Matt's 1970 'Trans-Am' Cuda

[Dave-R]

Some detail photos of Jess Neal's Cuda I had the honour of getting taken for a drive in.

[Dave-R]

More details.

[Dave-R]

He must have had a few tips of Blue. Holes everywhere.

[Matt]

Interesting !

Rack & pinion
Anti-tramp shocks on rear axle.
No panhard rod or watts link visible at rear ?
Exhaust way up against the floor like mine should be.
I see the side-impact plates in the doors have been removed too. I did that on mine and they were incredibly heavy.

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Loving the Hoosier tyres. Looking at a set for next year.

[Matt]

Also seems MattH was right about dealing with Minilite .

Order placed 5th July. They still will not discuss a firm delivery date with me.

I'll probably get some of these from Summit instead...

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[Dave-R]

I prefer to call those door impact structures "girders" they are that heavy. :-)

I think those front fenders are worked wider than stock which is why I took photos of them?

[Dave-R]

I had no issues with Minilite at all. In fact they were extremely helpful. That was a few years ago now though.

[Matt]

Interesting . Mine are stock with rolled lips, and there's lots of clearance (especially with all the negative camber...) . Although I do need to fit wider tyres. Those are 245/60s on a 15x8 rim with 4.5" backspace

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[Dave-R]

I finally had time (at work of course) to read the whole build thread.

You have never failed to amaze me with your fabrication skills Matt.

Inspiring.

[Dave-R]

This is Drew's friend Jess Neal featured in this Hot Rod report on the classic class at Pikes Peak.

Lovely sound from the small block. :-)

[RM23]

Brilliant video dave welcome back and matt just amazing car can't wait to see it in the metal cheers All

[RobTwin]

... can't wait to see it in the metal cheers All

Same Goes to you and your GTX

[Matt]

Saturday 26th October, Donington, Classic Sports Car Club, Swinging Sixties series .

Much rain forecast. Never driven the car in the wet before, so booked some track time on Friday,the day before the meeting.

Unsurprisingly, not many other people there !

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I went out on the circuit, basically feeling my way round, wondering where the edge of grip would be. I let a '66 Mustang go past that was drifting round the whole track. Don't think I'll be doing that for a while.

So after several experimental laps, it looks like the car still behaves really well. I think the Avon CR6 tyres help. When it does slide, it's quite gradual and predictable, and either end can lose traction depending on what you do.

Interestingly, the steering that is so heavy in the dry is now lighter and full of feel. Ditto the brakes.
Oh and the demist heater I made definitely needs improvement. It sort of clears a small patch right in front of me,but that's about it.

I had to head off back to London at 2pm (due to being totally unable to maintain any sort of organised diary, I had a clash of events that evening) , so left the car and trailer at the track. Gary would be turning up at at 5pm with his classic Mini (the car coming straight out of a 6-year retirement) and would set up next to me in the paddock.

The next day it was awful weather! Cold and very wet.

Qualifying went well, although coming up the hill from the old hairpin I did once find an Aston DB4 stationary in the middle of the track pointing straight at me. The safety car came out a couple of times due to cars going off the track. All my windows were fogged up apart from that small part of the front screen, but fortunately most people had their lights on so I could make them out behind me.

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All the day's racing was professionally filmed and commentated, and was live streamed on YouTube
Coverage starts at 6:06 with some glimpses of my car on the warm-up lap for the first race.




The actual race was the first one of the day, and the track was a sea of water in places (especially in the downhill braking zone to the old hairpin) . One Mustang went off twice into the gravel there - once with each driver ! Another car went off there under the safety car, narrowly missing the car already in the gravel that had brought the safety car out in the first place.

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On the last lap I finally saw my chance to pass an orange Scimitar that had been in front of me for ages. He lost the back end a little going into the chicane and was slow coming onto the straight. I drag raced him to the next corner, got in front, and managed to slow the car down enough to get round.

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I finished 13th out of 19 finishers. Really happy with that, considering the weather. Also very relieved not to have, or be caught up in, any accidents.

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Gary raced in a separate Swinging Sixties race for smaller-capacity cars. And Won. By forty-seven seconds.

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That was a really good weekend.

[Pete]

EPIC!!

Miss the front spoiler though...

[andyrob]

Well done Matt donington when wet is a really slippy track, glad you had no off track excursions, and now your starting to pass other cars
Are you doing a full season next year ??