Over the last 6 years My Camaro experience has migrated from being the DD with an occasional Auto-X, to a dedicated track car. Along the way I took notes from many sources on how to make myself and my vehicle better and faster. And in the last 2 years I have taken a greater interest in improving the aerodynamics of the Camaro as opposed to simply adding MORE POWER!!(although that will likely happen eventually) I hope this thread is as informative and interesting as many of the others on this forum. Huge props to @khcoaching and @glamcem, two other current or former PNW Camaro6 members for inspiring me on my journey.
Story time: I got my Camaro in late 2017 after an uninsured mustang driver got a death wave and shot out in front of my BRZ. I ordered my Camaro with only the specs I wanted. 1SS 1LE with PDR and black bow ties in HBM. It arrived just in time for my wedding!
I daily drove the Camaro for 2.5 years and won my class at the local AutoX with the car in essentially stock form. At the end of 2019, I tried my first track day (the Ridge Motorsports Park and was hooked. The next summer I watched a Porsche dump its coolant at 140, a 5th gen Camaro lose a belt and a gasket, and a Lambo catch fire. Given that I was wanting to commit to more track days and eventually travel to other tracks, I decided to buy a truck and trailer and the Camaro became the weekend/track toy.
Up to 2021, my only modifications had been the GM performance alignment, ZL1 rockers, and a couple sets of wheel and tires for various duties. I had the original SC3 tire on the stock rims, a set of square 19x10 Apex Arc8s with all seasons, and a set of 19x10/11 Forgestar CF10s with 305 RE71Rs for AutoX. That summer khcoaching showed up on the Camaro6 forum and I managed to pick his brain at an event the week before the SCCA Time Trials National Tour stopped by my home track. His pointers helped me reset my PB 4 times during the competition and I won my class by a 3 run combined differential of 1.2 seconds!
The next winter I decided to perform some mild modifications. I did the MRC strut grind thanks to Glamcem's how to thread and added the BMR rear toe arms and cradle lockout kit. These helped me get my alignment to -2.7 front and 2.0 rear with 0 toe. I had polished off the SC3 tires at the competition and felt the RE71Rs were a bit of a one lap wonder, so I got my hands on a set of 305 Hankook RS4s on 19x11 of Forgestar C5Vs. I lost a little time with these (about 1.5-2 seconds on a 1:50 lap) but they continue to wear like iron, so I use them for warm up/learning laps.
Throughout 2022, I continued to read khcoaching's posts and pestered him as much as I could at events when I ran across him. I learned much from his data driven approach to finding time, and slowly worked my way up to what I felt was the maximum pace the RS4s could handle at the Ridge. Alas, in finding that pace, I had my first big off. I grabbed 2nd instead of 4th in the middle of turn 9 at the Ridge (high G uphill right hander at ~100mph).
Thankfully the only thing that broke was the rear traction. I went sideways into a gravel trap and stopped 4 ft. from the wall. 2 tires de-beaded, a cracked rocker panel and some extra grip marks in the seat were thankfully the only results. I fixed everything back up and ran a few more events before finishing the season with an OnGrid Time Attack event. I was significantly outgunned in my class, but had a blast chasing some VERY fast cars!!