Time to see if I can load the Z06 onto my tilt trailer

So I went to compete in an autocross in Fort St John yesterday. I had heard that the track, at the airport, was a longer, faster one that at the Encana Center parking lot in Dawson Creek. So after I loaded the rest of the bag of wheat, unloaded it, cleaning out the truck box I came home, loaded up the Z06 on the trailer and began my trip. I left a bit early and drove a bit slower to see how the trailer, car and truck would work together and everything went well. It was actually a nice drive especially going through two valleys, the Clear river and the one near Fort St John itself. They were steep and I was going pretty slow climbing out of some of them but it was OK. The only previous time I took this road was when I went to get the long arm quilting machine in FSJ so it was nice to see it in the daytime and when there was no snow. I travelled through the Eureka River/Worsley area and I worked here in the mid to late 1980
 
VelocityYellowRules! said:
The first video is uploaded:

Rear camera view 1st pass C6 Z06 autocross run - YouTube

I learned a lot about camera placement with this event............

Cheers,

Garry
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Let the group know they need to spread the pylons out more. A Miata would have a hard time getting through those gates.

A course should have cars flowing smoothly, not pushing a clutch in to try get/crawl through a gate.


And open doesn't mean a horsepower course... just a course that flows well.

The Americans know how to make courses... only a few do know how in Canada. Even some people that have autocrossed here for 5-10 years admit when they make a course they could have done better.



Brian
 
I'll be honest Brian to admit I was annoyed with how the course seemed to be set up for small imports like Civics last year that I even did do a Google search to see if there were "standard" widths and spaces for pylons, gates and boxes but I was never able to find any as I recall. If I could find that information I'd be packing my measuring tape!!

No doubt I do feel disadvantaged by having such a large car and having so much less clearance..............it sucks when you car is as wide as theirs is long!

Oddly the Miata I competed against last year won too.

Video #2:

Left roof camera view 1st pass C6 Z06 autocross pass - YouTube

Cheers,

Garry
 
Cool! .....ya the GoPro's are defiantly a learning curve to get them placed perfect.....I have countless sledding videos that are garbage due to lack of time/patience making sure they where pointed right! Lol
Thanks 4 for the videos
 
wow - a nice runway like that i'd be inclined to forget about the traffic cones and get into a little arm drop action. see how those imports do then. :D your car sounds great.......probably scared the bejeezus outta them. :rofl:
 
Thanks! I did get into 3rd gear on my way back once. One of the jobs we have is to go back and to place up the cones we knocked down - other times we've had enough spectators to do that. I had considered it would be fun to do some side-by-side 1/8 mile passes but never brought it up as an opportunity.

The 4th video is up, I sort of like this one as it allows me to see what I am doing during the run, if I'm sawing madly at the steering wheel or if it is flowing smoothly instead.

Passenger window camera during autocross with C6 Z06 - YouTube

It is very true that nothing sounds better than a nice rumbling V8, not a whiny I4 for sure. Just something that when you hear it pull up beside you at a stop light gets your respect!

Cheers,

Garry
 
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I was just able to find a 5th video that Chase took for me ending my speculation if I had ever spun the tires enough to leave rubber on the road!

It is from my JVC camera and if you can believe it I've had problems with using the viewing software including the very simple question of where the heck was this stored on my hard drive! My Panasonics and GoPro are in the same hard drive location so are easier for me to manipulate. But I do like the quality of the JVC so now that I have finally figured this out I may be using it more...............
 
Further observations:

I finally topped up the methanol tank, maybe1/2 liter used under 8 hard runs and the course may have been about 1.5 km return. It was hard enough driving that over 22 km that included a 10 trip to town, I used 1/4 of a tank of gasoline!!!!!

Cheers,

Garry
 
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Trailer discussion

I recently purchased a trailer, I want to take my Corvette to Florida next winter. I had all the same obstacles you had, had to build a 4ft extension to the ramp, put 2 x 10's under the wheels so I could open the doors. I am looking for suggestions on how to best tie the car down. I have 10k lb. ratchet straps. My Vette has 5 spoke chrome wheels with lots of room to pass the straps through the wheels. My thought is to pass the straps from one side to the other side through the spokes and attach the hooks to the trailer, front straps pulling forward and rear straps pulling backward. Any recommendations?
 
Good afternoon Pappy,

Welcome to the wonderful world of my fantastic car is way too low to the ground for trailer manufactures to ever imagine!

I should have taken a picture of it but then I'd have to figure out how to shrink the file size down to be able to post it and CCO (Colin) hasn't been successful in explaining that to me!

I have 4 3,500 lb ratching cargo straps that I use, one on each tire. One end of the strap goes to the same side as the tire, then I loop the strap twice through the spokes on the rim and around the tire and then onward to the opposite side of the trailer - so right wheel gets strapped to the left side of the trailer. I have done that twice now and it seems to work pretty good. I've been concerned about the front tires and pulling them out of alignment but I've been told there is no way I could ever do that.

I've done the same thing, front straps pulling slightly forward and back straps slightly backward. Even at a shallow angle the front straps pull upward against the chin valence (plastic spoiler thingie) but not too much that it is in danger of damaging it.

Good luck!

Cheers,

Garry
 
Garry, you have posted some great entertainment. The videos turned out pretty good. I think the cones are too close together for a car of your size as well. Still you did performed well.

A couple of questions on loading the car onto the trailer. Once the car was strapped down did you leave it in gear? Did you use the e brake as well? Did you provided any wheel protection from the straps rubbing the finish?

Thanks in advance Garry.
 
Good afternoon B03Z06,

Thanks so much for the comments! It is fun to do and even more fun to share and to let people see what the experience was like for me. I hope that I'll get better at taking videos in terms of placement and with any luck learn how to edit them so I can cut out the beginning and end and just post the good stuff!

I do agree with your comments on the spacing of the cones and the width of the gates/boxes. But as I am dealing with a mainly import/compact car group they don't quite see it that way as it being a problem. I should really swap cars with them on a run and see how much of a difference it makes, it might be educational for us all.

What I really need is to find out if there are some standards for cone spacing that I can go to them with otherwise they'll probably just think that I'm whining. They don't realize how much of a difference it makes if you have 12" of clearance on each side of your car compared to 18". While I probably have a power advantage autocrossing is not about power but about size, weight and car control. Their cars are much smaller, lighter and given how small the track surface area is power is not that important. It makes you wonder why it is they never see any domestics like Mustangs and Challengers etc. compared to Subaru's, Civic's, RX7's and Miata's. I don't mind a challenge but a level playing field is good to encourage others to participate.

As for the car on the trailer, I both left it in gear AND put the e-brake on - come things you can't be too careful about. I probably spent more time looking in the rear view mirror than looking ahead and was at times expecting to see the back end of the car off the ramp of the trailer!

I never used anything to protect the rims from the straps - I actually never even gave it any thought until you mentioned it! I suppose it would not be hard to use a small towel or old facecloth for this purpose.

Has anyone ever had any problems with the rims being damaged from cargo straps that they can share?????

Cheers,

Garry
 
Just a thought, as I read your entertaining thread and videos.

To protect the rims, you could take an old pair of heavy tube socks, cut the toe off then pass the strap through. Sort of work like a seat belt guard. I never through worn out socks away, I use them as disposable wash mitts for washing the tires.
 
smackYYZ said:
Just a thought, as I read your entertaining thread and videos.

To protect the rims, you could take an old pair of heavy tube socks, cut the toe off then pass the strap through. Sort of work like a seat belt guard. I never through worn out socks away, I use them as disposable wash mitts for washing the tires.
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You mean you have more than one pair of socks? :rofl:

That is a great idea, easy to slip on easy to slip off to wash them after use.

I would give you a big thumbs up but there isn't one.
 
You've just got to love the wisdom on this site! My old socks go to get soaked in varsol to clean farm equipment parts being repaired but now I think I'm going to have to old back two pair!!

Great suggestion smackYYZ!

Cheers,

Garry
 

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