[Ryephile]

Now that insurance is sorted I can post this. Earlier this month I got rear-ended while stopped in traffic. A 17 year old kid in a fairly new Charger literally was looking off to the side [I saw in my rear-view] and didn't notice we were all stopped. He slammed into me and pushed me into the car in front, which pushed them into the car in front of them. The 1LE only has 12xx miles on it and was part of a spit-roast. :(

The kid got a ticket, as well as he deserved. Of course he had the gall to say "I've been driving for a while and this has never happened".

My friend in the passenger seat was looking down at the time and when we got rear-ended his head whipped back on the headrest. He immediately had some neck pain and the paramedics took him to urgent care where they said he had a mild concussion. Insurance paid his wages to take the week off work, which is good because he had some dizziness the following week. He seems better now, which I'm thankful for.

Both bumpers and crash beams got hosed up. Front hood and fenders are bowed. Exhaust bent exactly at the crimps that everyone freaks out about...that's why they're there, so take the brunt and not transfer it to the cylinder heads. Both headlights got cracked, the A/C condenser bent, a whole crap ton of plastic grille bits shattered everywhere and splashed all over the road. The insurance estimate for repairs is $10.5k.

March rear-ended crash by Ryephile, on Flickr

March rear-ended crash by Ryephile, on Flickr

March rear-ended crash by Ryephile, on Flickr

March rear-ended crash by Ryephile, on Flickr

March rear-ended crash by Ryephile, on Flickr


I have to give props to OnStar. When I hit the SOS button, they were super prompt, asked very key questions to assess the situation and severity, called 911 for me, and stayed on the line until the Police arrived. A+ service.

[Ryephile]

Here's the car in the body shop at Rodgers Chevy. It's been pretty slow as the parts supply seems glacial at best. Something that's not cool is they don't have the 1234yf refrigerant capture system, which is required equipment for GM dealerships. It's been "on order". I wonder if this is a similar situation to Vintage not having A/C after his engine change, dunno.

Body shop by Ryephile, on Flickr

They popped out the rear side glass in order to paint the whole panel "without showing a visible tape line". I guess?
Body shop by Ryephile, on Flickr

Since it was the same astronomical replacement cost (over $2k), I requested they put on the ZL1 NPP instead of the normal SS NPP exhaust.
Body shop by Ryephile, on Flickr

The hood wrap came off fine. The bondo for the front of the hood isn't sorted out yet. They have a new factory wrap in a box, it's official name is "decal".
Body shop by Ryephile, on Flickr

Body shop by Ryephile, on Flickr

It looks like it's going to be a few more weeks, based on the pace of work. I swap out my insurance rental for the dealership loaner on Monday, so from there it'll be on their dime to light a fire and finish the job.

This is going to cut it really close on making my Easter weekend track event. I really just want my car back.

[Shaq74]

I feel so sad for you man, but your baby is going to be alright. What's the address of this 17 year old, it should be on the police report. I'll go have a talk with him

[glamcem]

ouch sorry to hear about this man :/ with that said, cars can be fixed glad you're ok

[Corner carver]

Yeesh... Happy you and your friend are ok man.
I'd have a hard time keeping my head in that situation... Remember how upset I was about my accent getting smacked up in a parking lot.
The camaro getting smashed would put me into orbit (or maybe I'd just get sick I'd be so upset).
Fingers crossed they make Astro whole again and you'll be back to tearing up the asphalt in a few weeks

[Ryephile]

Thanks Guys for the support.

For sure, getting bent out of shape at the scene wouldn't of helped anything, I've been in those kinds of situations enough to push the emotional reactions aside until it's appropriate to vent it out.

If anything, as it was all happening, I was hoping the car would get totaled so I could start fresh again. There's not much worse than a bent up car that's never right again. When I got out of the car to assess the damage, it was quickly clear that it's relatively superficial.

[HyperBlueX2]

I spy a NPP upgrade...... ZL1.....???

[Ryephile]

That's correct. The prices were the same. I was throwing around the idea of a full ZL1 conversion, given most of the SS specific stuff got smashed, but then it'd end up being a copycat, so other than the exhaust tips it'll stay SS.

[1LEMATT]

Glad you guys were okay. Hopefully the car gets fixed up like new...

[Ryephile]

It's back! Rodgers body shop did a great job. The paint match is very good, the panel fitment is excellent, the new hood wrap is laid on just as good if not better than factory, and the car was very clean when I picked it up. The front splitter and rear spoiler corner pieces actually fit better than when I took delivery, so that's another plus. The ZL1 cat-back exhaust sounds the same, as far as I can remember the stock NPP sounding.

It's back! by Ryephile, on Flickr

It's back! by Ryephile, on Flickr

It's back! by Ryephile, on Flickr

It's back! by Ryephile, on Flickr

It's back! by Ryephile, on Flickr

It's back! by Ryephile, on Flickr

I was starting to get pretty depressed for not having the car for so long, I really was starting to forget what driving it was like. A few more thorns in my side were that I had only driven the car on the summer tires for 120 miles before putting the skinny winter tires on, and then somehow the combination of having the car in the shop for warranty fixes, being out of town, and the crash all colluded with the weather such that yesterday was only the 3rd day since taking delivery where it didn't rain on the car. So of course it's no surprise that the forecast has changed such that my first track weekend with the car is now looking like rain. It feels like I've been kicked in the gut.

I'm not sure if this cars' history can get much more storied. Let me start from the beginning.
*The car was built on Nov 8th, 2016, but then put on "quality hold"
*MatthewAMEL was the original sold order buyer, but when the car wasn't released from the factory after a few weeks, he found another 1LE and bought that one.
*This car was eventually released from the factory on Nov 14th. To make a long story shorter, the best I can deduce is the battery died *with* the keys in the car at the factory [which is not uncommon across all car plants]. The evidence of this was the passenger b-pillar trim and weatherstripping were gouged as if jimmied roughly. I noticed this at delivery and did a conditional acceptance. Becky was awesome and had parts department order the pieces to fix it.
*Ok, but after the car was released from the factory, it was trucked to Florida, for God knows why. Then it had to be trucked back to Rodgers Chevrolet, where it was supposed to go. Upon rolling it off the truck, the front splitter was broken. Now we're in December.
*Front splitter replaced
*I test-drove the car on Jan 16th, just after it was PDI'd and looking pretty in Rodgers performance car garage.
*I took delivery on Jan 19th. It wasn't raining this day.
*I went out of town from Feb 10th to 19th, car sat outside getting rained on.
*Feb 20th, brought car in for the b-pillar fix. Passenger side rear glass, weatherstripping, and interior pillar cover replaced under warranty. 2017 Cruze LT 6AT Convenience Package in Pepperdust Metallic/Dark Atmosphere loaner car for 3 days. I have to admit it's a nice car.
*Crash on March 4th. Incidentally the 2nd day of no rain/snow. Part of a spit-roast sandwich. $13.5k in damage. Dropped off car at Rodgers on March 6th, 2017 Hyundai Elantra SE 6AT Red/Beige rental car for 29 days. 2017 Malibu LT Silver Ice/Dark Atmosphere Convenience And Technology Package for 3 days until the seatbelt inertial reel jammed, then a 2017 Malibu LT Nightfall Gray/Jet Black Convenience And Technology Package. The Elantra was the best of these three cars, and the 2nd Malibu was much better screwed together, even ignoring the seat belt failure.
*April 12th, I finally pick up the Camaro. This was the 3rd day the car didn't get rained on.


So far I either take delivery or get in a crash on no-rain days. Thankfully [?] it's raining today.


Last night I also prepped the car for my Gingerman HPDE on Friday/Saturday.
*Dexos 2 Castrol Edge 0W-40
*Castrol SRF flush with Motive power bleeder and 1108 adapter. Given the factory fluid was a golden color, I could easily see when each line was flushed. Ended up using a bit over 3/4 of a liter for the flush, with exactly half a liter for the rears alone.
*Powerstop Track Day pads installed on washed rotors, then went out and bed them in.


Wish me luck! I'm sure me and the car will need it.

[Corner carver]

Yeah man! Good to see you back in the saddle!
Astro looks as wicked as ever

[HyperBlueX2]

Awesome news!!

[glamcem]

good to hear it seems like they did a great job on this

[Ryephile]

Ok, back from the 2 days at Gingerman with 3 Balls.

Here's my best session from today at Gingerman Raceway. Skip to 11:00 for the good laps. 1:41.04 was my best, which is damn impressive for showroom stock on street tires.




*copy and paste from the video thread*
In the 13 years I've been tracking at Gingerman I've never heard anyone say it's easy on brakes. The pads are perfectly fine, the tires don't have enough grip for the pads and the ABS calibration is frankly rather poor. If you apply the brake too quickly the ABS goes into a kind of "coast down mode" and braking distance goes frustratingly long. You have to lift and reapply to get out of the "coast down mode".

The car rotates best by rolling back on the throttle early. It refuses to lift oversteer unless the rear tires are cold. Speaking of tires, the staggered setup seems stupid. The fronts heat up quicker than the rears, and then once the rears come in you only have a couple laps before the fronts get greasy. The entire session is dominated by tire temp management rather than complimenting the suspension.

Overall the car is easy to acclimate to and its behavior is benevolent.

-----------------------------------------

I think overall, the car is excellent for being bone stock. There are a few niggles that I find quirky:

*The throttle response in Track mode, which you need to be in to access PTM, is very digital. Like Randy Pobst said, it's "too severe". There isn't enough medium-torque resolution, it goes from not enough torque to WOT within a couple degrees of pedal angle, which is inappropriate for a Track mode. Frankly how the Camaro team would let this calibration get into production seems like a basic oversight. As I exit corners, I want a smooth torque response, not a chest-thumping battle axe Hulk-smash.

*I was struggling with the brakes all weekend, but not for the reasons glamcem would prefer. First, the ABS calibration is clearly not designed for being used on-track. If ABS is actuated, the overall clamping force goes way down and the car feels like it's coasting down instead of fully braking. Obviously this is a problem. There does seem to be a narrow window of pedal actuation where I was able to threshold brake before ABS kicking in, but it's a pretty narrow window. I ended up giving myself room for "coast down mode" instead of throwing out the anchor like I'm used to in other cars. It seems part of the problem is the front tires just don't have enough mechanical grip for braking. The ABS problem isn't as severe as "ice mode" in the Elise/Exige, but in those cars you can simply disconnect the ABS and go about knocking out hot laps because the brakes are fundamentally communicative. The only big plus I have to give the Camaro brakes are the EBD and CBC are very good. Transitioning from a left-hand sweeper directly into a braking zone, and starting braking while coming out of the sweeper was a non-event. In lesser calibration CBC's (or nothing at all) you'll get single or multiple tire lock-ups instead of even braking. So thumbs up to that.

*2. The second problem with the brakes is all 8 bleeder valves keep leaking. Now, I've owned pretty much all the brakes over the years, barring carbon-ceramics. Wilwood still wins for having the least leaky race-style bleeders (yes the tiny 1/4" ones), AP's are kind of good, but these 1LE Brembo's need an absolute crap-ton of torque to simply minimize the weeping. I was literally using a 3/8" ratchet and deep-well socket and giving a good heave to the bleeders. Every heat cycle they'd need another 1/8 to 1/4 turn to get tight again. Looking at my PDR video, I'm not adding any notable more pedal pressure than others, so either my bleeders are crap or nobody else is reporting the bleeders suck.

*The oil temps. My recorded peak oil temp was 270F, which is hot. The rest of the cars' temps are fine. Coolant peaked at 214F. Trans temp is a non-issue at a 189F peak. This was in 82F ambient.

*Fuel economy. She's thirsty! 5.5 MPG on-track, yikes! Of course the on-board computer is optimistic by about 10%, that offset seems fairly consistent for street driving so far too.


Things I love: The PDR, the PTM, and the Recaro's actually hold me in! I lightly brace my knees on the center console and door panel, right about where the "knee pads" are, and it's all good. The benevolence of the suspension tuning is really impressive, it really only took one session to wrap my head around how the car works, it's just so easy.


Low hanging fruit: Tires. The car feels ready for a square set of 295 Hoosier R7's straight out of the box. More grip would match the Power Stop Track Day pads better, and also mask the ABS issues. I'm not super comfortable with the high oil temps; I may add a small Setrab to increase oil viscosity and film-strength headroom. After that, the suede knee pads should feel better than the hard plastic ones. Wow that's it. Yea the car is really capable and sorted right off the showroom floor.