The Super Chevy Muscle Car Challenge has fallen on the same Monday & Tuesday after the Pleasanton Goodguys since its inception in 2008. Yet, every year we seem to be thrashing at the last minute trying to get a car ready for the event. This year would be no different. Literally a week before the event while many of us were attending the Pleasanton show the guys at Danny’s Paint Shop were thrashing on the car. The week prior to that we had driven the car for the first time, which just happened to be 150+ mph jaunts at the Auto Club Speedway. The car had less than 50 miles on it when we showed up at the Super Chevy event. We knew the car had too much spring in the back so we made a last minute change just hours before. Turns out it wasn’t enough of a change as the car was still wanting to oversteer. We dropped the spring in the back again since this event and also swapped to a stiffer front anti-sway bar. We will be doing more testing at the NMCA Autocross September 17th & 18th.
So this is what #projectRedDawn looked like the Wednesday before the Muscle Car Challenge. Danny’s Paint shop knocked it out quickly and TCI Engineering’s owner Ed Moss did all of the reassembly while the rest of us were in Pleasanton for the Goodguys event.
So first things first. We took the car down to T.E.N. The Enthusiast Network headquarters in Santa Ana, CA. for our time in the spotlight. Falken Tire, which is the title sponsor was on hand doing live feeds & interviews.
Sal Solorzano(VP of TCI) being interviewed by Jason Scudelleri of Super Chevy Magazine.
There were 24 vehicles in attendance(not all pictured here). All shapes and sizes were well represented but the 2nd Gen Camaro seemed to the most popular.
We were in Group 1 which meant we would tackle the Slalom and 100 Yard Dash in the morning session. The course, which is held in a parking lot on the infield of the Auto Club Speedway is significantly lacking in the traction department. No worries though, we all had to run the same course but we certainly didn’t want to compare any previous year slalom numbers to this year’s.
To show that our car can compete without a Pro driver we had Sal our VP of Operations behind the wheel for all events.
Only one car was allowed on the road course at a time for the timed portion of the event. That didn’t stop me from hopping in Steve Rupp’s Malibu wagon to get some shots of the parade laps.
An unexpected entry from our friends at Don Lee Auto service in their ’67 Camaro. This car was built a few years ago using our Custom IFS and 4-Link rear. This car would go on to win the 100 Yard Dash. Pretty tough feat considering the competition and HP level of some of the other cars.
All the cars in Group 1 lined up and ready to run the 100 Yard Dash.
Video of all 3 performance events.
Final Results Score Board.
