Author Topic: Sig Hansen A/Sedan '68 Camaro  (Read 25281 times)

Jon Mello

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Sig Hansen A/Sedan '68 Camaro
« on: May 12, 2014, 04:10:04 AM »
Sig Hansen built a '68 Camaro for West Coast A/Sedan road racing back around 1970 and, luckily, the car still exists. This thread has been started so that Sig can fill us in on the history of the car as he knows it from back in the day. I've attached the only picture I have of Sig's car but we'll see if he might have some others that he can share.
Jon Mello
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VHX032

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Re: Sig Hansen A/Sedan '68 Camaro
« Reply #1 on: May 12, 2014, 06:35:19 PM »
So needless to say, I am pretty happy to see my old Camaro in very good hands and almost ready to race again. I am amazed and honored that the new owner would put my name back on the car too.

At Jon's suggestion, I have attempted a brief history of the car, and how it went from the street to the track. I purchased the car new as a 327ci 4 speed 3:55 positraction, manual steering, no A/C. I then built up a 350ci 4 bolt main engine with Bob Joehnck ported cylinder heads (he also modified the intake and exhaust valves). Headers, Isky cam and Holley 780 cfm. In the interest of weight savings, I removed the back seat, heater and blower, interior carpeting, and all the sound insulation (who needs that stuff anyway?).

Suspension mods included some pieces from Bill Thomas and Dick Guldstrand, and a Dick Guldstrand roll bar for safety.

At that point the car was a pretty quick autocross car although I had to run in the open modified class. I ran Goodyear polyglas tires and race tires would have helped considerably I am sure. Still, I did get Top Time of the Day at the Cambria Time Trials, especially good since it was hosted by the San Luis Obispo Foreign Car Club.

I did take it to a day of drag racing in Santa Maria, and ran a best of 13.2 at 108 with mufflers (Cherry Bombs). Someone mentioned they thought the T/A Camaros might run low 13's, but based on my experience, I bet they were faster than that.

In 1971 a close friend and I crewed for my brother in the 2.5 Challenge series and we attended every race. That was a great time, we finished every race, and his Alfa accumulated enough points to be third behind the Datsun and Alfa Romeo factory teams. Needless to say it was fantastic to be there and watch the Trans Am greats thundering around the great race tracks all over the country. First race was at at Lime Rock in the rain.

When we returned, I kept my VW van that we had lived out of for the race tour as my daily driver, and started work on turning my car into an SCCA A Sedan.

Installed a SCCA legal Dick Guldstrand roll cage and did a bit of a hack job on the fabrication (now that I am a pretty decent MIG and TIG welder, the memory of that makes me cringe a bit) I was hugely relieved to see that the current owner of the car cut it all out and reused it but with proper welding and gusseting details.

I reused the basic 350 engine block and heads, but with new rods, pistons, and 302 forged and shot peened crankshaft. Also installed the optional Z28 camshaft, and a Edelbrock manifold similar to the SY-1, with a 830 cfm SCCA spec Holley carb. That manifold did not work too well at lower rpm, but with the Z28 optional cam had pretty good midrange and top end.

Next up was a conversion to heavy duty 4 wheel disc brakes (J50/J56 ?) from GM heavy duty parts catalog. For some reason the front hubs and inner mating surface of the rotors had a huge amount of runout, so there was some machining required.

I fabricated a Panhard rod and installed rear leaf springs that I ordered based on a recommendation from Dick Guldstrand. Also used offset solid bushings in the front suspension pivots, and other features to improve roll center and bump steer.

I had a set of Magnesium wheels purchased from Washburn as they had more spares than needed, but only used those in the first race after which I took them off to have them Zyglo'd and then mainly raced on the Corvette steel wheels. I mention this since the Australian T/A series uses spec wheels that look a lot like the Mg wheels so it really is "correct" in appearance now.

First race was Riverside Regional in 1972? Q3, finished 2nd, then Laguna Seca 1973 Q1 finished 1st, then Riverside 1973 Q2 finished 1st, then a final race for me at Willow Springs 1974 Q1 finished 1st.

Still have the checkered flags, and a trim ring from the original rallye wheels, but that's it.

Considering all the famous cars that have gone missing over the years, I am amazed (and quite happy) that my modest car survived.

Photos to follow in next post below.




VHX032

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Re: Sig Hansen A/Sedan '68 Camaro
« Reply #2 on: May 12, 2014, 06:52:42 PM »
So, here are some newsclips and photos relevant to the history of my "Kelsey" Camaro. The local dealer that helped me out was originally "Kelsey and Sons" and then when Frank Kelsey, Sr retired it became Kelsey Chevrolet. Got some parts free, others at cost and they painted the car (Corvette Sunflower Yellow).

First photos are as an "autocross" car. The Cambria newsclip is not very clear, but got Top Time of Day. Track photos are all at Riverside International Raceway Regional/National combined weekend in 1973.

















And below how it looks as of a few days ago in Australia, getting prepared for racing in the Australian "Trans Am" series




VHX032

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Re: Sig Hansen A/Sedan '68 Camaro
« Reply #3 on: May 12, 2014, 10:34:30 PM »
The new owner in Australia is Grant Wilson who has a pretty solid background in the Australian "Tans Am" series, having successfully campaigned another Camaro with several race wins.

As he has given me the OK to post more photos and mention his name, I'll be adding them as he sends them, I already have a lot of the resto in process that I'll post when I get time to upload them to Photobucket.

In the meantime, here are a couple more (photo trailered up and on the way to Laguna Seca) and the checkered flags from Riverside, Laguna Seca, and Willow Springs that are up on my garage wall right now.





MO

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Re: Sig Hansen A/Sedan '68 Camaro
« Reply #4 on: May 13, 2014, 02:41:19 AM »
Great stuff Mr. Hansen. Thank you for sharing your memories, and look forward to more of them!

Jon Mello

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Re: Sig Hansen A/Sedan '68 Camaro
« Reply #5 on: May 13, 2014, 04:54:33 AM »
Sig, those are some great pics and memorabilia. I believe this car was Grotto Blue when new, correct? Did you buy it through Kelsey or did they just provide the sponsorship?

It looks like Grant has done a really nice job of bringing the car back to life. Looks like the color is a little different though. Your original seems to have looked more like the Bud Moore Mustang color and the new color seems more pure yellow. That's not meant to be a nitpick but just an observation. When you repainted it from blue to yellow, was it Kelsey Chevrolet that wanted the color change or your decision?

I was also curious, is Grant putting the standard grille back in or the RS grille like it got later on?
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oldtransamdriver

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Re: Sig Hansen A/Sedan '68 Camaro
« Reply #6 on: May 13, 2014, 05:59:01 AM »
Great looking car Sig.  I'm sure you would have done well in the T/A races.

Do you remember what kind of lap time you turned at Laguna?

Robet Barg

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Re: Sig Hansen A/Sedan '68 Camaro
« Reply #7 on: May 13, 2014, 05:01:42 PM »
Glad you like the photos. I think I'll have time in a week or two to scan more race photos in and upload most of the photos Grant sent me. Yes, he has done a wonderful job with the car.

He would like to bring the car and another Camaro to Laguna Seca Historics sometime in the future, so that would be great.

Original color was Grotto Blue, then Corvette Sunflower Yellow, then some kind of red. Grant media blasted down mostly to bare metal and in several photos to come later you can see the color layers.

If Grant used a sample of the paint to match, it is possible the Sunflower Yellow had faded to the lighter shade. I don't completely trust digital photo processing in maintaining exact color properties, and the shade could be different in person. I am going with the "faded" idea since that makes the car even more "correct" ; )

As far as lap times at Laguna Seca (obviously on the old track) I don't remember with certainty what my best was.

Jon Mello

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Re: Sig Hansen A/Sedan '68 Camaro
« Reply #8 on: May 13, 2014, 05:15:46 PM »
Sig, what did you ever do with the mag wheels that didn't end up going back on the car? Below is some initial feedback from the car's second owner Jay Parson's to me when I pointed out this thread to him...

"That first picture of Sig with the trees is at Santa Maria Dragstrip when the car was originally blue. I met Sig thru "GoodBruce" when Sig lived in an old shack of a motel room next door to Bruce's grandmother's house in Pismo Beach, while we all went to Cal Poly. It was bare bones, those days. That car had a lot more really good pieces than Sig recalls.

That trailer happens to be the same trailer that has been hauling your Z cars, Robert's COPO, De Backers Zcar, John Capps AA/FA, Jim Rizzoli's Race Camaro's, and all Jay's cars, dually trucks, crew cabs, over a hundred Mazda RX-7's, concrete water tanks...................since the early 1970's. When Sig built that trailer, he used 1962 Corvair spindles and 13" wheels. That is a true testimonial to his creative engineering talents, that it is still the same Corvair stuff, unchanged today, other than my addition of Datsun 240Z 4 lug wheels (14"). That trailer has a far more interesting history than the race car it came with.

I maybe have some stuff related to the car. Whoever the new owner is, he has done a nice job of restoration, as it looks just like my first trip to Riverside, other than the 8" ralleys."
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Re: Sig Hansen A/Sedan '68 Camaro
« Reply #9 on: May 13, 2014, 07:19:10 PM »
Jon, wheels got sold along the way (joining the list of good vintage parts I wish I still had).

Great to hear comments from Jay. Nice to know the trailer still survives ! I was concerned they had "killed" it when Jay hauled a 20,000 lb + concrete septic tank for his brother (I think he said they had to pump the tires up to about 100psi just to get it to roll). Amazing those Corvair spindles held up to that although I wonder if it now has a bit of negative camber : ).

BTW regarding old layout at Laguna Seca racetrack, Turns 2,3,4 were all really fast. Today's track layout makes a lot more sense. My brother still rides it on his sportbike fairly often. Too bad MotoGP won't be coming back to Laguna, but World Superbike will be in July and SCCA National Runoffs this year.  We attend all the races at COTA now too.

Drove around last year looking for pieces of the old Riverside Track, but only found a remnant of an access road. There are some good websites with overlays and development encroachment over the years.

Sorry for off-topic but that happens.

VHX032

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Re: Sig Hansen A/Sedan '68 Camaro
« Reply #10 on: May 13, 2014, 07:44:33 PM »
More Riverside photos two about to pass and an AP Corvette I can't catch






69Z28-RS

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Re: Sig Hansen A/Sedan '68 Camaro
« Reply #11 on: May 14, 2014, 12:00:57 AM »
Don't those tires look *oversize*??  :)
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VHX032

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Re: Sig Hansen A/Sedan '68 Camaro
« Reply #12 on: May 14, 2014, 01:03:50 AM »
Regarding "oversize tires" Probably would have worked better with shorter front tires. I was given 4 rear tires that had a weekend of racing on them, and used them front and rear. As you can see from the photo above some folks ran even larger rear tires.

Only relevant rule limits (that I recall anyway) were 8.0"w x 15" dia wheels and a max track width. I much prefer the look of the tires and wheels on the car now of course. Have to say the "red" version had me beat on tire size........yikes.

Jon Mello

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Re: Sig Hansen A/Sedan '68 Camaro
« Reply #13 on: May 14, 2014, 01:41:56 PM »
Great photo additions. Thanks for posting those, Sig.

Do you recall who was driving the Corvette or the #4 Camaro? Of the tracks that you raced on, was Riverside your favorite? Did you have a favorite part of the course?

Below is your old trailer, still being put to good use.
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Jon Mello

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Re: Sig Hansen A/Sedan '68 Camaro
« Reply #14 on: May 15, 2014, 01:43:34 PM »
Sig's original bolt-in rollbar, which appears to be an Autopower item, got installed in the (real) L78 Nova owned by Bruce Steude (who lived next door with Grandma).

Bruce's Nova was featured in both Popular Hot Rodding and Car Craft magazines in June 1972. Body and paint work were done by Sam Foose. Both Sig's Camaro and
Bruce's Nova were daily drivers to Cal Poly in the early '70s and yes, the injection was real on Bruce's car.
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