Quick Change Camaro at LS Fest West

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Ever wonder how long it takes to install Speedtech's Road Assault front and Torque Arm rear suspension? We say about half a day, and depending on how early we can get in a couple "before" autoX runs on the stock suspension, we're hoping to be ready to hit the track before the autocross shuts down for the day. Possible? Stop by the Speedtech Corral at LS Fest West and find out live! If you can't make it to the event, we will be posting live on our facebook page!



So here's what's going on. We've lined up this clean street cruiser 67 Camaro from Instagram's @Camaro.Family that's sorely needing a serious suspension upgrade. It currently has a mostly stock front suspension and leaf springs with Caltrac bars out back and they want to convert to a full Pro Touring set up. Nothing on the car is ideal for that type of handling so it all comes out!

Going in up front will be our Speedtech Road assault package, consisting of our geometry enhanced tubular control arms and front high rate tubular sway bar, Viking's bolt-in coilover conversion, and our billet tie rod sleeves. Out back we will be yanking the leaf spring suspension to install one of our track proven famous Torque Arm systems, including our exclusive bind eliminating Articulink rotating trailing arms, fully adjutsable panhard bar, a new Dutchman prepped 9" Ford rear axle, and Viking coilovers. Backing all this great suspension will be 14" Baer Brakes, Forgeline wheels and BFG tires.



This exact kit is in the '68 Nova we brought to the Super Chevy Suspension and Handling Challenge where Mary Pozzi said "Handling was absolutely spot-on as the car was so easy to compress into a corner. It was trustable and gave a confident “hero” feel, and I finally was able to realize just how developed this suspension is with that awesome torque arm handling the load. From corner-entry to track-out, the car went where it was pointed and enabled me to focus on the upcoming turns and proper driving lines to get there." She continued, " Of all the cars I’ve threaded through cones and apex-clipped as part of the Super Chevy Suspension & Handling Challenges held over the past eight years, this car is in my top three of all time." This simple, easy to install system is great for both the beginner just getting their feet wet in PT to those that want a genuine street car they can be confident with when hitting track days. It's also packaged price so that most anyone can afford it.



To keep up with the action, click HERE to like our FB page or we'll see you there!

[will69camaro]

Can't wait! Good luck!

[andrewb70]

Live streaming on YouTube would be awesome. Cool kids don't use Facebook...:-)

Andrew

[Ron Sutton]

I'll be nearby ... watching ... poking fun.

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Agreed, we're planning on live Youtube footage of the whole event too, here's a link to our new Youtube channel that we'll be using.

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Yes another feature is we'll be having Ron and his gear in our corral, so everybody stop by and see us!

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Updates-

We had a blast putting this car together at the booth like this, a challenge we'd never tackled before. We really wanted to show everyone just how easy it is to upgrade from a stock, clunky, poor handling and driving factory suspension to something that literally could be competitive and fun on a race course. As mentioned we teamed up with Scott Timmons from Instagram famous Camaro Family, Viking Shocks, Baer Brakes, Dutchman Axles and Forgeline Wheels, to see just how long it would take two guys working outside under a canopy, using only hand tools and a 110 volt home garage style welder, to install Speedtech's complete Road Assault front and Torque Arm rear suspension. The answer was right about 8 hours! How's that for a quick change?



Scott started out early in Cali and met us at the event Thursday evening. Never seeing the car in person before the event, Friday morning Speedtech's sales leader and track driver Jay started with a few good autocross "before" runs leaving the suspension just as the car came to us. An aggressive well seasoned race driver, Jay's best time was 39.5 seconds, and when compared to the other cars at the event was very respectable considering how the car was set up. Right after a quick cool down period Jeremy, Speedtech's Rod Shop lead tech and Ryan, Speedtech's lead welder started tearing out the old stock style suspension a little past 11 AM. Working with typical hand tools found in any home garage builder's tool chest the reassembly work continued throughout the day.

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Once the old was out, replacing the front suspension with Speedtech's tubular control arms and sway bar was fairly easy and straight forward. While in there we replaced all steering linkage and added a set of Baer 6 piston 14" brakes and BFG Rival S 245mm tires on Forgeline wheels. Out back the work was a little more involved, including about 30 minutes of fitting and welding in the rear crossmember that strengthens the rear frame rails and provides the Panhard Bar and Coilover Shock mounts. From there the Speedtech exclusive Articulink lower trailing arms were fitted into the leaf spring pockets. Next up was assembling the Torque Arm center link onto the Dutchman built 9" Ford axle and the complete assembly was bolted into the car. Finally the panhard bar and rear Viking Coilovers were bolted in and the outer ends finished off with matching Baer rear brakes. The car's existing dual exhaust required some slight modification to clear the center link and Ryan knocked that out with his 110 Volt Hobart welder plugged into the semi's generator. Just as the event was shutting down at 7:30 pm the rear 315mm BFG tires on Forgeline wheels were bolted on and everything was given a double visual check over. In just about 8 hours two guys with hand tools and a basic welder in a home garage type setting completely transformed the entire car.

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Saturday morning consisted of final setting of the ride height and cross weight on our race scales, a guess base setting on shock valving and then a wheel alignment with our trackside alignment kit.The car was ready to roll and was taken for a quick drive around the Las Vegas Motor Speedway grounds to bed in the new brake pads and then we went directly to the autocross grid to await our turn.



Right out of the box the car turned a mid 35 second time, and over a few runs and simple between run shock dial adjustments the car saw a best of 35.08, a near full 4.5 second reduction! We felt we could have easily continued runs and broken into the 34s, but at 35.08 we decided to stop there to try to win the event award for the lap time closest to 35.00 seconds. That drop in lap time was pretty significant on a half a minute course, and we ended up less than 3 seconds behind the event winning race prepped suspension 1100+ hp Camaro.



In the end we feel we've proven that even our entry level, essentially all bolt in suspension systems on a stock subframed Camaro or Nova with even a stock pull out used LS1 powering it can turn a classic car with poor old school handling into a very competitive street and track car, it can be installed at home in as little as 8 hours, and it can be done at a cost that fits most any working man's budget. Click here for a few more pics

[extralight]

Wow, that is incredibly impressive. What were the tire sizes, before and after on the rears?