Gone in Six Seconds

A couple posts ago, I'd reviewed a universal OBDII display monitor called the Dashhawk. I mentioned at the end of the post that I tried out one of the performance tests, the 0-60 test. At the time, I did terribly and got 0-60 in 6.66 seconds. This number was definately not good enough for me. The advertised 0-60 time for the V6 Camaro is 6.1 seconds. What was I supposed to do now? I did know for a fact that this car can run 0-60 faster than 6.1 seconds. There is a guy well known in the Camaro community for being a very experienced V6 owner. Online we call him Scrming or V6John. I'd advise any Camaro owner to check out his website. He thoroughly documents all of his mods, experiments, and findings on the site.

http://www.v6john.com/

In one of John's posts, he shows that the car gets to 6 seconds on a warmer day. However, with a lower temperature, John was able to get 0-60 in 5.68 seconds. That is really good! John also says that, strangely, he's never seen a car react so differently with cold air before; which I too, have noticed. On a warmer day, the Camaro would feel a bit more sluggish. However, on a cool day... the car tears through the pavement with no regret. Keeping this cold air theory in mind, and with the help of John on launching techniques, I decided to give my 0-60 run another shot.


John told me that when he did his run, he left his Traction Control on, because he didn't want wheelspin at the start of the line. Which made sense to me, but I had to respectfully try it with the T/C off. However, even with T/C on, I still made an interesting run.

Yeah baby! That looks pretty darn fast to me... The monitor couldn't stop at 60 MPH because my car was going too fast for it to calculate each individual information sample. Remember, keep in mind this was with T/C ON! The problem with T/C is it slows down your wheels automatically if you get it fast enough to wheelspin. So in the end, it really depends how you launch. If launch too fast with T/C on or off, you are going to get a bit of a slow down. The tricky part is getting to know your car, and knowing how much your car can take before it spins out. With the Traction Control on, I was still very happy with the time. However, the night was still young, so I gave it another go.

It was 11:41 PM and 61 degrees out, a very cool night to really push the Camaro. I took the liberty of taking a picture as evidence of my time and temperature. So I park the car in place. A click click here, click click there, setting up all the parameters for me to start the 0-60 test. My brother was on the sidewalk, taking a video with his cellphone, patiently waiting for me to drive by. The night was quiet, I saw the straight arrow road in front of me, and I focused. Remembering what John had said, keeping my left foot on the brake, right foot rev'ing the engine. My T/C was off now, and I shifted into Sport mode. My Dashhawk tells me to start whenever I'm ready. I was determined to make this second run better than my first. Foot off the brake and off I go! Results? Very pleasing =)

Keep in mind my car is completely 100% stock! No springs, no intake, headers, or exhausts. I talked to John again, and in one of his messages, he tells me he's gotten 0-60 in 5.29 seconds. However, this was with all the mods he had done up to date. He has an Injen intake, which I'll be recieving soon, JBA headers, MRT V2 Axleback exhaust, H&R Sport lowering springs, and a Trifecta Tune for the V6. Needless to say, the extra speed the bolt-ons provided, was completely worth it in my opinion.

In conclusion, I have beaten the advertised 6.1 seconds, and I am satisfied. However, I think I was still too light on the pedal. I believe I can reach 5.3 seconds... Optimistic? maybe, but I am aiming to eventually beat the 0-60 time for the Camaro SS which is rated at 5.0 seconds. This is going to be one long and fun journey!