Pro Touring

(2) Thinking Outside The Box – BILL HERDER’S 1966 GTO VERT — RTTH7

If there was an award for the most different approch to a Pro-Touring car Bill’s GTO would have won hands down. It’s just an awesome, stand out car.

The GTO was a featured article in the October 2011 issue of High Performance Pontiac.  I have just pulled a few statements from the High Perfromace Pontiact article to give some basics on the car.

 

DrivetrainTransmission: Richmond Street Five-speed manual trans (4+1), 3.27 1st, 2.13 2nd, 1.57 3rd, 1.23 4th, 1.00 5th, aluminum flywheel, Hurst shifter.

Rear axle: GM 12-bolt rearend (original housing), Eaton posi differential w/3.07:1 gears, Strange C-Clip eliminators,

Front suspension: Stock upper and lower control arms w/ Herb Adams solid greasable bushings, MOOG tie rods w/ custom adjusters, Herb Adams sway bar w/ heim joint end links, Adjustable KONI red shocks, Global West subframe connectors, Global West ½” solid subframe bushings.

Rear suspension: Detroit Speed 3” drop leafs, DSE shackles & bushings, Herb Adams sway bar, Adjustable KONI red shocks.

SPC billet adjustable tubular upper and lower control arms and Pro-Touring 550 lb-in springs in front. They attach to the stock spindles via Howe NASCAR-style tall ball joints. Alston Varishock double-adjustable shocks help soften the bumps and control the springs, Energy Suspension polyurethane bushings thwart suspension deflection, and a Hellwig tubular 1.125-inch stabilizer bar keeps cornering flat.

To upgrade the rear, the same brand springs (135 lb-in rate), shocks, bushings, and stabilizer bar (1.125-inch with end links) are employed. Additional handling mods include Currie Currectrac billet upper and lower control arms and Edelbrock crossbraces to triangulate the mounting points for added strength. A set of 18×8 front, 18×10 rear NewGen wheels roll on the aforementioned Nittos, measuring 245/40-18 in front and 275/40-18 in the rear.

Tires: Nitto NT555 – F: 255/45/ZR18 R: 285/40/ZR18

Wilwood 14-inch front disc brakes with six-piston calipers, as well as 12.2-inch, four-piston calipers in the rear, sans power assist,

A ’70 400 was bored and stroked to 462 and built by Dave Hillard of Donnellsville, Ohio, who Bill describes as “an outstanding guy and a credit to the Pontiac community.” A set of four-bolt billet caps were added to the 0.030-over block to hold in the 4.25-inch-stroke, Ohio forged crank; PRW 4340 Ultralight I-beam, forged rods; and Ross 4.155-inch, forged pistons wrapped in Federal Mogul rings. A Melling 54D pump works from a Canton road race oil pan to ensure the crude is at the pickup in high-g cornering.

KRE D-Port aluminum heads were ported to flow 320/240 cfm at 0.700 lift by SD Performance. Comp valvesprings; Smith Brothers 5⁄16-inch pushrods; and PRW stainless, 1.65:1 roller rockers deliver the cam specs to the 2.15/1.74 valves. The Comp hydraulic-roller cam employs solid-roller lifters (higher rpm without valve float) and features 246/252- degrees duration at 0.050 and 0.660/0.660 lift; LSA is 112 degrees.

 Run Thru The Hills 7, 2011Run Thru The Hills 7, RTTH7, Bill Howell, AmericanStreetCar Series

RTTH 7, 2011 RTTH,  2011 Run Thru The Hills, 2011 Run Thru The Hills 7, Bill Howell

Pro Touring

(3) Miss Kitty Meets Pro-touring and Miss Kitty’s Husband meets AmericanCarsAmericangirls.com — RTTH7

Miss Kitty met Pro-Touring and she liked it a lot. Miss Kitty, real name Tenisha, wanted to go get their car right then and start autocrossing. I told her that the field was probably full and the best place to learn the basic of autocrossing was at the regional SCCA

Miss Kitty’s husband met AmericanCarsAmericanGirls.com and he wasn’t that fond of us. But Tenisha liked us ok and we got some great pictures of Tenisha with Terry Neuville’s 1968 Pro-Touring Camaro. I sent all the pictures to Tenisha and husband for their approval. When it was all said and done I think Miss Kitty’s husband ended up liking AmericanCarsAmericanGirls.com just fine.

 

I did a post on Terry Neuville’s Camaro at RTTH6 and he gave me the following info on his car:

‘’The car is a 68 Camaro. It was my first car and I bought it when I was 15 in high school. It was a daily driver from 1980 til 1994. The car has over 230,000 total miles on it. I drove the car on five Hot Rod Power Tours from 2003 to 2007. I did my first full resto on the car starting two years ago and finished it August 2009 just in time for my first time to RTTH5. The car is never trailered. I drive it to every event no matter how far. Now it has been a year and a couple of months since the resto with over 12,600 miles in that time. In the last year I have driven from Baton Rouge LA., to Indian, to north Georgia, Houston TX. Dallas TX. and Pigeon Forge not to mention all over Louisiana.

The car has a LS2 engine with 4L65E transmission, 18″ Forgeline wheels, DSE Quadralink rear suspension on coilovers, Global West front suspension on coilovers, 14″ Baer brakes all the way around, GPS Nav, DVD player, reverse camera, security with remote start, power windows and power door locks, paint is House of Kolors candy apple red over silver with ghost strips.’’

Thanks for all the cool pictures and your time. Very cool website also.

Terry Neuville

 

Run Thru The Hills 7, 2011Run Thru The Hills 7, RTTH7, Bill Howell, AmericanStreetCar Series

Pro Touring

BRITTANY WAS JUST PROUD OF WHAT HER MOMMA HAD GIVEN HER

which was the ability to take tire pressure readings on Pro-touring cars. I think we should all give Brittany’s mom a big thanks!  We got a ton of great stuff on the 2011 Run Thru The Hills Pro-tourning event held 10/24&25. It will be a while before I get RTTH7 .  In the mean time you can check out the RTTH6 articles under Former Featured Articles

Pro Touring

Camaro Build

Follow along starting Monday the 16th as the 48 Hour Camaro Build starts. Follow it live from 8am to midnight each day as the thrash happens live and uncensored. Watch it as it unfolds without any of the TV land editing. And, if this isn’t enough after the car is done they will hit the road for a Goodguys event where you could watch them flog it in person.

So get ready to tune in May 16-18 to see the live action from 8AM to midnight each day at http://48hourcamaro.com/

Pro Touring

RUN THRU THE HILLS 6 Part 2

From here on out Run Thru The Hills 6 will be referred to as RTTH. The 6 stands for the sixth running of RTTH.

I was on my way to the Fall Rod Run in Pigeon Forge, Tn. I knew that RTTH’s autocross was being run at the Smoky’s baseball stadium parking lot. It was on the way so I thought I’d stop and spend an hour there and be on my way. I was wrong! RTTH is a Mecca of AmericanCars that are meant to be driven and driven hard. It’s called Pro-Touring. I spent the whole day at RTTH.

It’s a Run What You Brung competition. The only rules that I know of are D.O.T street rated tires, safety belts, and maybe a roll bar. Most of the guys brought 60’s style muscle cars that have been retrofitted with modern day wheels, tires, chassis, suspensions, engines, transmissions, etc. No matter the vehicle, it had been heavily upgraded. The weekend competition was a combination autocross, 1/8 mile drag, reaction time at the drags, and braking distance from the finish line at the 1/8 mile drag. There might have been a required cruise Friday to ensure streetability of every car. Competitors were required to run the same set of tires for all phases of the competition. The tire of chose seemed to be the BFG KDW.  It’s strictly amateurs, no prize money. Most of the guys there were for the comradery, to learn and just to see how they could do. A few of the guys were there for the comradery, to learn, and to win.

I didn’t make it to the Fall Rod Run that day. There were more hard core street performance AmericanCars at RTTH than at a dozen Rod Runs. Oh yeah, and a lot of AmericanGirls too!!