1 Camaro, 75 Vipers
 

A few of you know that I own a Viper as well as my Camaro. Some friends and I rented Buttonwillow Raceway to hold the first-ever Viper Tracks 2015 event. We invited snakes from all over the Western US. We had Vipers coming in from NorCal, SoCal, Nevada and Arizona. This was supposed to be an all-Viper event, however there was a snag- my Viper happened to be in the shop, so what was I to do? I asked the other organizers if they thought it’d be ok for a lone bowtie to join in on the fun. I offered to be the rabbit for the snakes to hunt, they said they’ll make rabbit stew of me, LOL. Chrysler brought a new Viper TA and a Challenger Hellcat to track with us and give rides. No Miatas in this event, LOL. This was all about big-cube, man-style machines. Attendees included everything from first-timers in street cruisers to full-race ACR-Xs and Comp Coupes. Viper events are rare, so we were thrilled when Viper GTS-R racer Tommy Kendall and factory hot-shoe and top Viper engineer Erich Heuschele joined us. Tommy and Erich are legends to Viper Nation, and two of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet.

Orange Crush is Back on Track

The Camaro has had it’s share of woes lately. I had replaced the engine with a new forged 416 c.i. after the engine took a dump last year, and shortly after that the clutch slave cylinder let go. Once I got those sorted, the added HP was causing my oil to hit 290 F after only 3 or 4 laps causing me to back off. So I added dual oil coolers to suck in cool air to either side of the radiator, and this event was my maiden voyage. I’m happy to report that the oil reached no hotter than 220 F when pushed hard the entire weekend!

Dances with Snakes

Buttonwillow is my home track, where I feel most comfortable pushing the car hard. However the configuration that we ran was one that none of us had ever run before - configuration #25. You can see from the track map below that it’s basically a bunch of drag strips connected together with hairpins! I had some spirited sessions with Erich and others, really enjoying myself. My Camaro hits over 130 mph on the back straight just before entering Riverside, a fast sweeper. I found out just how hard this layout is on brakes when I pressed the stop pedal, and nothing! All the way to the floor. I frantically pumped the brakes but was reaching the corner just as I regained some brakes. I proceeded to get completely sideways, let off, then pumped it and got sideways again. Somehow I made it around the sweeper. If I had lost my brakes at any other corner, I would have gone off the track.

It's a Wrap

Despite pushing my brakes over the edge, it was an amazing weekend. The Camaro held it’s own against my friends’ snakes, including a few of the race cars. My guess is that it ran in the top 5, but hard to tell as we didn’t all have transponders. Here’s a Youtube vid of my fastest lap. Good times!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv2_cMTeuZ8

BBQed Brakes

When I pulled into the paddock, I was shocked to find that my new Cobalt Friction XR1 front pads were worn to nearly nothing! Once overheated, pads apparently wear away quickly. So in addition to boiling my fluid, I had completely fried my track pads. Take a look at the pictures of my brakes. The first picture is the way front brakes looked before the weekend- Brembos were nice and red. The next picture shows the calipers had nearly turned black due to the high temps. I then bled the brakes with fresh Motul 600 and put new pads in. It was no use as the next day, I boiled the fluid again and called it quits. What a learning experience. As soon as I got home, I ordered a big brake setup for the front - CTS-V 6-piston calipers, 2-piece rotors and all the goodies. Props to Matt “Dropspeed” for walking me through what to buy and why.

A few more shots of the beasts hitting the track, along with a shot of garage mates Halle Berry and Orange Crush...

I know people swear by Cobalt pads, but this is also exactly what I've experienced! I only have headers, no aero, etc., so I probably use brakes much less than you do, but I was still able to eat up 50% of XR1 pads in 1 single track day! On the top of it, in my last session, I also suffered brake fade. The pedal went all the way down, and I had to start pumping. When I had another track day with ST43s a few weeks prior, I did not have an issue at all.

Needless to say, I'm back to ST43s. One little advice: I love ST43s, but it turns out they do squeak obnoxiously when used at the rear. I kept the Cobalt XR2s at the rear, and installed a set of ST43 at the front (but this time on StopTech BBK), the brake noise back to the levels of a public transportation bus, which is fine :)

Excellent storytelling as always.

Camaro is looking great. Hopefully the new brakes will be a nice upgrade.

Vipers are looking pretty sweet, too! For some reason the "Greenberg Cheese Company" race car makes me smile.

-T

Some badass pictures!

Do you have brake ducts? I bought an extra set of Cobalt pads after 2 track days thinking there'd be nothing left but they looked almost brand new. Any pad past its temp window will suddenly consume itself. This is with 6-piston fronts and ducts though. But I'm incredibly hard on brakes.

Post pics of your oil cooler setup.

Yikes. Another strike against Cobalt Friction is that they eat rotors. Justice Pete said they eat two to three rotors for every set of pads! Time to try something else.

I know a guy that races Camaros and he uses ST43s too. I drive my car to and from the track, so the squeaking gets to me too. I am going to give Hawks one last try, as Hawk gives contingencies for winning NASA races and time trials. Free brake pads make it worth a second try. I'm going to run DTC-60s on my 6-piston fronts. I'll use up the Cobalt Friction XR3s in the rear, then will switch to Hawks there too.

Thanks man!

Thanks Scotty (I blew your cover, LOL).

Greenberg came out not only with that race car, but had a Porsche cup car that was hot lapping with us. Cheese is selling well, aparently!

It's interesting that I had never experienced fade or boiled the fluid, so I was taking my time in installing brake ducts. So no, I don't have them yet. A fly in the ointment is that the oil coolers occupy the same spot that the duct kits would, so I will have to do something custom. I'm likely going to remove the fog lights and put ducting there. Until then, hoping the 6-piston big brake kit will suffice. Do these mods and expenses ever end? I just want to drive, LOL

I'll do a write up with pics on the oil coolers shortly.

Todd, great thread...and great video of that track configuration....No bus stop seemed to sure make it faster!...Good luck with the brakes....I wish we could see a Z/28 out there and see how it's brake set-up holds up on that track...Gotta be an answer somewhere if we expect to drive our cars to and from the track...(without crashing while we're there)...lol....

Anyway, congrats again...hope your Viper gets well soon!...

P.S. I think it was that event that Justin Bell...a race-car driver and host at BJ auctions talked about a Viper event....Maybe you met him there...

This is awesome. Ill be keeping an eye on your dual oil cooler setup and taking this advice on the brakes to the bank. Are you still wet sump??

Thanks, I'll do a write up on the oil coolers soon. I tried to go dry sump but realized it would be an engineering and fab challenge, as very few have done a quality dry sump on a Camaro. And ridiculously expensive if you want to do it right.

Instead, I installed an Improved Racing oil pan baffle. I also monitor oil temp and pressure continuously on a data logger and am happy to report that I have no oil starvation at all in the big sustained sweeper corners, despite running Hoosiers and a big wing. So the oil pan baffles really do work, problem solved.

Yes, this config was extremely hard on brakes, kind of ridiculously so and I don't plan on running config 25 ever again.

Justin Bell may have gone to the big Viper event at COTA, but at this event we had Tommy Kendall and Erich Heuschele.

And thanks Tom, Viper is back home safe and sound!