Black Diamond Motorsports news release

I've been sitting on this for a while waiting until John decided to release this news. John took delivery of the body 3 weeks ago and the chassis is almost completed. We're hoping for a debut of the car at the ADRL event at Norwalk in September.

http://www.competitionplus.com/drag-racing/news/18281-deflorians-new-xps-2012-camaro-

If he's looking for a home for the other car I'll be glad to keep an eye on it!

That car looks awesome ....

Don, actually John sold his Z06 P/N Corvette to a fellow in Ohio to build the new Camaro. So we're actually going to be a 2 car team, both in the XPS class. The new motor is just about ready for John's car at Sonny Leonards. It will have the latest Gen 3 heads and be just like ours except for the heads. Our motor is coming out next week after Martin and the original motor, Hulk 1, will be going back in so we can run at Pittsburgh on the 23rd.
We're going to test something in the ignition, and since the race at PRP is a outlaw race, we'll try it there since it's not allowed in the ADRL. Care to guess what it is ?
When our motor is done with it's refresh at Sonny's, we'll take the car down to Sonny's and we'll install the motor at his place and then head over to VMP for the ADRL race there.

Thanks Toot. There is some concerns about the front end of the Camaro compared to the other cars in the class. There is a lot of flat areas in the grille section and we're not sure what's gonna happen there. We might be ok since we're in the 171-175 mph range in the 1/8th mile, but running the 1/4 mile might pose some problems. That was one of the reasons it took so long for a company to develop a Camaro body because of all the flatness of the front end. This body was developed and built by Five Star who builds just about all the bodies for NHRA Pro Stock competition. Five Star was just about on the verge of giving up on a body because every time they built a prototype, it had to get the approval of the NHRA and they kept getting turned down because the NHRA didn't think it looked enough like a Camaro. This body can be had in fiberglass, Carbon Fiber or a lightweight Carbon Fiber which the entire body only weighs 53#. Of course it costs $12,200 too !

Thought I'd do a update on the Black Diamond cars since it's been a while. First off, John Deflorian's Camaro won't be ready to race this year. The body he was getting is from Five Star, who builds all the NHRA legal Pro Stock bodies. Five Star did more wind tunnel work and found there was too much drag on the back of the Camaro. They asked the NHRA if they could make some small modifications to the car, and the NHRA said that it was ok. The NHRA Pro Stock cars have to fit specific templates and if your car doesn't fit, you fix it or go home. Even though other companies are now building the Camaro bodies in glass and carbon fiber, John wanted the Five Star so that if down the road he wants to switch bodies, he has a bigger buying audience because of it being a legal NHRA body. Five Star is re-doing their molds and that puts off everyone getting a new body 5-6 weeks. The chassis is just about ready and the motor is ready, but we'll have to wait a while for John's debut.

As far as the GXP, the refreshed motor is in and tomorrow the guys are heading to VMP for the ADRL meet there. Sonny had our motor on the dyno after John Montecalvo's motor and ours had slightly more hp. Hopefully the carb problems are ironed out and the transmission will be ok. We have a fellow who builds intake manifolds for the NASCAR cars and many of the NHRA Comp class cars building us a new intake manifold. Since we're the only car in the class (so far) with a converter and automatic transmission, we're thinking we might need a different configuration on the intake manifold. Hopefully it'll be done before the race at Rockingham at the end of this month.
We only have 3 more races this season in the ADRL since Texas is way too far to travel for the season ending race. I have a good feeling about the race at VMP and hopefully we'll make the field. It's pretty tough to crack into a 16 car field when the spread from #1 to #16 is just a 0.07 of a second difference. Lots of parity there with that small of a spread.

I'll try and post up what is taking place on Friday and Saturday at VMP. We get 3 qualifying attempts on Friday and 1 on Saturday morning. There were 26 cars at the last race trying for 16 spots, so it'll be intense.

Thought I'd post these times from the race at VMP. We went a 4.356 in Q1, a 4.181 in Q2 and a 4.160 in Q3. The 4.16 run would have gotten us into the field at the last race, but the bump is a 4.138 at VMP. We get 1 more attempt this morning. All the classes are flying at VMP.
Local P/N racer John Decerbo from Canfield isn't even in the show ! He had 3 troubled runs and also gets 1 more try this morning. Amazing at 1 event he's going 3.80's and then can't even qualify at the next event.

Well the car didn't even come out for the final qualifying session this afternoon. That's not a good sign.

Update: got a text from Rob saying they lost #6 hole. Must not be at-the-track repairable. Hope it's not too bad.

When you,re going that fast it,s hard to believe that the field is faster, the economy for some people just don,t matter. Well it does to me LOL

Skip, the number ! qualifier, John Monteclavo, went a 4.079. And his motor was on the dyno right before ours and ours actually had a few more horses ! But we'll keep at it and see what can be done. I just hope the block and crank are ok after this last pass. That was actually the 4th pass on the motor and 1 was a dyno pull.

When you see the professions of the guys racing in this class, the majority have their own businesses and although the economy impacts them also, it's not with the degree it affects us ground squirrels.

Well Dan I am like you hope there,s no serious damage, and they say a blind squirrel gets a nut every now and then I,m still waiting lol

Just seen a nice spread in Drag Illustrated on the new Camaro