[Wera313]

I decided to start a thread about building my new 2022 2SS 1LE for track DE with occasional autox and street driving. This car is so much fun to drive so I’m looking forward to improving my skills with it.

Some back story, the Camaro wasn’t even on my radar a few months ago. I’d put my name on the list for a Cayman GT4 after doing a PCA track day last summer. Those cars are incredible. Glad that I got a chance to test one at PECLA.



But two things happened: 1) I got tired of waiting on the list + ADM silliness, 2) @khcoaching posted about his Camaro on the WERA forum. I went deep down the rabbit hole of Camaro research. Two weeks later I was driving a new 1LE home from Wisconsin to Denver. I’d talked with local dealers about ordering but was told at least 6 months. Not confidence inspiring. Then, by chance, a member on this forum posted about cancelling his 1LE order. That’s how I found a car so quickly!

[Wera313]

The drive home was about 1,100 miles that were totally drama free. Easy trip that gave me a chance to learn the car a bit. First impressions were super positive. The power is fantastic across the revs with instant torque seemingly everywhere. The traction control and stability are really impressive- especially with so much adjustability. The car is also comfortable while packed with well executed user tech like CarPlay. I also came to enjoy the active rev matching feature on this manual transmission. It’s the first time I’ve experienced that type of system; I think it’s great.

One downside became immediately clear: there is now way I could fit in the cars current seating with my helmet on. I’m 6’4” so I knew this could be problematic. Sitting in y garage with helmet on confirmed it. My head is firmly jammed into the roof despite trying all different seat position adjustments. Bummer.

But… there is a silver lining in every cloud. This accelerated buying racing seats! That of course quickly led to finding a roll bar system and 6pt harnesses. Next week a local race shop will try to stuff all the new gear into the car. I’m hopeful that’s neither too exciting or expensive! We’ll see.

In the meantime, I took the car to a local PCA auto cross. I figured I’d manage to hold my head sideways for a minute or so. The auto cross was a blast. Got up to speed quickly despite not doing an autox since ~1997. Confirmed how much I like the cars honest feeling. Also that I’m going to need a lot of experimenting with TC and tires. Fun, fun.

[JamesNoBrakes]

Nice! I race at my local PCA autoX too. Got 3rd in "open" last weekend! It's not quite as nimble as a Cayman...but it doesn't suck at autoX either.

[khcoaching]

This is such a cool post! Glad you got it.

Ken

[Ikelove]

Cool story. The few GTS Caymans I saw that were actually available were priced at $125K. $35K above MSRP.

[Wera313]

Originally Posted by khcoaching

This is such a cool post! Glad you got it.

Ken

Thank you for the inspiration! I’ve learned a lot from your build posts that has dramatically shortened my learning curve.

[Wera313]

Last Sunday was my first track day with the Camaro. I had a great time with the Rocky Mountain chapter of the Porsche club at the Colorado State Patrol track. Starting to get a feel for the car. Lots of room for driver improvement!

[ZPirate]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.

That one hump in the course seemed somewhat unsettling.

[DaveC113]

Hey, congrats on your new car!

I have an '18 that is setup for CAM-C and I live in Lafayette. I attend many of the SCCA and BMW club autox races. This weekend there is both a BMW and a SCCA race, BMW at Front Range Airport / CASP and SCCA is at PPIR in Fountain. I'm torn between the two but will probably go BMW because it's much closer and attendance will be low since there's also a SCCA event, so we'll likely get a ton of runs in. PPIR is a nice venue but does have some concrete walls. Also BMW course design is better imo. PCA comes up with some weird ones... Sign-up ends tomorrow, you need to be a BMW club member but it's only $50 or so.

https://rmcbmwcca.com/events/ax2022-5/

Anyways, a few things to do off the bat that I'd recommend:

- PPF, sideskirts and rock guards. I used a lot of PPF, but it's critical in front of the rear wheels. ACS makes some decent sideskirts and rock guards. IMO they really should've come with our cars. The skirts massively reduced rocks hitting the side of the car, I actually replaced some PPF after one year before I got the skirts it was so bad.

- Brake Fluid... I use Brembo HTC64 I believe. I got a pressure bleeder and use it dry to push fluid through the system, works fine. Brakes have two bleed ports, so I got two catch bottles.

- ZL1 1LE rear cradle bushings. Improves feel and handling in some circumstances, but feel is far better in exchange for a small increase in NVH, but it's a welcome one as it makes the car feel more connected and less isolated.

- Vorshlag camber plates. Maybe not right off the bat, but the oem track settings are not nearly enough for autox. I get far more even tire wear and much better grip and predictability with more camber. The plates also increase NVH similar to the cradle bushings, you can feel the road a lot better and it adds a lot of feel via the steering wheel, again a big improvement in how connected the car feels. Almost forgot, for the rear end get some SPL toe arms with lockouts, it'll maintain alignment better and allow you to dial in more rear camber.

Roll bars and GMPP autox ediff tune add a lot to the car's capabilities but the car is great as-is, these two things make for some pretty large changes, I wouldn't do them until you get a feel for the car. Although the ediff tune only works in track mode with all nannies off, so if you're using PTM modes on track it won't be active, but you really need autox tires, alignment and roll bars for the diff tune to work as intended.

[Wera313]

Originally Posted by ZPirate

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.

That one hump in the course seemed somewhat unsettling.

Yes! That was in effect a ‘jump’ on the straight before the braking zone. During the first laps I stayed flat into that hump. On one of those first laps the car launched with four wheels off. My instructor and I decided that was too much speed so began lifting on approach so we wouldn’t catch air. After that session a photographer told me he snapped a few photos with light between the tires and ground. I’ll post that photo if he sends it to me.

[Wera313]

Originally Posted by DaveC113

Hey, congrats on your new car!

I have an '18 that is setup for CAM-C and I live in Lafayette. I attend many of the SCCA and BMW club autox races. This weekend there is both a BMW and a SCCA race, BMW at Front Range Airport / CASP and SCCA is at PPIR in Fountain. I'm torn between the two but will probably go BMW because it's much closer and attendance will be low since there's also a SCCA event, so we'll likely get a ton of runs in. PPIR is a nice venue but does have some concrete walls. Also BMW course design is better imo. PCA comes up with some weird ones... Sign-up ends tomorrow, you need to be a BMW club member but it's only $50 or so.

https://rmcbmwcca.com/events/ax2022-5/

Anyways, a few things to do off the bat that I'd recommend:

- PPF, sideskirts and rock guards. I used a lot of PPF, but it's critical in front of the rear wheels. ACS makes some decent sideskirts and rock guards. IMO they really should've come with our cars. The skirts massively reduced rocks hitting the side of the car, I actually replaced some PPF after one year before I got the skirts it was so bad.

- Brake Fluid... I use Brembo HTC64 I believe. I got a pressure bleeder and use it dry to push fluid through the system, works fine. Brakes have two bleed ports, so I got two catch bottles.

- ZL1 1LE rear cradle bushings. Improves feel and handling in some circumstances, but feel is far better in exchange for a small increase in NVH, but it's a welcome one as it makes the car feel more connected and less isolated.

- Vorshlag camber plates. Maybe not right off the bat, but the oem track settings are not nearly enough for autox. I get far more even tire wear and much better grip and predictability with more camber. The plates also increase NVH similar to the cradle bushings, you can feel the road a lot better and it adds a lot of feel via the steering wheel, again a big improvement in how connected the car feels. Almost forgot, for the rear end get some SPL toe arms with lockouts, it'll maintain alignment better and allow you to dial in more rear camber.

Roll bars and GMPP autox ediff tune add a lot to the car's capabilities but the car is great as-is, these two things make for some pretty large changes, I wouldn't do them until you get a feel for the car. Although the ediff tune only works in track mode with all nannies off, so if you're using PTM modes on track it won't be active, but you really need autox tires, alignment and roll bars for the diff tune to work as intended.

Thanks for the heads-up on the BMW CCA autox this weekend. I’m in the process of registering for Saturday. Maybe I’ll see you there!

Thank you for all the setup suggestions. My initial priorities are all focused on safety. So the car has a bolt-in roll bar from RPM, Recaro race seats, six point harnesses and changed brake fluid to RBF 660.


I also had a track alignment done. We’re limited by stock adjustment range now. Camber plates and toe arms are on the list of upgrades for next Spring. Will also switch to the Girodisc rotors and track pads. All the work has been done by the 3R Racing shop in town. They’ve done great work.


Wheels and tires are in-process now. Will add more details on that when that work is done.

[khcoaching]

Seats look great! I need that info for mine.

[That1guy_tim]

That white cage looks great! Good choice on the RPM bar as well! I have the same one.

[Wera313]

Originally Posted by khcoaching

Seats look great! I need that info for mine.

@khcoaching

I chose to fix mount the seats because I need the headroom clearance. Here are the parts used from Recaro:
SPARCO SEAT HARDWARE KIT ~ SIDE MOUNT
SPARCO SIDE MOUNT~ BLACK STEEL
SPARCO BASE~ 600SB284L

The complicated portion of the install was managing the electronics that are embedded in the factory seats. 3R Racing in the Denver metro did this for me. They did great because there aren't any dash caution lights and all the airbags are functional. It took several shop hours to figure out the electronics. The looms were re-mounted under the seats in a neat, tidy install.