July 5, 2000: Bought car with 125,000 miles. The paint looks good in the photos but up close it looks mighty ruff with holes drilled in the roof, the roof drip moldings cut in the middle & plenty of paint chipped or peeling off. The interior was well worn missing a few plastic pieces here & there as well as having some holes drilled in the dash.

It was a regular B4C that the previous owner added a 2.5 inch catback that was loud as hell.( I was never sure but it looked like it could have been a Dynomax) He also mounted a set of junk yard tires. BF Goodrich m/s in back & some unknown brand for the front. ( they were the correct size 245/50R -16 but were not speed rated very high)

My first trip to the track was embarrassing. I was turning in the mid to high 15�s. This was partly due to my inexperience.

August 1, 2000: I took the car to a friend of mine�s garage. He gave it a complete tune up.(plugs, wires, etc.) He also change all the fluids & reworked the brakes. Plus realigned and replaced many of the front end components. (like swaybar bushings, ball joints, tie rod ends etc.)

With a little more practice and a freshly tuned car I was running around or under 14.8

September 12, 2000: I add a JET TPI air foil and K&N air filters. I also took out the plastic partitions in the air boxes & made the little square holes a little bigger.

This had my next trip to the strip turning passes between 14.5 & 14.7

September 19, 2000: Tried a hypertech stage 1 chip. Made no change in � mile times so I sent it back went back to the factory chip.

Throughout the rest of 2000, 2001 & the spring of 2002 the car remained unchanged.
When cooled down thoroughly it could get close to 14.2

May 19, 2002: An old time drag racer told me to try unplugging the alternator, so I would play around with this once in a while. Had a pass of 14.083 seconds @ 96.27 mph. with a 60� of 1.970

June 16, 2002: The magnet in the distributor exploded as I crossed the finish line. I ran a pass of 14.17 @ 96.79 mph. After the distributor was rebuilt the fastest it seemed to go was 14.3

November 1, 2002: When temperatures were around 30 degrees, I let the car cool down & unplugged the alternator to finish the year with a pass of 13.979 seconds @ 97.78 mph.

From 2002 to April 2004 the car again remained unchanged. When the car was Hot it would run around 14.5 to 14.6 and cold it would get as low as 14.3 on up to 14.5.

April 1, 2004: A new complete tune up using TPIS plug wires & Bosh platinum plugs. I also added a MSD blaster coil plus I completely gutted the air boxes. Did a Throttle body coolant bypass, changed to a TPIS style modified 180 stat, added a manual on/off fan switch to the secondary fan and added Lakewood drive shaft safety loop.

The car ran cooler now, but I was still running 14.3 cold & up to 14.6 hot.

September 25, 2004: I change oil with 5w30 Royal Purple. Hoping for a little help. Nope still turning 14.3 cold & up to 14.6 hot.

2005 was the year I took out a 5 year loan & went into debt.

April 9 2005: My base line runs on an unchanged car netted these results. With a cooled down car & the alternator unplugged I had a 60� of 1.973 60� Finishing the � mile in 14.150 @ 96.67 mph. With it cooled back down & the alternator on it had a 60� of 2.000 And finished the � mile in 14.267 @ 96.09 mph.

April 29, 2005: Installed a Inland Empire aluminum drive shaft. Which did nothing to lower my � mile times.

June 12, 2005: Change from my junk yard tires which would regularly get me 1.99 or lower 60� times to Goodyear HP Ultra�s 245ZR/50-16 in front & 255ZR/50-16 in the rear. Now I started to slow down back into the 14.7 sec range. My 60� times were 2.200 or higher.

June 17, 2005: Tried a new chip from TPI CHIPS. No positive results.

July 8, 2005: Tried a second chip from TPI CHIPS.
Still no positive results.

July 29, 2005: Installed a TPIS style modified 160 thermostat. A third more aggressive TPICHIPS chip was installed & the car went nuts & wouldn�t run right at all. So I took it out and went back to the factory chip, again.

With the factory chip in again I packed the upper plenum under a couple of bags of ice. Add a cool July evening and an ice cold car, I once again turned a pass of 14.255 @ 95.89 mph

August 19, 2005: Installed a inexpensive all steel pair of March # 4405 under drive pulleys Coupled with icing the plenum I had a pass of 14.292 @ 95.59 mph

September 9, 2005: My muffler & tail pipes fell off.(surprisingly the car was not a bit louder now then when the muffler was attached) with 1 hour long cool down plus icing the plenum, the car made a pass of 14.187 @ 96.02 mph

September 23, 2005: I had Edelbrock ceramic coated TES headers, CATCO dual catalytic converter replacements, & a 3� Flowmaster American Thunder catback installed. With 60 degree temperatures & lots of ice, the car made a pass of 13.962 @ 97.43 mph ( I was now getting 1.990 60� times again)

October 7, 2005: Evening temperatures dropped to around 34 degrees. After a long cool down and lots of ice, the car made it�s best pass of 13.851 @ 98.06 mph. With a 60� of 1.958.

The Camaro now has 139,000+ miles, has made over 1000
1/4 mile passes, & regularly runs between 13.8 and 14.1

Hopefully more to come next year!