rand49er
05-27-06, 10:59 PM
Yesterday, I hooked up my utility trailer to my wife's Rainier while she took my V to work, and I drove to Costco to get one those monstrous playsets for our 3-1/2 year old. As I'm pulling in, I see a parked black C6 and rubber neck a bit to admire it. Then, a couple of rows further, I spot a red C6 with the unmistakable Z06 insignia on the side behind the front tire. The driver was talking to someone else parked next to him. As I looked back, there on the license plate I noticed the "M" in the middle designating that it was a manufacturer's vehicle ... the guy HAD to be from the Proving Ground just a few miles away (a fact that I later confirmed). The car also had two tubes protruding out the back down low for draining the fuel out of the two tanks (as I also later learned).
I got gas and hurried to park on the other side of him as he was getting into his car. I asked him if that was an LS7 in that thing. He got back out of the car and I engaged him in conversation (I didn't give him an opportunity to find out that I had exhausted my knowledge about the Z06). I told him that I had a CTS-V with the LS6. He said he had worked on that car, helping to "calibrate" it before it went to final production. He related how, as part of the process, he was "given" an M5 ('03 I believe) to basically beat the stuffing out of for two weeks on GM's proving ground track in order to ready the V to compete with it in the marketplace.
I mentioned how all of us here on the forum talk about the diff problems, and this guy just shook his head saying that everyone he worked with on the V at GM were really disappointed about that diff's problems. By the time he was working on his part of the V, the differential's design and source were set in concrete, and he strongly implied that they were faced with seeing them break (basically, in customer's hands) or detuning the car by about 100 hp. Of course, they didn't detune the car, and you could tell he was very frustrated because other than that he thought the car was very laudable, and he along with other engineers were very proud of it all in all.
I told him about my mods, and he asked if I tracked it. I had to admit that it was just the opposite with me. We talked a bit about the new SAE testing procedure for rating engines more accurately and how Ford's Mustang Cobra engine was found to be way over rated (something that I hadn't heard before) and how the ricers had, in his words, actually been "lying" about their hp ratings (I knew they had had to reduce the ratings on many engines, and I'm not surprised that they were indeed lying, too).
Anyway, we talked about overhead cams vs push rod designs, four valves vs two per cylinder relative to idle quality, variable valve timing, deactivation of cylinders, and so forth, and then it began to rain. I wanted to ask him about when the LS7 would show up in the V, but I didn't get a chance. :thepan: I went in to do my shopping and to try to stay dry.
As I'm pushing a flatbed cart with these seven humungous boxes containing the playset and piled so high I couldn't even see where I was going, here's a guy getting out of a black XLR-V he had just parked. I said "Hi", mumbled something about owning a CTS-V, and went on my way with a big smile on my face but feeling very humbled. :worship:
Anyway, just some ramblings from my Friday afternoon visit to Costco. :)
I got gas and hurried to park on the other side of him as he was getting into his car. I asked him if that was an LS7 in that thing. He got back out of the car and I engaged him in conversation (I didn't give him an opportunity to find out that I had exhausted my knowledge about the Z06). I told him that I had a CTS-V with the LS6. He said he had worked on that car, helping to "calibrate" it before it went to final production. He related how, as part of the process, he was "given" an M5 ('03 I believe) to basically beat the stuffing out of for two weeks on GM's proving ground track in order to ready the V to compete with it in the marketplace.
I mentioned how all of us here on the forum talk about the diff problems, and this guy just shook his head saying that everyone he worked with on the V at GM were really disappointed about that diff's problems. By the time he was working on his part of the V, the differential's design and source were set in concrete, and he strongly implied that they were faced with seeing them break (basically, in customer's hands) or detuning the car by about 100 hp. Of course, they didn't detune the car, and you could tell he was very frustrated because other than that he thought the car was very laudable, and he along with other engineers were very proud of it all in all.
I told him about my mods, and he asked if I tracked it. I had to admit that it was just the opposite with me. We talked a bit about the new SAE testing procedure for rating engines more accurately and how Ford's Mustang Cobra engine was found to be way over rated (something that I hadn't heard before) and how the ricers had, in his words, actually been "lying" about their hp ratings (I knew they had had to reduce the ratings on many engines, and I'm not surprised that they were indeed lying, too).
Anyway, we talked about overhead cams vs push rod designs, four valves vs two per cylinder relative to idle quality, variable valve timing, deactivation of cylinders, and so forth, and then it began to rain. I wanted to ask him about when the LS7 would show up in the V, but I didn't get a chance. :thepan: I went in to do my shopping and to try to stay dry.
As I'm pushing a flatbed cart with these seven humungous boxes containing the playset and piled so high I couldn't even see where I was going, here's a guy getting out of a black XLR-V he had just parked. I said "Hi", mumbled something about owning a CTS-V, and went on my way with a big smile on my face but feeling very humbled. :worship:
Anyway, just some ramblings from my Friday afternoon visit to Costco. :)