I'm the big one on the left. Just bought that beautiful 2001 Z28 Camaro from a fellow friend and longtime autocrosser. I've been autocrossing for 20 years with the NNJR, SJR, and Philly Regions of the SCCA and this is my first personal RWD car (although I have autocrossed a wide variety of cars).

Looking forward to learning a ton from you all as to how to maintain and develop the F-Body. I'm excited at the opportunity.

Welcome to the site Mario.

Congrats!!!! You're going to love the Fbody so much more than Hondas!

What are your plans with the car? There is a lot of great information on this site, but feel free to ask.

Welcome aboard! That's the color I wanted in 2002 when I wound up buying my black Z28 (it was the last 6 speed car on a dealers lot for a hundred miles or so, so I bought a black one).

Welcome to the Site!!!

Welcome!

Welcome, used to have an old prelude myself. Miss that thing. Have fun with the new ride, if you need some wide wheels for it let me know I have a set that needs to go.

ok when you buy an f-body you need a good user name honda93 is not one of them Have I taught you nothing

I asked him for a screen name to build an account. I just build 'em as I get 'em. I don't try to talk anybody out of it. Besides, we can't all be "01 Z28". lol.

Funny how the guy with a honda username has a drivable F-body... and you don't.

Stop sucking up to tony he is still going to make fun of you when he out raw times you

I'm not sucking up to anyone, I already told him he'll be running CP or CAM by the end of the season!

Maybe Tony will feel sorry and let you co-drive his.

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome!!!

Ah, so my good friends Kevin and Chris have found me. The insults will be plentiful and well-intentioned. LOL!

In other news... Old, petrified Kumho XS tires suck in misty, damp 45* weather. The Camaro had winter tires that came with it in the hatch (I have since put them on the car), but I should have - I wanted to - do them on Sunday when I picked up the car. However, it was my middle child's 4th birthday and I spent the day inside instead. I worked all day Monday 8am to 10pm and as such, I was going to put the winter tires on Tuesday when I got out of work early for Christmas break. Unfortunately, due to the weather and the fact that the previous owner didn't drive the car much the last few years, the wipers also took a crap and visibility was horrible.

So many factors worked against me and I spun the car in a lazy, "WTF?" manner on an off-ramp and kissed the curb with the LR at about 20mph. It was a WTF moment because I was driving at 1/10 to maybe 2/10. I didn't think ANYTHING could be tail happy at such a low speed and low level of aggression!

Regardless, I damaged that LR wheel and inflicted some damage to the LF. The rest of the chassis and suspension seems OK. I'll check it over a little more this weekend. I now know that you must be as focused in this, even in mundane driving, as you are on the autocross course... Especially if the road conditions are less than ideal.

What should I be looking for regarding damage besides alignment issues considering I wasn't going that fast when I hit the curb?

Front spindles on these cars seem to bend with little provocation. They won't bend sitting in your garage, but it doesn't seem to take much of a bump to bend one. Typically they bend in the direction of positive camber and I wouldn't be surprised to find a bent on after an impact like you describe. Check the alignment and see if the settings match side to side, then see if the adjusters are in roughly the same place in their respective slots.

Glad it wasn't worse and nobody was hurt.

Thanks!

When you slide the left rear into a curb you put the panhard bar into compression. You may want to check where the bar meets the bushings for bends. I might have a factory panhard bar lying around if you need it.

If not, I'm quite sure that I do. But it's from a 3rd gen so it would likely need the bushings changed to fit the 4th gen bolts (probably not worth the effort).

Just put a good heim/heim PHB on it and start moving towards ESP (if there still is an ESP class....they keep changing things).

Thanks Chris. I'll be changing the oil tomorrow, so after I'm done with that, I'll reinspect the LR and take a good look at the Panhard Bar.

Thus the torch has been passed

Does this mean I have to give up my avatar now?

Not at all, Mark! Keep the avatar and make sure you check in periodically!

Check the LR axle for cracking at the base of the hub flange, check PH and PH brace, LF hub, tie rod, tie rod end and knuckle.

Has the neutral position of the steering wheel changed at all since the spin? Any more play in the steering than before?

Welcome to the board. Sorry to hear about the first poor weather experience. I love my car on warm dry pavement with sticky tires, however add moisture and cold temps to that mix and I would much rather run around the track in my beater (Grand Am)!

I put blizzak's (and similar) winter tires on my 2002 and drove it daily in Ohio for 5 years. Honestly it wasn't that bad and I never got it stuck. Just like racing, tires, tires, tires, tires, tires....that's the key to bad weather driving as well. I will warn you that snow tires are quite "squishy" and terribly unresponsive. Also, going wide open throttle in 2nd gear to merge one day caused me to leave two stripes to almost 80 mph. It would spin the tires through second gear with only a lid and a K&N filter for mods. The tires are that soft.

^^^^What he said!!

One thing though, even with the very BEST, sticky, winter tires (Nokian Hakka R2s), in a narrow size (215/60-16) on 7" wide wheels, with 200# of weight in the hatch, these cars will have some trouble with VERY steep uphills on ice.