So, it all started when I was browsing Autotrader while I was working at Office Max and PSC in May of 2005.
I had a 97 Camaro RS and loved it, but was getting the itch to have another V8 Camaro. I liked the SS for many reasons, the LS1 being obvious. The exterior had me in love. I'll be honest, at the time I didn't know **** about the options of the cars and what I wanted . . . except that I wanted an SS lol
I found 2 Camaro's in Sacramento in my price range; the first was a 2002 Camaro SS, black on black and was fully optioned with only 26k and they wanted almost 30k for it. But it was a manual trans and at the time I wasn't very comfortable with driving a manual. Just up the road literally from that one, was a 2000 Camaro SS. It wasn't fully optioned at all; no T-tops, no traction control, no leather, but it was an automatic. It had 55k and the price online was $14,999. I decided to call on it and the sales person I spoke with had said the car was priced at $19,999. When I pointed out how much it was listed for online, he showed it to his manager and came back to the phone and said if I came down within 24 hours they would honor the price I saw for.
The next morning, I drove my 97 up to Sac to trade it in and purchase the 2000 as it was $15k less than the black SS. I showed up around 9am, checked out the car and knew I wanted it. The car was bone stock, except for the ****ty tint on the side windows and rear window which all 3 darkness's were different lol 10 hours later I finally drove home with the SS hahahaha not sure why it took so long, but I didn't care because the car was mine.
The first thing I did to the car, was name her (each Camaro I've had did receive a name) the red body with the black hardtop for some reason made me think of a sexy Latina named Isabella. The next things I did was remove the crappy tint, the stupid pin stripes on both sides and replaced all the speakers in the car as they were blown.
The first performance mod I did to the car was SLP Loudmouth I and SLP Y-pipe to replace the flattened Y-pipe. I noticed a small SOTP difference and the sound was soo much better. Next came the SLP lid, Smooth Bellows and 85mm MAF and a ****ty tune from Newtech Performance in Hayward.
Soon after, the stock exterior was needing attention. So, I started where most do . . . I lowered the bitch lol I went with the Eibach ProKit and couldn't have been happier at the time. Also did LCA's and a double adjustable PHB to bring the ass back to center. Of course I wasn't done with the exterior yet. Even though she was a hardtop SS (it wasn't until after I sold her did I find out how rare the car was) I wanted her to stand out more. Stripes were the route I chose and the stripes I chose were the SLP/Berger style stripes from PheonixGraphix. Wow did they make a world of a difference and with the Berger panel with the body color letters, the car turned heads wherever she went. To this day I have never seen another Camaro SS with those stripes in person, let alone with a body color hardtop (I had that painted to further the uniqueness.)
I finally wanted to do something different with the wheels and IMO the only wheels I thought looked best was the competition grey c5 z06 wheels. When I found a set that had tires I had to have them, the seller told me they were GM wheels, so I was very excited. When I got to his house, I looked at the wheels for the GM stampings, no stampings
we were to trade wheels and I was to give him $100 as they were real c5 z06 wheels. His wheels were flawless (other than being OEwheels) with tires worn to the cords literally and my wheels had some curb-rash, but had brand new rubber. I wanted the wheel so bad I said **** it and did the deal. I don't regret it one bit to this day. The wheels made the car look even better than it did and once I got new rubber on them, it was much more fun to drive!
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
My 2000 Camaro SS rebuild
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