[Alain]

Well, a little background on me first.

I first joined this forum around 8 years ago when I bought a brand new 2010 1SS. I learned a ton of stuff from this forum and its members.

I took my 1SS, swapped the interior from the terrible cloth that came stock to a 2SS interior (leather). I installed long tube headers, removed the mufflers, changed the door panels and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember. I pretty much learned how to work on cars through this forum and I am forever grateful to those who helped me.

Fast forward 8 years. I no longer have the 1SS (sold to start a family). Well, that family never materialized, I ended up getting divorced less than a year after I sold the car. I ended up with an F150 that I returned after the lease was up (Im just not a pick up guy).

After my divorce, I did some reflecting and ended up realizing how quickly life can change for the worse. So I decided to live in the moment and enjoy the fruit of my hard labor. That brought me to buying a 2016 challenger Hellcat (don't kill me), there's a point to my story.

This January, my mother died after a 5 year long battle with breast cancer. Once again, after much reflecting, I realized that I could be doing a better job at living in the moment and enjoying the very little time I have on this planet. That, along with the advice of my girlfriend has led me to this........a 2018 ZL1 1LE. I made the deal this afternoon, I will be picking up the car Thursday.

I did a bit of research on both the ZL1 1LE and the GT 350R. After giving up on finding a GT 350R for MSRP or somewhat close, I decided that Ford and its greedy dealerships did not deserve my business.

I drove past one of my local Chevy dealerships and saw this beast in the parking lot, it was the exact color I would have ordered (Red Hot). After a test drive and getting the back story on the car and it's 5400 miles I made the deal.

I only have one picture of the 1LE, I purposely didn’t want to take too many so that it wouldn’t take away from the experience when I pick up the car on Thursday.

I am looking forward to owning the most capable camaro ever built. And this time I actually LOVE the interior hahaha.

Feel free to share anything you guys think I should be on the lookout as a guy who hasn’t been around the GM scene for a long time.

[Alain]

Oh I forgot to give you guys the back story on the car.

This particular car was built in April of 2017 and was used by GM as their show car at various events and shows when they where promoting the release of the 1LE package. It was never titled or registered.

Car fax shows the car was first registered as a corporate fleet vehicle by GM on 5/3/2017. That leads me to believe the car was built sometime in April of last year.

My local dealership bought it from GM this January with the same amount of miles that It had when I test drove it. That tells me that none of the dealership staff used the car.

Dealership certified the car, added an extra year on the warranty (power train and bumper to bumper). Replaced the rear tires with new ones, serviced it and decided to put it up for sale.

When I walked up to it the sticker on the window was asking for $73,300 (which I knew was bogus). To make a long story short, over the span of the weekend I beat them down to $63,00 (plus taxes) and two brand new front tires.

I’m happy with the deal. Knowing that the car came from GM makes me feel at ease about the miles. I’m sure GM put it through its paces and drove it hard but the added year on the warranty alleviates my concern about the usage.

Only flaw I was able to find on the car was the bottom of the front splitter had some minor scrapes, that’s it. Picking it up on Thursday, there will be plenty of pics !!

My Hellcat is a completely different animal than this 1LE. They are two totally different weapons, both killer in their own realms.

[Vulcan1]

Have fun with your new toy.

[Alain]

Thank you ! Drove past the dealer’s lot this morning to look at it from a distance and it wasn’t outside anymore. Guess they brought it in to prep it.

[DangerZL1]

Congrats on the 1LE! The Hellcat is nice too.

[FAST FRED]

Welcome Back.

[Buzzmanb12]

Hell yeah!
I still have my 04 GTO, far from stock at about 800 hp.
Never too much power.

Welcome back from the dark side.

[copper3000]

Welcome back!

[Alain]

Thank you for the welcome boys!!

Getting around to doing some research on the car and what's available for it.

During my test drive on Saturday I noticed the throttle felt lazy when starting from a stop. I've been doing some reading on the ported throttle bodies. That Tonny Mamo (spelling?) seems to be popular.

If anyone has had experience with ported TB let me know what you thought.

[brap999]

This might have been the same 1LE I nearly bought. I Kept seeing it online (red 1LE in NJ with more miles than a new one should), but I live in Virginia and ended up finding one closer to me.

Congrats on the purchase glad it went to a good home!

I’ll just say this, I picked mine up this past Friday sight unseen. I had never driven a ZL1 let alone the 1LE. I was fearful I wouldn’t ‘love it’ for the price I paid, seconds after driving it off the lot I can honestly say it’s the most exciting car I’ve ever owned. And I’ve owned numerous domestic sports cars over the years. Nothing even comes close.

It blows my Viper away in not only performance but in looks too (and all the technology in it is freakin awesome too!)

Once you take that thing home you’ll never look back.

[Boo]

My Dad had a 63' split window Stingray...silver with burgundy interior. He bought it new for like $3,600 i think??? Anyway he only had it 3 years before he "had" to sell as my oldest sister was about to be born. He talked about how he wished he'd hung onto that vette for the rest of his life. He passed away back in 96 at 55 years old...that always stuck with me. Life is crazy, unpredictable and way too short! So my 2017 ZL1 is his 63 vette....but im not selln mine! Drive till ya die man

[Alain]

Originally Posted by brap999

This might have been the same 1LE I nearly bought. I Kept seeing it online (red 1LE in NJ with more miles than a new one should), but I live in Virginia and ended up finding one closer to me.

Congrats on the purchase glad it went to a good home!

I’ll just say this, I picked mine up this past Friday sight unseen. I had never driven a ZL1 let alone the 1LE. I was fearful I wouldn’t ‘love it’ for the price I paid, seconds after driving it off the lot I can honestly say it’s the most exciting car I’ve ever owned. And I’ve owned numerous domestic sports cars over the years. Nothing even comes close.

It blows my Viper away in not only performance but in looks too (and all the technology in it is freakin awesome too!)

Once you take that thing home you’ll never look back.

Thank you sir. Yes, this must be the one you were looking at. During my haggling with the dealership I did a quick search for used ones in my area and I only found 2 or 3 (none of them were red). What year is your viper?

I have to tell you this. I test drove this 1LE on Saturday thinking I was not going to like it. I've been looking at videos on line of it for quite a while now. I couldn't find anything wrong with the car other than the way the exhaust sounded. I know that's an easy thing to fix, but for some reason, it kept turning me off to the 1LE. The second I pressed the start button and it fired up (sounding like a wild monster) I knew I was going to be in trouble....... HAHAHAHA.

Then, I was expecting it to not feel as powerful as my hellcat. Once we got on the highway and I got on it, I knew I was in trouble again. Then getting off the highway, taking the ramps at a high speed and the car handling like it was on rails, that put me over the top.

This car is a monster just like my hellcat is BUT in a completely different way (I know that sounds like i'm contradicting myself). I decided to keep the hellcat and add the 1LE to the mix. The hellcat is so crazy and wild that it brings it's own brand of fun to the driving experience........ it wants to kill you, it wants to throw you out of the driver seat almost ALL the time. It defies the laws of nature, so I couldn't bring myself to part with it.

I went back to the dealership after the test drive, did some haggling and two days later, the car is mine. This thing looks incredible (especially from the front).

Originally Posted by Boo

My Dad had a 63' split window Stingray...silver with burgundy interior. He bought it new for like $3,600 i think??? Anyway he only had it 3 years before he "had" to sell as my oldest sister was about to be born. He talked about how he wished he'd hung onto that vette for the rest of his life. He passed away back in 96 at 55 years old...that always stuck with me. Life is crazy, unpredictable and way too short! So my 2017 ZL1 is his 63 vette....but im not selln mine! Drive till ya die man

Thank you Boo, I'm glad to hear i'm not the only one with this outlook. I make my living in a very dangerous profession, with incredibly long hours and high levels of stress. People in my field live and average of 5 years after retirement (due to the stress).

I'm gonna drive till I die dude !! hahaha