Vorshlag 5th Gen Camaro Development Thread

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Disclaimer: Some folks see our forum threads as unwanted advertising. I'm not selling anything in this thread, just showing what we've learned on the 5th gen Camaros over the past few years. Yes, we are developing parts that will eventually be for sale... that's what development is all about. And yes, our pictures are watermarked with our logo, and I can understand how that might come off as "salesy", but we just don't want our images stolen or used without our permission. We cannot afford to sponsor every forum we post on, and we will strive to "walk that line" and not step on any other vendors toes here. I hope we can share enough tech to warrant this thread on Lateral-G. Thanks.

Chassis Development Thread for 5th Gen Camaro: In this thread we will discuss the development, testing, racing and parts we have worked with on the 5th gen Camaro. Admittedly we were a "bit late to the party" for the 5th gen, but we have our reasons. While we made our first suspension parts for the 2010-15 Camaro "Zeta" chassis back in 2012, we just never saw a whole heck of a lot of these cars at autocross or track events until the last few years.



The "track guy in a Camaro" market has been pretty small, so we didn't jump onto this chassis as early as we did with others cars. While the 5th Gen and the S197 Mustangs sold in similar numbers, we would easily see 10-30 times as many S197 Mustangs at track events and autocrosses (which makes up our customer base), so our development efforts went into the S197 chassis first.



Lately it seems that used car 5th Gen SS model prices have become more attractive, so we're seeing finally more and more of these cars on track. Admittedly these cars have some known faults - namely higher weight and poor visibility from inside, compared to the same year Mustangs. And no, we don't consider the Challenger a "challenger" to either of these pony cars. For every Challenger we've seen at a track day or autocross we've seen 300 Mustangs and 10 Camaros!



I will be the first to admit - We are still learning more and more about this Zeta platform Camaro as I write this in 2016. We know there are other shops that have more experience with this chassis, but many if not most of those are concentrated more on straight line performance. Here in this thread we will concentrate on the road course and autocross potential of the 2010-15 Camaro SS, 1LE and Z/28.



The Optima/USCA series is somewhat unique and there are a few big names really pushing the 5th gen Camaros there. I'd venture to guess that two of the most heavily funded efforts in Optima history are 5th gen Camaros. Of course it is that car's LS series V8 that makes this car popular with that crowd, but that's not at all a bad reason to like these cars! The 6.2L LS3 engine in the SS and 1LE has TONS of upgrade potential, especially when compared to the Coyote 5.0 used in the 2011-14 Mustang GT and Boss302 (those cannot gain the displacement or power of the LS series engines).



Back in 2012 we made a camber plate for the 5th gen, which was tested on the LG Motorsports GTS race car that ran in Pirelli World Challenge. Our prototype design started with an OEM 2011 Camaro strut tower, then we modeled the curvature of the tower with clay, took a bunch of measurements from the cast shape, made a 3D printed design to check fitment, then had a prototype machined in aluminum by an outside shop.



Since then we've learned that this is not exactly the most efficient way to create a prototype camber plate. And while it may seem that 3D scanning or CMM measuring the tower would be easier, the costs associated with those technologies are still in the 5 to 6 figure range for anything we can use with the level of accuracy we need.

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