ITS Camaro

[lawtonglenn]

"A lot of people are afraid of heights. Not me, I'm afraid of widths."

Steven Wright

[Ron Earp]

I remember some time ago when I was scanning the web for information on the 3.4L V6 that I ran across some essentially stock dynojet runs. ~140 rwhp is what I remember, with a cone filter and cat back exhaust. That's pretty impressive for a starting point, albeit I haven't performed any more research on the engine. The 3.4L is pretty well hated by Camaro fans, and justifiably so with many cheap variants of GM V8s to bolt in or if you must use a V6, the higher performance 3.8L V6.

[DSeefeldt]

Ron:

Back in the mid 80's to early 90' I raced a 2.6L V6 Capri out here in the San Francisco Region. Folks said there was no way that car could beat an RX 3 let alone win a race. We accomplished both in 20+ ITA fields at the time. We met the challenge with a legal car. I guess that's what intrigues me with the 3.4 V6 Camaro. Can it be done successfully? That's the question.

Darryl

[Ron Earp]

Well, we just did a similar thing with the ITS Mustangs. The Camaro is essentially the same car, so I think you could make it into an ITS contender.

[JeffYoung]

I'm starting to look at a new car, and if I stay in IT it will be ITS.

I looked at the Camaro at length when we were voting on classification. Has smaller frontal area than the Moostang, and probably better basic suspension geometry. Stock power output is good but you will need to make around 60 more to be competitive in ITS which may or may not be an issue with this motor. Tuning was not aggressive, and the earlier cars (93s) had a less restrictive intake tract.

Rear drums are an annoyance.

I think it will handle and stop. I also think it can make the power but there is no guarantee.

[Ron Earp]

Get you a mullet and a Bitching Camaro! I'd help build one of those. The front suspension is, if the diagram I have is correct, quite a bit different from the Mustang. The rear has a panhard setup as stock and it can certainly be improved upon for adjustability. The 3.4L is a bit of an unknown though and knowledge is thin on the ground. At least it is a proper 60 degree V6 though.

[lateapex911]

Ron:

Back in the mid 80's to early 90' I raced a 2.6L V6 Capri out here in the San Francisco Region. Folks said there was no way that car could beat an RX 3 let alone win a race. We accomplished both in 20+ ITA fields at the time. We met the challenge with a legal car. I guess that's what intrigues me with the 3.4 V6 Camaro. Can it be done successfully? That's the question.

Darryl

I remember that car. Yes, there were some great ITA fields and good racing back then!

[DSeefeldt]

Ron:

I know the suspension pretty well on 3rd and 4th Gen Camaros from my A-Sedan experience. I think the car could hunt. I have the car. We'll see.

Darryl

[erlrich]

Guess I'll have to be the dissenting vote on this. IT is a power/weight class, and IMO if you can't get reasonably close to the listed weight you aren't going to be competitive against the top cars in the class. The 4th gen Camaro is going to have a tough time getting under 3,000 lbs in IT trim, much less 2680 (or even 2815 in ITR). If you just want to beat up on your local IT crew, then yeah, maybe. Our ITS cars here in the DC Region just barely outrun our top ITA cars. But in a strong ITS region (like the SE), or at the ARRC, fuggetaboutit. This is why my '02 is now a track day toy and not an ITR car.

And yeah, sucks about not being able to use the stock wheels. I actually sent a request in a couple of years ago to get that allowance in, but it was shot down.

[Ron Earp]

. The 4th gen Camaro is going to have a tough time getting under 3,000 lbs in IT trim,

I'd like to buy one of these things and try. I'm not a Chevy guy at all, but it'd be interesting to see what could be done with one.

Aw snap, $750 for one in my town and on sale too!! "Must go buy this Sunday"

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/4065302668.html

I bet $400 cold cash gets me a bitching Camaro. Put it on the lift, get some beer, call the boys and take that thing apart.

[JeffYoung]

Guess I'll have to be the dissenting vote on this. IT is a power/weight class, and IMO if you can't get reasonably close to the listed weight you aren't going to be competitive against the top cars in the class. The 4th gen Camaro is going to have a tough time getting under 3,000 lbs in IT trim, much less 2680 (or even 2815 in ITR). If you just want to beat up on your local IT crew, then yeah, maybe. Our ITS cars here in the DC Region just barely outrun our top ITA cars. But in a strong ITS region (like the SE), or at the ARRC, fuggetaboutit. This is why my '02 is now a track day toy and not an ITR car.

And yeah, sucks about not being able to use the stock wheels. I actually sent a request in a couple of years ago to get that allowance in, but it was shot down.

The listed weight is based on stock hp remember, and 25% gain

If you see some of the gains with teh 3.4 that other large displacement ITS motors have seen (i.e. 40-50% or perhaps even more) then you are good to go because either you are competitive at the higher than listed weight, or the listed weight gets moved up if the ITAC gets asked to reweigh the car based on known power.

So the kicker here is the 3.4. If it can make 195-200 whp at 2700-2800 lbs, it will be competitive. Over that, gravy.