Hey everyone,

Some of you may have seen the thread that I posted in the new members introduction section of the forums. For those who haven't I'm leaving in about 4 hours to start the 2011 One Lap of America in the KaleidoLINKS 2011 Camaro SS. KaleidoLINKS is a 501(c)(3) non-profit based in washington, DC that works with low-income, minority, youth. I run the KL Racing program for them which is an educational program in which the youth learn math and science skills all in the very fun and engaging laboratory of racing cars!

The youth actually come to the shop twice a week and build the cars with us, maintain them, and serve as the pit crew when we compete! In addition to running the program and teaching, I am a pro-driver with a lot of driving and racing experience so I serve as the principal driver for the team.

For those who are unfamiliar with the One Lap of America, it is basically an endurance Time Trial event. With the only rules being that the competing cars must be "street legal," use one set of tires for the entire event, must physically get themselves from one track to the next, and there are no support vehicles allowed. It is about 4,000 miles of interstate driving, and about 45 competition laps on race tracks across the country over a period of 8 days. I will be doing all of the competition driving, and my co-driver will be assisting with transit driving. Unfortunately none of the kids in the program could get out of exams, school, or home commitments for an entire week or they would be in the car, as well. Although pretty much the entire non-profit will be coming to Summit Point, WV to watch the car compete.

After a long negotiation, we've begun working with General Motors, who have recently provided us with a free 2011 Camaro SS and have begun to support or racing efforts and the non-profit itself. So, yes, this is actually, technically, a factory sponsored race car.


At least once a night during the event, I'll be posting updated to our official facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/kaleidolinks and here in this thread. Ill be uploading in-car video from each day's events, as well as pictures and status updates on how the event is going. While I'd like to be overly optimistic, realistically we only recieved the car 2 weeks ago and have had no time to test or modify it really, so it is essentially stock, on skinny Hankook tires, and still weighs damn near 4,000lbs, and I've driven it once. I'm not saying I don't have confidence in my abilities, but physics is physics, and there's a reason people test cars before racing them. Still, in the end, it'll be a success no matter how we finish as it's all about the kids, getting press for KaleidoLINKS and helping GM promote the Camaro. And it should be pretty fun for everyone, inculding those following our efforts.

The map of the event and the schedule are below, if anyone would like to come watch us compete and lives nearby they're more than welcome. I think only two of the tracks are actually charging for entry... I believe those are CMP and Summit Point, although I could be wrong. Please note that whoever made the map made a huge error, starting in SC when it says day 2 it should really be day 3, day 3 should really be day 4, and so on so that the last day is day 8, not 7.




1. Tire Rack Wet Skid Pad 04/30/2011 08:00-16:00
2. Grissom Air Force Base 04/30/2011 13:00-16:00
3. Summit Point Raceway Summit Point 05/01/2011 08:30-11:30
4. Summit Point Raceway Summit Point 05/01/2011 12:30-15:30
5. Carolina Motorsports Park National Standard Track 05/02/2011 08:30-11:30
6. Carolina Motorsports Park National Standard Track 05/02/2011 12:30-15:30
7. BMW Performance Center 05/02/2011 17:00-20:00
8. Daytona International Speedway Road Course 05/03/2011 08:30-11:30
9. Daytona International Speedway Road Course 05/03/2011 13:00-16:00
10. Gainesville Raceway 05/03/2011 17:30-20:30
11. Gainesville Raceway 05/03/2011 19:00-20:30
12. Circuit Grand Bayou Road Course 05/04/2011 08:30-11:30
13. Circuit Grand Bayou Road Course 05/04/2011 13:00-16:00
14. Barber Motorsports Park 05/05/2011 08:30-11:30
15. Barber Motorsports Park 05/05/2011 12:30-15:30
16. Autobahn Country Club North Track 05/06/2011 08:30-11:30
17. Autobahn Country Club South Track 05/06/2011 12:30-15:30
18. Tire Rack Dry Skid Pad 05/07/2011 09:00-11:30

 

VERY cool! I look forward to the updates.

 

That is a LOT of miles to cover! Good luck!

 

I should see the car this weekend. I live in South Bend,IN and plan on being out at Tire Rack tomorrow.

 

Great! Feel free to stop by and say hi when you're there.


By the way, I apologize there may be no multimedia update tonight, we're having technical difficulties with our laptops 3G card, and there's no wireless in the hotel. If I get it sorted out soon I'll post some pictures, if not tomorrow should be a good update with footage from the we skidpad... Unless I make a fool of myself on it.

Either way, we're registered and all of the decals are on the car... It looks and sounds mean! In fact I just stopped at Taco Bell and I swear to the guy behind me jumped out of his car and asked me to rev it so he could record it on his cell phone.

Feel free to check out the KaleidoLINKS FB page if you want to see some pictures of the car.

 

Hey everyone,
I'm, right around Columbus, Ohio headed to Summit Point West Virginia for tomorrow's events. Don't worry I'm not driving right now.
So, we finally have internet, but lost or forgot the cables to one of our video cameras so... I have a very short video of the Auto-x we did today and that's about it. Tomorrow we'll have the in car footage from Summit Point, however.

If anyone checked results... Today was... a disappointment to say the least. Lol, the wet skidpad just kinda happened, as I was going out the release guy warned me it was really slippery so start out slowly... well, I started out a little too slow and with only two "laps" you're kinda done. The clockwise portion was pretty decent, but the average was pretty terrible. *shrugs* so it goes.
I can't decide if the Auto-x portion was bad or not, well... I know we performed badly overall, but... I made a miscalculation with tire pressures that kind of ruined my first run. I was really hesitant to lower them too much and risk hurting the tires... The last run wasn't bad, we were on par with the Jaguar, and I think the two of us had the longest wheelbases there which really didn't help. My friend Leh Keen won overall in the TopSpeed GTR and 2nd place went to a Honda Civic, it was an incredibly technical course. I actually thought the Honda had it after she was up on him by like 2 seconds after the first runs, but he pulled it off.
Actually this was the first Auto-X run I've ever done in my life. Well, I did a parking lot one with the Porsche club once, but that was not even close to this. So, eh, coulda been worse. We didn't blow up like an STI, or DNF like a few vipers and z06s did, and I didn't hit any cones even sliding around.
I don't think the hankooks have the same overall grip as the OEM Pirellis which didn't help, but that's also why they're a third of the price, I'm sure.

At least tomorrow we're on to road courses. I wish it was some place like Sebring where the Camaro might really outpower a lot of cars, but of course we're off to Summit Point, WV which has three tracks, and we're running the only one I haven't driven. Fun times. No, I think I'm going to be shamed into going faster or breaking the car trying. We'll see.

Anyway, I've had 3 hours of sleep in the last 48, I'm gonna try to sleep before I have to drive the last leg to WV, but... here are some cool things to look at: BTW, sorry about the sound, I tried one that fit into the car better, but it clearly didn't like anything but human speech right next it as that's what it was designed for... we'll use the other mic tomorrow and hopefully it'll come out better.

Leh and Doug parked next to us at Grissom:


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

 

This is pretty neat. Wish I had the time and money to do something like this.

 

Ok, so I had thought this would be a neat thread, well it still is, but... We finally got the microphone problem sorted out and actually made a pretty great run/vid in the rain, but the micropone somehow pops the plug out or pulls the cord out at about 4:30 in the video, so the 2 truly impressive laps have no sound, really, and you never get to hear it barrel down the front straight at 150mph. Hopefully tomorrow will go better and I can figure out a better place to fix the controller and prevent the mic from pulling loose.

Anyway, Today we were competing at Summit Point's Main Track in Summit Point, WV. It started off a little rocky playing with tire pressures and learning the track, since I've unfortunately only previously driven the two other tracks at Summit.

It's actually kind of fun once you get the hang of it... which I had 6 laps to do it in.... *shrugs* there's about 3 seconds left on the table in that car, I'd bet. It didn't help that they didn't have the brake markers out, it started raining, etc... Plus the track has so many blind corners. All in all I don't think we did that badly, at least it wasn't embarrasing like the skidpad.

 

We're currently in... some place in SC that starts with an L, because there are two Elgin South Carolina's and I unfortunately got a hotel at the one that isn't near CMP, the track we're running at tomorrow (hopefully with a microphone that doesn't pull loose).

Here's the video from today, again, I apologize for the mic coming loose... that's actually really frustrating, but at least prior to that you get a sense of how the car sounds.

Basically the OLOA format, which even I'm new to, is that you pull out from the pits in your run group and get a "recon lap" which needs to be fairly hot to get the tires and brakes warm, but if you've never driven a track it's basically the first chance to really see it. You then come to a complete stop at the start finish and then at 15 second intervals the cars in the group are released. You then get 1 outlap and 2 hotlaps, well they're all hotlaps really, then you do a cool down lap and pit in. I actually wouldn't have included the cooldown lap in the video had a realized it had no sound, but... lol, didn't check that till after I made it. However, that basically means I was 5 seconds a lap faster than the BMW in front of me that I catch on the last lap, and I could see the 996 Turbo in front of me getting closer... all in all not a bad run for the first time on those tires and at that track. I'd have liked one more run to get the times even lower.

I was being a bit cautious and working up to how deep I could brake, considering how many unknowns were in the equation, lol, plus we can't afford to hurt the car.

Anyway, enjoy... at least the first 4 minutes sound great. Alright, time to pass out.

[autostream]http://autostream.com/camaroz28/?page_type=firebirdplayerthumbnail&framepage=898&t ransactionid=1304308087-7525211294&posted_by=wastintime_camaroz28.com[/autostream]

 

Oh, the other neat thing... about 5 or 6 of the kids in KaleidoLINKS came out today and got to watch the car on track... including one of the two that was supposed to be in the car suffering along with us.

A local SCCA guy with an older Z28 stopped by to say hi, as well.

Also, we were the loudest car on track... by a lot. And that's with the resonators... yikes.

 

Gotta run to sleep, don't really have time for a lengthy update, but we're at Daytona International Speedway! Here's a video from CMP yesterday/today:

[autostream]http://autostream.com/camaroz28/?page_type=firebirdplayerthumbnail&framepage=903&t ransactionid=1304415371-75202227194&posted_by=wastintime_camaroz28.com[/autostream]

 

Alright, I'm trying to get it finished and uploaded... should have a neat video from Daytona up shortly, it really doesn't do justice to how it feels on track, but you'll get the idea. The Camaro was the hit of Daytona, we've officially been the loudest car in the event since day 1, but apparently it was just unreal at daytona hearing it go around the banking.

If I'd thought about it, we'd have called in to the best exhaust contest when I took my co-driver for a ride around the track on the parade laps.

So, I don't know if anyone on this forum has an opinion or not, but I would like to state for the record that OnStar is EVIL, a violation of your civil rights, and if any of you care about the future of America you should demand that no future GM vehicles come equipped with it. For obvious reasons we never activated it in the Camaro, but that didn't stop them from calling me as I was passing through 165mph at Daytona! They then, apparently reset my speed limiter which Chuck had resest to 200+mph back to 155mph, so the next time I came aroud the banking I lost all throttle control at 155mph and the back end got nice and squirelly, not to mention getting sucked towards the wall... fun times! Yes, Big Brother is watching... and he's a jerk.

Anyway, I meant to post this video last night, but we had to work on the car after leaving NPR outside of New Orleans.

As for the event... lol, we're doing fairly badly in terms of placement, but I'm still figuring the car out, and we're not one of the like 15+ cars that have blown up, crashed, or whatever... We're getting some great press and we'll build the car for 2012, so all in all I'm pretty happy. Daytona was a blast, glad to be running Barber today, that should be fun!

 

[autostream]http://autostream.com/camaroz28/?page_type=firebirdplayerthumbnail&framepage=&tran sactionid=1304598000-752033847&posted_by=wastintime_www.camaroz28.com&y outube_video_id=3lfKLFp5k-A[/autostream]

 

Here we go, Daytona!: The video really doesn't do it justice... I apologize we didn't get a lot of good video because the Gs pulled the camera off my helmet.

[autostream]http://autostream.com/camaroz28/?page_type=firebirdplayerthumbnail&framepage=921&t ransactionid=1304606704-75202234227&posted_by=wastintime_www.camaroz28.com &youtube_video_id=qd4cBKq9_3A[/autostream]

 

[autostream]http://autostream.com/camaroz28/?page_type=firebirdplayerthumbnail&framepage=926&t ransactionid=1304761754-75205239228&posted_by=wastintime_www.camaroz28.com &youtube_video_id=yFpCmkecyiY[/autostream]

That's probably the last video... this morning we just have the dry skidpad challenge and we're done. It's been a rough week in terms of transit driving and figuring the car out, but we neither crashed nor blew up! A lot of other cars were not so lucky. All in all it's been a big success, from the publicity to figuring out the handling issues with the car. Thanks to everyone who followed along.