[Paul O]

Intro!

Greetings all from the United Kingdomshire of England! I've just purchased my first US car and I come armed to your virtual house with many a question.

About me: I'm a huge car enthusiast, I like to Blog (www.motorcloud.net), not Vlog (face for radio, me), and I am also the editor for the Supercar Driver club magazine over here in the UK. I've had various Porsches for more than a decade, Boxster, Cayman, 911 and now a Cayenne along with other cars that run/ran alongside those.

Current fleet is the Cayenne, a VW Beetle convertible and now the awesomeness that is the Camaro!

I really wanted a yellow one with the black stripes, replicating Bumblebee from the first Transformers movie! That film was the first time I'd seen the new Camaro concept and I remember thinking at the time "please please let them make that car!".

In the US, I imagine these cars are pretty ordinary and plenty about but here in the UK they are as rare as hens teeth and you never see them on the roads. As such, these cars really get a lot of attention - especially the colour. People point, take pictures, flash their lights, always something on every journey!

I decided to go for a Camaro rather than another sports Porsche because I fancied a change - I wanted something exciting, something I need to research, learn about, learn how to drive. It’s a Left-Hand Drive model - which I've never driven before and I know absolutely nothing about these cars. How do I get parts to the UK? Who can service them? What might break? How to drive LHD? That journey into the unknown excited me - it’s a real step change from anything I have owned before and I'm looking forward to documenting my journey! I like to write ownership reports, so I'll get something put into the running reports section soon enough.

My car



Its a V6 model, I wanted the car, the colour and a safe purchase more than the engine size! I bought this car from an acquaintance who I had known from car shows in the past. A big American car fan who has owned many cars. This gave me good confidence that I wasn't buying a problem car and two weeks in everything has gone well.

The car is going in for a full detail next week and then I'll get some professional photographs taken.

My Questions!

I haven't driven this car fast yet. At all! I'm still concentrating on LHD steering and it’s all very exciting, so I don't know how good it sounds on full chat yet! But I was still wondering about the exhaust system. Is there anything out there that makes the car sound even better, without becoming all overbearing at any speed? I'd like a sweeeet sound, not a drone. Bear in mind I am not at all mechanically minded, so keep it simple (off the shelf type stuff)!

Car covers - The car is probably too big to get in the garage so it is covered with a cheap car cover for now. I want to get one that is for outdoors, waterproof and probably with a soft lining that will protect the paint - any recommendations? Any cautions using car covers?

I'll post some more updates soon, the history and the plans for the car etc. I could rattle on all day, but as this is just an intro, I'll halt there!

Thanks for reading!

Paul.

[E-Ray]

Welcome aboard. Nice looking Camaro! Don't know if it is a stock exhaust or not but you can always change up that for better sound. Car covers can cost anywhere from $60.00 to over $300.00. Most your outdoor covers with multiple layers run on the high side. Good luck.

[BAD DAB]

[Gunmetal Speedster]

Great purchase and welcome to the forums buddy!

[riozlander]

that is a absolutely jaw dropping beautiful Camaro. and welcome to the forum.

im not sure what shipping charges are from the USA to the UK. but most maintance items are not to much for these cars. oil changes are strait forward and pretty easy on the pocket. same with brake pads and other things.

there is plenty of DIY posts and a lot of in depth information all over the forum here
the car journal posts and sponsor builds are amazing to look at as well.

[Sir Nuke]

Paul, CONGRATS on your ride and Welcome to our happy little corner of the net, and to Camaro5/6. There is a BIG fridge on the back porch with anything you can think of in it...help yourself...of course only take what you can LEGALLY have. Make yourself at home on one of the big fluffy couches, kick your shoes off, put your feet up on one of the tables, yes we are allowed to do that, mom's, dad's, wives', husband's, girlfriend's and boyfriend's here don't care....and take it easy.



oh...btw....every once in a while a food fight breaks out...so you may not want to wear nice clothes here.

Welcome!!

[Ashen 6.2]

Welcome!

[ssrs2lt]

Congratulations

[Paul O]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

UPDATE 1 - The Garage Test

Loving this car so far. Its great fun and having the back seats means we can use it for families days out too. More on driving adventures and the attention grabbing nature of this car, in a future update.

In this update however, it's time for a garage test! The Camaro is a very big car with dimensions similar to that of my Porsche Cayenne. I live in a new-build type house with an integral garage and, like all single integral garages on pretty much any house built in the last 20 years in the UK, they aren't generous with their space.

The typical size of a UK garage is 2.4m x 4.9m (and is true of mine also.)
The Camaro dimensions are 1.92m wide by 4.8m long and the mirrors don't fold in either.

That gives an interior space of less than half a meter wide and 10cm length to spare! Before buying the car, I measured everything several times and the answers were always the same: in theory, the car would fit, but it would be immensely tight. I decided that in all likelihood it would have to live outside, thinking that it is unlikely to be a particular target for thieves, being a rare bright yellow left-hand-drive car. So to keep it from prying eyes I bought a cheap outdoor cover to keep it hidden until I'd tried it in the garage.

That day came a few weeks ago when, with the assistance of my good lady wife, I reversed it into the garage. Easily did it with literally a few centimeters on either side as the mirrors went past the garage entrance, parking sensors flat lining continually in my ears. Finally through the door, the front is narrower than the back and Mrs Paul O guided me to within an inch of the back wall.

The result?




It fits!!! The width of the car at the door section is actually no wider than that of a Porsche 911 (which I have owned previously and fits in the garage without a problem). Despite what the photo above suggests, once it is in the garage, its pretty easy to get out - although because I'm reversing in I have to get out of the passenger side. Thankfully its pretty roomy in the Camaro so that's not too arduous, even for my 6'4" frame. There is no way I'd be able to get it in the garage myself though as the entrance width and overall length is so tight, so its a team effort. All part of the fun of ownership, eh! As for the length there is perhaps 2-3" to spare at the front and back, so not as roomy as that first photo looks at the front.



But I was absolutely overjoyed that I can keep it safe and secure in the garage - it literally made my night! So far in that garage I've had a 911, Cayman, VW Beetle, Audi S5, Ferrari 360 (cabriolet - doors too wide to open without the roof down) and now the Camaro.

So if anyone tells you they can't get their car in a modern garage, you can tell them they are talking bullsh*t because your mate Paul O gets his Camaro in there, "and that's a big as a Porsche 4x4, don't you know"**.


** Caveat this with the common denominator that all of these cars have frameless doors, which I suspect is a big advantage

[Paul O]

Summer 2017 Update...

Maintaining it:
Detailed!



A few weeks ago I took it to Tony Spears (Autoshine Specialist Detailing) for a quick mini-detail. The car was nice and clean, but it wasn't perfect, so I wanted it to have a good refresh by a pro. I didn't have a paint correction done, but a good clean, polish and interior clean. It looks great! Interestingly the car has some curious paint spots, they look like stone chips in a circle shape and there are several all over the car. You can't see them from a few feet away, but up close they are noticeable. I asked tony about these, and he informed me that they are the results of the car being egged at some point in its life! He went on to say that the when the eggs shells break they crack the paint as well, resulting in these odd stone-chip circles.







MOT Time
The annual test was due by the end of Saturday, so it was booked in for Monday and duly passed with flying colours. Very happy with that, always a little nerve racking the first time under ones ownership that a car gets sent off for its inspection. Thankfully, it appears nothing untoward with this car which is great news.



Next in the maintenance world will be a service at the Chevrolet specialists over in Stockport.

Driving it:
Like attention? This car grabs it in spades. I've driven a lot of wonderfully exotic machinery, but nothing to date has the attention grabbing abilities of the Camaro in the UK. These are rare sights on the roads over here - plus it is bright yellow - and it looks like a car from the movies. Its certainly a stand-out car. But the best thing about it is that it makes people smile. Everywhere. No hand gestures, no swearing, just great big smiles. Kids do a double-take with the mouths wide open, even wives nudge their husbands and point at it.

Performance wise, the car is used almost exclusively for family days out at the moment, so the power is barely tapped into, but I have noticed that the downshifts are very keen and there is plenty of acceleration power, even in this V6 model. Compared to my Porsche Cayenne V6, the Camaro is more keen with its shifts and makes for a smoother ride, whereas the Cayenne is a bit notchy by comparison.

I'm also used to driving LHD now, which didn't take half as long as I thought. It's pretty easy, the only caution is on very tight roads. A few weeks ago I was passing by a school. The yummy mummy's were parked on both sides of the road, leaving a small access to get cars through. I had to squeeze through and much of that was sheer luck when a car decided to come the other way rather than waiting for me to get through. I must have been inches away from it. But that aside, its pretty easy and there are no blind spots in the mirrors which is excellent!

I was thinking of maybe setting this up as a wedding hire type business, as I guess there may be some interest in such a car? I think I'll attend a few comic-conventions with it and see what the take up is. Maybe see if it can pay its own way? I've not looked into the costs of such a venture though, but no rush on that front.

And Finally...
I don't think this car park was big enough, nor empty enough for this BMW who had to park next to me. Sigh...