Camaro Questions

[CocaColaEatsPie]

I am planning on getting a camaro in the future, I recently found out that my car (92 honda prelude) isn't going to last as long as I had hoped and when it finally goes I will be an experienced enough driver that the mom will let me get a V8. I have two questions. How hard is it to fit 17x11's, with 315/35/17's in the rear, and then like 17x9's in the front. Would that be a good idea or a waste of money. Also what is this I keep finding about a shift skip eliminator. The thing says that stock the t56 will skip 2nd and 3rd if you run 1st up enough. Is that true or is it bs and they are trying to sell crap? If it is true which brand is the best to buy, or are they all pretty much the same?

Thanks for any help here
Nick

By the way I'm should have 8g's when it comes time to buy and I'm hoping to get a 98 ls1 with t56, T-tops and about 60k miles on it. Is this realistic, blue book is about $9000.

[TraceZ]

What the heck is "CocaColaEatsPie"??

[Tig]

The skip shift is in place so that the cars didn't have to pay the "gas guzzler" tax. Essentially it ups the miles per gallon by forcing you to skip. You can make your own skip shift eliminator from about $2.00 in parts, let me know if you need instructions and I'll post them. Can't speak to tire spacing, since it's not anything I've ever dealt with.

[Injuneer]

If you are looking at the "4th Gen" Camaros (latest body style):

1993: Does not have "skip shift"
1994-95: Unplug the solenoid on side of tranny. Cost = "0"
1996 and newer: Unplug solenoid, put a resistor in the end of plug. Cost = whatever Radio Shack charges you for the resistor.

Skip shift actually only engages at part throttle. You can avoid having it engage by driving aggressively. But it always seems that the one time you let it engage is the one time you would really like to have the use of 2nd gear to play around with the car next to you.

On the wheels:

Front 17x9.5" 45mm to 56mm offset, 275/40-15 tires. No mods required, no rubbing

Back: 17x11" 45mm to 50mm offset, 315/35-17 tires. On about 50% of the cars, there are minimum interferences. On almost all you will have to cut the edge off the jounce bumper bracket so it doesn't catch on the inside of the rim when you jack the car. In some cases you need to hammer the inner fender liner a little, roll the sharp inner edge of the fender opening a bit, or recenter the body over the axle with an adjustable panhard rod.

End results:

[01SS]

not even worth getting skip shift elim. I hardly ever hit it before I reprogrammed the speedo for the gears, now skip shift is gone for good.

[CocaColaEatsPie]

So basically buying the skip shift is a total waste of money, and if it is a problem I can come here and someone can tell me how to do it for a few dollars.... sounds good to me.

Injuneer, those wheels and tires look awesome on your car. I hope I can get some wheels and tires like that. It doesn't seem like too much work to get them to fit and work right, and it definitely seems worth it. How does the handling compare with those wheels and tires over stock? And how much did the traction improove after adding those wheels and tires, was it worth the $2000 or so it probably costed???

How is the handling on Z28s/TA's in general, I have never driven one. I know the RWD will be quite a change from my prelude and I will have to take it easy for the first few months to get used to it. I had a friend whos first car was an RX-7 and I went for a ride with him the day he got his license and he did a good amount of damage when he lost control pulling out of a parking lot.

Thanks alot for all the posts

CocaColaEatsPie is just some random crap I came up with one night a few years back and I have used it for everything since.

[Injuneer]

They didn't cost anywhere near $2,000...... got the wheels for $800 off a guy who bought them off eBay, then decided he didn't want them, and about $600 for the tires. That was 4 years ago... I think you can get the wheels even cheaper on eBay now.

The rears are 315/35-17 BFG Drag Radials. They would actually hook on the street when the car was an M6/3.73 rear setup with approx 500(flywheel)HP NA. With the 4.11's and a 5,000rpm flash stall convertor in a TH400, they are a little loose on the street at anything over about 75% throttle. And still not enough traction with any nitrous.

I didn't notice any real difference in overall handling but before I had the AFS ZR1 replicas, I was running some 17x9.5" OZ Monte Carlos, with the 275/40-17 GY GS-C's all around, and the thing stuck like glue in the corners. But with the Drag Radials, the car's has been altered to the point where its probably not a good idea to put it into a corner very hard..... The 275/40's were a HUGE improvement over the stock 245/50-16's.

[CocaColaEatsPie]

Thanks alot. I just checked ebaymotors and there are alot of AFS ZR1's. For the pollished ones like yours it is 1300 with Sumitomo tires. or $995 for the silver finish with the same tires. Sounds good to me, I think I'll have to get those. I don't know how good the Sumitomo tires are but I guess I'll find out. If they last a year, I guess I got my money's worth. How long do your tires, rear and front last? And how is your driving style?

[Injuneer]

Well.... in NJ there is no such thing as "driving style".... the traffic is so bad that its seldom possible to do anything more than pull away from a traffic light under full power, or see how hard you can push it around corners on a country road. I took my 275/40-17 GY GS-C's off when they had about 40,000 miles on them, and they still had 1/3 the tread left. I actually sold them with the wheels. I guess that qualifies as "easy".

The car is not longer street driven, and the street tires seldom get mounted on it.

[TraceZ]

It is possible to order the rims bare then install your own tires of your choice.

I have AFS silver ZR1 rims that I paid $550 for on Ebay. I then ordered the Firestone Firehawks from Tirerack and had a local shop install them on the rims.