{"id":1836,"date":"2013-03-25T23:12:42","date_gmt":"2013-03-26T06:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/?p=1836"},"modified":"2013-03-25T23:12:42","modified_gmt":"2013-03-26T06:12:42","slug":"first-real-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/?p=1836","title":{"rendered":"First real drive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Took the Camaro for its first real drive today, to get gas of course!<\/p>\n

\"Jason<\/a><\/p>\n

Suppose it is likely expected to see some kind of Ford GT thing blocking the driveway of your local 100-octane fuel station.<\/p>\n

Speaking of which – ouch!<\/p>\n

\"Pump<\/a><\/p>\n

Put 10 gallons in earlier, so with this it’s been fed 21+.\u00a0 Surprised it took that much, and it wasn’t even filled to the point of splashing out the back.\u00a0 Must have burned more than I thought getting it tuned and taking it around the block, tank can only hold 18.<\/p>\n

\"J-Rho<\/a><\/p>\n

The river of fluid in the front of the car was it.\u00a0 Being a newbie to old cars, I didn’t realize you aren’t supposed to fill the radiator up all the way.\u00a0 As it gets hot, the fluid expands and dumps out the overflow tube.\u00a0 In this case onto the ground, there is no overflow bottle from the factory.\u00a0 In this case it’s pretty safe because it’s just distilled water + Redline Water Wetter, nothing slippery like coolant.\u00a0 Since the car had just been driven and was then sitting, the extra heat soak caused some extra spillage.\u00a0\u00a0 Should be at the right level for this weekend.<\/p>\n

GoPro was attached for the drive there – video here: http:\/\/youtu.be\/MtqnUKTV_Zs<\/a>\u00a0– this is a pretty boring video, but…keep in mind this is the first drive of the car above about 20mph.\u00a0 I was stressed out of my mind.\u00a0 Every noise and vibration was a new one, and with everything new, never\u00a0can tell\u00a0if what you’re hearing\/feeling is ok, or something you forgot to tighten.\u00a0 Suspect I’ll have that kind of stress for a while.<\/p>\n

Driving impressions…hmmm…<\/p>\n

The brakes were a little weird with a sort of shuddering at first.\u00a0 I think that was just the weird black stuff being taken off the front rotors.\u00a0 That went away pretty quickly.\u00a0 Brakes feel good now.\u00a0 Haven’t tested them to lockup yet, not sure which end will do so first.<\/p>\n

The idle is too low, around 750rpm.\u00a0 Factory spec is 950, adjusted the idle screw after getting home.\u00a0 Stalled the car once at a stop sign, so embarrassing.\u00a0 The car started ok at the gas station, but took several seconds to get going at this stop sign.\u00a0 Thank goodness for that much bigger battery!\u00a0 Will be investigating some kind of heat shielding for the starter.<\/p>\n

Back tires feel a little slippery\u00a0– got the back end to move pretty easily, but controllably.\u00a0 Could be the grease and oils they’ve collected from sitting in the garage for almost 6 months.<\/p>\n

There was only one pseudo-corner taken on the drive, and late in corner exit the rear made a banging noise over a mild bump.\u00a0 Will need to spend some time underneath to ascertain root cause – it wasn’t the shocks, they have almost 2″ of bump travel not used.\u00a0 Could have been the axle on the frame, or the\u00a0front of the diff hitting the driveshaft tunnel.<\/p>\n

Need to check pinion angle and possibly play with rear ride height.<\/p>\n

All major systems working well.\u00a0 Alternator charging, oil pressure is good, and the cooling system is keeping temps where needed.\u00a0 You can see all three (out-of-focus, shooting-while-driving photo, sorry) in the dash display below-<\/p>\n

\"Motec<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking of which, I *love* the Motec CDL3.\u00a0 Perhaps it is due somewhat to my day job as the IT Director for a software company – but I have a real appreciation for\u00a0hardware and software pairs\u00a0made to this level of excellence.\u00a0 Yes, it was expensive, but this is a case where “you get what you pay for” works out favorably.\u00a0 Need to get it pulling speed from the GPS, at which point it can also do a gear calculation to replace the big 0 in the middle.<\/p>\n

Car is pretty loud – plan to get it in to the exhaust shop this week for some help.\u00a0 While decelerating in gear, the steep rear end sounds vaguely like a siren, a little unnerving \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Spring rates are pretty extreme for this chassis (~1500 front, 250 rear) but the car doesn’t feel that stiff.\u00a0 While it looks low, it really isn’t – components like the headers and oil pan have good clearance underneath, tucking above the frame rails, making it so I can get in and out of\u00a0driveways and such\u00a0just as easily, if not more so, than a stock Viper.<\/p>\n

The only shock setting I know is the fronts are at full stiff for rebound.\u00a0 Everything else will be all over the map.\u00a0 Feels like it needs more rear rebound – in some quick steering inputs I could tell the front tires were turning, but the car mostly just wanted to keep going straight.\u00a0 Could be it has some front toe-in.<\/p>\n

Where to go from here?<\/p>\n

I like an autocross car to feel responsive, almost dangerously so, on the street.\u00a0 Today this felt a lot more like a pickup – safe and sure-footed.\u00a0 Perhaps that’s because it shares more in common with a pickup than a sports car…<\/p>\n

From here it’s going to be a long way to\u00a0go in getting it to work how I want in STX.\u00a0 Nationals is only 5 months away,\u00a0many \u00a0iterations of spring rates, shock settings, alignments, potentially shock valvings, wheel\/tire\u00a0tests and decisions.\u00a0 The car\u00a0is not likely to be very good early on, so for those following along, don’t get discouraged by a particularly poor finish.\u00a0\u00a0 I am likely to get slaughtered at my first few events (which just happen to be big SCCA National races) but really I’ll be happy if the car just makes it through the events ok mechanically.\u00a0 Haven’t driven at all since Nationals of last year (7 months back now) so some of it will be driver too.<\/p>\n

Still a few things on the to-do list for the week to be ready for the weekend:<\/p>\n