Frank's Camaro 1LE: Simple, Stout, and Swift

Over the last seven years, Frank Pacheco’s gotten a crash course in road racing. Though he made many of the rookie errors, he’s shown a willingness to adapt and view things through a different perspective. This questioning nature might not’ve instilled him with much confidence—it might’ve been downright unpleasant, but that’s just who he is. As an engineer, he has that refreshing objectivity that helps him distance himself from biases and comforting illusions, which is why he’s made so much headway in a short span of time.

His foray into track days came as a result of tuning his S550 Mustang, a car he bought with no knowledge of track events. He’d grown fond of the the car and the ease with which he could extract power from its motor, but after his tuner suggested he try moving from the canyons to Streets of Willow for a little more fun, he had to change his own perspective on modifications.

Making the Right (Mental) Adjustments

For better or worse, he hadn’t yet adopted the proper philosophy needed for track running. “My emphasis at that point was on modding the car—specifically the motor. After I attended a few track days, I changed my approach. There were a few guys there in much cheaper, simpler cars with half the horsepower matching or bettering my lap times. Something was amiss,” Frank recalled.

Prioritizing power had its downsides. Not only was having a Paxton supercharger bolted to his Coyote giving him an easy out, it was causing his engine temps to soar in summer heat. After getting passed by a Foxbody on narrow tires, he felt the closest he’d ever come to experiencing a real blow to the ego.

Wisely, he pulled the blower to keep the motor cool and to shift the focus to maximizing seat time. Frank bumped up from ten events annually to several monthly, investing more in tires and brake pads than power adders.

Growing rapidly with the help of forums and Facebook groups, he could see he was no longer relying on a straightline advantage to find a respectable lap time. However, the effort put into finding cornering speed eventually bit him; he stuck it in the wall at Laguna Seca.

Rather than throw in the towel, Frank used this as a chance to make a guilt-free switch to another platform. Prior to the incident with the Ford, he’d sampled his friends Camaro 1LE, a car which had lapped Buttonwillow in just 1:55 with nothing other than a set of Hawk DTC-60s, an intake, and an E85 tune. He fell in love with this capable Camaro and made his friend an offer.

Quite quickly, he learned that the Camaro required a slightly different approach to most corners. It simply didn’t have the grip at the front axle his Mustang had, so he sensibly shifted the emphasis to the corner exit. With more motor and more comfort exploiting the power available, he could see that getting the car pointed in the right direction early and driving off the corner with minimal wheelspin was taking advantage of its best strength.

Squaring off the line and using a progressive throttle application to harness the power. That took all his attention, as he was still somewhat hesitant to put the car into big slides. Perhaps he made the wrong choice when he decided to opt for a little more power then—old habits die hard—but he had the wherewithal to hire some help and get his confidence as a driver to complement his tuning plans.

May as Well

Perhaps he hadn’t totally split with his tuner tendencies, as he tried to extract a little more jam from the LT with heads, a cam, headers, and an intake manifold for a dyno-proven 540 horsepower at the rears. It’s never too hard to get serious grunt with the LT.

The additional power complicated matters somewhat. He was, as he was happy to admit, intimidated by oversteer. The Camaro’s tendency to spin the rear wheels, compounded his lack of confidence in slide wrangling, meant he underdrove the car somewhat—”I drove it tight,” as he described it.

With enough self-awareness to realize he wasn’t fully exploiting the Camaro’s advantage, he felt deeply frustrated, and so enlisted the help of a reputable coach specializing in oversteer. After a couple outings and a few sets of tires worn to the cords, catching slides became second nature, and with the realization he could drive the car much more “loosely,” he tried to find whatever was lacking in his mid-corner speeds, no matter if they were a little slower than his other cars’ mid-corner speeds.

A set of Supercar 3Rs chopped a couple seconds off at most tracks, as expected, though the biggest gains came from a set of coilovers and an update they received soon after installation. MCS 2-ways initially rode roughly over bumps, but they were later improved with a seemingly simple addition. “I found the car wasn’t too cooperative on rougher tracks, and so a friend suggested I get the reservoirs. ‘Why? I’m not endurance racing,’ I asked. ‘Because it’s not just about extra capacity—they go through and completely revalve them,’ he said.”

Now, the Camaro is compliant over bumps and curbs, and it helps put the power down well enough to run a 1:50 at Buttonwillow. For a car with relatively few modifications and car requiring a very specific touch, that’s worth a tip of the hat.

Suspension

- MCS 2-Way Remote Dampers

- 10k Front/24k Rear Swift Springs

- SPL Front Lower Control Arms

- SPL Front Tension Rods

- SPL Rear Toe Links

- SPL Rear Upper Arms

- ZL1 1LE Front and Rear Sway Bars

Engine

- Pray Performance ported heads

- Pray Performance camshaft

- BA Performance ported MSD intake manifold

- Rotofab CAI

- ARH 1 7/8” catted long tube headers

- ARH 3” catback

Wheels/Tires/Brakes

- 19x12/19x11 Apex ARC-8 wheels with 325/305 Supercar 3R’s

- 18x12/18x11 Signature Wheels SV501 with 315 square A7

- Ferodo DS1.11 brake pads front and rear