Chronicle of the Red Devil - a Lingenfeltered and Pedderized 2010 Camaro

[600hp-lpe]

As featured on Homepage.

Now that I have had my car for 5 days, I would like to start my Journal for the "Red Devil". I will update the progress of my car over time to document the milestones.

A preview of what Vin # 39797 transformed into.....


Here's my engine...


Rear subframe before it was put back in,


Rear subframe installed after suspension upgrade.


Pedders suspension install complete.


This is kinda long but a good read. It's here for historical reasons. You can skip to post #2 if you just want pictures.

I ordered my car the day GM declared Bankruptcy. June 1, 2009.
I knew what I wanted.. A Red Jewel Tintcoat 2SS 6 speed RS optioned car.
What a leap of faith.. I saw my first camaro 2 weeks earlier. I want one...
My order was accepted 5 weeks later. I had a build Date! TPW 8/17/2009.

In between 6/1 and 8/17, I was reading everything I could find. Motor trend, Car and Driver, Hotrod, etc. I found Camaro5 on the web. Boy, was I hooked! I started reading everything. I found one thread that cought my eye.. about Speed74ss and his Lingenfelter 570 kit build.

Somewhere along the way I hear of Pedders, while I was doing research on suspensions. It was Speed74ss that had these Pedders XA coilover shocks. Cool, but I need a Complete suspension package.

The motortrend article comparing the Camaro SS to the Mustang GT, and the Charger R/T comes out. I am pissed! This new camaro can't be that bad at handling, can it? I don't believe it. I do a little digging. A bunch of people complaining about the Camaro suspension. And the shifter.There are a few suspension companies. But which one will be right? Who has the whole package? What will NOT ride like a buckboard after it is installed? I decide to call Pedders because they posted a lot of info. I read some stuff on the GTO and GXP boards.. They LOVE Pedders! I Join Camaro5 and send a PM to Pete at Pedders. Mike White from Pedders calls me the next day. We talk for over an hour and a half.

Mike asks what my background is. I have raced a SCCA formula 2000. I have a 900 HP 1992 Camaro for Drag racing. I have a 2005 corvette for a street car. My talk with Mike C. White from pedders sets the wheels in motion.. They have the WHOLE SUSPENSION PACKAGE! But.. Nothing is complete yet. Lots of parts still being tested and designed. Not a problem. I am going to install it myself over the winter. How wrong I was!

Now I have my plan laid out. All 3 race cars are going to be combined into one.. the formula, the drag racer, the vette. Time to Liquidate.. I trade the Vette in for the deposit for the Camaro. I post the Formula on Ebay and get a buyer in 4 hours..Amazing! I pull the add from Ebay before someone bids on it. I am going to part out the camaro drag car. The parts bring the money.. the car complete does not.

I have always had a performance car. I had 14 corvette's all since the C5 came out in 1997. Just nothing truly special. That changed after I read Speed's article.. I knew what I wanted. A Lingenfelter Camaro. LPE only builds a few cars (this year they will build 100). I called LPE sometime in July and put a deposit down on that first phone call.. I decided on the 570 kit. That's where my screen name came from (570hp-lpe).

All effort is now devoted into building a supercar out of this new Camaro..

Ok.. I Contact My sales person at Portsmouth Chevrolet and get the Car drop shipped to Courtesy Chevrolet in Decatur, Indiana. They are 2 miles from Lingenfelter. No problem, He said. Called me back 2 days later.. It is re-routed on the order and will be shipped to Courtesy. I talk to Tim, the manager at LPE once a week to gather Ideas. I add a Corsa exhaust. Speed gets his car! Nice video on the DYNO! WOW does that exhaust sound GOOD! It's a Borla S system. Tim! I need to change the exhaust! They are very customer focused at LPE. No problem, Tim says.

Time passed. It is now 8/24/2009 - I have a VIN#!!!!! What a day! Thanks VIZ! Now the hard part.. Waiting. And Waiting. Wait a little more. We all know how this part is the most difficult - anticipation of the arrival phone call. I am on the pre-order for the hurst shifter. I think I'm going to get the car before this thing gets finished and sent to me! Still reading everything I can find on the Camaro and on aftermarket parts. I come across an article for a new shifter from MTI in Atlanta. It looks pretty good in the article on Camaro5. One drawback.. The shifter needs to be installed from underneath. There are a couple of pic's. It looks good. All I am reading from reviews are complaining about the shifter in this car. I call them.. they are on the shelf! I order immediately, and ask to ship this thing sight unseen to LPE.

My car arrived at Courtesy Chevrolet on 9/9/09. It has arrived! Phone call was placed to Tim at LPE.. My car is in! Things are happening! They pick the car up late that week.. On Friday.

All cars are on hold at LPE until the 2 "special cars" are done.. these are the LPE cars for SEMA. Hmm.. Well, I waited this long, what is a little while longer. I see this little boost gauge from ADM. I like it! it is stealth and mounts in the gauge cluster.Call Andy at ADM and have one drop shipped to ADM. I call Tim to get that on the list of things to get installed. While talking to Tim at LPE, he mentions that they want to try something new on a car. I am in.. We are going to do a bunch of work on some parts. The Blower manifold gets port matched. The throttle body is getting polished. All intake tube edges are getting chamfered and then everything is getting polished in the intake tract. I learned this trick from building drag racing engines - air in and air out = Horsepower!

Here's where things get interesting. LPE starts on my car 9/21/2009. Great! I call Tim to see how things are progressing at the end of the week. They are almost done with the mechanical stuff. Still more to do to it though... It will be at least one more week. no problem.. All I do is wait.

I call Tim on Wednesday to see how things are progressing. They are almost Done! Cool! I discuss shipping the car with Tim. I see a post from Rob at Wretched Motorsports on 9/28, that he has a Pedders Track Extreme Kit for the Camaro to the first person to put a deposit on it. I have that kit on order! I call Rob, and jump to the front of the line to be the first Customer to get the Pedders Serious Extreme Track II kit! So what If I had it on order with Mike? I will get this installed and figure out the billing/credit later on the one I had previously ordered. I gave him my CCard for the deposit.

One problem though.. October 4th (Sunday) for the Pedders install is closing in and my car is still in Indiana and not done. Time to Call Tim at LPE. Tim, How's my car coming? (This was on the morning of the 29th). It is running and all parts are installed. Still need some tuning though. I ask if I can have it for Friday.. Tim says "maybe, If it is done". I explained that I needed it in Westfield Mass to get the Suspension installed for Oct. 4th. Tim is checking with Grahm to see if it will be ready. "It should be done by Friday. But we can't get it shipped in time" said Tim. Change of Plans... Time to do a fly in and a long distance drive to get to the next level. It's only 785 miles from Decatur Indiana to Westfield Massachusetts for the suspension.

In anticipation of it being ready, I check into flights. $250.00 from Boston to Fort Wayne, Indiana. I call Tim on Thursday.. Ta DA! Car is done.
Paul2010 offers to pick me up at the airport.. In his 2010 Camaro. How can I refuse? Thanks Paul! I also Meet RS-SS2 and his wife,2010 BADSS at LPE. All of them are waiting to get their cars done at LPE. RS-SS2 is already in progress with the 650 kit. How about that? a husband and wife that don't share! They both will have their own 650 LPE car! PAul2010 is getting the 550 LPE with the Chrome S/C.

We all do the Lingenfelter tour together. What a place! It is a car junkie's dream! They have an amazing shop! We are talking to everyone at LPE and enjoying the experience! I think we are there 3 hours. Tim and Kevin at LPE stayed with us the whole time. We watch a car on the rollers (dyno) that has the 570 kit already installed that is going to upgrade to the 650 kit..! Wow! All those video's don't do this experience Justice.

I give the others that are there, RS-SS2, 2010BADSS and then Paul2010 a ride in my car.. I am going to take it easy.. don't floor it.. It is brand new.. I can't help myself! I have to experience what it has power wise..

Ohhh My Gawd! This thing is incredible! The Butt Dyno is off the chart! The power is so smooth! the Shifter is perfect! And the Exhaust note! No words can describe what I was feeling right then. Nirvana.. Pure Bliss..
one phrase comes to mind. It's like giving heroin to a drug addict.. You have to have it! The power is unbelievably smooth! All the Camaro5 members go to lunch. My car and Pauls are side by side. We had a nice lunch and talked about the tour, my car, and how everyone is so excited to get their 'fix'. If you took one ride in a LPE car, you will be hooked. This horsepower is addictive. We all say goodbye and go our seperate ways.
It is one of those things that I will never forget.

Final Horsepower #'s = 526.88 RWHP 491.62 Torque

Time to start the drive home. I set up the Valentine 1, the Laptop with GPS on the passenger seat, and head out. One thing I miss is my Dad. He passed away almost 2 years ago. He was always around for every hotrod I ever purchased, and shared in the experiance. All but one. THIS ONE. This isn't fair.. It's not right.. It's EVIL! How could he miss out on the best one? The best car I ever had and he's not here to see it!

I had the Camaro's name 1/2 hour after I left..

The Red Devil.

In memory of the one My dad was not able to share with me. It's not right.. It's Evil!
Ok.. Time to drive. I make it to Syracuse NY and get a room at 11:00 p.m. I wake up at 3:30 a.m. and drive the rest of the way to Westfield Mass. I arrive 1 day early on Saturday at 8:00 A.M. I need to be Here on Sunday..I have time to kill.

I have friends in Fitchburg Mass. Time to show them my ride. I arrive at Fairbanks Auto Body. It's pouring cats and dogs! No test drives in the rain.. this thing is too squirrely with the slick wet roads. I learned that on the way from Indiana.. in and out of light rain most the way home. Why is it not dry? I want to play! More Evil. No less than 50 people show up through the course of the day and check it out. Everyone Loves the Car! What's not to like, other than the weather. I head out in the evening.

I am 10 Miles from where I am going to stay for the night in west Springfield. The Marriott has an indoor garage. It's a good thing..i am doing 30 with everyone else on the highway.. It is raining so hard I can barely see the road. I can't read the street signs.. Good thing for GPS. I have arrived at the Hotel at 11 p.m. for my Pedders transformation in the Morning.

I have to thank some people. Tim and Kevin from LPE, Speed74SS, DMS (Mike White) from Pedders, and all the other people I mentioned in this thread. A special thank you to Windy City, and 1320Junkie, as they kept all of us laughing on the Lingenfelter thread with their posts (they are also LPE customers as well). And Camaro5. Most of all the folks on Camaro5. This site is very informative and very useful at lightening your wallet...

Time for a break.. It's 1 a.m. I have been typing for 3 hours.
Time for some pictures from Lingenfelter Performance Engineering of the Red Devil.

I'm sorry I can't post all of them. I was asked to post only pictures that don't show other people's cars. Some people don't want it known their car is there, and there are a few trade secrets that are not to be published, so I will show just my vehicle pic's.

I will continue the Pedders transformation after the LPE pic's tomorrow.

[600hp-lpe]

OK.. Here are the Pictures when I picked up the Camaro at Lingenfelter.

It had 177 miles on the speedometer before I saw it. From Dyno pulls to test drives at LPE to make sure the car is correct and in perfect working order.

Thanks LPE! I am a very happy customer!

[600hp-lpe]

I posted this 10/5/2009. It belongs here...


Hi Everyone! I just made it home FINALLY - at a little past midnight tonight.

Pedders Update... Pedders Update.... Pedders Update...........

Warning... The Extreme track kit is not to be taken lightly. This kit needs to be installed by a professional. Started at 9:00 a.m. - finished at 8:30 p.m. The "larger" kits will involve dropping the rear sub frame assembly, and completely dis-assembling it. It would have been impossible for me to do at home.. I don't have the tools that are required, and I have LOTS of tools. Most of the people at the Wretched event were shocked at what had to happen to my car with 1000 miles to install this kit.

I had to get my hands dirty and assist with quite a few of the items that needed to be swapped. It took about 5-6 hours to get the rear sub frame rebuilt alone. I will post pictures later.

The full suspension kit will be amazing when finished. I don't have the right swaybars yet. The larger 32MM sway bars are still stuck in Customs, Pete still needs to test them once they clear, so for the time being I have a "loaner" 27MM front. We had to keep the rear stock swaybar as the brackets were incorrect. Both swaybars will be 32 MM (1 1/4") with adjustable end links. Also missing were the Caster Bolts, So that wasn't set either.

Pete was not able to make it. he is getting ready for a photo session with a famous magazine. They are going to take his car, loaded with 4 PEOPLE in it to Gingerman and put it up against against a Z06 with racing slicks and show what the Pedderized Camaro can do. Wanna guess who will win? I would be betting on Pete's car, even though it is procharged as opposed to LPE prepped.... power output was in the ballpark for pete's car to ours I believe.

Ok.. here's the Butt test.. of the second and only other car other than pete's that has this suspension kit installed. Don't forget I am missing the correct Swaybars, and one set of bushings as the lower rear control arm weld gave way instead of the bushing, and the caster bolts. We had to repair the rear control arm, and Rob is ordering a replacement. We set the front shocks on 15 and the rear on 10, to make up for the sway bar diffrences. Scale of adjustability on the shocks is 1 - 30.

I brought Mike (race car guy who races on local road coarses) for a ride as I didn't know the area. He described it as QUOTE: "Your car is more than the Z/28 will be when it comes out... for Sure! It's a ZR-1 in a Camaro body".

This thing Rocks! The red devil is gonna piss off a lot of expensive high end car owners....

The car tracks amazingly well. The body roll does not exist any longer. Turn and the car moves in that direction. The car is planted and sure footed. At the firmer shock settings we have the car at right now, it rides stiffer than the Z51 corvette I had. It is not rough, or noisy.. It is the ride I wanted for this car, or the vette for that matter. Amazingly, the ride is quite nice even though it is set so stiff. It's not bone jarring..Now it is truly a suspension worthy of a LPE car.

It will spank any stock Vette or Z06 already. The transformation is amazing!

Forget the lowly Mustang, they will fall to the wayside. We can go big game hunting.. Snakes beware!

If you compared the stock camaro with the LPE, that is about as close a comparison as i can make for the difference between the stock suspension to the Pedders extreme track kit.

[600hp-lpe]

here are pic's of the pedders install.

Thanks to Rob, Mike, and Scott from Wretched Motorsports for their hard work!
Thanks to Mike and Pete for the information for what I need!

Parts are all over the place... Notice the Axle and Swaybar inside the Garage.


Rear Subframe removed from the car.

Picture of car with subframe removed.






Rear diff prior to recieving the 1200 kit. I will upgrade to the 1201 kit when it is ready.


Mike installing bushings.

More Bushings..

and More Bushings. The rear subframe took 6+ hours to upgrade.


a picture underneath again.. that plastic thing behind the brake caliper is the gas tank.



Looking down the driveshaft tunnel..




Where your exhaust goes.



The Completed rear subframe re-installed.


A pic of the front. Motor mount to the right behind steering rack.


Scott installing the front coilover strut




After the swaybar was installed.






Weights on the calipers...



Drivers side suspension installed


Suspension is finished for now. On the alignment rack to get adjusted.



Completed with Alignment. Car is lowered 1 inch.





rear is slightly lower than the front.



front ride height.




A pic from the rear looking forward when done. Still has stock rear swaybar.



Notice the poly bushings on the rear diff now?

[600hp-lpe]

Posted in "The DEFINITIVE EXPLANATION OF CAMARO SUSPENSION, ISSUES, AND UPGRADES" on 10-05-2009, 02:57 PM

Somebody at pedders did their homework! Thanks Pete, Mike, and Rob from Wretched Motorsports! I am now a true, died and gone to heaven, believer in Pedders! The Extreme track kit is amazing! I can say this before I even dive into swapping Swaybars and adjustments that will be necessary! I am aligned with pretty much a street setup.

I am the lucky recipient of the first customer extreme track kit, installed on my car yesterday at Wretched Motorsports! Rob will fill you in on the details if he hasn't already.. We had a problem with the rear bar mounting brackets, so the stock swaybar is in the rear.. The front 27 MM bar is installed and all but 1 set of bushings are in, as we had a problem with one of the rear control arms.

Folks, this car is DEFINITELY set up now to smoke the competition. Forget mustangs. they can't compete with this. The Pedders Extreme kit, with just the 27MM front pedders swaybar and stock rear bar blows away every corvette I have ever driven - and I have personally owned 14 C5 and C6 Vette's. Of them, 3 with T-1 kits installed. And I am still on Stock Camaro SS tires!

Warning.. DO NOT attempt to install this kit yourself. You need a suspension expert that knows what they are doing to get this done correctly. It takes about 10 - 12 hours to install all the parts, and you need to know what you are doing. You will die when you see how much needs to be dis-assembled to install this kit.

It is not designed for the guy that wants to look good.

This is for SERIOUS drivers that will push their cars. I plan on running the SCCA SOLO II Northeast division Autocross with this car next year until i get it sorted out, and then I will do some time trial runs on different tracks in the northeast. It will take time to work out the setup and get the handling setup that will work.

I can tell you right now that the difference from the stock "buick" suspension in the Camaro to being Pedderized is truely amazing.

Start with the Poly bushing kits and coilovers, and work into swaybars. The large bar is useless unless you have the rest of the suspension to go with it. With just the 27MM swaybar up front, and stock bar in the rear, full extreme kit, and coilover shocks, my car will now outperform some seriously expensive cars and make them wonder how they got beat so bad. I will be able to play with Corvettes and Vipers now... even without large swaybars! This transformation is just what I needed for this car!

I brought a customer for a ride yesterday that averages over 8 tracks a year. He was amazed and thinks my Camaro is in the class with the ZR-1.. I have to agree.. Mustangs are NOT my competition anymore.... We are going to run with some big dogs!

THANK YOU PEDDERS and WRETCHED MOTORSPORTS!

[Oneday]

Great read thanks for sharing!

[1320junkie]

Awesome, and a great read!


RED DEVIL!!!

[devildoc]

Wow!! I wish I had the financial capability to afford such awesome pieces of machinary! Great job in typing it out....good luck with everything else that you have planned!

[pacecar]

what are the caliper weights for?
thanks for all the detail on the install!!

[djpheer]

Car is very nice, but as far as it "stomping" a stock 2009 z06, i think you may be in for a surprise.

[Tactical Z]

Epic car!

[RS-SS2]

Awesome read 570, I can feel the excitement in your words.

[DSworo9]

Excellent post. Your car is truely made to standard. What were the price's on all these modifications that you made to your Camaro and how low is it vs. stock?

[1320junkie]

you guys waiting on the Z28..better know that are some SS's lurking..lol