F-Body Europe

Hi folks,
Two weeks ago I picked up my 1999 Red Z28.
The car looked as new in the showroom.
The 19" wheels are very impressive.
While driving back home (150km) it was raining, snowing and hailing, so I was very cautious.
Last weekend I drove with two friends in sunny conditions.
An every bump the tires were scraping in the rear wheel arcs.
The dealer had no clue of proper lowering. It has Geiger Sports springs but is still soft as pudding. This has to be modified in spring.

I wonder which TÃœV man was bribed for this.
I brought the car for widening the wheel arcs.
A new test is yet to be done.

The performance on the straight is amazing. The wind noise is deafening. I have to check the right hand side door.

The headlights are VERY poor: On an empty curvy road in Teutoburger Wald I nearly fell in despair, then I found the foglamps. With them its acceptable.

Anyway Headlight mods and suspension upgrading has first priority. Are there any books about the LS1 on the market??
I am looking for pics of the suspension, ideas how to dissamble bumpers and interior panels (some rattling needs to be eliminated).
Ventilation and seats are okay. After changing to my "civil" car I felt like a truck driver because of the high seating position.

Thats enough for the first impression!
Cheers
Gunnar

I love mine!

Yeah, I will stick to the Camaro. Its great and the little niggles are just a challenge. A perfect car would soon become boring.
And you know what?? I LIKE IT IN RED!!!!

Gunnar

You will always find things that bother you with any car, but knowing that you can beat about 70% of all cars out there is pretty impressive!!

He should be able to beat 80% of the cars stock.

I was looking on http://www.mobile.de today (21.1.02) and there's a red Camaro Z28 with 18" wheels on there. My German is very poor but it obviously has some Geiger modifications on it. Is this the one you bought or is it a different one? It looks so much better with big wheels.

Nope,
mine is not longer in the net, but in the shed, haha!
Have a look for my Z28 in the members list!

Cheers!
Gunnar

Those are some mean wheels! It looks like your tyres have been attacked by huge spiders. I'll bet you have to avoid the kerbs with those. Who makes them ?(don't worry, I'm not planning on buying a set). Are your 19" tyres expensive compared to 16's or even 18's?

My wheels are from http://www.alutec.de or .com, type KYRO. There is nothing written about prices. But my car came with these wheels and new tyres.
I really got a shock, when I saw tyre prices in the net:
http://www.reifen.com or http://www.reifendirekt.de

Conti 245/35 ZR 19 for 283EUR per piece!!
Bridgestone 19" for 282EUR!
I remember, I had a look in November and prices were about 250DM per tyre, ie half the price!!

But 245/50 ZR16 are not cheaper:
Michelin 295EUR
Avon (what's that??) 162EUR, for a Noname also expensive!

I think I will never switch off Traction Control and avoid burn outs!

Cheers!
Gunnar

Good idea, just get a cheap set of 16's and cheap tires for that!!

Hey, less of the Avon no-name. I'll have you know Rolls Royces have always used Avons and most British performance cars used to use them. Motorcyclists used to swear by them too. I also had them on my '85 Vette and thought they were pretty good value. That may be because they were British, I don't know if they still are. Have you seen the US prices for tyres? We're definitely living in the wrong countries!

You have lowering springs in there? And a german KFZ-Schein.
Man, you could be my saviour. PLEASE mail me a copy/scan of it to dino.cengic@spezialpreis.de or fax it to me at 089/54491719 i would also need the exact type of the springs, as if the TÜV accepted em in one car, they have to do so in any car. How´s the exhaust? stock?

Rgds,

R@.-)M

Dino
Iknow of two companies that make springs for the camaro here in Germany , INTRAX and H&R Sport Spring.
I opted for the H&R's. They have a 590 lb. linear front spring rate and a 130-155 lb variable rate for the rear.

Either way if you want to get the max out of your system the shocks would have to be changed. If you have Bilsteins you can send them back in and get them revalved . Contrary to popular belief DeCarbons are rebuildable.

If you plan to keep the driving on the somewhat less spirited but still have fun side then the shocks are unnecessary. But they will wear out faster.

Hi Rampage,
first try these numbers:

RED Motorsport GmbH (02 02) 7 48 42-0
42327 Wuppertal, Industriestr. 33

Geiger Performance GmbH
Truderingstr. 265
81825 München
Tel. 089 / 4271640 Fax 089 / 42716410
Spezialist für US-Cars
http://www.geiger-performance.de

I will fax the data for you. But funnily enough, the guy from TÃœV who gave permission for my Geiger lowering springs (don't call them sports springs, they are too soft!) and the 19" wheels does this only for one dealer (Car Special Michael Quitzow in Kerpen), not for everybody


Mr Quitzow told me its a special deal.....

My exhaust is stock.

Cheers! Gunnar
The coming weekend seems to bring splendid wheather. I will go for autobahn ride (NEED FOR SPEED!!!!)

Mike(Darookie) ran a set of Avons on his SS, and they looked to be pretty solid tires!! I might check 'em out, once the SO2s wear down... We'll see..

What about the Nuerburgring? Ever been there? You'll like it!

I'm going there tomorrow (Saturday), just give me a call 0160-7600704 (German), two Camaros there are better than one.

Ben

Sorry Ben,
I will see some friends in Braunschweig. But Nürburgring/ Nordschleife is everybodies dream.
Before I dare to compete there I want to get some practice with the Z28.
Ever dreamt of taking part in the 24hours race at the Nordschleife?

Please send a report from the weekend!
Be careful!!

Gunnar

Weather was perfect. However, Saturday morning, some parts of the Ring were still wet. I was sliding quite heavily but fortunately got it under control. It's really no fun driving in the wet with our cars... Apart from that it was great!

Ben

Sounds like you had a blast . Hopefully we can do this as a club in the future.

Hey gunnar,

Did you buy that Camaro down in Bitburg at the Werkmister Opel Dealer? If so I almost had the rims from that car for mine... I was just a day7 late to buy them. Nice car though... it performed well at the Bitburg festivle of speed!