[Whitespeed]

This will likely be of interest to less than 5% of the Camaro driving public, but I wanted to share this with the few of us out there. The category I’m talking about are the ultra tall, like me. Now, at 6’7” with a 38” inseam, I fit pretty well in the Camaro, all things considered. But the one area where I struggle, which is true of pretty much every car I drive, is the positioning of the steering wheel. I always have to have my legs splayed out, with the wheel between my knees, and I often can’t spread my legs enough because of the door and center console to fit my hands between the wheel and my knees. It gets exciting, and not in a good way, when trying to make rapid maneuvers and my hands hit my knees when I’m trying to turn. Telescoping wheels help somewhat, but are typically biased towards the shorter end of the height spectrum, and for me, even at the farthest extension, they barely bring the wheel close enough.

My solution in other cars has been to install a small diameter aftermarket wheel and spacer to provide more room. However, modern cars have an ever increasing number of functions built into the steering wheel. The Camaro has 18! There are no aftermarket wheel options that allow you to keep anywhere near that number of functions. The horn is about the only thing there is a provision for on most aftermarket wheels. You also give up the air bag as well. The challenge then became how to keep the stock steering wheel, but move it further out. I didn’t want something that was going to require machining splines to match the stock steering shaft and wheel, since that would be very costly. Instead, I gambled that I could find a way to make an NRG hub adapter for an aftermarket wheel work with the stock wheel. So, I bought an NRG hub adapter (PN SRK-178H) and went to work on designing a custom adapter to allow the stock wheel to bolt up to it.





So, the way it works is that the NRG adapter bolts to the steering column, the custom adapter bolts to the NRG adapter, and the steering wheel bolts to the custom adapter. Here it is mocked up off the car...



The only mechanical modification to the wheel that is required are 4, ¼” holes that need to be drilled in the base.



The NRG hub adapter required some modifications too. For some reason, they didn’t leave enough clearance for the steering wheel harness to be plugged into the clock spring. Even if all you want to use is the horn, you still need to be able to plug the connector in for that. So, I had to mill out a 3mm deep pocket in the back of the NRG adapter. I did it by hand, so it's not the neatest.



The wiring was a bigger challenge. I couldn’t find a mating connector for the steering wheel button harness in order to make a plug and play extension. Instead, I unfortunately had to cut the clock spring connector off of the button harness and make a connectorized extension harness, as well as cut and splice in a 2” extension to the air bag harness on the clock spring. I used 22 AWG wire for the extensions and a Philmore branded Molex 9 position connector (PN 61-409) for the button harness.



You can buy a replacement button harness and clock spring for not a lot of money and put them aside for the future if you ever want to undo this mod. In the end, I didn't use the notch that I had machined in the adapter I designed for the wiring to pass through. I ran the wiring for both up through the center of the wheel, and used the rectangular hole in the wheel base that the air bag and button harnesses used to pass through as a pocket for the new button harness connector.

I couldn’t be happier with the end result which has moved the wheel an additional 2” closer, yet still looks completely stock.



This has totally transformed the driving experience! I now no longer have to drive with my arms stretched completely out, and my knees actually fit behind the wheel. Most importantly, I can move my hands all around unobstructed. As an added bonus, I am still able to reach the turn signal too, although it’s a big of a stretch. I had a few shorter friends sit in the car to see if it would cause problems for them to drive the car. Keep in mind, the wheel still telescopes, but now at its furthest in position, it’s still a half inch further out than the maximum extension before. But even still, anyone 5'8" or taller could still easily drive the car. Not sure yet how short you would have to be before the wheel is too close.

In over 30 years of driving, this is the first time I’ve ever felt completely free behind the wheel. In fact, the first time I drove the car, it felt like something was wrong! I’ve done three HPDE’s so far and have never felt so confident behind the wheel of a car. For some additional clearance, I pop the knee pad of the center console when I'm on the track. I can now actually drive the car as hard as it was meant to be driven!

Nigel

[Vtor_ZL1]

Nice !

[Camaro_QC]

Nice work buddy!!

I too would like an extra inch. But I'm only 5'9". I feel comfortable with the pedals as it is, but it seems like the steering could be a little closer even though is it fully deployed. When I put my arms completely extended and rest them on top of the wheel, my wrist should rest on the wheel, but actually I have my palm resting there.

Oh well, I don't have all your leg problems so I don't him I might just get used to it haha.

[Whitespeed]

Update!

I finally got around to making a turn signal extension to match the wheel extension. Much like my original post, this will be of interest to nearly no one other than myself. But just in case, I've decided to share what I've done. Now, the turn signal lever was reachable as it was, but I really had to stretch my hand out and I didn't have much of a grip on the wheel if I was trying to signal, turn and change gears for example. And, I actually like to keep other drivers informed of what I'm doing so that I don't get run into.

I considering custom machining something, but decided to see what if anything was available "off-the-shelf." It turns out that there actually are bolt-on turn signal extensions. However, the Camaro turn signal stalk is 30mm in diameter and the off-the-shelf extensions will only fit up to 28mm. But my initial idea was to find some kind of hose or tube separator, and clamp a length of metal tube parallel to the turn signal arm. Nothing came up for the diameter I needed though with typical tube separators. But somehow in my searching, I stumbled upon flash light mounts for rifle barrels! I found a mount for a 30mm rife barrel for a 1" diameter flashlight! It took almost 2 months to arrive from China, but it was worth the wait. I combined that with a 95mm length of 25mm OD aluminum tubing painted satin black, and it worked out perfectly. The offset is almost exactly the 2" that I extended the steering wheel out by.

The lever is easily reachable now, just as if everything were stock! It's such a simple thing, but it does make the driving experience more enjoyable.

[olblue75]

Wow on the engineering of it all!!!

[h018871]

ingenuity at it's finest, great job!