Stoneage_Caddy
03-13-08, 09:20 PM
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b102/stoneage_caddy/0311081605.jpg
Well , you prolly know im a car guy. Ive studied anything and everything about GM all my life. 2 things i follow closely are the new cars and how there devloped , the other is design , how the lines of the car flow , who drew it , things like that. Most guys talk Joe Montana , Michael Jordan. My heros growing up were Wanye Cherry , John Cafaro , Bill Mitchel etc.
Couple years ago i saw a couple cars all covered in black vynal , took pictures of them knowing they were a new car being tested before GM would reveal it to the public. They turned out to be the Caddy XLR.
Tuesday Im at work , I run over to chevy to pick up my freind dennis. As me and dennis head back i see 2 coupes , all black , no markings and michigan plates. They were the 2010 camaro, the guys driving them were engineers from GM and they were just chillin in the chevy lot working away on one car with an A/C problem. I got to talk to the engineers , they told me how they got to where they are , what they took in school , what they did before gm , EVERYTHING.
To talk to the people ive read so much about over the years was like a normal guy getting to have dinner with eva longoria or shoot some hoops with jordan. I came away thinking "hey this is very possible for me". The ammount of excitement in me was damn close to the first time i had sex, it was that damned good. Im such a dork ...Even had dennis take my picture standing with the camaro...
So right now im looking at how possible it is , what needs done , where i need to go and do , and if this is really something i need to chase. Ive got a life as it is , and its going places , and to throw that away to chase a dream of mine that i had as a kid not knowing if it IS really something i want to do. And if there is a happy medium between that and where i am now.
AS FOR THE CARS
These were 2 2010 camaros. One is a 6 speed manual , the other a automatic. Boath are V8 cars. The engineers were with the Small Block section of the Powertrain group. They began testing down here with the small block powerd Impala SS that came out a couple years ago. They told me that our high heat and humitity give the cylander deactivation system fits. The automatic car was having issues with its A/C , the lead guy grabbed the laptop that was in the car and began working ont he calibration. So as i talked witht he one free engineer about life at GM i looked over the 6 speed car best i could.
These were rather crudely put together. These are "beta" series cars , alphas are very cobbled together where the betas are cars put together with peices that came from the suppliers but all the kinks on how to put them on and final tolerances havent came up. One neat toy is the "torque meter". I saw this first in the SSR a few years ago its a guage that tells you how much torque your unleashing on those poor tires. This one sits in the pod infront of the shifter with 3 other small guages each in there own cube ala the 68 camaro. The rear end is indepenednt rear suspension , but looks totally diffrent then whats on the CTS , the diff case is aluminum and i think it was a getrag. The exaust is setup almost identical to the outgoing CTS-V. Almost as if that is where it came from. Once again tho no looks under the hood and no hard numbers on horsepower , i couldnt even get a number on displacement.
I will say one thing even if the interior was finished , and put together perfectly it is still hands down the worst interior i have ever seen. Its as if a redneck took parts off a 68 camaro and grafted them to the dash from a cobalt. Its terrible from a desgin standpoint. Pictures dont do it justice , its abosultely aweful , and im one of the few that never have a complant about ANY gm interior....Regardless of year....
Well , you prolly know im a car guy. Ive studied anything and everything about GM all my life. 2 things i follow closely are the new cars and how there devloped , the other is design , how the lines of the car flow , who drew it , things like that. Most guys talk Joe Montana , Michael Jordan. My heros growing up were Wanye Cherry , John Cafaro , Bill Mitchel etc.
Couple years ago i saw a couple cars all covered in black vynal , took pictures of them knowing they were a new car being tested before GM would reveal it to the public. They turned out to be the Caddy XLR.
Tuesday Im at work , I run over to chevy to pick up my freind dennis. As me and dennis head back i see 2 coupes , all black , no markings and michigan plates. They were the 2010 camaro, the guys driving them were engineers from GM and they were just chillin in the chevy lot working away on one car with an A/C problem. I got to talk to the engineers , they told me how they got to where they are , what they took in school , what they did before gm , EVERYTHING.
To talk to the people ive read so much about over the years was like a normal guy getting to have dinner with eva longoria or shoot some hoops with jordan. I came away thinking "hey this is very possible for me". The ammount of excitement in me was damn close to the first time i had sex, it was that damned good. Im such a dork ...Even had dennis take my picture standing with the camaro...
So right now im looking at how possible it is , what needs done , where i need to go and do , and if this is really something i need to chase. Ive got a life as it is , and its going places , and to throw that away to chase a dream of mine that i had as a kid not knowing if it IS really something i want to do. And if there is a happy medium between that and where i am now.
AS FOR THE CARS
These were 2 2010 camaros. One is a 6 speed manual , the other a automatic. Boath are V8 cars. The engineers were with the Small Block section of the Powertrain group. They began testing down here with the small block powerd Impala SS that came out a couple years ago. They told me that our high heat and humitity give the cylander deactivation system fits. The automatic car was having issues with its A/C , the lead guy grabbed the laptop that was in the car and began working ont he calibration. So as i talked witht he one free engineer about life at GM i looked over the 6 speed car best i could.
These were rather crudely put together. These are "beta" series cars , alphas are very cobbled together where the betas are cars put together with peices that came from the suppliers but all the kinks on how to put them on and final tolerances havent came up. One neat toy is the "torque meter". I saw this first in the SSR a few years ago its a guage that tells you how much torque your unleashing on those poor tires. This one sits in the pod infront of the shifter with 3 other small guages each in there own cube ala the 68 camaro. The rear end is indepenednt rear suspension , but looks totally diffrent then whats on the CTS , the diff case is aluminum and i think it was a getrag. The exaust is setup almost identical to the outgoing CTS-V. Almost as if that is where it came from. Once again tho no looks under the hood and no hard numbers on horsepower , i couldnt even get a number on displacement.
I will say one thing even if the interior was finished , and put together perfectly it is still hands down the worst interior i have ever seen. Its as if a redneck took parts off a 68 camaro and grafted them to the dash from a cobalt. Its terrible from a desgin standpoint. Pictures dont do it justice , its abosultely aweful , and im one of the few that never have a complant about ANY gm interior....Regardless of year....