1977 IROC Camaro Race car info needed.

[Al Weyman]

Yes I can see why, the workmanship and welding on tyhe frame is superb, a work of art in design and fabrication. I did read he was the daddy.

[thunder road]

Al Weyman:I have a 'great' photo of the 'IROC'cars,shot from up high of them lined up outside the pit garages, well its like this the photo is in the copier, so how do I get up on this site, also i have a 'Al Stilley/Stock Car Racing,article to post to you,now for the real 'icing on the cake'I have a single copy of the'homologation papers/automobile competition committee for the united states,fia,inc(fia homologation no.53100model;Camaro12487,1fo87engines350,402,427,454,date of preduction January 1 1970......aprox 250pages, so talk to me !!!!!!!!!!!!!ps:cars 1/6/3/5/12/11/9/2/7 are in this excellent shot!

[thunder road]

BIG Al!,more 'goodies',camaroz instructed me to inform you that he has two 'norriss'/9slot rims (originally of 'Banjo Mathews,NASCAR Buick), these are in EXCELLENT condition, he asked me not to mention the four he tossed out!!)

[Al Weyman]

Hi Thunder,

I have the 4 Norris rims on the car but they will probably need re-chroming, are these ones he chromed, they sound interesting? I will definitely need some Goodyear tyres of tht right size to go on them as they are fitted with 'rubber bands' (ultra low profile) tyres at the moment.

Now this is interestig as I am i the Prit and SIgn business so I should kow how to get a file off the copier, I asunme it must have a hard drive on the machine for staorage like my Kyocera and I also assume you can rip files from the computer. If this is the case you should be able to access the file via the computer and pull it off that way but it all depends on the set up. Oce it is sitting on your computer you should be able to upload it or better still email it to me at my business address sales@cadart.com for which I would be eterally grateful. Is the picture featuring cars from IROC V as the previous ones were quite different and based on road cars not pure spaceframed cars. Funny enough there seems to be loads of pictures about of these but not so many of the post 76/77 model as shown in the picture I posted from Daytona.

The FIA papers would be of more interest to me for my other project as this IROC car would not run to FIA rules, I am preparing another old Camaro I have owned for years for Classic Pre-73 Touring cars and they run to FIA rulings so if the 2nd generation 1970 model is included in these they would be of interest to me.

[Steve Holmes]

Al, are you going to post a pic of your classic Camaro racer?

[Steve Holmes]

Al, is that class set up by Julian Balme called Historic American Racers Ass (HARA) still going over there? That class was quite big when I was living in England.

[thunder road]

Steeeeeeeve !!what are you doing in this thread, every time I look in my rear view mirror,I see Steeeeve the camaro junky!!!!!,just kidding, to prove I'm not as bad as that camaroz makes me out, I will offer you a copy of the 'homologation' papers...Big al (you got to keep up the AMERICAN persona/a good o'l boy!!)the rims are in 'black'and I am being instructed as to "how' to get the picture to you, yes your right,these are the '74 model with 'minilites' but'hey !!!and I will contact you re your e-mail regards the homologation papers.........regards

[Steve Holmes]

Thats right thunder, I'm all over this place. I kinda need two or three user names (alias'?) otherwise you'll all think I hand out here all day and don't get any work done.

Al, these are some sites I've had sitting in my favourites folder for a while. Forgot they were there. You've likely already seen them...or not

http://www.irocracing.com/History/1977/1977-history.htm

http://www.iroczone.com/history.htm#year

http://www.tricklefan.com/shots/iroc.html

http://racing-reference.com/iroc.htm

[Al Weyman]

Thanks Guys and Steve I will stick a picture up but it is not very elegant at the moment sitting on axle stands in my garage, I am just building an engine for it, I was awaiting a clarification on a component which I now have.

As for HARA I am not sure but I think it faded away, we tried to run our cars in it (a friend and me) in fact he went out once at Brands Hatch but they kept putting silly obstacles in the way for some reason. I went to a meeting of interested parties at Brooklands but it was painfully clear it was going nowhere, that old non-flexibility thing again. They kicked off about my mate who at the time was running Falken road tyres but they did not like the fact he was on 17" rims although they did say as long as the car was built to a recognised formula which it was, the ModProds that I wrote the regs for and ran at the time. I think the fact he came in third overall and was only beaten by £100,000 6.3 lightweight 1st Gen cars on slicks may have had something to do with it. Some of the guys went off and started something with the Aston Martin Owners Club and the rules are much more sensible in fact if it is still going next year I may wheel her out in that.

I am a regular visitor to the Irocracing.com site but I wish they would get the right picture with the right year of racing, they are all over the place. I will check the others out, thanks. Hey and how did you know I also go by the name of Big Al who has been snitching on me? I tried to register that name here but someone was using it.

[carrera]

Al - there is a thread on the "Racer's Forum" regarding the IROC Camaro of 'thatorangething'. It was started on May 11.

[Al Weyman]

Could'nt find that carrera, can you post a link please.

[Al Weyman]

OOps, found the thread and it looks like I was told porkies when I bought the car 4 or 5 years ago. I was catagourically told the other car had been re-exported to the US now it appears thatorangething has it (the sister car #10). Not as rare as I thought. I guess but what the hell I am still going to restore it to it's foermer glory and enjoy owning it, maybe me and thatorangething can do a two car recreation IROC race at Rockingham :-) ;

[carrera]

Who has owned/raced the car over here?

[Al Weyman]

I don't know to be frank, I bought it from someone who bought it from someone else. It had Lynton Trailers Stickers on it so was probably used in that BARC Northern free for all championships, you know the one where you go out and get beaten by a guy in a Skoda (Tony Sugden?).

I don't think mine has been as messed with as what Orange was describing for example all the stockcar brakes are all there where as he said his had been modified, basicaly it is a case of getting the body back the way it was, refittig a gearbox cooler that has gone missing along with a Jabco pump (think Automotive has all this stuff so no problem. All the dry sump tank mounts in fact all the mouts are all there so once I get going after I have bolted the Classic together I don't think it will be too major a task.

Here is a couple of photos of the state of play as is on the IROC and my other car (excuse the mess in my garage).

[Al Weyman]

Some more.


You can see the Moon Eyes tank I found on eBay sitting there




Like the Smokey & the Bandit gearchage (temp honest)


Waiting for the engine I am should be working on instead of watching Formula Bore on TV

[Camaroz]

Al, watch the GP then back to it!!!

[Camaroz]

Al, Is the front end a rear steer or front steer?

[Al Weyman]

I will, I will, I promise, just fitted two of the 8 pistons and rods in the bores so as soon as this bore is over I will be back on it.

[Al Weyman]

Do you mean by front or rear stear the placement of the steering arms because if so they are both to the rear on both cars, in the Road & Track article I have here they said sometimes a Ford steering box was used sometimes a chevrolet dependant on whether a road course or an oval.

[Camaroz]

Al,

I had a Banjo Chassis (1988 Buick Body - Winston West) that was rear steer. I think Banjo used mainly NASCAR bits in his chassis, the (power steering) steering box being based on an original ford type unit. Front steer had the steering box in front of the cross member, rear steer behind. The difference - quote Smokey Yunick (I think)" do you want to push a broom or pull it?". Front steer allowed the 'hamburger sump' and better header design (flow, back then 20 HP) but the Rear Steer turned in better (more feel)!!! I've got the ex-Gardner SCA Camaro, hence my interest in all things racing Camaro.

[Al Weyman]

Wow now that is a car worth owning, I had a look at the thread featuring that car it was the 1st Gen car that you have was'nt it? Oe of my heros old Frank, I used to work for Roger Nathan Racing in the late 60's and I was friends with Paul Hawkins who ran a GT40 team out of the same garage until he unfortunately died one weekend racing at Oulton Park, (sad day what a great guy)I think he and Frank were friends, not sure. David Piper the Ferrari man was also there as were Grand Prix MetalCraft who started life there, Hey I even designed their logo, that was a laugh, I hand painted a huge mural of it on their roller shutter doors and as I loved the GT40's Paul was racing I showed a Gt40 going under a Dunlop bridge with the company name on the bridge, then I was ribbed for evermore that GT40's are'nt Grand Prix cars and it was wrong, who cares they loved it.

[Al Weyman]

(Is this F1 still on, I fell asleep) Funny you should say about the sump, as i say when I bought the car it was fitted with a wet sump engine and No-Brains Engineering (joke) who worked on the car overhere stuck a dirty great extension between the trackrod end and steering arm on just one side so the steering arm is a few inches lower on one side, well I only noticed ths after I pulled the engine and the only reason I can think of doing this (I am prepared to be corrected) was to clear the extra depth wide wing wet simp. I am putting a drysump back so hopefully if this is not the way it should be I will correct it.

[Camaroz]

Al, the hamburger (dunno why it was called that) sump was a dry sump set-up that was built to 'clear' the steering gear. My tip is to get on the Moroso Web Site and check out what they have available for late models. Laughlin and BSR have steering gear (check web sites) or get a copy of 'Circle Track' magazine and read all the adds's, you would be amazed at how much gear is available for GM cars (seems motorsport in the US lived off the Camaro's back).

Is it worth staying up (awake) for the GP!

[Camaroz]

Al, Do you remember a car owner (Camaro) known as 'Curley" back in those times? Yes, mine is the 67.

[Al Weyman]

Hamburger I think was the name of the company (nothin to do with chopped up meat in a bun), according to this Road and Track article it was fitted with one of those. As I said I bought a complete dry sump setup including the sump (think it is a Hamburger actually) 3 stage Weaver and all the pullys and take offs, all the braided lines and best of all the correct Moon Eyes tank which was necessaru to have because the mount is designed to accept the ring of bolts on the Moon Eyes tank. It also should have had Hedman 180 degree headers according to the article(long gone) but I cannot find these for sale anywhere on the net, any ideas on this?

EDit: Sorry never heard of Curley, the mob I worked for raced Imps and little wooden GT cars.