New to the group, and my 2012 2SS Manual Coupe.......

[Rusty Shackleford]

After a fairly extensive search of the greater Texas area over a few months I finally found the car that checked the most boxes for me at the Chevy dealer closest to my house, go figure.



2012 SS coupe, manual trans. w/47k (at time of purchase). It's a two owner car (3 now that I bought it), with a few minor cosmetic flaws here and there, I didn't find many of them until I gave it a sponge bath myself. The only mod I know it has for sure is the exhaust. Everything downstream of the cast manifolds appears to have been replaced, all SS with Flowmaster FX mufflers and tips. I assume the exhaust was a kit of some kind when purchased/installed but I can't find it listed anywhere now. It does have cat's on it just behind the manifolds, x, and mufflers. Still has the factory boxed air intake, and though I can't be sure, I doubt it has a tune in it either. I wanted, and feel that I bought, an unmolested car.



It does have the 5v5 dealer option high wing spoiler, of which I am not a fan. It was a concession on my part. While not hideous, it just looks a little too "Tuner" for me. I will be talking to my body shop to see about having it removed and the holes filled, painted, etc. But it's not so hideous that I can't tolerate it for a few months or so. I think the car will look so much better without it, but that's personal preference.



Someone did add vinyl rally type stripes to the hood, rear deck lid, and top of the spoiler, and also wrapped the entire roof panel, all flat black. Car is Ashen Gray Metallic.



I picked the car up about 3 weeks ago, days before I had a work road trip to Utah, so I decided to bond with the car and drove it out there. While I did discover a few things I want to deal with, fix, or improve, nothing made me regret getting the car. I was impressed that by the time I got back the dash was telling me I averaged 23.8mpg on the trip. While most of it was hwy driving where I was running 3-5mph over posted limits, I was also enjoying the desert straight-aways and twisty mountain roads anytime I could. It was a fun trip, and an educational one for me as well.



I will say this, that 2,800 or so miles right after buying it kind of ruined the car for me in a way. Man, the thing seemed fast the first few days after driving nothing but stock gasser pickups for the last couple of decades, after a week behind the wheel of it, meh, not as fast but still fun the drive.



I am the consummate DIY guy with a gearhead background. But all of my experience is old-school, carb'd gen-I SBC stuff. My first direct port injected vehicle is my '18 Silverado w/L83, and so far it's been a good enough truck that I haven't had to learn much about how all that functions. Just don't get me ranting on 6l80 transmissions (why I wanted a manual), more specifically the converters they put in the trucks, but I digress.



Mod's I'm thinking about already?



I don't want to go crazy with the car, it does serve a purpose in my stable. Keeping it reliable and viable is important. So I doubt I'll go much farther with it than a CAI, Tune, and possibly some headers down the road.



Anyway, that's how I ended up here. This looks to be about the busiest, most respectful, and most informative forum I've found on modern Camaros. I look forward to learning a lot more, and even contributing in the future.

[morepowerjoe]

Congratulations sir you have a great car. Since you bought a manual you don't have the dreaded afm system so that's a great start. I will start out by telling you that the long tube headers will be one of the most expensive mods that you can do but probably one of the best mods for a 5th gen. The reason I say expensive is because it can cost you anywhere from $2k to $5k depending on what brand of headers and exhaust you choose only because you have to have a remote or dyno tune done after you install the headers because of the rear o2 sensor delete. And you can do cats or cat less. The dyno tune is the least expensive of the two versus a remote tune because when you do a remote tune you will have to purchase an hp tuners interface or a hand held tuner and the remote tune as well. A typical dyno tune will cost you around $500 depending on where you go. If you go the remote tune route then the hp tuners interface will cost you $400 plus the remote tune which should be $3-400. But I used to think that the dyno tune was the superior route to go but some of the remote tuners out there like Gwatney Performance is in my opinion the best route because with a dyno tune you don't know who the heck it is when you go get it done. People like GPI are the best at what they do. I actually know from experience. Anyway to the good part. Your likely to see gains of 40+ horsepower and a good sounding exhaust depending on what you get and that will wake the car up and make it more fun to drive.

On a side note, I have been using a local performance shop here in Austin by the name of Exodus that can do it all for our cars.

[ariZona28]

Sounds like a good find! Headers, 3.91 gears and a good tune would be good mods to consider. Don't be shy, post some pics of your new acquisition!

[0stones0]

Welcome!

[acutron42]

Welcome!

You definitely came to the right place. The knowledge here is immense & you wont find a better group of people to help you out no matter what you need.

Let's see some pics!

[camguynj]

Nice find! Congrats and enjoy it

First mod that is way cheaper ($200-$300 range) and a 15 min no tools DIY that will provide an instantaneous and significantly noticeable performance improvement more so than any of the ones mentioned above (although they’re all good and I have all of them plus a ported throttle body and cam a so I’m talking from experience) is a throttle controller. Vitesse is the most popular but PedalMax is the best …it’s almost twice as expensive at the Vitesse unit BUT it’s the only TC made in USA by an engineering firm that uses gold pins in its circuit board. It will make your car feel much quicker from a stop thru 1st and 2nd even though it doesn’t add any HP. Post back if you get one with your experience.

[1JEWLDSSRS]

Welcome to our "Camaro family"! Looks like you found a great ride to enjoy! We have a bunch of really cool folks on here that are pretty knowledgeable with these cars. Most of us have done just about everything possible with our Camaros, and love to share what we know. So don't be shy, ask away on stuff you want, or would like to do and we will steer you in the right direction! Oh, and I always tell folks that get a NEW to them Camaro, and they want to start modding, get those "money trees" planted and growing, because you're gonna need them!! Congrats on your new ride!!

[Eddymel1998]

Originally Posted by morepowerjoe

Congratulations sir you have a great car. Since you bought a manual you don't have the dreaded afm system so that's a great start. I will start out by telling you that the long tube headers will be one of the most expensive mods that you can do but probably one of the best mods for a 5th gen. The reason I say expensive is because it can cost you anywhere from $2k to $5k depending on what brand of headers and exhaust you choose only because you have to have a remote or dyno tune done after you install the headers because of the rear o2 sensor delete. And you can do cats or cat less. The dyno tune is the least expensive of the two versus a remote tune because when you do a remote tune you will have to purchase an hp tuners interface or a hand held tuner and the remote tune as well. A typical dyno tune will cost you around $500 depending on where you go. If you go the remote tune route then the hp tuners interface will cost you $400 plus the remote tune which should be $3-400. But I used to think that the dyno tune was the superior route to go but some of the remote tuners out there like Gwatney Performance is in my opinion the best route because with a dyno tune you don't know who the heck it is when you go get it done. People like GPI are the best at what they do. I actually know from experience. Anyway to the good part. Your likely to see gains of 40+ horsepower and a good sounding exhaust depending on what you get and that will wake the car up and make it more fun to drive.

On a side note, I have been using a local performance shop here in Austin by the name of Exodus that can do it all for our cars.

Always jealous hearing about pricing in other areas, we have one reputable Dyno tuner in area, I had to sit on a wait-list for 3 months and then ended up charged about $800-1000 for a dyno tune with mostly bolt ons, and don't get me started on gas prices, paying over $5 per gallon now listening to all the people in other parts paying close to $3

Originally Posted by camguynj

Nice find! Congrats and enjoy it

First mod that is way cheaper ($200-$300 range) and a 15 min no tools DIY that will provide an instantaneous and significantly noticeable performance improvement more so than any of the ones mentioned above (although they’re all good and I have all of them plus a ported throttle body and cam a so I’m talking from experience) is a throttle controller. Vitesse is the most popular but PedalMax is the best …it’s almost twice as expensive at the Vitesse unit BUT it’s the only TC made in USA by an engineering firm that uses gold pins in its circuit board. It will make your car feel much quicker from a stop thru 1st and 2nd even though it doesn’t add any HP. Post back if you get one with your experience.

Second this as well, when I got my tune I asked them to give it a more aggressive throttle response when car is in sport mode since mine is auto, it makes a huge difference, I do still keep the lazier throttle on drive though since it helps driving in winter during all the rain and such.

[SlowLS1]

Originally Posted by Rusty Shackleford

It's a two owner car (3 now that I bought it), with a few minor cosmetic flaws here and there, I didn't find many of them until I gave it a sponge bath myself.

Welcome to the family!

I feel you pain on finding those hidden surprises. Just try to take peace in the fact that you are going to be the only to see them unless you point them out.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Thanks for the warm welcome y'all. I'll get some pics posted when I get setup on a hosting site, haven't bothered with it since photobucket got all money-hungry.



I now know what the first mod will be......BASS. I knew it needed some help in that area, but the ol' lady even commented on it on the way home from car night at the local beer and burger drive-in Sat night. So since she mentioned it, I now have permission (all you newlyweds and soon to be's pay attention to how this stuff works). Sorting thru components making selections now, lol. Thinking a single 12" at 1ohm on 500watts, with the s******p t-harness. I love how easy this will be with the battery and factory amp in the trunk. I'm sure over time there will be more work on the audio system done, one step at time for now though. Once I get the bank account back up from buying the car I'll have a lot more latitude on such things.

[Eddymel1998]

You can upload the photos straight to the site here, just hit the "go advanced" and there should be an upload attachments option


Also glad I'm not the only one, I found that bass comes back when I have volume higher, if you turn it down the whole instrument section is missing, been looking into a sub for a while but can't seem to find something I like enough.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Agreed, it's difficult to get everything balanced. And half my mp3's are from back in the napster days so sound levels on the files (quality too in some cases) varies a lot, so one or two songs sound good, then one or two need fine adjustments.



I'm not an audiophile by any means. But I can tell that if I get some strain off of the factory speakers (less bass) they might make some decent mids and highs. And my bass seems to start rolling out at about level 30, anything after that is just more mids and highs with less bass. I know how deep these rabbit holes can go, I'm just going to try and control my descent into this one.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Test to see if my pic attempt works

[MSgt O]

Works! nice car!!