carbster09

Hello,

Has anyone ever done any long distance road racing or any long distance rallys?

I am KEENLY interested in doing a Pan Carrera, Big Bend Open Road race, The TransAmerica in 2014 or something like the Targa Newfoundland.

Has anyone here run a vette or anything? Being a 71 my corvette can't do some. So Iwas thinking what to buy build etc? What about set up?

Any advice would be great.

C

Mick71

I thought about it, too. There are quite a few in the States, but were all out of my price range. After the sticker shock, I didn't research much further. Get ready to write some pretty big checks.

Hadez

Yeah right...good luck taking your ride through central Mexico and surviving. I visit the wonderfully safe Mexico City once a month and travel around surrounding areas. Also have a co-worker there heavily into auto rally's with vintage classics, etc. They travel in a convoy with hired private security on their rallys to avoid problems with both the police and locals. When ya go let me know so I can take a life or ransom or kidnap insurance policy on both you and your ride for me to cash in.

Check out some of these rally's/cruise events below that are not south of the border


http://www.corvettecaravan.com/fl/

http://www.drivinithome.com/

http://www.spectre341challenge.com/

http://www.sorcrace.com/

http://www.sscc.us/

http://www.rallynorthamerica.com/

http://www.bborr.com/

http://www.hotrod.com/eventcoverage/..._dates_cities/

http://modball.com/usa/

http://www.greatrace.com/

http://www.cruisinthecoast.com/

http://www.cokertirechallenge.com/

http://exoticsrally.com/

http://www.floridagumballrally.com/

http://www.thegreatamericanrun.com/

http://www.michigangumball.com/#!Rally Info/c1jik

http://www.gumball-3000.com/

http://www.bullrun.com/

https://roadtrippers.com/welcome?mode=explore

U17

Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour... Never even opened the hood... Three days in driving rain... 5500+ cars...

Jason Staley

carbster09,

Have you been to any track days yet? Might be good to run a few open track days first to sort out your car. They usually consist of several 20-30 minute sessions for ~$250/day. Not sure how much they run in the UK.

There are numerous things you can do to improve the handling performance, but two things that you should worry about from a safety/durability standpoint are:

1. Oil starvation. You will want to get at least a road racing oil pan (7+ quarts, trap doors, windage tray, etc.) to keep the oil covering the pump pickup, and maybe even an oil accumulator if your oil pressure drops too much in corners. I would hate to damage that engine of yours.



2. Loosing your brakes. Since you are on 16" rims, you probably don't have huge brake rotors. I've warped my 11.75" factory sized rotors in just a 20 minute track session before. I would install brake cooling ducts, fresh high temp brake fluid, and some street/track compound pads (i.e. Hawk HP Plus or better). You don't want to loose your brakes and destroy your pride & joy as well as getting hurt .

I put my brake ducts behind the grills. Fabricated some brackets to attached the ducts to some convenient mounting locations. It took minimal cutting on the plastic air deflector and brake dust covers to install them. No one even realizes they are there unless they look really hard . Plus they can always be removed later with a little work and replacing a few minor parts.

redvetracr

I know guys who have done the La Carrera Panamerica they rented a ride first, one guy then built the VonEsser replica took it down there and crashed it.

carbster09

Thanks guys. If I do the Pan C I will no doubt rent a ride first. Been looking at the Targa California or the NW rally as a first go. Also as 16" rubber does not seem to exist anymore I am looking at moving up to 17"s with bigger rotors.

BOSTONCAMARO

I agree....I have traveled heavily, I have been to some scary places. Mexico, it s a sketchy place, cars on fire randomly on city streets, a wall full of missing Americans posted at the border crossing — one of the last places I would ever go again. If I did it would need to be in a large group that was armed and experienced with said arms.