HuJass

OK. I'd like to share some of my thoughts and experiences from Indy Bash '08.
I guess I'd start with the star of the show, the Camaro.
The car is simply gorgeous!! I think it's better looking than the concept. The proportions are way better. It looks like a real car now. I think the back end is not so bulbous on the production car. The best part of the car is the 1/4 panel right under the quarter window. It is perfect. The car is just so sexy.
I've said before that I thought that the car was the best Chevy design since the early '70s. I'll now go one further and say that this car is GM's best design since the late '60s.
The interior of the car was roomy and comfortable. I was sitting in the passenger seat when another guy sat in the driver seat. I was impressed with the shoulder room. It seemed to be around 12-14 inches. The seat went back so far that I couldn't bottom the clutch pedal on the floorboard and I'm 6'1" with long legs. I didn't feel like my legs were bent with my knees smashed into the dashboard. The door sill was a little high; it may be more troublesome for shorter drivers but tall people can live with it. But it seemed better than my Solstice. Getting in and out was a snap, as long as the seat & wheel was adjusted to me. I thought ingress/egress was easier in the Camaro than it was in the Solstice. the controls fall nicely to hand and the console armrest rises up nicely to meet your elbow. The gauges seem to be different in the non-RS vehicles. They seem to be shorter & fatter in the non-RS cars and taller & skinnier in the RS cars. I didn't know there was going to be two different fonts. As I stated in another post, I did not like the orange accented interior. Way too much orange for my liking. The silvery/gray color in the yellow car is fine for me. The IVER car had a graphite colored cloth in those areas. The seats in the IVER car were cloth as well, and they were remarkably comfortable for car that a lot of miles on it with a bunch of different drivers. I noticed how wide the seats were. They didn't pinch at the hip or top of the butt. That will be appreciated for those who are a little larger down there. I still wish it had a rear pictoral nav system. But the radio looks to be cool. In the seminar they showed the radio working. They showed the AM band and it had a graphical representaion of the old car radio dial. When you would tune the radio, a bar would move along the dial. Really neat. It has big blind spots in the C-pillars, but other wise, visability was good. The back seat will be useless for adults unless the people in the front are like, 5 feet tall. I also want to know what other devices will be operable by the USB connector. We know ipods will work and memory sticks will work. But what about other brand name mp3 players (Sansas, Zunes, etc) and other USB devices, like a Palm Pilot? I use a Palm Pilot as my mp3 player. I hope it works. I think Al also told us that the bluetooth is a full bluetooth, so that you could transmit your mp3s wirelessly from your phone (or other device) to the stereo. There is, however, no hard drive. Bummer. The top of the dash and door panels was a harder plastic material. I was hoping for a softer touch material. Maybe they could offer a stitched material package (ala Corvette) at a later date. The trunk seemed small to me, and it was. Only 11.3 cubic feet with an 18 inch throat opening.

HuJass

I also want to talk about the event. What a great show GM and the sponsor car club put on. I got there on Friday afternoon. There was a hiccup with my room reservation at the Holiday Inn. I reserved thru the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce (or whatever). They never transmitted my reservation info to the hotel. The people at the Holiday Inn were showing me other hotels to stay at when some other girl got the whole thing straightened out. So we got to stay there. I then headed down to the registration tent by the track to get my banquet tickets. I then went across the street to the track to see the cars. The old (and I mean old) man at the guard booth knew nothing about the event. He kept trying to tell me the track closed at 5 PM and the gates will close at that time. I finally just ignored him & went in. It was difficult finding the cars at first because they were behind the garage areas in what I call the courtyard. But I found them, and I was just blown away. I took a lot of pictures (see below for pics). I sat in the IVER car about 4 times. I made the mistake of touching the door panel of the silver SS and the big guy sitting there yelled at me. I left about 6 PM, got something to eat and then went to the Camaro Z28.com summit back at the hotel. It was great getting to meet some of the people I've been conversing with the past 8 years. I saw Z284ever and Big Al's Z there but didn't get a chance to meet them. I met Jason D, ChrisFrez, and Elie. I met Scott, Cheryl, and John. I would have liked to chat with them more but they were like rock stars. Everbody wanted a piece of their attention. I went out to the parking lot around 11 PM to look at the cars. Most of them were 4th gen Camaros but there were a few 1st gens and early 2nd gens. My cousin & his wife showed up about that time. I went to bed around 12:30 AM.
I got up on Saturday at about 6:15 AM. We grabbed some breakfast and headed to the track. Of course my cousin wanted to see the new car first, as he had a Daytona Yellow '69 Z28 with black stripes and now he wants a new Z28 in yellow with black stripes. He was VERY impressed with the car. We then headed over to the ride & drive event. I drove the CTS first. I wasn't impressed with the power until I found out later that this car was the non-DI V-6 with AWD. That explained a lot. I then drove the G8 with the V-8. I wasn't to impressed with the interior. Of course I just came out of the CTS, so maybe that had something to do with it. But my first impression was I like the interior of the GTO better. But the car performed great. The last part of the drive was the straightaway of the interior road course. You wait your turn (like a plane waiting for clearance), the GM rep tells you to let off at the 3rd cone and keep it under 60. Well I put it to the G8. I was in the manumatic mode. I brake torqued it a bit, put it to the wood, and held it there thru 4 gears. I didn't let off until I was under the pedestrian bridge, which is MUCH further down than the 3rd cone. Let's just say I was doing more than 60 MPH. That car pulled HARD. I thought to myself, this engine in the CTS would be about perfect.Of course all the electronic nannies were on and they wouldn't let you turn them off. My last car was the Vette. I felt I couldn't get the seat back far enough in the Vette, and that my knees were pinned between the wheel and the door panel on the left and the wheel and console on the right. The Camaro was much roomier. But we started off and right away I did NOT like the paddle shifters. It's too unnatural feeling. Plus it was lazy. I need real sticks in my cars, period. When it was time to do the acceleration test in the Vette, the rep was very adamant about letting off at the 3rd cone. I felt obliged to do that. So I brought the car up against the brakes and when he gave me the OK, I let 'er rip. It squealed the tires and that 3rd cone came REAL fast. I let off and was doing about 60. I wish I could have held it longer. That LS3 screams like a banshee when pushed hard. But I noticed it has the same trait as my LS1 T/A. The motor doesn't come alive until about 3-3500 RPM. All in all, great time.

HuJass

We went to the seminar at 1PM, and, as you've read there was a lot of info given. I won't mention here what was already posted. Somebody asked if the FE3 suspension would be available on the V-6 cars and Al said it would not be due to the different parts needed for that setup and the testing and certification of that set-up. Of course John mentioned the ordering of the car opening up on 10/13, but he also mentioned that 2 new models would be shown at SEMA in November. Did he mean Camaro models? I don't know. My cousin & I looked at each other and said, "what does that mean". They did show a pic of the front end of the TF2 Bumblebee. Somebody else asked about the Z28 and they were non-committal, of course. So no new news there. Al's presentation was long. When he started talking about the structure of the car and the composition of the steels used in the different parts, I started getting bored, and I'm an engineer. I can't imagine what that was like for the kids and wives/girlfriends that were there. A couple people asked about badging and why isn't there more inside the car and why there isn't any Camaro specific badging anywhere on the car. Tom answered that by saying they wanted to take a minamalist approach to the badging question. The radio looks to be really cool. They showed a video of the radio working. They showed the ignition video. They gave a lot of specs & stats. I wish they had a handout to give us because it was so much info, I can't remember it all. Of course the t-storm hit while we were in the seminar. 2/3 of the people in there went scrambling to their cars to get them buttoned up. We could hardly hear the speakers because the rain was coming down so hard.
We left there and went back to the hotel for some rest and to change before the banquet. We got to the banquet at about 7 PM. There were a ton of people there. The lines were long, but again, it was nice to chat with fellow F-body owners. After dinner, they started the auction. Of interest to note were 2 5th gen rear spoilers. One went for $400 and the other for $500. A ride on the track in the IVER car went for $500 and a ride in the yellow car went for $400. The last piece was incredible. It was a right side fender off of a 5th gen. It was an early die strike that they used to check the condition of the metal (cracks, stretching, die marks, etc). It was painted and signed by the team. I told my cousin that the fender will go for about $800. When it was all said and done, they got $1,400 for the fender. Unreal. I did get to sign Scott's book, which was cool.


All in all, it was a GREAT weekend. My hats off to GM and the Central Indiana Camaro Club. Now I just can't wait to order my convertible.


Check out my pics starting in the next post.

HuJass

HuJass

HuJass

Steve0

I'm still not the biggest fan of the retro interior but I think that orange interior is HOT! The interior in general is unique to me and gives the car a lot of character. I'd love to have that silver SS... and if the future goes well for me, who knows, maybe I'll get a 5th gen. It's going to be a hard choice for me though to choose between a 5th gen and a used C6.

I cant wait to get the chance to drive one.

HuJass

Oh, GM brought a bunch of cars that were painted the Camaro colors.
Inferno Orange (Solstice) wasn't bad. I'd have to see that on the Camaro to see if I like it. Cyber Gray (Corvette) had no pop. Imperial Blue (Cobalt) looked good, if you like dark blues.
And Aqua Blue??? It was on an HHR. What did I think??? Not good!!!!
That color should be axed before it even comes out. It's just not a nice color.

MLL

Huj, I beleive that is a difference between LT/LS V6 car gauges and SS V8 Gauges, not RS vs. non-RS.
Check out this thread:
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7001

Scott announced to the crowd when the Silver SS was unveiled that the panels you mentioned in the IVER car were very early prototype pieces and hard to the touch. Assured that all those surfaces would be soft-touch in production.

The silver SS had just had the Inferno Orange interior put in and it was also pre-po, i.e. some of the surfaces were dyed/painted and not production. There was concern of it wearing as it was being shipped to France as soon as the show ended. Can't really blame them, those near finished cars have a lot of shows and places to go yet, and hundreds of people crawling in and out of them for three days would be detrimental.

P.S. Glad you enjoyed the show, been planning and working on it for about 18 months. Preliminary attendance numbers were about 514 cars entered by close of registration Saturday afternoon.

MLL

IMO I don't think the auqa blue is too bad, but I think the Impulse blue on my buddies '05 GTO would look AWESOME!!!!

sselie

I'm very much looking forward to SEMA!

Best regardSS,

Elie

My Red 93Z-28

I should've paid closer attention to the schedule, I walked in to the show Sunday looking to do the ride and drive since the rain ruined it the day before, and was stopped by track security. They told me there were only about three camaros left and they were at the museum (where we parked) and that everything else was over after they went around the track. I thought Sunday was an all day event too.

Z284ever

That's too bad HuJ. I always enjoy meeting in person, the people I talk to on this site.

Where were you sitting?

My Red 93Z-28

I saw you when you were getting your door prize and once out in the parking lot, but I was sitting up at the front table with ChrisL, KevinK, the SLP rep and others

HuJass

I was actually sitting to the right of you and a little behind, in the back of the room. I was sitting in a regular chair at the bar-height table.