#59 Has Arrived - First Impressions

[Doubleblank]

8 weeks and a day after being built, #59 arrived in Houston. After driving approx. 30 miles home from dealer, here are my first impressions. These will certainly change after more time on the road and the track. Also, my personal reference point is my 2010 SS highly modified for track days.

Chevrolet Experience - not good so far. Order status tracking works until the car is built then the Z28 falls into a black hole. Well, not exactly a black hole, because bad information does get out as to the status of the car. But more importantly, the car was delivered minus the front splitter and the rear diffuser damaged by the trucking company. The front splitter, one of the signature elements of the car, missing??? The car was delivered on an open trailer along with a truckload of vettes. No enclosed trailer!

Appearance - The car looks great. Love the white against the black accents.

Motor - Since I haven't pushed it hard yet, not a fair analysis. But it feels underpowered so far. My SS makes 600/600 rwhp/torque and you can exit corners effortlessly in any gear. The good news is that hp is easy to add to the LS7. After spending time at the track and IF I think I can go faster with more hp, that's an easy fix with a heads/cam/headers/tune mod. I'll keep the original parts for the next owner.

Shifter - I found myself almost doing the 1 to 4 skip shift maneuver a few times. Probably need more time with it but it feels good.....just not as good as the MGW. Easy fix.

Clutch - Way too soft pedal (already discussed by other owners). Difficult to get a "feel" for the engagement zone relative to my Lingenfelter ZR1 twin disc setup. No big issue with more time with the car and again, an easy fix if I want it.

Handling/Ride - Flat and stiff, just what you want and expect. I intentionally drove over some mild washboard near my house and it handled it better than my Pfadt equipped SS. More steering feel than the SS (but I'm installing a Turn 1 low volume steering pump on Monday in the SS to improve feel).

Seats - I like them a lot so far. Obviously not as secure as my 4 point Cobras, but I think they will work just fine at the track and look great too.

Tires - Man are they sticky. Will work great at the track but right now they are throwing everything up on the car. Need street tires/wheels ASAP.

Brakes - The StopTech BBK's are slightly more linear in feel but I have not done the proper "break-in" on the Z28's brakes yet. They look good.

Value - The Z28 offers a fine value for a track car. I've spent considerably more on my SS. And the resale on the Z28 will dwarf whatever I can get out of the SS. And there's a warrantee too. No complaints on the value side of things.

I'll offer up a more useful review after some track days, currently scheduled for July 12th and again in early August.

[Sapper12b]

DUDE ! Cant wait to see you at one of the meets with your new ride , congrats!

[Mikebrinda]

Great you have the car to drive now!, but the delivery cycle . . . .

[Zfatuated]

Good to read the initial comments. The brake feel on my car went from good to excellent after the street/track "burnish".

[HDRDTD]

The front splitter gets installed at the dealer but it should be with the car, and no, they all don't get delivered in closed trucks. I have seen at least one picture of another Z/28 coming to the dealer on a standard auto carrier along with other Camaros.

[Doubleblank]

Getting the car hasn't really eased the delivery cycle pain Mike. Seems like we're down to you for getting some of those early builds delivered.

BTW, my car had 19 miles on it. The tires showed outer edge wear ..... someone took this out and drove it pretty hard.

[ksupkt87]

Congrats, great looking car even without the splitter installed. Mine did come enclosed truck and had 11 miles. I also ordered an additional splitter, flowtie and the wickerbill when I picked the car up. We will see how long that takes.

[Mikebrinda]

Going by the delivery mileage, maybe our late arriving cars received additional QC? Hope to find out soon. Interesting to see what my odometer reads, but no way to know if the miles were put on at the factory . . . or at the dealer before pickup.

[McRat]

Congrats!

[mlee]

Glad you finally got her home Randy. Hope to see it sometime before our track day in July.

Congrats

[2SSRS@Gen5diy]

My car came in to the dealer with 12 Mi on it, i think they driver them at the plant from one building to the next for there final QC.

PS. but by the time it made it to the shipper it had 42MI.

[Ivan @ Southwest Speed]

Right on brother....very happy to see you finally get it!!

Congrats man.

[Front Runner]

Very, very nice. Congrats!!

[DwRed1LTV6]

Congrats!