Okay guys, things are beginning to pick up. It is mid February now, and the weather is getting a little better each day. I have some teasers for you guys today. Got many shipments delivered to my door the past week, and here are some of them:
Can you see the difference? If you can't don't worry, there will be a full post on this one =D
Yes... now you are getting the picture...
WHAT? Performance Brakes?! =O
Sneak peak...
Usually I don't review products until after they have been installed. That way I can make sure I don't miss any aspects. However, since I have so many mods coming in at the same time, please forgive me if I spit out a comment or two on the products. Don't take my accidental comments at face value, wait for the full review! Also, to keep you guys up to date, my tune has shipped, and is on its way here as we speak. Before I tune the car, I need to do another 0-60 run, for a good comparison of the car tuned and un-tuned.
Due to many people complaining on youtube that the Dashhawk wasn't accurate at reading 0-60 times. I will be doing another 0-60 with the Dashhawk running side by side with this iPhone App called "Dynolicious". It is an accelerometer based application. Before you all say, "That isn't accurate either!", I would like you to search up Dynolicious on youtube, and see for yourself how good it is. Eitherway, if the numbers on the two devices are similar, then the Dashhawk is accurate. However, if the Dashhawk is pulling a faster time than the iPhone App, I will withdraw my current 0-60 standing at 5.42 seconds and change it to whatever the iPhone reads. My 5.42 was with just the Injen CAI installed, no Corsa's Catback Exhaust yet. The stock car pulled 5.44 seconds, so I'm hoping the new run will be a bit quicker again.
I've gotten the fender Grand Sport stripes here as well, which I have not yet applied. Still have to wash my car before I apply it. Only two major mods left for this year you guys, tints and spoiler.
Since the Injen CAI install, I've been feeling like I've been losing power compared to the stock airbox. However, many people that I've talked to told me that the "feel" of the car isn't an accurate indication of how fast I'm really going. People told me the only way to see how much improvement your car has gained is by going to the dyno. I suppose that's one way to do it, but since I don't feel like paying for a dyno, I did the next best thing: I gave my car another test run.
I only did a total number of two runs last night, this was the first try, 0-60 MPH in 5.42 seconds. The second was a complete failure attempt. As you can recall, the fastest I got on my full stock Camaro was 0-60 in 5.44 seconds. Therefore, the night felt like a failure. However, I will say this, I believe my launching technique wasn't sharp enough for this particular run. I felt almost hesitant to really floor my pedal. Well, 5.42 seconds is only 0.03 seconds away from hitting 5.3, and if I can get 5.3 the Injen would be suprisingly good. Also, if you really think about it, adding a bolt-on with an additional 10 HP and 10 lbs-ft shouldn't really be super obvious in such a short range test. It would probably be more evident on a 1/4 mile run.
Obviously I have been seeming kind of negative about the Injen, other than its sound. Well as I have said earlier, the power isn't that evident. However, I almost feel like the sound of the new intake makes you feel like you have more power. Forget the dynos and the speed tests, driving really is about how you feel in the car while driving. If the dyno says you've gained 10 additional horses, then by all means, "yay?". What if you FEEL slower though? What if you feel like your car is more sluggish? That takes the fun out of your driving, and it makes you worried something is wrong all the time, no? That was how I felt when I first installed it, but not so much anymore. You see, the whole time I was worried about the Injen because I was expecting too much from it. I was pushing the Injen in ways that I had not with my stock car. Therefore I came to the conclusion that it had to be broken. I'm convinced I'm wrong now though. Perhaps the ECU needed a couple days of driving to get used to the new intake. Eitherway the new intake sounds like a whole new level of beast.
I will shoot a video from inside the cabin soon, windows up and windows down, for you to hear the new sound of the intake. I can not even begin to describe to you how good it sounds.
Last night, my brother and I decided to go for a cruise. We head down the highway, and planned to drive for an hour or two. However, about twenty minutes into the journey we came across some construction on the highway, which totally spoiled the driving sensation. So we ended up taking a nearby exit off the highway, and decided to take a detour home. On the way back, we came across a very long and flat road. It looked like it was around a 1/4 mile, so I call my brother and tell him that I wanted to test my 1/4 mile time.
Thankfully, I always drive with my Dashhawk now, so I was prepared for any performance tests. I settle down the road, no cars coming or going. I could only hear my engine idling while I was setting up the performance test. With the test set up, the Dashhawk displayed "Press a button when ready". I press the button, left foot on brake, right foot reving the engine. The Dashhawk beeps while flashing the colors: yellow, yellow, yellow, GREEN. I hammer the pedal into the ground, and the car goes flying.
I have never attempted a 1/4 mile before, so I didn't really know how long a 1/4 mile was, visually. I was getting scared, because I could see at 90 MPH, I was beginning to run out of road. If I had run out of the straight, I would have had to turn to avoid crashing into the wall, but at these speeds I felt that my car wouldn't have been able to handle the turn. My heart was pumping heavily, body full of adrenaline. I wasn't sure if I should've kept going, but I kept telling myself, "Just one more second".
Sure enough, just before I was about to give up, my Dashhawk beeps to alert me that I have reacted a 1/4 mile. I immediately let go of the pedal, and braked hard. I was still full of adrenaline, I could feel my pupils dialate, and my breathing was very fast. I pulled over to the side of the road, and my brother drove up behind me. I took pictures of my results, so here they are.
To start the 0-60 test and the 1/4 mile test, are totally two different things. The 0-60 test starts when your speed is greater than 0 MPH. However, in the 1/4 mile test, the Dashhawk counts down and you start when the light turns green. I suppose this is trying to simulate the 1/4 mile tests on the race track. On top of the Dashhawk display you see my reaction time. That is the time it took me to start accelerating after the light had turned green. The rest is pretty self explanatory: the speed and time it took me to get to the test distance. As you can clearly see, I got an ET of 14.22 seconds at 101.9 MPH for the 1/4 mile. I was a bit dissapointed because I was hoping I could go a bit faster, too optimistic I suppose. However, when I came home, I looked online and discovered that the rated time for the 2010 V6 Camaro 1/4 mile was 14.41 seconds at 98.3 MPH.
Remember I have not added any performance mods to my Camaro yet. This 1/4 mile test is completely bone stock, so I am pretty happy with the outcome. A tip for the young drivers though, do not attempt a 1/4 mile test unless you are sure you have more than a 1/4 mile to work with. I have learned my lesson, and even though I survived, I will never run a 1/4 mile test on that road again. You have no idea how close I was...
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.
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!
During the months I have owned the Camaro, I started moving from obsessing over visuals, to obsessing over performance. Now to some people, performance is really all that matters when it comes to cars. You'll hear most people start off with the question, "How much horse power do you get on this car?". Then comes the two other most common questions, "How much torque does this car output?", "How's the gas mileage on the car?"
These questions I find to be the most basic, because they are the easiest numbers to remember and compare to your own car. Is that bad? Well, not exactly, but it really does show you how much they know about cars. Now, I'm not saying I'm an expert when it comes to cars, but there is a side of me that wants to really dive into the details and depth of cars. However, for the sake of staying on the subject, let us take a step back to the three most commonly asked questions. When it comes down to horse power, and torque, the root importance is NOT the numbers stated on paper. Instead, what is important is how fast you can get from point A to point B. The two most common speed tests are 0-60 tests and 1/4 mile tests. ENTER THE DASHHAWK!
Now when you calculate your speed from point A to B, it becomes somewhat more complicated than one might think. You have to take into account of all variables that may affect performance: elevation, humidity, ambient temperature, car weight, air flow, tires, and the list goes on. The Dashhawk really makes all of this super easy. This is a little device that you plug in to your car's OBD II port. Comes with a OBDII connector, a USB cable, and an installation CD for windows. The Dashhawk requires no batteries, which is both good and bad I suppose. No batteries also means no On/Off switch, which can be kind of annoying because you can't turn it off while it's plugged in the car. From what I have read on the internet, the Dashhawk can drain your car battery overnight if you leave it plugged in. That is kind of annoying, because that means you have you unplug the device everytime you leave the car. Which I should mention, the device stays on even if your key isn't in the ignition.
As you can see, the device is pretty small. So really, there are numerous places where you can place your Dashhawk. Some people mount it on to their center console, or hook it onto an air vent. I just decided to buy a GPS/Cell phone window mount from a local electronics store.
There are too many functions to show for the Dashhawk, so I won't go into full details. However, I will say this, the night I recieved the Dashhawk, I attempted a stock Camaro 0-60 run. Well the results are embarrasing... 0-60 MPH in 6.66 seconds. Why 666? Don't know, maybe the car is hinting at something? I admit 6.66 seconds is a very bad time for the V6 Camaro, the advertised time is 6.1 seconds. No excuses for me, the night was at a cool 65 degrees. A friend of mine told me that I need to work on my launching technique. Well, wish me luck! More on the Dashhawk later...
