How would I describe 2018? Frustrating. Aggravating. An entire year spent behind the 8-Ball. This season did not play out the way any of us hoped – we wanted to go for a second straight GTA Street FWD championship, and instead wound up turning 4 laps on track all season.
We just were behind from the get go. The team’s “home” moved from just outside Willow Springs Raceway in Rosamond, CA to Concord, CA in December of 2017, and the move meant that we never really touched the car til the end of January. It was a scramble to get the car stripped and gutted so it could head to IMS Fabrication in Foster City for the cage on the dates agreed to. IMS did a phenomenal job building a one of a kind custom 6 point roll cage for the car. No one has a real good cage kit for a Cobalt, so everything was hand done from scratch. It was definitely worth the wait as the IMS cage fits the car super tight and makes the chassis a lot more rigid. The car then came back to Concord for prep, paint, and dash reassembly. Because we are staying in GTA Street class, the factory dash and door cards had to go back in the car, and just be trimmed for cage access.
Once we got the interior back together, a freshened up engine and transmission went back into the car, and we worked to rewire. The factory GM harness was just gross from 12 years of electrical tape coming apart, as well as we have removed many features, so we produced our own wiring harness for the AEM infinity and our new CD-7 dash setup. The car now nearly completely runs off AEM stand alone electronics. This also was a challenge for us as it meant pouring thru the GM wiring manual for things like ABS, wheel speed, and other required inputs, but we got it figured out. TJP once again did some amazing work (as the car has spent nearly the whole year in Modesto in the shop). But it all came together in a nice, neat, tidy package. Everything is run off a fuse panel, with thoughts of going to a circuit breaker panel or a custom PCB in coming years.
Because of the “uniqueness” of the GM L61, we went with a cam shaft position system instead of a crank trigger, based on some of the headaches we faced in 2017. This lead to its own headaches as we fought oil injection into sensors before finally redesigning our own setup to make work. But this was a month of non stop troubleshooting and design.
We made it out in July to an AutoX at Sonoma raceway for shakedown, and felt pretty good with only some mild dial ins needed to the new setup with the TVS 1320 blower on, replacing the stock Eaton M62. A week later we tried going to Buttonwillow for a shakedown day, but fueling issues lead to us dropping a valve 4 laps in and towing home early. The stock head came off, replaced by another one in the TJP archives, and got new valves, and we thought we would still make the Sept GTA race, but when we hit the dyno in Mid-August, the oil pump, one of the only original engine parts left, came apart mid pull, sending debris thru the engine and taking out the bottom end. We made the hard call in early September to stop chasing schedule, and sit out the rest of the year to make sure we could be back “ahead” of it for 2019.
We are working on fixing the motor (crank, bearings, etc) and installing a new oiling system for 2019, and hope to be on track for shakedown laps before the season is out so we can begin evaluating shocks and aero as well as getting some more seat time.
We are working hard to lock down a plan for 2019 to see where we can run, hopefully with all the same faces and some new ones on the car, and we are still looking for more help in the Central Valley and Bay Area to work on the car, design aero, and help with fabrication both in the shop and at the track. Thank you to all of our sponsors and fans that have stuck with us as we look forward to a optimistic 2019.
-Chris
A1 Higher Graphics – AEM Performance Electronics – Clutchmasters – Crate Engine Depot – Design Engineering Inc – G-Loc Brakes – Paul L. Whitney & Assoc. – Pit Posse – R1 Concepts – TJPerformance – TrackSpec Motorsports – Wix Filters – ZZPerformance
