New Camaro ZL1 Video! Intro/Overview by Chief Engineer Al Oppenheiser

[OldScoolCamaro]

Originally Posted by GoldenBear

Exactly. I have noticed the same animosity fairly often also.

I think most of us understand that given enough money and effort one can build a modified vehicle that outperforms a stock factory vehicle. We don't need to be told or reminded of that constantly over and over again, which some people appear to have the need to do repetitively, possibly because they feel the need to justify the money and effort they've spent to others, or maybe because, for one reason or another, they've convinced themselves they don't like the ZL1.

Regardless, some people will want to have "the bitchinest car in the valley" and will modify their vehicles to try to achieve that goal. I think that's great. Others aren't as interested being "number one" or in major modifications, and prefer to keep their factory high performance vehicles close to stock, which is great too. I always enjoy looking at muscle cars from different eras that are as they were when they left the showroom floor, as a document of a bit of Americana of their era.

I'll keep my ZL1 in stock condition. I won't be the fastest out there, but it will fast enough for me, and I'll enjoy many pleasurable sunny hours of driving it.

Agreed Bear, and Radz.....it's all called bragging, smack mouth, bench racing, and trash talk ..., I won't even begin to psychoanalyze it, but I will add that this thread has gotten sooooo far away from the OP's post I am gonna throw the flag....
It's going virale over in this thread. http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=161940.., this thread is where the "mine is better than yours" fits in.

[radz28]

Originally Posted by GoldenBear

Exactly. I have noticed the same animosity fairly often also.

I think most of us understand that given enough money and effort one can build a modified vehicle that outperforms a stock factory vehicle. We don't need to be told or reminded of that constantly over and over again, which some people appear to have the need to do repetitively, possibly because they feel the need to justify the money and effort they've spent to others, or maybe because, for one reason or another, they've convinced themselves they don't like the ZL1.

Regardless, some people will want to have "the bitchinest car in the valley" and will modify their vehicles to try to achieve that goal. I think that's great. Others aren't as interested being "number one" or in major modifications, and prefer to keep their factory high performance vehicles close to stock, which is great too. I always enjoy looking at muscle cars from different eras that are as they were when they left the showroom floor, as a document of a bit of Americana of their era.

I'll keep my ZL1 in stock condition. I won't be the fastest out there, but it will fast enough for me, and I'll enjoy many pleasurable sunny hours of driving it.

I think I'm in a similar mindset to you and at least a few others who are in this Section a lot. While I won't leave it stock, I won't be throwing the kitchen sink at it; just a few little goodies to make me feel a little better. I'd rather not worry about breaking something when I'm trying to enjoy some time with my car.

I could build an all-out car, too, just like you say. But that's part of the reason why I want what I want - because it has about as much as I want, and even a little more. Where am I going to get MR? While I know there are excellent choices from our Sponsors, they don't have technology greater than the current ZR1's MR suspension has (I'm only talking as far as the electronic control, not so much the 100% tunability many of these kits have). Besides - I won't be living at the track, so I wouldn't be using the full capability of aftermarket adjustable coilovers anyways. But they are probably more durable than those found on OEM MR systems... Anyways, I like thinking that this car is an engineered package. While you can get packages from the aftermarket, you can't get a complete package. Sure, I could get full Pedder-ization , but I'd like a little more beef in the rear chunk and driveline. I can't get aerodynamic enhancements and EPS. I get a whole car tuned on tracks and roads literally around the world. It may not be as fast as a Pedder-ized, blown, big-braked, stickier-tired car, but I know that I don't have to worry as much about a matched combination since GM did it for me. Call me lazy, but I've done my wrenching and continue to do it when I have to, but it's lost some of it's luster for me. It's hard to do what I want where I live, so if an OEM can give me 95% of what I want, if I can afford it, that's what I'll do. There are going to be a lot of faster mod'd cars out there. I'm happy for those individuals. Will they pass smog and other regulations that people like me have to put up with? Not in many cases...

Originally Posted by OldScoolCamaro

Agreed Bear, and Radz.....it's all called bragging, smack mouth, bench racing, and trash talk ..., I won't even begin to psychoanalyze it, but I will add that this thread has gotten sooooo far away from the OP's post I am gonna throw the flag....
It's going virale over in this thread. http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=161940.., this thread is where the "mine is better than yours" fits in.

Yeah - that thread didn't start off on the best foot. I was crossing my fingers the intent was just to have a little fun, blow off some steam, and pass the times, but I think some may have taken it a little too literally; or, maybe I didn't take it seriously enough...

[GoldenBear]

Originally Posted by radz28

Call me lazy, but I've done my wrenching and continue to do it when I have to, but it's lost some of its luster for me.

That's another good point. At this stage in my life, with the rather limited amount of discretionary time that I have, I prefer to spend much less time wrenching than I did in the days when Led Zeppelin was touring. These days I'm more interested in enjoying driving, and the ZL1 will be the perfect vehicle to help me with that pursuit.

[radz28]

Originally Posted by GoldenBear

That's another good point. At this stage in my life, with the rather limited amount of discretionary time that I have, I prefer to spend much less time wrenching than I did in the days when Led Zeppelin was touring. These days I'm more interested in enjoying driving, and the ZL1 will be the perfect vehicle to help me with that pursuit.

Yup. I'm getting more mature (slowly...), and I'm beginning to appreciate other things in life more. It's pretty plain to see my passion for CAMARO, however, I strive to strike a better balance now, moreso than only a few years ago. If I'm going to work on my car, I expect the payoff to be that much more. As time goes on, that expectation gets even more. Because of where I live (not far from you ), it's really hard to achieve those goals because of legal parts, which makes it that much more difficult. Because I'm not moving anytime soon, that's something I have to deal with, which means my love suffers a little. Having a car like ZL1 come along, which is so close to what I want, ultimately means that I can almost have my cake and eat it, too. I could drive it stock very happily from the way it looks to be coming. Anything I do above that will be relatively small and for the first time, I'm giving consideration to cosmetics almost as much as performance; that's never happened before, lol. Your last line is the most striking I've read in a while

[OldScoolCamaro]

Originally Posted by GoldenBear

That's another good point. At this stage in my life, with the rather limited amount of discretionary time that I have, I prefer to spend much less time wrenching than I did in the days when Led Zeppelin was touring. These days I'm more interested in enjoying driving, and the ZL1 will be the perfect vehicle to help me with that pursuit.

So it goes for me Bear. I couldn't sum it up any better.