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Old 10-10-2012, 02:46 PM   #1
TSSUNAMI
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TSSUNAMI's 2011 CGM 1SS/RS

TSSUNAMI'S 2011 CGM 1SS RS



After several years on these forums I think it's time that I took a few moments and started a build journal.

A little background. In late 2009 I had essentially reached a pretty terrible point in my life. I had just gotten divorced, I had let myself go pretty badly, my weight had risen to an astronomical 340 lbs. My finances were in shambles.

I was at a turning point. I worked hard, worked out even harder. By early 2010 I had lost about 60 lbs, started putting my finances back together and met an amazing woman who I have been happy with for almost 4 years now. As a reward to myself for turning everything around my girlfriend (at the time, we are now engaged) suggested that I purchase a new car. This was right about when I saw the new 5th Gen. A friend of mine 55SSRS, had sent me a few pictures of a yellow camaro that he had seen at a dealership, that planted the seed.

However, my finances were still making a comeback. I had some major setbacks due to my divorce, so I had to wait another year until I could buy my camaro without making a terrible decision. I didn't want to take a high interest rate, so I chose to save more money for a down payment while I rebuilt that almighty score!

Fast forward to Febuary 2011: I had gotten my weight down to 225 lbs that's right over 100lbs just by lifting weights and not eating so much garbage, my credit score to a reasonably high level, and I had the full support of my amazing, patient, mod friendly (haha) fiancee.

It was time to call Becky Doyle at Rodger's Chevrolet. I chose Becky because the local dealerships just wouldn't work with me on a price. They all wanted MSRP or higher. Fortunately through these forums I was able to PM Becky, and after many phone calls and emails, we ordered a 2011 1SS/RS with the BA sound system, Hurst shifter, in Cyber Grey Metallic!




^This was fresh off of the truck! It came in late on a friday, and I had to wait until Monday to take delivery. That, my friends was torture!!

I work late swing shift at a casino, so I got out of work that monday morning at about 5 am. I went home, changed clothes, and took my fiancee's car to East Syracuse Chevrolet (Where Becky arranged to have the car shipped) To pick up my baby. I left my fiancee's car there, and promptly drove to pick up my other baby! (my fiancee) From her shift at the same workplace. Rolling up in a brand new 5th gen to pick her up was such a great feeling. I finally had the girl, and now I had the car too!!! We drove back to East Syracuse to grab her car, and I finally went to bed once we arrived home.


About a month or so after owning the car, I decided that the exhaust was WAY too quiet. I didn't really have the budget for an aftermarket system at the time, so I had my local Cole muffler do a muffler delete on my car.









Next up was a cold air intake. I really loved the idea of an OTR system, and once I saw New Era's OTR I had to have it. I love the rough welds on it, and the concept of pulling fresh air from in front of the engine bay made sense to me. I picked one up used from a forum member for 250.00 (half off FTW!!!) A local UpstateC5 club member helped me install it. (Thank you Ironwill)




Now that I had the exhaust and intake tackled. I thought I was done for a while!! HAHAHAHA Who was I kidding???

Next up I gave Roger At Emblempros a call. I ordered the "Onyx" Camaro fender lettering, as well as the ZR1 Style LS3 badge for my trunk. (I have to find these pics... I have some new ones too that I will update later!)





Next up was a call to Apex Chase at Apex Motorsports!!!! I love the stance of a lowered Camaro, so I chose PFADT for their lowering spring kit. I had them installed at NYE GMC in Oneida NY.


^^You can see the Onyx camaro script in this picture also. To be very honest, pictures do NOT do these justice. On a CGM they literally blend in with the paint and from certain angles they look like they're "ghosted" on. This is exactly what I had wanted when I ordered them!!! Notice how low the car sits now in relation to the water bottle!! WHEEEEE> This is one of the best upgrades that one can make to this car. I was immediately impressed by the improved level of responsiveness from the car, plus much less wheel hop in the rear, and MUCH less lift and dive in the front. Not to mention the MEAN looking new stance.

Just when I thought I would be slowing down, my good friend Ron Robinson posted up a set of long tube headers on the Upstate C5 section. For the price he had posted, I couldn't pass these up, so once again, the wallet opened up... and so did the LS3 under my hood. Holy crap what a noticeable gain!



These are my Pacesetter LT's with HFC's (sitting behind Ron's white SS)

While many argue that I should have gotten TSP's or SP's or Kooks or ARH, hell even OBX: I wasnt' planning on doing headers anytime soon, and these were like-new. For the price I couldn't beat them with a stick. They're coated in pacesetter's "armor coat" and then topped with black VHT paint. I've had them on the car for about 3000 miles now and they are still flawless.


After driving for about 4 months with no tune, and suffering through a heater core replacement, as well as a drive belt replacement (all under warranty) It was now time to give Ted Jannettey a call and let him work some magic on my LS3.

I can say one thing for certain: This man is freaking AMAZING. Prior to the tune, the car felt powerful, but it just felt like something was off. It felt pretty raggged, decel pop was unbearable, and I felt as though I had lost a LOT of power from the lower RPM ranges. Once I had my x3 set up properly I loaded ted's tune into my car. Immediately I could tell that things had changed. The idle was smooth and stable, the car acellerated smoothly tons of grunt from the top to the bottom. The decel pop returned to "normal" levels. Not to mention that I gained an extra MPG with spirited driving.


That's it for mods for now. Car is going into storage in a few weeks and no sense in dumping money into it when I can't enjoy it. New wheels and tires, and a new spoiler are next!!!!


Here are some current pictures. Enjoy!
















Thank you for taking the time to have a look at my "other woman" as my lady calls it! I love this vehicle. Thank you to GM for making it, and thank's to all of the incredible people that I have met on Camaro5 for making this car's ownership more of a lifestyle than a car that gets me from point A to point B.


Current Performance Mods:
New Era OTR CAI (Pics Page1)
Pacesetter LT headers. (Pics Page1)
Muffler Delete. (Pics Page1)
PFADT Lowering springs.
JRE Performance LS3 Tune.
"Strong" MAF sensor.
New Era ported and polished throttle body.
Current Cosmetic Mods:
20x9.5FR, 20x11 Forgestar F14's in textured gunmetal (pics page 4)
Nitto Invo 275-40-20 FR 315-35-20 R tires. (pics page 4)
Big Worm COPO style rear fender stripes and hood spears in red. (pics and DIY write up, Page 1/2)
Emblempro's Onyx Fender script, ZR1 Style trunk "LS3" badge. SS grille emblem. (Pics pages 1, and 4)
Gary's Custom CGM bowties front and rear. (they're in almost every pic, pages 1-4)
Ofer's DRL Harness, P13W 4300 DRL bulbs
Red LED interior footwell and dome lights with custom switch from Ofer (Gen5diy)
Upstate C5 club sticker. (good for at least 20 hp)
Custom painted Heritage grill from River City


TRADED IN June 10, 2014. Too many random problems to make the car enjoyable. Thanks for the ride Camaro5. Loved the car, I even miss it on occasion, but two weeks per summer in the shop on a car that I can only drive half the year is just a bit much for me to bear.

This thread can be way for me to remember what a great time I had buying, modding, driving, and loving this car until the bugs got the best of me. Made some great friends on these forums, and learned a LOT about cars in general.

Thanks for looking. I hope whoever buys this car will love it as much as I did. (and have better luck with reliability)
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Old 10-11-2012, 06:32 AM   #2
TSSUNAMI
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A few of my impressions of some of my mods here:


My New Era OTR Review
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=163939

Muffler Delete
www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=145088

CGM Bowties from Gary's Customs (they came from Darth Emma's MONSTER car. I regard them as a peice of Camaro5 History!!!)
www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=156853
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Old 10-11-2012, 06:33 AM   #3
TSSUNAMI
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Thank You Joebot8484 for posting this video for me!!!!


Here is a fairly current clip of idle, and a 1st through the top of 2nd gear pull leaving a car show.
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Old 10-11-2012, 07:04 AM   #4
TSSUNAMI
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You can see in this photo how the Emblempro's camaro lettering looks in contrast against bright sunlight. They look black in this pic.
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Old 10-18-2012, 05:10 PM   #5
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10-18-2012

Looks like I'm not done for this season.

Just ordered a set of COPO stripes from Dave@BigWorm Graphics. Victory red rear quarter stripes and matching hood spears. Stay Tuned!

Also did the datalogging for Ted Jannettey so that he could refine my tune. Turns out he had it pretty close to perfect on the first go. (Which I had suspected since the car transformed into a flat out rocketship.)

Without a doubt he is one of the best people to work with. He is incredibly fast, doesn't bullshit you or try to sell you things that you don't need. He is also, in my opinion one of the most knowledgeable vendors on this forum. I'm very happy with his product!!!

Pics of the new stripes will be coming next week once they're on the car. Then sadly, it's time to put her away for the winter.
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Old 10-18-2012, 06:22 PM   #6
kjkjr27
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Great story! You def deserve a bad ass car Def gonna be following this good luck!
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Old 10-19-2012, 03:15 PM   #7
TSSUNAMI
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Thanks bro! I actually made this thread after reading your story! For a lot of us these cars mean much more to us than an form of transportation, or something to show off
Really appreciated how you showed us a little bit about yourself in your thread so I thought I would try something similar.

Your car is also very well done! So much of the work done by yourself I don't have the DIY skills yet but I'm working on it :-)

Thanks for the feedback!
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Old 10-19-2012, 03:39 PM   #8
kjkjr27
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TSSUNAMI View Post
Thanks bro! I actually made this thread after reading your story! For a lot of us these cars mean much more to us than an form of transportation, or something to show off
Really appreciated how you showed us a little bit about yourself in your thread so I thought I would try something similar.

Your car is also very well done! So much of the work done by yourself I don't have the DIY skills yet but I'm working on it :-)

Thanks for the feedback!
Thanks , haha I don't really have the DIY skills either just learn them from trying it out for myself lol. So far have gotten pretty luckily and haven't effed something major up yet lol.
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Old 10-20-2012, 04:20 PM   #9
TSSUNAMI
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For the most part a lot of it seems pretty simple if you take your time.

I wish I had a garage for the winter months. The place I'm storing my car doesn't allow access during the storage period.

I'd like to pull my bezels and paint them, have my brembos powdercoated etc. while the car is put up.

Oh well LOL maybe I should stop modding and build a garage!!!

Stripes should be in tuesday, hopefully I can get an appointment quickly to have them installed so I can have that all set before I put it away for the winter.
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Old 10-20-2012, 04:27 PM   #10
kjkjr27
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TSSUNAMI View Post
For the most part a lot of it seems pretty simple if you take your time.

I wish I had a garage for the winter months. The place I'm storing my car doesn't allow access during the storage period.

I'd like to pull my bezels and paint them, have my brembos powdercoated etc. while the car is put up.

Oh well LOL maybe I should stop modding and build a garage!!!

Stripes should be in tuesday, hopefully I can get an appointment quickly to have them installed so I can have that all set before I put it away for the winter.
Well if it makes you feel any better I store my at at my dad's house down in lower NY which is like 300 miles away.
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Old 10-20-2012, 11:48 PM   #11
TSSUNAMI
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Yikes! That's far man. Hopefully I will get to meet y next year
I'm always on the lookout for your iom when I'm in the cuse!
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Old 10-21-2012, 10:16 AM   #12
kjkjr27
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Yikes! That's far man. Hopefully I will get to meet y next year
I'm always on the lookout for your iom when I'm in the cuse!
Haha yea it sucks but atleast I know she is safe . Yea I'm looking forward to meeting you too, you keep ditching me at ESTA haha. Maybe over the winter there may be some get togethers who knows, we can all meet up with our winter beaters lol!
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Old 10-22-2012, 01:49 AM   #13
TSSUNAMI
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Oh man between the heater core meltdown, the drive belt failure and my bald ass tires ESTA just didn't work this year :-(

I really want to know how I run with the LT's and tune.

And when u see my winter beater... you'll think I'm the college kid! Hahaha
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Old 10-22-2012, 05:25 PM   #14
kjkjr27
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Originally Posted by TSSUNAMI View Post
Oh man between the heater core meltdown, the drive belt failure and my bald ass tires ESTA just didn't work this year :-(

I really want to know how I run with the LT's and tune.

And when u see my winter beater... you'll think I'm the college kid! Hahaha
It's all good, next year!. They are having their last T&T on the 28th, I'm gonna go one last time and see if I can break into the 13s lol. And my POS winter beater isn't too impressive either haha
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