[marka]

Howdy,

So, I finally picked up the camaro I've been talking about for the last 6 months or so...

It's a '99 w/65k miles. Bunch of modifications & extra parts. I paid $5k for it, but needed to go to Texas to get it.

Yes, that's a low price... The seller is my best friend from college. He's been a chip designer since getting out of school, but got tired of that and is moving w/his wife to Switzerland to get a doctorate in Psychology for the next five years or so. He sold the car to me at a low price because it was a lot less hassle for him, plus I think he wanted it to go to someone who would appreciate it.

Anyway, the car is pretty cool. Its got:

Suspension:
* GC ride height adjusters
* koni sa fronts, tokico rears
* 550# front 200# rear springs (he thinks... I haven't looked yet)
* Stock swaybars
* rear drop brackets on the axle for the LCA's
* 17x9.5 wheels w/ 275/45 Nitto NT555R2's
* Random Tech torque arm

Drivetrain:
* AL flywheel / strong clutch (not sure on specs... Its driveable, but not as good as stock)
* Mac headers, gutted cats, Bassani exhaust
* MTI Airbox lid
* Pro 5.0 shifter (_LOVE_ the feel of this, but its pretty noisy)
* Underdrive crank pulley

Other:
* Wilwood 6 piston front brakes
* braided brake lines
* 4 point welded in rollbar
* Sparco reclining 'race seat' driver's seat
* Service manuals
* Trailer hitch

Needs work:
* Stock torsen is dead. T2R on the way
* Rear ring gear has a stripped bolt hole. 3.73's in a new housing sitting in my trailer at home.
* spongy brake pedal after hard cornering... My buddy thinks its the rear axles moving and kicking the rear pads back, but nobody knows for sure yet.
* There's also a bunch of gear whine off throttle... More than I've heard in any other car, but my buddy says its been that way from new (he's the original owner)
* Center console isn't there, he took it out / hacked it because he kept hitting his elbow.
* Randome Tech torque arm on the car needs rod ends.

Not installed:
* Spoon rear lca's, panhard, and torque arm. LCAs and panhard need rod ends.
* Another set of 17x9.5's w/dead A032's
* Stock front brakes (maybe two sets? Not sure...)
* Stock torque arm
* Stock driver's seat
* Stock rear seat
* another trashed stock torsen
* Stock springs/shocks
* Stock airbox


Some pictures are here: http://www.maracing.com/texas/

My wife Laura and I decided to make getting the car a mini "driving vacation"... We left last Friday around 5pm from our house in Youngstown, OH, drove towards St. Louis for five or six hours. The next day, we got to St. Louis around 1pm or so, spent a couple hours checking out the Gateway Arch, then met a friend of Laura's from grad school for an early dinner/late lunch. Back on the road around 6pm...

...but that only lasted an hour or so before a couple people drove past us holding up handwritten signs that said "you lost a tire". I couldn't see anything in the mirrors and the trailer was pulling straight, but we got off and sure enough the right rear wheel on the trailer was gone. Not flat... Gone. All five studs had sheared off. So we found an autoparts store, I disassembled the hub, pounded out the broken studs, pounded/pulled in new ones, and reassembled (along with tightening the lugs on the remaining wheels). It could have been a _lot_ worse... The auto parts store had outside lights so I could see, they had most everything we needed parts-wise, etc. Two hours later we were back on the road with the trailer spare mounted on the hub w/new lugs.

After stopping for the night, got to Texas the next day around 9pm. Loaded everything up, with a few moments of "how in the hell is this all gonna fit". You can't see it in the pictures, but the rear of the truck is full to above the beltline with a bunch of tools my buddy was selling... A local friend is getting most of them (unless I can talk him into trading me on the compressor). Car was pretty full as well. After loading everything up, we stayed up way to late catching up.

Got up "early" the next morning and headed out. We stopped at a local trailer place and picked up a new spare & spare tire carrier. Between the late start and that, we only really got going out of Austin, TX around noon or so. Drove to somewhere in AK and spent the night.

The next day (Tuesday), we drove the rest of the way to some of Laura's family in KY. Got there in time for dinner. Spent the evening meeting them (me) and catching up (Laura). Next morning we got up, had a leisurely breakfast with them, then headed out. Got home last night around 6pm or so, back at work today. Tomorrow I'll work from home (Youngstown, OH) so that I can do the running around to get the car registered and such. This is kinda a pain... You need to go to the licence agency so that they can verify the vin (since its coming from out of state), then to the courthouse for the title, then back to the license agency to get plates. Efficency in action... :-)

Anyway, after the work on the "serious" car (ES MR2 autox car) gets done, I'll be digging into the camaro. The stock brakes, Spoon torque arm (probably), trailer hitch, and sparco driving seat are gonna get sold. I don't need the hitch and the sparco driving seat is easily the best reclining seat I've sat in, but I want something that has sub belt holes & is fixed back for track stuff. This car will be a "play" car, used for track days, some autox maybe, etc.

That's enough for now! :-)

Mark

[PF Flyer]

... well one is replacing the factory axles with a Moser replacement. Beside the 'fracturing' that can (and does) occur with the factory axles, you'll get a better tolerance all the way around.

... and two, there really isn't one, except to keep near new pads in place and watch rotor wear. There usually isn't much wear on the retaining pin inside the spool, but it should be checked regularly.