and widest tire is a 275.

CP (C Prepared) anything goes as long as it’s still recognizable as a Camaro.

Of these, I had modified the suspension heavily, and was running a larger-than-stock camshaft; I was no longer legal in FS or ESP. As I understood the rules, I still could have raced in SM, STU (because I was running street tires 275 or less), or CP. STU is least competitive if you qualify, SM and CP are pretty much a wash in terms of PAX. However, SM and STU were replete with imports and CP was where most of the domestic cars resided. So to be most competitive I could race in STU, but to race heads up with the other guys running domestics I needed to run in CP. I figured I was not likely to ever be nationally competitive in CP with a pro touring car with full interior and all of the other comforts but also figured I was a long way away from that anyway and it would be a nice class to enjoy the company and competitiveness with my fellow domestic guys and perhaps enjoy some level of autocrossing success locally.

Because there is a season-long points race I wanted to settle into a class and stay there; I decided the rest of my autocross racing in the 2008 season would be in the CP class.

The first part of the plan was focused on safety.  Better handling, better braking, and three-point seat belts.  Detroit Speed and Engineering sold most of what I needed.  In November of 2004, Cris, Cori and I were in Michigan for Thanksgiving and I talked Frankie into going over to DSE with me to place my order.  Baer Brakes to replace the mismatched old drum brakes—Baer Track two piston aluminum calipers on 13 inch drilled and slotted disks in the front and Baer Sport two piston aluminum calipers with integrated parking brake mechanism on 12 inch cross-drilled and slotted disks in the rear.  A new master cylinder and proportioning valve rounded out my manual braking system.  Stainless steel brake lines were ordered from Classic Industries. 

My entire suspension set-up was sourced through DSE.  I opted for the relocation of the upper A-arms via the DSE kit, with their upper and lower tubular control arms and Koni coilovers in the front.  A complete power steering set-up from DSE including their quick-ratio (12.7:1) Saginaw 600 steering gear and integrated power steering pump and reservoir was sourced as well as their hollow 1 1/8^th inch front sway bar and urethane bushings everywhere.  It’s all included in their Speed Kit 3.  In the rear I went with the three inch drop leafsprings from DSE but not their shocks at this point.  The idea was to lower the car 3 inches all the way around, and dramatically improve handling and stopping characteristics.  The total bill with DSE was $6k, and I was just getting started!

Pro-Touring was just getting started and Stacy and Kyle Tucker’s Twister 1969 Camaro was only a few years old.  It debuted at the Detroit Autorama in 2000, and won the Goodguys Street Machine of the Year in 2000.  Kevin and Stacy founded Detroit Speed and Engineering and were at ground zero of the new G Machine or Pro Touring movement when I started putting a plan for the Camaro together in 2004.  They were located in Brighton, Michigan, and since Dad lived back in Bay City, I asked him if he’d go down to DSE and check the place out before I placed an order for some Pro-Touring goodies for the ’68.  Dad was impressed and the plan started forming—a road race capable Camaro, but with touring capabilities.  I started putting together a budget and plan, which took me several months.   

During this time I acquired a bunch of books that helped me make most of my decisions regarding putting the car together for SCCA autocrossing.  Among the most useful were the 1968 Camaro Factory Assembly Instruction Manual and the 1968 Chassis Service Manual.  “Original Camaro 1967-1969” (ISBN 0-7603-0925-6) and especially “Camaro Restoration Guide 1967-1969” (ISBN 0-7603-0160-3), both Jason Scott, were in my opinion the best restoration guides, but I also had “The Conclusive Camaro Recognition Guide” (ISBN 0-9633802-3-0) by John R. Hooper, and “Camaro Restoration Handbook” (ISBN 0-89586-375-8) by Tom Currao and Ron Sessions.  I poured over a couple of books about small block Chevys, “How to Rebuild Your Small-Block Chevy” (ISBN 1-55788-029-8) and “Budget Builiding Max Performance Chevy Small Blocks” (ISBN 1-884089-34-8), both my David Vizard, as well as “John Lingenfelter on Modifying Small-Block Chevy Engines” (ISBN 1-55788-238-X) by—well, the late John Lingenfelter.  All of these were great books, and each had something very useful in my information gathering stage, but the one that was most inspirational was Tony Huntimer’s book “How to Build and Modify GM Pro Touring Street Machines” (ISBN 1-884089-76-3), which was hot off the presses.  It had a lot of great information and quite a bit on Detroit Speed and Engineering, which was another indication that they were at the ground floor of the movement, and probably someplace I needed to visit.