Since everyone but Speed is still waiting for their new and improved Lingerized Camaros I thought we could collect a few of our thoughts on why we do what we do to our Camaros.
To all of my fellow LPE Camaro brothers: What made you take a brand new high performance car, and the Camaro ranks pretty high performance wise completely stock and spend a small fortune to Lingerize it? Since I am asking I guess I should go first.
I have had a love affair with Camaros since I was 15 and a buddy and his dad tricked out a ’67 Camaro. We had a lot of fun in that car and my Father would never have gone for such a thing. I always told myself that one of these days I would have one of my own. Well about 17 years later I took the plunge and bought a ’69 SS350 convertible and have been working on it on and off for about 7 years. I could go on for hours about what I have done to her, but it suffices to say I don’t lack much to finish her in my eyes. Time is scarce nowadays and I may just pay someone to finish her up.
When the new Camaro design first hit I was fascinated. Man here was a brand new, high tech modern ’69 Camaro, but as things progressed I learned it is much more. They combined just enough of the old styling hints to give her a retro look but the feel is all new. I learned just how good this feel was when I got my hands on my own 2010 ride. The ride quality was awesome and the handling was amazing for a domestic car. The only thing that took some getting used to was the interior, very minimal and a little too high tech for my taste, but have grown to like it. It just works and fits the car much better after you use it a while.
The performance is really good for a modern street car, there where trade offs for the sake of drivability and fuel economy. I just felt like a car with 426 horses under should feel faster, a result of the gearing for the sake of fuel economy and drivability. I can remember the head snapping acceleration of my buddies ’67, but I also remember him staying off the freeway because it was turning 4500 rpms at 60 mph. So the trick for me was to find a way to get that fast feel without giving up reliability or drivability. I have always heard of the phenomenal work at LPE from their work on the Corvette, and stumbled across their work on the new LS3 G8’s. When they started talking about doing the Camaro’s I didn’t hesitate on contacting them to do my car.
Now I won’t sit here and tell everyone that ego is not in play here, I have always wanted that bad ass car everyone else wants. However, this is mostly about what I want in a car now that I can afford it. Truth is I still have enough of the 18 year old kid in me that wants to go fast and look cool. I think I heard Jay Leno talk about how nothing keeps us young like a good burnout.
How true is that?
Who is next?