Damn that thing was movin'.

We are currently turning a '98 Camaro Convertible into a drag car for a customer. It will consist of a 408ci with a S88 turbo strapped to it, and I hope it can stand up to the beating like your buddys.

 

What was the name of the guy that ran 7.9x/178mph with the black LS1 T/A convertible..... had the intercooler in the back seat and two pig polished supply and return pipes in place of the console. That's "movin'" Many of the really fast 4th Gen's have been convertibles.

This was only the second pass on the 30th SS with the new engine.... the first pass got aborted when the wheelie bars shorted against the rear mount battery (duh!!). So we removed the wheelie bars and tried again. It eventually ran mid 8's in the PROEdelbrock Xtreme Street class back in 2004. 3,525# race weight.

http://www.injuneer.com/images/Video...eBax%20876.WMV

http://www.injuneer.com/images/photo...B/IMG_0710.jpg

 

Thanks, Ghost, for the advice ---- funny thing is that I still want the car since I don't believe that the one original owner would have beat-on the it --- the rest of it is too perfect. And the price -- $6500 --- is good. The SFCs, along with perhaps a different brand of tire (it came with the ZRs, but has another brand), and one of those shock-tower brace-things might help...

 

A good set of SFC's make a big difference in any car. As soon as the rain stops around here I'm gonna mess with the wifes vert to see what I can find out.

 

The answer is probably all of the above --- I'm too picky (not been in an American convertible for years -- other than the forementioned new Mustang), the car may have been driven stupidly if not beat-on, and the Bridgestone Z-rated radials were quite worn, and had been sitting.

Again, though, I had been basing all of my expectations on period-contemporary C&D and R&T articles about how solid the f-bodies were.... I guess technology has really changed in the past ten years.... or cars like the F-bodies and maybe even the new Mustang just don't age well by 90,000 miles...

If only I had taken that second drive with the top down, I probably would have never even cared about any bumps or looseness...!

 

I wouldn't say the fbody vert are extremely solid, still no frame in them like some other cars, but I have not experienced the shake being mentioned in my 90k mile '95 or my 21k mile 99 vert. My wife used to have a Lebaron vert, and it shook and felt like it was falling apart at 25k miles..when we got married, that pos was the first thing to go
Now, if you want to feel rigidity..drive a C5 or C6 vette, they have a complete aluminum reenforcement support behind the dash of the verts and the hydro bent frame makes it more solid than the coupes, that technology is now making its way to other GM models.

 

The tone of both your posts suggests that you don't really like American cars. If that's the case, stick with what you like. Very simple.

 

Verts are more sensitive to wheel balance and geometry problems than coupes, both of which can manifest themselves as described.

Flat spotting happens on most all tires and if you are sensitive to these things you will definitely notice it at first, but this should go away in a few miles, definitely by 10 or 20.

Proper balancing is much more important as well. As little as a quarter ounce can be picked up on verts fairly easily, which would not be terribly evident on a coupe. Make sure to have your tires road force balanced, discount tire is the most common shop to have such equipment.

Finally a slight rim or tire problem could happen as well. This would be traced by simply swapping the wheels around.

Before you buy the car all of these things could be troubleshot fairly easily.

 

Actually, Injuneer, I REALLY like American cars -- I've had at least seventeen of them, but they were all built in the 1960s. And I can honestly say that not one of them ever needed a rear dif. or oil seal or distributor before 100,000 miles... although one did need a new engine mount.

And I've been telling people how great F-bodies are for years ---- but based on one drive of a brand new LT-1 F-body convertible in 1994 when they were introduced, and on the tons of glowing reviews I read for years after, and on the fact that they were built by hard-working Canadians, and on the popularity of 9C-1 Caprices in Police Depts. On paper, 150mph and 25 mpg was amazing. But as a thinking person, after reading the massive number of what I'd call major-part failures on this forum, and then driving that 90,000-mile Formula, I'm left thinking that maybe I should have been reading Consumer Reports instead of Car & Driver to get the real story...

I've done nothing but encourage people to buy Camaros and Firebirds despite knowing a number of owners of other GM cars that have had major engine damage due to oil pump failures at less than 10,000 miles, while Toyotas can have the living bejesus driven out of them and hit an easy 200,000 miles still passing smog and containing their oil.

So I guess your partially right.... I was naive and loved the IDEA of owning an F-body... but I have to be honest --- as an American, I'm actually kind of sad...

 

wtf are you talking about?
You've encouraged tons of people to buy f-bodies, yet you have never owned a modern day f-body or even driven one except for the 90k mile one...something wrong with that picture. Technology has come a long long way since the 60's in car manufacturing...even 60 model imports drove like tanks compared to any of todays cars, even a Kia drives better than probably any 60's era car.
I personally know people and work with people that have had the same engine oil system failures in brand new Mazdas, Hondas, and Toyotas...but to tell the truth, the actual cause is probably failure of the oil change tech not putting things back together correctly, which is most likely the case in 99% of oil system failures in newer cars.

Go drive a nice well cared for low mile f-body...or any American made car for that matter, then make a real life decision. Personally, I would never buy an import brand car, I have had 1 a Mitsubishi and it was a royal PITA to do anything on that car...sure they are built here, but all the profits and design and thought came from and go overseas...your only supporting the poor assembly line worker when you buy an import. Support America or move out I say

 

Actually, f-body fan - I can't understand what you are talking about. I've owned lots of 50's, 60's and 70's cars (I learned to drive on a 41 Ford P/U, my first used car was a 53 Chevy and my first new car was a 63 Impala). They were buckets of bolts. The engines lasted 50K miles. Carbs died after the first two years. The body panels rusted through in 2 to 3 years. You didn't replace the entire distributor, but every 12K miles you replaced the points, capacitor, cap and rotor, and adjusted the dwell.They weren't burdened by the weight and complexity of EPA and NHTSA demands on emissions, fuel mileage and safety, so there was much less to go wrong with them.

You're living in some sort of dream world. As a "thinking person" (I guess you
consider F-Body owners too stupid to be "thinking persons") you need to admit you don't like CONTEMPORARY American cars, and go drive your beloved Toyotas. Appears you came here only with the purpose of flaming and insulting the F-Body. You don't have to love them..... no one is forcing you to. But to extrapolate your two limited experiences with a 4th Gen F-Body to override the hands-on experiences of the people here who have driven 10's of thousands of cars many millions of miles is myopic at best.

 

Maybe someone beat the snot out of your car before you bought it. My 94 Z28 conv rode and cornered very well. No shakes, no rattles, no b.s. Check your front sway bar bushings and stabilizer links. Dont forget, your new Camaro is over ten years old now, it might need new front suspension if it was driven hard or has high mileage.

 

Hi All
Please excuse my ignorance, I'm new to the Camaro, the little woman and I just bought a 95 z28 with the LT1 convertible. On the test drive I noted front-end shaking which after reading this thread it could be the tires (which is quite possible as it's been sitting in a garage all winter up here in Maine) or SFC's. What is a SFC?

 

SubFrame Connectors. They are an external frame that connects the front and rear of the car and reduces flex in the chassis.
As the convertibles are a little less stiff, as compared to the coupes, they are a great addition. Should be the first upgrade, IMO.
They come in both bolt in and weld in styles, although they are becoming more difficult to find for the verts.

 

Thanks Z28SORR