Wish I had my car here.

I am currently living in Germany, and boy do I wish I had my car with me here.  I recently took a drive on the autobahn from Frankfurt, where I live, to Prague, in the Czech Republic.  This is a drive of 500km (320miles), and more than half of it has no speed limit, including a stretch of about 200km in a row without any speed limits. 

This would have been fantastic if not for the lousy car I was in.  My rented car was a Renault Scenic.  Its more or less what you'd get if a mini-van and a hatch back mated.  In other words, not good.  It was tall and boxy, and the 1.9l diesel engine wasn't particularly impressive either.  As a result, I think I topped out at about 180kph which is about 115 mph, and generally tried to settle in at about 170 because much faster just didn't feel safe. 

I can only imagine how much more enjoyable this drive would have been in my car.  The nice low center of gravity and profile would have been so much nicer for passing big trucks on the highway.  The power would have really made use of the open space with no speed limits.  Not to mention that its more comfortable to sit in that the rental car was. 

RAM Stage 3 clutch.. Fantastic

Well, I've been driving the car around a bit more recently so I decided it was time to replace my clutch with a new one capable of handling the power that I am putting down.

After talking with the owner of the shop that was going to do the work (he does LOTS of performance work), we ended up going with a new RAM stage 3 clutch and billet steel flywheel.  The clutch is a bit of overkill, but I figured that the car is more likely to have more power at some point down the road than less.  It is capable of holding about 650rwhp and torque, much more than the 400 that I have.

What a difference, its like driving a totally different car.  First off, there is no slip to it, the friction point goes from disengaged to fully engaged with almost no pedal travel.  I am not even embarrassed to admit that the first time I tried to pull out with the new clutch in, I stalled.  Now that I'm past the 500 break in miles... WOW.  I can now go full throttle in 1st gear again and the clutch doesn't slip.  I can shift from 1 to 2 and the clutch holds.

I guess now its time to head to the drag strip when I get a chance, which will be next spring since I am over seas for a while right now.

Smile for the camera!

Some pics of the car...

Mother Nature Defies Me

Well, we had a nice week there, every day was sunny and mid 70s, with no rain, overnight lows in the 40s or low 50s. Unfortunately, that was the weekdays. The weekends on both sides of that week were not so nice. Now this week its been nothing but rain, most of the day, every day. Bleh. I'm not sure I've even really tried to drive my Camaro in rainy conditions, but I'm sure it wouldn't be all that enjoyable. I have enough trouble keeping the tires hooked up on a nice sunny day that I just don't want the hassle of driving in this weather. Plus, I have a '10 328i xDrive that is nice to drive on lousy days... Even last week when it was nice, sure I drove it to work, but sitting in traffic in this car just doesn't quite have the same appeal as getting it out and driving it on some open roads.

Nonetheless, I hope to have a sunny day soon to get the car out for a drive.

Spring Time

Man there is nothing quite like the weather warming back up after a long winter. That first day its warm enough to take the t-tops off and take the car out is a day everyone that had the option looks forward to. Unfortunatly it has been an unseasonably cold spring so far, so those days have been few and far between. Taking the tops off, turning the radio down, and just listening to the glorious 8 cylinder symphony, especially when accented by a nice big cam, and going for a drive is one of life's simple pleasures.

Back on the road

After being more or less snowed in for about 2 months, and being generally not interested in driving her in well below freezing temperatures for a number of reasons. I was finally able to get the camaro out and drive her today. Even though all I did was drive to work this morning (there will be a subsequent drive home as well), there is still, even after nearly 3 years, something intoxicating about the feel of all that power. The roar of the exhaust, the feel of the engine trying to twist in the frame, and the acceleration, you can't forget the acceleration. I can't wait for spring to get here.

No Go In the Snow

Unfortunately this January saw the east coast hit with weekly storms, ranging from dropping a few inches of snow on us, to over a foot. As you might imagine, this kind of weather doesn't agree with many 500hp rwd sports cars, traction control or not. As a result, it has unfortunatly been a while since I have been able to get the Camaro out for a drive.

The good news is that things are looking up. The temperatures this coming week have highs in the upper 40s to low 50s, and lows at around freezing, and there doesn't look to be much rain in the forcast either. Hopefully this means I will be able to get the car out and exercise it a bit. I am not a huge fan of letting a car just sit, thats how things mysteriously go bad.

Like New Again

Well, I picked the camaro up from the body shop the other day. It was dark already, but even so, I could tell it looked better. All the dents on the hood were fixed up, and it was repainted. While he was at it, I had him respray the lower front end too so that any little rock chips etc would be cleaned up. The marks from when it was egged are all cleaned up, as was the rock dent on the right rear and the bubbles in the clearcoat (age spots) were cleaned up on the rear lid. All in all the car was basically toally repained, and some panel gaps re-aligned.

She looks like showroom pretty. I even had the headlight lenses cut and polished to bring them back to sparkle clear.

This just reaffirms that there is nothing better looking than a shiny black car with nice polished up chrome rims...