Tracking Your 5th Gen Camaro [Road Race]

[Achenar]

So I was going through the recent history of posts regarding 5th Gen Camaros on an actual road course. These are the kinds of events where you can very easily find yourself reaching 120+ mph on a straightaway right into a hard turn and I couldn't really find any [recent] information on how/if a Camaro holds up and what you should do to prep. So I thought I would share my experiences with any of you guys/girls that may be thinking of going to the track.

I have a purpose car for track days: a 2004 Nissan 350z. I have put stainless brake lines and high temp brake fluid but otherwise, the car is stock and it performs well. I did, however, want to see how my 2010 Camaro SS (M6) would fair, bone stock (against my better judgement). I went to Button Willow in March of 2014, when the weather, even up there, was not too hot, and here is what I found:

NOTE: The below is assuming you run the car to near it's FULL potential: that means always being in optimal RPM range and utilizing full, last second, threshold braking. Under simply "spirited" or "aggressive" driving, the Camaro runs just fine.

1) Brakes: The Camaro is a big car, around 4000 pounds. It takes a lot of to stop this leviathan. The stock SS Brembos do an excellent job stopping this car. No matter how hard you are on the brakes, the stock pads perform with minimal fading. That being said, they do overheat. Under repeated hard braking, the brake fluid WILL boil and you will not have much ability to brake until it cools down. I would recommend this upgrade to ANY car you track: Always always always get stainless steel lines and high temperature Brake fluid (DOT 4). These will eliminate any overheating/brake fluid boil/pedal slop issue.

2) Cooling: I think anyone here who has really pushed their car on a moderately warm day will have seen their temp gauge near or at 250. The LS3 is a fantastic motor, but it does get hot. A stock SS radiator looks big from the engine bay due to the thick top, but when you look at the actual core, you will find it's just a single core radiator not even an inch thick. When I really ran the car hard (no red-lining mind you, just keeping it in a high RPM band for most of the run) the temperature climbed to almost 290. This is far hotter than I would like to see the car go. As such, if you plan to really track this car, especially in the summer, when the temperature at tracks like Willow Springs can easily reach triple digits, I would highly recommend a better radiator. The best in my experience has been Be COOL. They make very good, thick aluminum radiators that cool exceptionally well, but they are very expensive: The one in my 69 Charger cost over $700.

Otherwise, the car ran and handled very well. It's a bit heavy and not as agile as other options for the track, but it turns well and stable enough and it is a monster on the straightaways. Best of luck and go show those Mustangs who's boss (no pun intended).

[td195f]

Check out the Road Course / Track and Autocross topic in the Technical Camaro Discussions Group. You'll find a bunch of us that track our Gen 5 Camaros.

[Achenar]

Originally Posted by td195f

Check out the Road Course / Track and Autocross topic in the Technical Camaro Discussions Group. You'll find a bunch of us that track our Gen 5 Camaros.

Indeed, that did not load for me for some reason...

The post:

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=348705

...pretty much explains everything I said and more so that makes this thread a bit useless

My apologies.

MOD feel free to delete this thread...