I had of course been surfing the web looking for a shop to deal with for my mods. I made a trip to Fastlane, talked to GForce at one of the Chevy shows at the GRB Convention Center, and got a quote from LMR. Having just moved to the Houston area, I wanted a shop that I could just drop in and bounce ideas off of, some down to earth guys that didn't make me feel like I was bothering them with all my questions and taking money from them because I wanted to install the bolt-ons myself.
Well I had seen this burly guy in a big Ford truck rolling through my neghborhood several times with an LMR sticker covering the back windshield. Who knew it was Josh - one of the owners? Now of course I didn't get any special discuont out of that, but hey, my thoughts were that he couldn't hide if something went wrong right.
Well I tell you what, these guys are so down to earth and personable. They just frickin' love what they do.
And it doesn't hurt that they are some of the best at what they do. I haven't spent a lot of money with these guys but they have always been easy to talk to.
(It's not that I don't want to spend money, I just have big eyes and a little wallet.) LMR ROCKS!
http://www.latemodelracecraft.com/
back to the mods...
LMR CAI NOT CURRENT CAI - CHANGED TO ROTO-FAB TO INSTALL WINDSHIELD WASHER RELOCATE
The CAI was of course the first mod, and I was surprised that you could hear the difference of the engine sucking in a whole lot more air. The LMR CAI was simple and easy - and plastic so it kept my worries about heat transfer down. no tune for now.
ARH Headers, Cats, and X-Pipe
Dec. '09 with 400 miles and a few big boxes from LMR - I love Christmas!!
The car goes up on jack stands in my garage with some help from my son and dad (I waited until my dad was there so we could do all do it together), and after a few more questions to ARH and LMR we had the headers, cats and exhaust on the car and sounding AWESOME. I put on the system that stops at the rear axle. I figured most of my gains would be in the headers and cats, and I didn't see the need to change out the mufflers yet since I wasn't going FI - and besides I could always do that anytime. I have a sound clip but it sounds bad because it overranges my video camera. I wish I had a picture of my face with that ear-to-ear smile. My dad and I took her for a spin and holy moly!!! me likely!
the throttle response.....
the power.....
the sound.....
and then LMR got another 11 HP from tuning it for the new parts.
I'll try to find the dyno sheet and post it up. 412 rwhp.
the bugs...I couldn't quite get the exhaust system to bolt up and quit rattling on the tunnel brace or the aluminum shield. One of the cats was quite difficult to get onto the header - silly me I was worried that I could pry to hard and break something on the header. So the great guys at LMR pu the girl on the lift and took a look with me. Come to find out, I had the x-pipe on upside down. Now during installation, I had put this thing on both ways, and called ARH and I swore I put it on the way they said to. But after taking the car back home and turning it over, everything was great. The exhaust needs cycle hot/cold a few times and get up to temperature to find the sweet spot in where it will end up. After that, the exhaust has been great.
First Event - Cars and Coffee
My first event was a Cars and Coffee in Uptown Park (Houston) where I met the guys from H-Town Camaro club. I've never been in a car club before, but these guys are first class - easy going and firendly, and they'll quickly accept you as one of their own. Everyone loved the exhaust. Turns out, my car is louder than the one of the guys with Kooks headers and SLP loudmouth exhaust!
Second Event - Cars and Coffee; Cruising in with the LMR gang
I only post this because of its significance - it lead to my second mod of mounting the fire extinguisher.
Let's just say that I was the slowest car there. We met at the LMR shop and cruised in 290 to 610 to Upstown park - It didn't take long.
Well OK it took me a little longer. As we were getting onto the 610 loop, this black Charger SRT8 starts falling back (I'm bringing up the rear of course). I pull up next to him and he throws his hands up like
"I don't know what's wrong"
. So we pull over and his car starts smoking from under the hood - UH-OH!! Open the hood and instant flames. I see that it's near the intake so I try to smother with my leather jacket. Of course neither of us had a fire extinguisher and frickin no body would stop to help!!!
Then the guys yells like Dom from the Fast and Furious... NOS!!! We grab the race gas and the NOS bottle and put them in my car. And there's nothing we can do but watch it burn...
sorry for the bad cell phone pics... but I'm not a photographer as you can tell by my other photos
and that led to......
fire extinguisher mod
Safety first boys and girls... because accidents last.