Props to the guys who can do the donuts around and in between the pylons.

Whats with the intake manifold? weight savings? never seen one like that.

Maybe not super common, but also not that uncommon.

My first guess is that it's about keeping things cool.

Yep, at least, that's why Edlebrock says they do it.
https://www.edelbrock.com/performer-rpm-air-gap-intake-manifold-7501.html
https://www.performanceparts.com/sit...4_20090225.jpg

there are others, too.

https://content.speedwaymotors.com/P...5511b48753.jpg

That was my second guess. Makes sense. Thanks!

Every time I see your screen name it gets funnier. Year after year. I keep thinking someone actually thinks its cheese from some foreign country like Formaticum Nostrilia.

Thank you for making me laugh after a crazy day at work.

Air gap manifolds were factory original on Pontiac muscle cars back in the day. The rarest was the Ram Air IV aluminum version....

You are most welcome. That was the whole idea.

Life is not meant to be taken so seriously.

Queso de la Nariz.... Now with less maggots!

Casu marzu

I LOVE cheese. I think I'd have to draw the line at that one.

Was EVH ever spotted doing runs on Mulholland? I know that he was a car guy that lived in the area.

350 Chevrolet Motor
 

Here is a closeup of the Intake Manifold.
You can see it is a Scorpion Torker Aluminum Manifold by Edelbrock.

It has the "Divided Plenum" feature which separates the Intake Runners from the Valve Galley with a forced Air-Gap between them.

This separation greatly improves Mixture Density making the Engine run as if it is running cooler. In most Chevrolet Intake Manifolds the Runners taking the Fuel-Air Mixture to the Heads are in contact with the Hot Valve Galley which actually decreases Horsepower.

This Engine has several "Trick" items as I built it for SCCA Racing in my 1967 Camaro.
It has a Hi-Nickel Block, Forged Steel Crank, Forged Steel Rods(flash ground and shot peened), Corvette double-hump Heads with 2.02 Intake Valves, Solid Lifters using the 30-30 Service Cam that came on the 1969 Z28, Crane Roller Rockers, Z28 guide plates, Sig Erson Double Racing Springs, TRW Forged Aluminum Pistons(11:1), Crankshaft Power Pulley, Fuel Pump Block-off, Chrome Moly Pushrods, Titanium Retainers, Milodon Studded Heads and Main Caps, and a Right and Left hand Turn Cad-plated Oil Pan also by Milodon.
Very similar to the Trako LT-1 Racing Motors used for the I.R.O.C. Series.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1602605046.jpg

Damn checking in! It has been awhile that I forgot my own password.

So we are now talking standard faire Chevrolet Speed Equipment Parts, cool! That is my alley, and my brother has the killer Porsches. I now run Chevrolet Bowtie Air Gap single planes, Holleys with anti slosh foam, steel needles, extended bowls, jet extenders, Aeromotive fuel logs, etc etc etc. Back in the day we were old school Tarantula, then Victor Jr intakes. Still have a Tarantula on Dad's car. I always look at Dual Planes as spec class intakes, if used in racing. Maybe the best ones were the Sleuth Weiand series, as Edlebrocks duals were all stolen from other manufacturers. So were Edlebrock heads, they dont innovate crap, they steal from Brownfield, Smokey Yunick, and others. The old man was cool, then his son took charge on the latter 1970s, and grew product line from poaching. Cant stand the modern Edlebrocks.

Funny, I never considered Mulholland a Canyon. More Ridge Running.

I have seen those Assetto Corsa guys doing my beloved Turnbull Canyon to a very high level of road accuracy, not necessarily scenery. Trust me, highly appreciated, but they dont quite capture the spirit. I saw some simulation stuff for Mulholland, forget where that was, should have written down the source. I bring this up, as I sent them a message offering free input, they didnt even put up my comment, and it was totally cool, thanking them. I hope the Mulholland doesnt get done in their cookie cutter style of just a road, race track.
Kind of need the down and dirty cars, we used back in the day, and not the typical exotics, or race cars we all love. Need dirty neighborhood cars or even the legends. Heck they could use like my Dad's old warrior Corvette free in the game. I would be like all thumbs up.
I kind of wish these roads and race courses in the gaming world can be recreated in a sense of real lap times. It seems that you can shatter all real course records, if you aim your gaming steering wheel good, and stay at max acceleration.
These were night time venues, and haven't seen a night time one yet, unless I missed something. I am trying to hit on the formula that would make it truly fun for me. I named the turns of Turnbull so I will stick to that, knowing it better. Ya OK, you recreate the road, and you blast the 2.1 miles, done, but what would bring a gamer back over and over. I do see where you can purchase cars, upgrades etc, but not down to the level of saving to get those coilovers, sway bars, or side draft carbs. We did hang out with the group weekly, but the car could go for long periods, before you could buy that next hot part. So did we try runs, in between purchases, ya. I called it practice. But oh boy came the day of getting to go down and buy those new parts. I remember buying something on Wednesday or Thursday and doing a night thrash to have new parts installed for Friday night. Many times, you didnt tell anyone. You showed up, ran and surprised everyone. Then you would get the swarm. Hey how did you do that, what did you buy/modify? Sometimes with new stuff, you couldn't get back to where you were. Total fail, as one time I went bigger on the sway bars, and the transfer side to side, was unweighting the inside tire, so was handling on one outside wheel rubber. So much for 4 wheel independence. The car handles much faster on a four tire contact patch, than two. Found out early in my life of Canyon/Ridge running, that full race suspensions are not necessarily the fastest way down some of these roads. Kind of need a balance of race. With the compliance of street.

We were really into camber/castor/toe, tire size, etc. In my real cars, I dial in zero toe. Therefore I have no self centering steering. Zero toe in, to make the car return to straight. Thus I steer in and then steer out, instead of the inherent assist, to straighten back out. I have driven the. Impact cars, and the big bore monsters. In the short wheelbase cars, Definitely like no toe,but when running, as toe scrubs time. I have tried to work on like Ackerman effect. I have tried unequal toe, side to side, based on more critical left or right turns. Running no toe in a big horsepower, roast the rear tire capable ride is not the idea. A non-power steered Corvette or Camaro can be heavy to wrestle, so toe greatly assists a driver in those. I have learned the adrenaline factor, in that when doing a thrill ride, I seem stronger. If I am not steering the car back to straight, do to high G Force, grip etc. Is the toe going to save my ass. Heck it probably would try to point me at the cliff or cliff face or tree that I do not want to hit. The hobby was more about developing our cars, showing up with the latest mod, and everybody took an interest in seeing what she would do now. Maybe they could have an ultimate hidden, secret tune, and the gamer has to search for that. That would be hard, I imagine. You really got to be a race level engineer, to even concept that.
The other factor is the approach to doing this type of racing. We would even park by the Police station with our walkie talkies, and have someone do a mellow recon run, just to see if squad cars were dispatched to roll on that. As our venue was multi-jurisdictional, a true raid of both LA County Sheriffs, and Whittier PD were rare, especially Sheriffs. In the modern the Sheriff Helicopters are always over those areas alot, but monitoring the hiking trails, watching the general area, and not necessarily focused on road runs.
For staging runs, we had sentries posted, we had evacuation etiquette set. We staged in parking lots to tech check. We hung in those parking lots, talking cars, staging the activities, then it was all business when we went into that canyon. We exercised what we did, our method of running (more point to point timed running, no where near racing, wheel to wheel). I assume Mulholland got the reputation over other venues from the cat and mouse chasing, then flip leader, follower, and see the results. Mulholland wasn't about passing a competitor, but occasionally you might pass someone or something. The Turnbull was guys having posted timed runs, and we all chased each other to be the top dog.
Then Turnbull and Mulholland were about the occasional Police helicopter, or unmarked car, the police radar ambush. The tourist runs, that actually could bring undo attention to cause them to come in or up to see who they can caught.
I hit the Mulholland just as the turnout gathering were shut down mostly. When we went, OK there goes a hit shot in a Porsche 911, OK let's get him, follow him, and if he starts to make a spirited run, dog his ass. See what he has got. At Turnbull it was all about everyone in the club going for a new personal best run. More time qualification than anything. I actually never hear times talked about at Mulholland. So the gamers hopefully will capture the spirit of the nose to tail, and then reverse that. Maybe store a fast car run simulation and then you match up your assembled machine, to see how you stack up.
Mulholland is a flowing commuting street, and my Turnbull at night, is pretty devoid of opposing traffic. I cant see Mulholland ever being closed for runs by any of us back in the day, but we blocked Turnbull, employing our walkie talkies for course is clear calls. I dont know if any of you did that there. When we visited, we brought them. A few guys had CB radios.
Next trying to think how critical the weather affected us. OK if it was pouring rain, we went to the damn movies. But the road did change due to humid, temperature, etc. Could you get a personal best, in less than idea conditions. The road was always changing. We could have a no moon lit night, fog, etc. Some of the mods on some of our cars attempted to mitigate such, with like adding Cibie or Marchal lights, fog lights, etc. A time or two, ran up there with full blown slick racing tires. I dont thing we were ever so limited by weather, that we could not take a personal times throwout the winter months, needing favorable climate to make an attempt. The way we ran Turnbull, was up the hill only, so horsepower was king mostly. A 510 Datsun or Mini Cooper could carry momentum, once up to steam, but the incline would level the playing field fast. Definitely easier to hit an apex in a smaller car, than a big horsepower beast.

School me a little here. I have always understood caster to be the centering factor. And I do believe and know that toe adjustments have everything to do with turn in, etc. Ackerman plays a small part and not much needed on a race car that you don't parallel park.

Front engine nostril heavy car...

So if all alignment values are equal side to side except for zero toe you have hell during acceleration and braking. Stability issues with the rise and fall of the nose. Rack and pinion not as loose as a parallelogram steering linkage. Not to mention fatigue on the driver.

But you do have some aggressive turn in on acceleration when the butt sits down that can actually be much fun until polar inertia wakes up, comes around and kisses you.

Zero toe is fast and a wanderer.

I will take my 1/16 or 1/32 of toe and measure tire temps. Tried and true.

I was tired from a 1300+ mile road trip I just took this last weekend. So had to edit fix what I typed.

In this thread, we keep having guys come in here from the race track lapping world, or they street drive their performance cars.

I know this is a Porsche forum, but I have suspension setups that differ for all three disciples for a couple of our Corvettes.

Canyon racing, point and quirt, point to point speed run, is a far different specialty. This whole thread kind of wanders off path from the disciple of the venue discussed. Sure back in the day, the science was quickly changing, as tire size grew. We were the first C3 in the entire Country on 17 diameter 315s in the SCCA autocross world 80s. We were solid bushed, heims, HD most everything, since the early 70s. The kids were big sway bars, HD performance shocks (single adjusts mostly, the better off financially, had maybe some Webers, hot ignition, and sometimes a set of headers, of header. I dont remember true hardcore race car mods yet.

Sure a 2.1 mile balls to the walls run, fatigue is N/A. Naturally hope guys have biceps, combined with adrenaline. Also if you truly know the nuisances of the road, there would be a predictability to where your suspension will take you. I am a notorious late Apex guy, especially on an unknown road. I wait further to the outside to see further around the bend going in, and I want to be back on the fast pedal as quick as possible, seeing the apex for the best exit window. Now If it goes into another tight turn, then I will ride the gearbox and brake hard to set up.

So is the car wandering, under controllably so! If it is faster, I will allow a not so perfect looking maneuver.

I rented a car this weekend and put near1400 miles on it in 2 days. I dropped down 89A south of Prescott and that is now my favorite road. Wow! As I left the City, it said 42 miles to SR-71, to diagonally cut Arizona. I slow down for the small towns, to be polite. Damn speed limiters. But there was two stretches of twisties, the first was taxing, even with power steering, abs brakes, and manhandling the automatic manually. First section longer, a little looser. Had about three major off camber turns (my nemesis), that totally were sending me toward the mountain. I assume I was traveling thru mountains, ir was real dark. Elevation drop helped the rental car's momentum. The second section was tight and really road fun. I hate when the front wheel drive crabs sideways (clawing), and you have no rear wheel drive power, to throttle steer. Wandering in that stock, I think it was a 2020 Sentra was interesting. The tires didn't last long, the brakes got soft, but it seemed like mile after mile after mile of great road; Mentally fatiguing, not knowing the road, but enjoyed it, and I lived. Hi-beams were essential, and I was out running those alot. It was necessary to re-aim the car into the dark, on the memory of what the sign said, that warns of the approaching turn direction and speed recommendation. Sometimes the lights weren't in the direction to light the signs, so kind of messed up my rhythm, but it was a virgin run. Could have used a navigator. But this is a different venue. You need a more overall friendly suspension set up for handling whatever comes at you out of the dark.

I think my Dad's old Canyon racer is a little more forgiving than my race car, due to some toe and stretched castor, lesser spring rates, more suspension travel. Is that quicker, it can be under certain circumstances. It definitely is less fatiguing, so you feel like you are doing a better job. So now analyze the times, and the solid bushed, heavy spring car, shorter caster, zero toe I have compared that to the race car, and heavy planted footprint from coilovers and racing spring rates, it can get scary jumpy, snap out at the limit, but generally is faster on my known, memorized road, but I can take Dad's Corvette down an unknown road faster.

I think built in engineered Ackermann is most affected by Castor change, and turn in/ self centering is toe, but can be caster too, depending on tire contact patch in the dynamic. Opinions!

I don't think more castor, stretching the wheelbase gets you more self centering, straight line stability, YES!. It basically let's it go straight, harder to turn it. Going to the extreme--- a dragster is long, as it is designed to go straight. To u-turn and bring it back down pit road, there is crazy Ackermann there. But the lengthened wheelbase doesn't necessarily help it seek straight like toe. If that dragster gets pointed at the wall, it is very hard to turn it. Camber gain is the tricky explanation. So let's talk about why you even dial it in. As you put forces that change camber, at the limit you pray for a flat or maximum footprint, contact patch. Thus prior to the limit or going straight, camber can cause issues with stability, especially on an uneven, varying condition road. They attempt to crown most roads, wheras race tracks are generally flat, so a lot of camber is not a good suspension for street driving. If you drive mostly freeways, then stand those tires up to get maximum tire life. If your commute is thru the twisties, you want the tire to lean over to a flat footprint turn to turn, side to side. How the inner or outer or the reverse into the next turn grabs flat or on edge, that can have a centering effect or a crash effect.

Ackermann in case anyone is lost, is basically inner or outer tire steering geometry, built in by design so the car can get a turn assist inner tire turns less revolutions than the outer tire in the turn, so there is a changing tire singularity upon turning. Ackermann I feel is extremely important for going into a turn, and coming back out. The back tires follow. To make my cars fast, I have a lot of spherical joints to track any radius, that the front end is forcing, and we have the rear differential action too! Not sure I nailed that. Ackermann not easy to explain. Some cars,scrub worse than others.

PS since I have fancy multi-link C2/C3 rear suspensions,I have set rear toe out, and zero toe at the front. Give that one some thought.

banning. is this your chopped 930 from back in the day? saw it on another pelican thread

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1609008371.jpg

Yes, that was the car’s first outing after getting back up and running. It was at the TRE New Years run. I forget the year.

R.I.P. Arnie Verbiesen, that had a huge hand in building Chris' Mulholland runner. He was one of the most resourceful guys I knew that customized/ hot rodded 911s . His life was filled with experiences that several crazy car movies could be based on
He will be missed

That’s horrible news. I met Arnie once at your shop. Really nice guy. Very sorry to hear this.