dgoodhue Posted March 2, 2019 Share Posted March 2, 2019 Can you run it in Sport mode? Or are you worried about mode melting the bumper cover too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodan Posted March 2, 2019 Author Share Posted March 2, 2019 Every mode except for Stealth opens the valves fully at full throttle, so there's effectively no difference on the track. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodan Posted April 14, 2019 Author Share Posted April 14, 2019 Drove the ZL1 to CA over the weekend. Happy to report it's a very nice GT car! Comfortable, and quiet. Except when you get on it. Tires are a little noisy over some surfaces, but with 295/305 widths, they're going to make some noise. The suspension dealt very well with CA concrete freeways in tour mode. On the way in, I went over the mountains from Palm Springs into Anza and then Temecula and over Ortega Hwy into south OC. Overlooking Lake Elsinore, a place I hadn't been through since the late 80s... On the way home, I hooked up with a Carrera GTS where the route looped through "Mexico" and we tooled a long at a pretty good clip for a while. 2000rpm is 88 mph in top gear! Gas mileage suffered, dropping into the high teens... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodan Posted April 27, 2019 Author Share Posted April 27, 2019 Installed a rear-cradle bushing lockout kit in the ZL1 today. It would give a little wiggle in the rear when changing directions and getting hard on the throttle (like a pass on a two-lane road). Minor, but a bit disconcerting... The kit, from BMR, was a lot less hassle than installing the solid bushings from the 1LE, and provides 90% of the benefit. The rear is now much more locked down in quick transitions, and when getting on the throttle when changing directions. Looking forward to finally getting this thing on track next month... still a couple of minor things to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodan Posted May 4, 2019 Author Share Posted May 4, 2019 Today I was continuing to work on getting the Camaro ready for it's first track day... First was the diff oil, which Chevy recommends changing sometime after break-in, but before the first track use. That was nice and easy, thanks to the drain and fill locations being easily accessible. Next was flushing the factory fill DOT3 brake fluid for Castrol SRF DOT4. Another recommendation in the track prep guide, which I just discovered last week. Why in the ever-lovin' F*** GM would use DOT3 on a car like this is beyond me... I splurged on a Motive Power Bleeder, which I had read lots about, but never tried. I used it dry, just to provide some pressure for an accelerated 'drool' style bleeding and it worked great. Not fast, but nice and clean, and much easier than the 'phone a friend/pump and hold' method. Got the track tires swapped onto some new wheels, and the stock GY summer tires swapped onto the HREs I bought last winter. So the all seasons are stored and it's on the summer tires... The HREs really show off the brakes... Brake pedal felt great, tires felt great, all was going well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodan Posted May 4, 2019 Author Share Posted May 4, 2019 And, as usual, that's when it turned to shit... I stopped at the local RV shop to pick up a part for our camper, and come out to "hey, somebody just hit your car"... Yup... mouth breather backed her CRV into the Camaro... F*ck!!! :mad: It wasn't even close... huge parking lot... there was so much room it actually took me about a minute to even figure out how she did it. And then her insurance card was expired... As if the damage isn't enough, it's highly unlikely that I will be able to get it repaired in time for our trackday Memorial Day weekend... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris GTO TT Posted May 5, 2019 Share Posted May 5, 2019 2003 Baja 5MT 2016 Outback 2.5i Premium w/Eyesight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ehsnils Posted May 5, 2019 Share Posted May 5, 2019 - and will she keep her drivers license or maybe she didn't have one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodan Posted May 5, 2019 Author Share Posted May 5, 2019 It occurred on private property (parking lot), so she didn't get a ticket, or any consequences to her license. I did have the local PD respond to take a report since her insurance card was expired. They were able to verify she did have valid insurance. So now I get to start that game again... I'm still fighting insurance from when our truck was rear ended in November... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ehsnils Posted May 5, 2019 Share Posted May 5, 2019 The annoyances of differences between countries - here it's no difference if it happens on a private parking lot or not if it's accessible to the public. It's only in fenced-off areas that some rules aren't applicable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris GTO TT Posted May 5, 2019 Share Posted May 5, 2019 What are you fighting with insurance over on the truck? 2003 Baja 5MT 2016 Outback 2.5i Premium w/Eyesight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodan Posted May 5, 2019 Author Share Posted May 5, 2019 Repair is paid for, still fighting over diminished value, which they're refusing to pay anything on.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris GTO TT Posted May 6, 2019 Share Posted May 6, 2019 Oh that sucks 2003 Baja 5MT 2016 Outback 2.5i Premium w/Eyesight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodan Posted May 7, 2019 Author Share Posted May 7, 2019 Initial estimate of $4k... not including any damage not visible, or any suspension damage. Steering is very heavy on-center, so I'm assuming something's bent... Other party's insurance accepted full liability, but I've been playing phone tag with the agent. Shop can't get the car in until 5/21... so our trackday is definitely cancelled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dishwasher Posted May 7, 2019 Share Posted May 7, 2019 The annoyances of differences between countries - here it's no difference if it happens on a private parking lot or not if it's accessible to the public. It's only in fenced-off areas that some rules aren't applicable. Here's it's by municipality, some jurisdictions don't have a problem responding to parking lot accidents. Some only will respond when injuries are reported. Some tell you to go pound sand. If you need insurance advice, don't hesitate to holler. That seems like a pretty straight forward incident. Don't forget to claim diminished value, I imagine that's a good chunk of change on a late model ZL1. Brought to you by Pfizer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodan Posted May 7, 2019 Author Share Posted May 7, 2019 Definitely claiming diminshed value... though that's been a big fight on our last claim (when our truck got rear-ended). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitexc Posted May 7, 2019 Share Posted May 7, 2019 Hit that track day.....maybe add to the claim lol. Sorry for the incident to a very nice car, that sucks and even worse than the damage is the marked title. Good luck with it, hope you get it all squared away. Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodan Posted May 11, 2019 Author Share Posted May 11, 2019 Camber plates came in today. Part of the first run by Vorschlag for the 6th Gen Camaro. I was hoping to get these on in time for the track day we're now not attending, so they'll go on after the car is repaired. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodan Posted May 17, 2019 Author Share Posted May 17, 2019 Since I'm still waiting to get it into the shop, and I had a few minutes yesterday, I jacked up the driver's side and checked the front wheel runout... .005" lateral runout, so I'm fairly confident the wheel wasn't bent in the collision. Due to the shape of things, and still having a tire mounted, I had no way to measure axial runout, but it was hit from the side so I would expect any damage to show as lateral runout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodan Posted May 23, 2019 Author Share Posted May 23, 2019 Camaro went in the shop Monday. After disassembly, they found some more damage, which I expected. Waiting on more parts, so another week, at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodan Posted July 14, 2019 Author Share Posted July 14, 2019 Guess I forgot to update this thread... Camaro took about 3 weeks in the shop, but came back good as new. They even fixed a tiny parking lot ding on the passenger front fender I'd been meaning to have PDRd... for free. Of course, we missed a planned two-day track weekend becuase of the whole ordeal. It would have been the first track outing for the car, which will now be in the fall. Summer trackdays in AZ are too hot for me. In preparation for that trackday, I had installed E track in our trailer, since my Miata tie down setup wasn't going to work for the Camaro. I also finally finished the work tops on the bench I built up front. In June we took a little 4000 mile road trip, taking the Camaro along in the trailer, so I got to use my new tie down straps, and try things out. Worked perfectly. Drove the Camaro over the Chief Joseph Scenic Hwy and Beartooth pass on the trip. Spectacular road and scenery! I had been a little worried about conditions, and Beartooth Pass only opened about a week before our trip. Turned out not to be a problem, as the roads were dry that day. Still plenty of snow up there though... these pics were taken June 19th... The Camaro continues to impress me. It's a really good GT car. Now I need to get those camber plates installed and a few other things to get ready for the track weekend in September. We'll be headed to Willow Springs in CA for the Alfa Club's Driver School. Oh, we had to take a pic with the Jolly Green Giant on our way home... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodan Posted August 10, 2019 Author Share Posted August 10, 2019 Finally got the camber plates installed in the Camaro. Next up was alignment, which went fine, but I have to rant a bit about GM and their engineering decisisons... <rant on> So, GM in their questionable wisdom decided to use TTY (torque to yield) fasteners for the rear camber and toe adjustment bolts. I wasn't certain of this, but after doing a bit of research and confirming it, I ordered the proper bolts. Then I had to put the alignment back because it took longer than expected to get them in. First, why in the HELL would you use a one-time fastener on something that adjusts alignment! Second, if you choose to do something that stupid, the dealer should effing keep the bolts in stock! So, I get to the shop, and the tech gets it up and after a while he comes into the waiting room to talk. Now, this is a good tech, and he's done alignments for me for years. He tells me that there's no way to change the rear camber bolt without removing the springs... well that makes sense, as the control arm is under spring pressure... again WHY would you use a single-use fastener in this location!!?? After some discussion, we elect to leave the original bolts in-place for now. So, TLDR... if you follow the book, an alignment on a 6th gen Camaro will cost you $500-600 including new TTY bolts and the labor to basically disassemble the entire rear suspension to install them. WTF?? <rant off> Good news is I was able to hit the alignment numbers I was looking for, and the car drives great. I'm trying to determine if I'm going to replace those bolts next time... at least I have them in stock. Oh, and the Camaro hit 10k the other day... Also did an oil/filter change while the car was up for the camber plates. I think it's all ready for our track outing coming up in September. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodan Posted October 7, 2019 Author Share Posted October 7, 2019 Time for another update.... Our run of bad luck in getting the Camaro to the track continued in September, with me dealing with a leg injury (IT band and Patellofemoral Pain) that caused me to cancel our event at Willow Springs. I knew I wasn't going to be up for an 8 hour tow there, two days climbing in/out of the Miata and in/out of the camper then an 8 hour tow home. And I was right... Things started looking better towards the end of the month, so I signed up for a track day at Wild Horse Pass East course in Phoenix, and we finally got the Camaro on the track Saturday! I'm still not at the point where I want to be climbing in/out of the Miata, so we decided a simple one-car trackday was in order and just took the Camaro. We pitted next to another ZL1, and there were a total of 8(!) ZL1s in attendance. The ZL1 worked great out on the track, and was surprisingly easy to drive for a 4000lb car with 650hp! I even went out for a session with all the nannies off, and it didn't try to kill me. My wife finally got to drive it on track, and she got a new track under her belt. I had run there before (a lot), but never in a car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredrik94087 Posted October 8, 2019 Share Posted October 8, 2019 most awesome! "It's within spec" - SOA "Depth is only shallowness viewed from the side." - Fredism "So, how much did it cost for your car to be undriveable ." - Stephen (very close friend) "You have done so much it would be stupid to go back." - Sunny of Guru Electronics 2018Q50RS | 2015WrxThread | Shrek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodan Posted November 19, 2019 Author Share Posted November 19, 2019 Spent the weekend at Inde Motorsports Ranch in southern AZ with the Porsche Club.... Wifey driving: Me driving: I only drove the car a couple of sessions, here's video from one session on Sunday: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now