Dad`s 1st ride in the Camaro

Don

Don

Darth Camaro 12/27/15
Took my dad for a ride yesterday. He wanted to go to Harbor Freight (his favorite store) and it`s a mix of highway & city streets to get there. I started off nice & easy and he said that the Camaro was pretty quiet and smooth for a "sports car." He`s from the ERA where sports/muscle cars had big cubes, loud exhausts and vibration.

Then we got on the highway. Out of respect for him (he was a cop for almost 32 years and is very "drive legal" opinionated), I only took it to 70 (5 over which is cool with him) and I short-shifted at 5-5,500 rpms. 0-70 was over in seconds.

All he kept saying was how nice the car is and repeating "this sure doesn`t feel like a `6`." I told him I hadn`t even come close to running it to its 7k redline, and he said that it was close enough for him (he`s in his 70`s now w/Parkinson`s and has mellowed/lost his taste for an adrenal rush for a while ago).

He said he was impressed and said how nice and pretty the Camaro is. I told him I`m going to try and keep it this way. Then I took him home and he fiddled with my nephew`s Grand Am, which has some serious brake issues. I`m glad to see him when he`s working on his `vette or one of his grandkid`s cars, when he got Parkinson`s, it really hit him hard and took him pretty low. Now after seeing the Dr about it, he`s unable to STOP doing things, tinkering with something, but he still exercises his "old man`s right" to take a nap whenever he feels like it.
 
Ronkh said:
I like tinkerin and naps too.... :D

Bet he enjoys wrenching.
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I bet he does, half the time one of my nephews` (his grandkids`) cars are in his driveway/garage on jack stands. If not one of those, it`s his `79 `vette. But he won`t touch my mom`s Subaru :notme:
 
Good story. Thanks for sharing. I`m still blown away by the power of today`s 4 and 6 cylinder cars. The V8`s aren`t that bad either:)
 
I love my 2012 Camaro 1LT and have been looking for a new vehicle but just can`t seem to part with mine. Nothing wrong with the V6 and though I have the automatic I love it and the tap shift. I wish my Dad was around to take for a ride so I am envious of you. Since the first week of ownership I added MRT V2 axle back exhaust and it improved the sound a lot and I love the sound. Other than that I only added a cold air intake by Injen to help it breath. I did have a set of high flow cats from Solo performance but one cracked and even though they sent me a replacement(after 2 years) I put the stock cats back on. That made it sound quite aggressive but I needed it a little more quiet again.
 
It`s funny, V-6s are pretty much the standard Japanese sports car engine, but a V-6 in an American car is looked down upon. It is slowly changing, but if you offered most American car buyers the choice I bet they take the V-8 without much hesitation.
 
rlmccarty2000 said:
It`s funny, V-6s are pretty much the standard Japanese sports car engine, but a V-6 in an American car is looked down upon. It is slowly changing, but if you offered most American car buyers the choice I bet they take the V-8 without much hesitation.
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I sure would have taken the V8 provided it came at no extra charge but that is not the case. The V6 in the Camaro comes in at roughly $10k cheaper, quite something what 2 extra cylinders cost! The way I looked at it was I could justify the V6 and at just over 320HP it isn`t nothing to sneeze at.

Now what I think is kind of sacrilege is that Chevy and Ford put 4 cylinders in the Camaro and Mustang. But then I guess it wouldn`t be much different when back in the day both came with inline 6`s.
 
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