It’s been less than 2 weeks, and the weight is dropping faster than I allowed myself time for, but I need the roll over pound credits because the car is going on PowerTour, and right after that, to the Speed By Spectre 341 Challenge (The Nrburgring of Nevada) – so I won’t see it again until the end of June, which is about 7 weeks from the time I am writing this. My goal is 70 Lbs. before PowerTour so I’m not behind when I get the car back after the Spectre 341 Hill Climb!
The mufflers had to go anyway because the car was too quiet and I’m not a big fan of mufflers. Our Ferrari F40 has no mufflers (unless you count the turbos as mufflers). Our other company cars like The giant-flared 2006 GTO, The 18″ set back LS7 El Camino, The Black Carbon Camaro – all of them are straight pipe out to the back, so this was a no brainer for me.
The CTS-V mufflers are actually quite nice. They are a flow through design, and obviously they work well as the car could function as a mobile library. In any case, they weighed 14.5 Lbs. each, so that’s 29 Lbs. right there. But then add back 1 Lb. for each of the straight pipe pieces welded in their place, and, the lowering springs I had installed weighed .5 Lbs more than the stock springs, times 4 = 2 more Lbs for a net loss of 25 Lbs.
And man, does the car sound better, although still quiet by my standards. But at least now I can (barely) tell what gear I’m in on the highway – as long as the radio is off.
You know what that means? The carpet has to go….
Other driving impressions:
14 MPG for the first couple of tanks. At 18 gallon total capacity, filling up at 16 gallons means a range of 224 miles per tank. This means that I will wear out the magnetic stripe on my credit card in 6 months! Two hundred twenty four miles. That takes me back 30 years to my 10 MPG Camaro’s, except this car cruises at 2,500 RPM at 80 MPH, while my old 4 speed Camaro’s were buzzing at 5,000 RPM at 75 MPH. So this is better and it still has less than 500 miles on it, so maybe the engine parts need more miles to get comfortable with each other.
The key FOB: Can someone please explain to me why this piece of technology exists? Maybe I don’t understand something, but it works like this – you keep it in your pocket. When you get within 15 feet of the car it will unlock the car if you lift on the door handle, and then allow you to start it by twisting a dummy key permanently affixed to the steering column.
OK…and then, if you leave it in the car, it will honk the horn 3 times when you open the door. But what if I want to leave the car at the airport and hide the key so someone else can fly in and pick it up? Well, because the key is within 15 feet of the car the car will open and drive off if someone lifted on the door handle and started it.
And what if you drive to the airport with your wife, get out of the car, kiss her goodbye and run to make your plane…… the car was running, she slipped behind the wheel to drive it home, and there you are, sitting on the plane, with the stupid Key FOB in your pocket….. Better hope she doesn’t stop somewhere on the way home. And it’s sophisticated. It has a secret key, a real key, hidden inside of it in case the battery inside it dies – this allows you to open the door. Then, there’s a pocket inside the center console that you slip it in to so that the car will recognize it through some sort of magnetic inductive technology – and allow you to start the car. This also works in case you are near some weird power lines that transmit a frequency similar to the one produced by the FOB. I wonder how much all that useless technology weighs? What exactly was wrong with a regular key?
The cup holders – are just that; CUP holders. Not water bottle holders if you have a manual transmission because they locate the bottles right where your wrist is. When we take out the carpets I’m going to look and see what is under the plastic floor of the console, maybe I can solve this problem with a 3″ hole saw…
The side mirrors are powered, but the passenger side one doesn’t drop down when you shift into reverse to allow you to see the curb as you back up. Why doesn’t it do that? The Nav screen automatically turns into a rear view camera, why not the drop mirror?
Hey, no matter, the mirrors will get tossed in favor of lighter carbon fiber ones. I am sure I can save at least 5 Lbs each.
We’re at 4,295….. and dropping.
I love these updates…….Keep at it
Love the updates too………..
I got to drive it on the Power Tour, what an awesome car. It definitely has some grunt to it and sounds pretty tough now. You can definitely hear the blower whine through the Spectre cold air intake he added.
The key fob is stupid .I wish someone would tel the genius at GM this.
Send all complaints here 😉 http://www.whitehouse.gov/
Nice to meet you guys on Power Tour – thanks for being a sponsor and bringing all your cars too.