Simply dont give it up. Keep it and get the 5th for fun

 

Driving my Camaro is the last perk I still have at my job. I just scowl whenever someone says something about buying a van, truck or any other company owned vehicle for me to drive around. If that were to happen, I'd refuse and probably leave over it because there are too many days when Camaro, V8, lighting up those 315s and diving into a curve are the only things that get me through the day.

It's not just the performance either. Not a day goes by without me being impressed by the good looks of the car. I smile every time I see it in the parking lot. Seven years and I still take window breaks to remind myself it's real . . .

 

Yeah, seriously. I drive my Corolla everyday since I don't want door dings on the Z28, and it's a pain. I can floor it and I'll do 60 in 11 seconds and it will scare the crap out of me in the process. No... not because it is unstable, but because the car feels like I am riding around in an aluminum can. In the Camaros, it feels like I have 3 feet of steel between me and other cars next to me.

It's kind of amazing, but I've gone to GM's Auto Show in Motion twice in the last 3 years, and there's never a car there that feels quite as good as the Camaros. I think I drove something like 28 cars there the last time I went, and the best four cars were:
Corvette- but is out of my price range and the stock exhaust doesn't rumble much
GTO- great but felt a little large and the styling wasn't completely to my taste (tall rear end)
SSR- great Camaro-like feeling, but felt like it had a full trunk of groceries. I really liked the folding hard top
Grand Prix GXP- great overall car, but front wheel drive of course. Still worthly of the top 4.

The only thing I don't like about our Camaros is the fact that they are difficult to park. The front end is hard to figure out the location of when you haven't driven the car in a month. I might buy some front end cameras some day...

 

What a great suggestion!!! Part of me loves it - part of me......the thing is that I'd have to keep the TA outside since my wife and I only have a two car garage - and there's no way her 350z and/or the 5th gen is going outside........but if I can stand to put my Trans Am on the street..........

Oh well - at least I've got time to ponder it.

 

you can do what i do, for the cars that I cant put in garages, put a cover over them.

 

There's also this alternative.

 

exactly what I want to do... My fiancee and I are working with a contractor. (they can be REAL pain in the a$$es...) to build a garage on the side of the house. Also, a BIG master room on top of the garage! And I want to put a lift inside of the garage. So I can park the cars in there. The only problem is that the Garage is going to be 2 cars long, not side by side.

So this is the idea:
********
*--car1--*
*--and---*
*--car2--*
*--------*
*--------*
*--car3--*
*--------*
*--------*
**------**

Car 1 one would be ground level and car 2 would be on the lift.

car 3 ground level.


Car 1 is probably going to be a 2009 Camaro z28 Convertible orange with black (or gun metal) stripes -- her toy
Car 2 my current z06 the weekend racer/car show -- my toy
Car 3 hopefully we can find a used Dodge Magnum STR8 in black. The daily driver and the Family/Dog car. With 2 big Dobermans I need something big.

 

What do you mean they're hard to park?



I know where my front and rear bumpers end. I finally started taking pictures of my crazier Camaro parking jobs. It's fun to drive my friends' Camaros and freak them out. I get close . . . but I never hit anything.

 

I remember when my sister pulled in the garage and smacked our vacuum with the front end and it went flying.

 

I'm a girl. I always drove whatever I happened to find that was the right price at the time. My vehicles were always to get from point A to point B, not to make a statement.

Somewhere along the way, all of that changed.

I became friends with a Camaro enthusiast. He showed me the car through his eyes. I then went to the Bowling Green Camaro meet last summer, met lots of other enthusiasts and saw lots of really cool cars. I even had the great fortune of sitting next to Scott Settlemire at dinner and was utterly impressed by his love of the Camaro and his love of people who love the Camaro. It was amazing.

Many months later, after much searching and waiting, I finally found my car. On Christmas Eve, I picked it up. Every day I look at my car and think, "Is that really mine?"

Driving has become a joy, and my car *has* become a statement of who I am . . . all because I made a friend who loves Camaros.

 

This is an excellent thread.....

I have had Camaros in my blood since before I was born. When my mother was pregnant with me, she was driving around in a 2nd gen Z28. When I was born, my father owned a red and black 1968 SS/RS convertible, 396/4 on the floor. He showed the car for years, then sold it to my uncle (who also owned a second gen). A few years later, he bought it back from my uncle, then sold it again a few years later--this time for good. I have memories of sitting behind the wheel of that car at a really young age--dreaming about the day I'd get to drive it. I'll never forget the times we'd cruise around with the top down in the warm, sunny weather and row through the gears across the countryside. And looks you'd get from people..oh man, there's nothing else that will grab such attention.

Once I was old enough to really understand cars, I knew I had to have a Camaro. I had to drive some crappy cars on the way, but once I turned 20, I finally found one, though it was a V6, it still meant the world to me. Fast forward to today: I've had my Z28 for 6 months now and put 22k miles on it I love it, but at the same time, wish I had something else to drive to keep the miles down. I get that car cleaned up and drive through town and everyone stares. I just feel peaceful and like all my troubles are gone when I'm cruising this car down the boulevard with t-tops out on a cool summer evening. Sometimes when I park the car and walk into a store, the house, etc., I look back at the car in disbelief that I own such a beautiful and sweet machine. I will NEVER part with this car and one day hope to add one of each generation to my collection.

There's something about these cars that draws you in. No one will probably ever be able to figure out exactly what it is, but it doesn't matter. It's there and it's powerful enough to make us fall in love with the car, and draws the owners of the cars together into a sort of brother hood. People that would possibly never associate with each other if the common bond of this car wasn't in the picture. That's saying something right there.

That's just how I see it anyway. The Camaro will always be way more to me than a way to get from point A to point B.

 

I *love* this post!!! I think the *exact* same thing when I look at my TA. I can still remember stopping at the store when I left the dealership......I just kept turning around, looking at it as I went in.....I don't know how I didn't get run over.

And it's great hearing this from a girl! My wife feels the same way, but I think that makes three women in 37 years (total) who really enjoy driving and can appreciate our cars without scorn or disdain. I'm sure there must be more out there - but they're not nearly vocal enough.

 

Man is THAT cool!!! My mom almost cried when I told her I was buying a Trans Am.....she was convinced I'd be dead in weeks, if not days.

What's great is that I *still* get those looks - even after production stopped!! It's awesome to think that as kids point and gape at my car, I'm doing the same thing as the unknown adults who drove 2nd gen Trans Ams past a young boy in a Chicago suburb.

+1!!!!!

 

Imagine the feeling of driving down the road in your livingroom couch.....

 

Wow. I have thought this so many times. I am 17 and have owned z28's since i was 14. At 14 i just thought it was cool because my brother was a camaro guy, but then i started to learn more and more. It gets more exciting everyday i am in it. I do not drive my z28 much, it is just a weekend driver and show car. my daily driver is a sunfire and boy howdy, it does not make me feel the way the camaro does. everytime i pull that camaro out of storage i smile. i get shivers when i start it. it is something that none of my friends understand, but they dont need to! I know i am not alone!