Well tonight my beautiful Imperial Blue Metallic SS Camaro is sitting in my garage.
I'm still kind of in shock that it's actually here. After all the months of waiting, reading, tracking production status, getting excited to see an actual VIN, downloading and studying my window sticker, etc. Today I was called by my dealer and I went down and picked it up.
I said goodbye to my RX8 and drove home in my new Camaro. I had intended to follow a special performance break-in procedure that requires you follow it for the first 20 miles of the life of the car, but I was forever robbed of that by some fine soul at the dealer who decided they had the right to put 39 miles on my car before I picked it up. The car arrived at the rail yard Saturday and I picked it up this afternoon on Monday so I'm guessing sometime on Sunday this asshat whoever he was had a good time driving around with my car.
This is the process I had intended to follow but I'll never get to do it now because it has to be done in the first 20 miles:
http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm
My only hope is the "asshat" who I'm sure thought he was being real slick by borrowing my car, MAY have done me a favor and driven it hard the first 20 miles anyways. I won't know until I dyno it.
That was the only negative of the experience today. The car was dirty as I had left strict instructions to NOT wash it or wipe it down. I did my own prep following the procedure detailed in the following post:
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26594
I had bought their detail kit and that part went well; after clay barring the surface the car shone like a mirror. I'd never used a clay bar before and I could not only feel it pulling stuff off the paint, I could actually hear it picking stuff up. Using the microfiber cloth to dry it that came with the kit, it was like drying glass the surface was so smooth.
The car is SO NICE!!! It's deceptively quick too; I would have sworn I was doing about 35 and I looked at the speedo and I was doing 51. It doesn't feel as fast as it is.
I know people have said they can't hear the exhaust but I thought it sounded pretty good; even with the windows rolled up.
The interior is just beautiful. The two-tone grey cloth looks really sharp and the ribbed texture of the cloth on the seats looks really classy. The dash looks pretty neat at night; has a kind of futuristic retro look, like something the designers back then would have thought looked futuristic.
The car is big; definitely bigger than my RX8 was but it doesn't handle awkwardly like you'd expect. For all the world it feels like I'm driving a machine version of a big jungle cat; big, lithe, muscular, fast when necessary, effortless graceful movement, powerful.
It has a familiar feel; the view out the back is so reminiscent of my old 69 RS 327 I had way back when. I had the mirrors adjusted in no time and old habits for the right rear quarter view came right back.
After I pulled it in the garage I just stood and stared at it for awhile; still hasn't completely sunk in that the wait is over and it's actually here!!! hehehe
Reading the forum, waiting.... had kind of become a way of life lol. Now I get to begin my project...it's HERE!!!!!