It was my 1st trip to Carlisle, and I brought my best friend Keith who has a 95 convertible. We drove my 2010 IOM 2SS/RS w/ IO interior the 1:45 minutes from Gaithersburg Md.
Highlight of the trip: Elbow to Elbow with Rockstars!
Right before leaving got the opportunity to pose with Scott Settlemire, Cheryl Pilcher, John Fitzpatrick, Al Oppenheiser and John Cox in front of my Car after all 5 had signed under the hood. Scott even went so far as to get on bent knee and hug my car. I felt like a neglecting parent thinking to myself that that was probably the first time in its 2200 mile youth that my baby had been hugged. At least it came from the Fbodyfather
Rockstars on stage doing Q&A for the fans.
I also heard the underlying tone about the Z28, and that nothing has been ruled out .I got up, praised them for my Car, noted that my wife seems to steal it away more than I had expected, and I asked a couple questions hoping to improve on a couple areas.
1) My feeling that the L99 Auto upshifts to 6th and locks the converter too early, and holds it there to forcefully. This has made traffic driving in the 45-50 mph range (the motor turning 1000-1100 rpms) seem sluggish and unresponsive. A. Al says there is still the likelihood that it will learn my preferences more and adjust itself more, and to also try S (sport) mode more without using the paddles. If that does not improve things the dealer is on a call each week that he sits in on, and they can raise any abnormalities to him then.
2) I asked if they had seen any similar L99 chassis Dyno runs similar to my 305 hp on a superflow Dyno. Al and the team did not have any real explanations, but I will continue to test and explore if there were any abnormalities in my dyno pull.
Vendors:
SLP is on the ball, cat back systems are shipping early, headers pricing will be revealed within the week, and lots of new products are in development. I like the modular exhaust idea (header, center sections, and cat back) I was told that should the exhaust prove too loud that there was a place to bolt bullet mufflers into the center section.
Magnaflow could have made a better showing Camaro wise. They took me over to see their freshly shipped Camaro Exhaust systems they had rushed in the night before. Nice big white boxes, that was all I saw. Displaying them prominently would have been smart. I mean at least open the freaking boxes.
Tom Henry
Doing a lot of well thought out subtle improvements that give the car a touch of class.
Little things: TRSC1970, like the chrome engine compartment add ons, need to find those. Front airdam install instructions need revising, else you have problems ( thanks Tim for showing me around) ZZCamaro, interesting valve covers. He’s has done some internal mods and looks like he’s getting some very impressive dyno numbers. Tag UR It, like his painted on stripes and accents.
Scott Settlemire, he says his dear old mom just got her Camaro, so I guess I can’t complain that mine did not make for my 25yr HS reunion (I mean who would have better connections at Chevrolet then her?)
John Cox, both he and Al said tunes were in the future for performance enhancements from the factory. He said that the application of stripes at the dealers has been an issue, and that mine should be redone.
I said I liked the LS7 CARS wheels, look like factory, but wider and more aggressive. I told him I liked, but really liked the concept wheels. HE said I was not alone on both accounts, and that maybe in the future it would be something that would be available (but no promises).
Al Oppenheiser, he personally drives the cars at several tracks. Without rev limiter, they have gotten 175-180 (unofficially) out of the LS3. For some reason they do not get the L99 much past the 155 even without the rev limiter. (he did not get specifics as to why) He did say the L99 auto was up to the task on the road course, and it could run all day. He led me to believe the Auto trans was better than I give it credit for.
Well, that’s my report. Below are some pics, enjoy