'67 Camaro AIX - Vintage road race retrospective

[Leroy Rochester]

I never did an sort of "public record" of the build on this car anywhere back in 2001-2004 when I had it built. I know there's people who remember the car and are familiar with it, and I still mention it with some frequency, so I thought I'd start a thread to give some of the history of the car, the build and "where is it now"...

I'll put this post in as a placeholder for now and jump into the whole story when I have more time later. There should be plenty of photos!

[Vince@Meanstreets]

Love that car.

Cant wait for the build pictures!

[Sieg]

Love that car.

Cant wait for the build pictures!

X's 2 :thumbsup:

[Ron in SoCal]

C'mon Sean. Details! Details! :D

:cheers:

[Leroy Rochester]

OK, guys... a little more, but only because I have about 10 hours of client work I have to get done today and I'm a slave to self-destructive procrastination!

I have some build pics, I have tons of detailed photos from when I sold the car. Here's the spec sheet from when I sold it (apologies for it being a bit "sales-y sounding, just cut and pasted). That's a good starting point right?! Ha ha. I'll update with a lot more detail and color around everything as I go.

1967 Chevrolet Camaro A Sedan Vintage Racing Car Specification Sheet


Chassis Specifications

Body Construction/Modifications: 1967 Chevrolet Camaro modified by Maeco Motorsports and Mobius Motorsports. Plasma cut weight reduction (weight 2740# with fluids less driver). Aluminum interior, trunk floor and door panels. Fiber glass hood and trunk lid. Lexan rear window. Door, quarter and vent windows and tracks removed. Steel fenders hand flared by Mobius Motorsports. Steel quarter panels hand flared by Mobius Motorsports. 1968 Camaro grill and side mirrors. 22 gallon Fuel Safe pro series fuel cell with aluminum container and surge box with trap doors and check valves.

Roll Cage: 1-5/8” x 0.095” 4130 Chrome-moly alloy steel, 8 point roll cage constructed by Maeco Motorsports.

Front Suspension: Modified stock subframe by Maeco Motorsports and Mobius Motorsports. Subframe is seam welded and integrated into the roll cage. Upper A-arms attachment points modified for improved geometry. Poleposition adjustable A-arms and modified stock A-arms. Threaded weight jackers integrated into the subframe. Penske 8900 series three way adjustable remote resivoir shocks with custom mounting points. Fabricated spindles with second generation Camaro outer bearing races. Tubular, adjustable anti-sway bar. Hypercoils springs. Aluminum bushings in all control arms. Crossmember modified for dry-sump clearance.

Rear Suspension: Landrum multi-leaf springs with spherical bearings in spring eyes and in rear chassis attachment point. Chassis mounted adjustable Watts link lateral axle locator by Maeco Motorsports. Penske 8900 series three way adjustable remote resivoir shocks with custom mounting points by Dean Westmoreland.

Brakes: Front CNC Six piston aluminum calipers rear Delco Moraine J-56 calipers with composite insulators on custom caliper brackets by Maeco Motorsports and Mobius Motorsports. AP Lockheed Racing dual master cylinders. Wilwood pedals with bias adjuster. Porterfield brake pads. Coleman 12” floating rotors on aluminum rotor hats by Maeco Motorsports.

Steering: Flaming River aluminum manual steering box, Sweet collapsible steering column, splined quick release hub and Schroder aluminum steering wheel. Aluminum steering links with rod end joints and geometry modified to reduce bump steer.

Seat: Ultra-Shield Custom aluminum seat

Gauges: Autometer Ultralite series

Wheels: Bart Super speedway wheels 15”X8”

Drive Train Specifications

Engine: Chevrolet 358 CID heavy duty “Bow-tie” block with splayed 4 bolt mains. Forged steel crank, lightened and knife-edged. Eagle H-beam rods. J&E flat top pistons. Comp Cams cam shaft driven by Jesel belt drive. TFS high port 18 degree heads. T&D shaft mounted roller rocker arms. Isky triple valve springs and stainless steel valves. Chevrolet performance parts “Bow-tie” 18 degree manifold. Holley 4150 HP series carburetor, 750 cfm. Moroso fabricated aluminum valve covers with valve spring oil spray nozzles. Gilmer cog belt accessory drives. Engine built by Dean Westmorland.

Ignition: MSD 6AL ignition box. MSD pro-billet distributor. MSD shock proof coil.

Oil System: Fabricated 3 port dry sump oil pan. Stockcar Products 4 stage dry sump pump. Coleman 3 gallon oil tank with Peterson breather. Canton Meca filter with Petersen scavenge screen filters. Stockcar Products aluminum oil cooler .

Exhaust: Fabricated Headman stepped headers into Dr. Gas X-pipe with straight pipes exiting to left and right of car under doors.

Clutch/Flywheel/Transmission: Tilton 7.25” triple disk clutch and Tilton ultralight flywheel. Quartermaster hydraulic throw out bearing and Quartermaster aluminum bell housing. AP Lockheed Racing clutch master cylender. Jerico WC-4 transmission with Tilton external pump and magnesium case and tail shaft.

Rearend: Maeco Motorsports fabricated NASCAR style 9” rear end with full floating, gun-drilled, crowned Stock Car Products axles. Coleman hubs and drive plates. Aluminum gear carrier with Daytona style pinion bearing carrier, Detroit Locker style differential and Stock Car Products gears.

[Leroy Rochester]

Real quick, a couple of fun pics...

Yes, I am wearing an EZ Wider shirt in that picture. Most appropriate for the amount of smoking that went on about 10 seconds later!

Bonus points if ayone can identify the red '69 in the background and the location of the photos.

[Vince@Meanstreets]

Wait a sec...this car looks familiar to me....did you live in San Francisco during the 90's-2000'sDid you ever have work done at G-F Automotive in SSF? Did you know Steve Pardini or Mike Marsh? I may have talked to you. It just looks familair but I have terrible memory.

[Sieg]

Front Suspension: Modified stock subframe by Maeco Motorsports and Mobius Motorsports. Subframe is seam welded and integrated into the roll cage. Upper A-arms attachment points modified for improved geometry. Poleposition adjustable A-arms and modified stock A-arms. Threaded weight jackers integrated into the subframe. Penske 8900 series three way adjustable remote resivoir shocks with custom mounting points. Fabricated spindles with second generation Camaro outer bearing races. Tubular, adjustable anti-sway bar. Hypercoils springs. Aluminum bushings in all control arms. Crossmember modified for dry-sump clearance.

Rear Suspension: Landrum multi-leaf springs with spherical bearings in spring eyes and in rear chassis attachment point. Chassis mounted adjustable Watts link lateral axle locator by Maeco Motorsports. Penske 8900 series three way adjustable remote resivoir shocks with custom mounting points by Dean Westmoreland.

Very interested in A-arm mounting alterations and Watts details. Poleposition morphed into the SPC adjustable arm?

Oh and...............

:ttiwop:

:D

[Track Junky]

Love this car :thumbsup:

[Flash68]

This is what I'm talkin about. Great thread!

[Leroy Rochester]

Wait a sec...this car looks familiar to me....did you live in San Francisco during the 90's-2000'sDid you ever have work done at G-F Automotive in SSF? Did you know Steve Pardini or Mike Marsh? I may have talked to you. It just looks familair but I have terrible memory.

I lived in the Sunset for the first 6 months of 2001 and then lived in Mill Valley from July 2001 through April 2003. Then moved down to HB and have been here for the last 11 years. Steve Pardini's name sounds vaugely familiar to me, but I didn't have the car up north other than to strip it so I could drop it off at Maeco. I did have a guy named Vash, who claimed to be a race mechanic from Romania and who lived in a van, help me a little bit up there. Guy was as crazy as they came and was always hanging around at Sears and Laguna.

I've found a ton of pictures for this thread. Resizing them all is sort of time consuming, but I'm working on it.

Man... I miss this car. And let me just say it now, since it will become something of a catch phrase in this thread... "F*ck boats!"

[Flash68]

I lived in the Sunset for the first 6 months of 2001

Cool. I was at 17th & Lawton in 2001-2002.

lived in Mill Valley from July 2001 through April 2003.

Sorry to hear that. :D

[Leroy Rochester]

Cool. I was at 17th & Lawton in 2001-2002.



Sorry to hear that. :D

That's funny. Other side of the park right? I was on 17th between California and Lake for 6 months.

[Flash68]

That's funny. Other side of the park right? I was on 17th between California and Lake for 6 months.

Yep. I was in the Sunset. You, however, were in the Richmond.

Been awhile I guess. :lol:

[Leroy Rochester]

Yep. I was in the Sunset. You, however, were in the Richmond.

Been awhile I guess. :lol:

My memory is awful! And as you know you're absutely correct! Haha. I'll chalk it up to getting a 2.5 year contact high from living in Marin.

Friday nights up at the Petaluma dirt oval were always a great time. All my redneck buddies from back home would trip out that I was "in San Francisco" and still found a way to catch a dirt modified race every week!

[intocarss]

Keep it coming! It's been a long time, but I know Mike at Maeco Motorsports.You look familair too Sean..You ever get out to the dirt track races anymore??

[Leroy Rochester]

Keep it coming! It's been a long time, but I know Mike at Maeco Motorsports.You look familair too Sean..You ever get out to the dirt track races anymore??

I'd imagine we must have met at some point. Seems like we've spent a lot of time in the same circles. I raced SCCA/NASA Pro7 in 2000 and 2001. I was around a lot through 2004 doing rent-a-rides and karting even though my Camaro wasn't done. I ran my Camaro for a couple of years, somewhat infrequently (daughter born in 2004 and son born in 2005) and did a lot of karting throgh 2009. Boats and kids' sports kind of took over.

My buddies who had the VFX shop on Haskell drag raced for a while (nostalgia blown alky FED) and then ran a bit of AIX in a blue second gen Camaro and then ran the FFR series for a bit (one in an orange FFR Cobra and the other in a blue FFR Cobra). I was around with them quite a bit as well.

[Leroy Rochester]

OK, I'm going to work backwards a bit and give you guys the pay-off right away on this. Here's the photo set that went to ultimate buyer in Australia.

It shows where we ultimately got to with the car's development (although there were more steps in the works if we'd kept with it). So, there's some weird looking stuff that were really band-aids for stuff that didn't work on the car initially. I'll throw the pictures up and then I can explain stuff as a follow up.

My recollection is we ultimately got the car down to a 1:32 at big willow (I remember a '31, but I'm trying to factor in the optimism of time). I know that Ryan Flaherty and I both ran nearly the same lap time in the car that day. I did it in a fire suit shifting at 8,200 and he did it in jeans and a t-shirt shifting at 6,000...

[Leroy Rochester]

And now the dress comes off...

[Leroy Rochester]

A bit more "adult content".

[Leroy Rochester]

And finally, some junk in the trunk...

[Leroy Rochester]

OK, a couple more real quick...

First day with the car. Loading it onto that trailer without a which or brakes was an impressive performance. We had it on there twice. The first time, we rolled it down the hill, it jumped up on the trailer but hit the trailer so hard it bouched up, back and off the trailer again... Hold my beer and watch this! On and off in about 2 minutes... Took us another hour to push the thing up by hand using 2x4 wheel chocks and grunt.

(shoot, says "invalid file type" for the attachment, which I can see on my computer... Anyhow, I'll have to work on that and will edit this one when I get it to work).

[Leroy Rochester]

This was it's first day of the rest of it's life as a race car. On the trailer and off to Willow for it's first test. Which ended prematurely with a fuel pump failure about 15 minutes in.

As lame or sentimental as it sounds. When I found this picture the other day (mixed in with a bunch of picture of my daughter's baby pictures) it made my eyes water...

[Vince@Meanstreets]

This was it's first day of the rest of it's life as a race car. On the trailer and off to Willow for it's first test. Which ended prematurely with a fuel pump failure about 15 minutes in.

As lame or sentimental as it sounds. When I found this picture the other day (mixed in with a bunch of picture of my daughter's baby pictures) it made my eyes water...

its always the little things isnt it.

[bergers59]

are the fenders fiberglass or steel? how did you flare the fenders? They look really nice and subtle

[Leroy Rochester]

are the fenders fiberglass or steel? how did you flare the fenders? They look really nice and subtle

Original '67 steel fenders. Pablo Mobius put in lots of time with a hammer, torch and Natty Light up in the wilds of Palmdale California... It would probably shock a lot of people to find out how much of that car was built by a sauced up, retired, aerospace machinist from Uruguay in the driveway of his house in Palmdale.

I was very pleased with how the car turned out. Kidding aside, Pablo did a great job with the car, he really showed an incredible sense of dedication and craftsmanship.

Thank you for the compliments on the car!

[Justin@EntropyRad]

Do you remember where in OZ it went? Might know someone who worked on it over there

[Leroy Rochester]

Do you remember where in OZ it went? Might know someone who worked on it over there


Alex Schutelofel / KB Racing in Brisbane (as I recall). Man I miss that car!

[garret805]

Cool build, dig the hoosiers.