Admission $8
Overpriced bottled water $2.50
Metro and parking fee $9

Getting to see the Camaro concept in person (finally).

PRICELESS!

Man, I love it in the pictures, but in person it's even better. I know there's lots of haters here so that's all I'm gonna say.

Other show high/lowlights:

New Tundra: Definitely a half ton. An improvement but I don't see the big deal especially in the looks dept. Had some thoughtful features (storage bins here and there, nice adjustable tie-downs) though. They had a rolling chassis there so you could see a lot of the features. Has a 2 piece driveshaft which is a good idea for NVH, but 2X as many u-joints to fail. Rear is 1/2 ton size, front brake rotors are huge diameter but the swept area isn't that much. Rear calipers are *tiny*. Trans was physically small looking for a 6-speed. Dash looked unattractive and the gauge pods that stuck out were cheap feeling. Overall an improvement, but I can't see it being a world beater.

New Silverado: I loved the looks up close, interior very classy and attractive. Some materials looked so-so, but an improvement over my truck. Time will tell how it holds up. Dash/gauges/wheel was a great thing to be behind. Seat leather was very nice. Back seat good, not great room-wise. Fold up was nice and easy and it's a split fold. No built-in bed tie down system Only a bulky bolt-on unit that I wouldn't want. Absolutely should be built-in as well as a Titan-style bed-box. No excuse for not having that. No HDs at either Chevy or GMC. Overall no contest, though, I'd pick it out of all the full-size trucks.

New Ford SD: A face only a mother could love. Just looks weird with big lights on the bottom. I dunno, just out of proportion or something. Size vents are strange, but OK I guess. Built in step/handle on the tailgate is *genius*, bravo Ford. They had an F450 there right next to an F350. Was a King Ranch model and looked to be a much more sane choice compared to the C4500 caricature of a pickup by Chevy. F450 had *huge* components underneath, but probably didn't sit higher than the F350. Hard to tell the difference at first glance. 10-lug low-pro semi wheels/regroovable tires gave it away. Would love to tell you about the interior, but all SDs were *locked*. Huh??

GT500: locked, Why? Lame.

Z06: Open and great! CF trim, fantastic seats, everything right where you want it. Good job Chevy.

Saturn Sky: Looks and feels like it should cost much more. Lots of aluminum up front and the redline turbo setup was sweet. Great seats/wheel/dash.

GM and D-C gets a big thumbs-up for making great use of the show area with quite a few concepts and grouping all brands together, but having good enough separation between them. They did a much better job than Ford.

We enjoyed the show and the weekend as well. We were privileged to be guests of Scott Settlemire aka Fbodfather (Manager of Shows and Exhibits, GM & Hummer & the #1 Camaro fan in GM) Thursday - Sunday.

I tried to emphasize to Scott how important it was that they got stuff right for the autocross crowd, and have subsequently passed Sam Jr's contact information on to him. Hopefully the Engineering team will talk with Sam and bake in some "good stuff".

I'm a convert for the new Camaro. When I first saw the pics on the web I didn't like it, but was drooling when I saw it at the auto show. It is perfect as far as exterior and I'm sure the interior will get changed a little for production. BigEnos and I just stood there watching the Camaro for a while.

GM didn't have the new 2500's at the show, only 1500's. It gave me an idea as to what the 2500's would be like. The interior was nice, but with all the hype I was expecting more. Although I sat in an LT1 which is middle ground on the option package list.

Out of curiosity, how do you know about driveshaft NVH?

Uh, I guess this is a serious question. My truck has a DS harmonic when it's unloaded at a certain speed on the highway. I'm *assuming* it's a DS harmonic.

My 4th gen. never had much of a problem, but I took it in and had it replaced with the aluminum TSB unit under warranty anyway

I was over analyzing a bit Your comment about the driveshafts made me think that you might work in the field, but then I looked at your location and that didn't make sense. But your comment about 1 pc vs. 2pc NVH wasn't too far off. Big 1 piece driveshafts are more prone noise problems IF the system isn't integrated properly. There have been some big advancements in this field in the past few years and Toyota is behind.

A 2 piece driveshaft has 3 u-joints to get from the trans/t-case to axle so each u-joint should have less angle which should improve life. The drawback to the 2 pcs is cost, complexity, weight and sometimes a lauch shudder issue.

Toyota hasn't been building big trucks long enough to know what they need.

Somewhere between 70 - 75 mph?

Me too... I guess it's not just my truck / tires / whatever.



I can't help but think of that Oshawa Silverado plant tour vid I found online somewhere (downloaded - saved). It shows every step of vehicle assembly including the guy swinging / dropping the driveshaft into place. (frame and axle are flipped upside down at this point)

Mine is from @68-72mph. Close enough!

What year, model, wheel base, engine, 4x4 or 4x2 do you guys have?

2003 4X4 2500HD 6.0L Ext cab short bed.

I should have called it
Let me guess, you have a Dana 5" aluminum driveshaft with 1410 u-joints and a 10.5" axle and a 4L80 trans There is a know problem out there for that. I'll see if I can find out more.

Yeah definitely let me know. I *think* it's a steel DS, though, but I'll peek under there when I trek to the truck later.

Yup. Without looking under the truck to refresh my memory, I'm 99% sure the driveshaft is steel.

If it is steel, then I'm thinking of a different truck and I don't think there is anything out there to fix it.