Eckler's Camaro World

It is with sadness that I report the sudden death of Rob Vanvyve, a member of Worldwide Camaro/Jacksonville Florida Camaro clubs. Rob was a man who loved Third Generation Camaros, and his latest project was featured in the May 2004 Camaro World edition. Rob stated that he loved Third Generation Camaros because “they looked totally cool, not too boxy and not too rounded out”. Rob was a U.S. Navy veteran who repaired gas turbine engines during his tour with the Navy. We at Worldwide Camaro send out our heartfelt sympathy to Rob’s family. We will miss this great Camaro enthusiast.

Everyday someone advertises a new product guaranteed to give you 50% better fuel mileage or extend your oil changes to once a year. There are so many people trying to take advantage of the less informed car owners that most state regulators are unable to monitor them. One of the biggest schemes going touts oil additives that are reported to make internal engine components so slippery that the engine will never wear out. These promotions point to independent laboratory tests confirming these “claimed” results. One needs only to visit a local auto parts store and view the shelves containing “snake oil” products to see how difficult a purchase decision can be.

I personally believe that if you use good quality oil there really is no need to add an oil supplement to your motor oil. The only time I feel that an oil supplement is necessary is in racing engines or engines that are subject to extreme abuse. There are oil supplements on the market that are excellent and I’ve actually use one brand in my race engine for years. I can personally attest to its claims because I had an oil pump failure recently and after inspecting the engine there was no bearing damage. I’m sure it was due to the oil supplement I was using at the time. So my message is clear, if you change your oil regularly your daily driver doesn’t need an additive - don’t get caught up in the latest “snake oil” trick. With the quality of today’s oils, engine oil supplements are unnecessary and your hard-earned money could be used to purchase a high quality magnetic component to trap small metal particles floating in your oil.

Well, Camaro enthusiasts, I survived another hurricane and to be honest I’ve had it up to my ears with this bad weather. One good thing about Florida is that it does not snow, so I guess that’s the reason I continue to live here.

As Camaro enthusiasts around the country prepare to store their cars for the winter, those of us who live in Florida are able to drive around with our windows down enjoying the cool air after another “hot” summer. This weekend is a perfect example of what we call “Florida Fun in the Sun”, it’s our upcoming 2005 Camarofest. We are expecting a large Camaro turnout of all generations as well as some very exciting specialty vehicles that will be on display. We will also have a portable dyno available that should put an end to all the horsepower guessing by Camaro owners. Another highlight will be the professional judging at this event and a $100.00 gift certificate for the top Camaro of each class. There will be free hot dogs and sodas for participants, additional food vendors and a special 10% discount on all parts purchases during the show.

So, barring another hurricane or storm before the weekend, this will be the place to be if you have a Camaro or an F-body.

The fun starts at 9 am and ends at 3 pm, this Saturday October 29th so get your Camaro detailed and come out for the fun!

I, like millions of other loyal GM customers, was floored by more bad news coming from General Motors. GM just reported a 1.6 billion third-quarter loss and a loss of more than $3 billion in the first nine months of this year because of falling U.S. market share, production cuts, high labor costs and other factors. Now I don’t know about you, but this news does not sound good for those of us who have waited patiently for a new 5th Generation Camaro. I certainly understand business is business, but someone at GM must see all those new Mustangs on the streets and wonder out loud “was it good business sense to discontinue making the Camaro?”

Long gone are the days when General Motors decided to make vehicles for everyone and a perfect example of this is the horrible Avalanche. I still think GM wants to keep this vehicle a secret, since it’s not only ugly, but no one is quite sure of its function. The best new vehicle produced by GM is the HHR (it’s very stylish and has plenty of pep), which is the perfect answer for Chrysler’s PT Cruiser. Another new and quite stylish vehicle is the Impala SS, but it’s a front wheel drive vehicle with a V8. Can we say “torque steer”? It’s also a very hefty vehicle weighing more than 3,500 pounds; remember less weight means more fuel economy and better performance.

GM just continues to miss the mark when it comes to performance vehicles, especially Chevrolet, by leaving such performance gap between the Corvette and the Impala SS with its new 303 hp 5.3 liter small block. It seems that lots of Camaro manufacturing time was wasted during the creation of the Colorado, which I personally feel is another useless vehicle. Nothing I could say about the lack of another true sports car could or would get GM to ramp up the reproduction of the Camaro; our voices have fallen on deaf ears as indicated by the three year void.

Those of use who refuse to buy the next performance toy from the other automakers are now looking into purchasing new 1969 Camaros and that’s the best news ever. I’m sure the Mustang group is real nervous now that we are able to purchase a complete 1969 Camaro and stuff it with a 572 for some real fun. Here is a new alternative option as an answer to GM’s lack of concern for us Camaro loyalists. Now you can “have it your way” with a big block, small block, LS1, LS6, the list goes on. Having owned numerous Chevy’s throughout the years and the current owner of three, there still is no chance that I would ever switch to another brand. I, like the rest of you, simply keep hoping that Camaro day will come! All my view points are my personal opinions and do not represent Eckler’s or World Wide Camaro. Enjoy the Ride!

Being in the automotive parts business you have the opportunity to meet many, many wonderful car people. I’ve been employed by Eckler’s Classic Chevy and World Wide Camaro for seven years and while attending my first Classic Chevy show I had the opportunity to meet a gentleman named Tom Trainor. I spoke to Tom on numerous occasions on the telephone since he answered Classic Chevy’s Tech calls, but I had never personally met him.

Once I met Tom I knew why he was called “Mr. Tri-Five” - this man knew more about the ‘55, ‘56 and ‘57 cars than anyone on the planet. During the course of the show, Tom kept me entertained with his stories about Tri-Fives and he could tell jokes all day.

Throughout the years Tom was a fixture at various shows and I could always count on him to keep my spirits up during the intense heat or extreme cold weather. Tom’s passion was classic Chevy’s, but he paid me a very nice compliment when he saw the big block installation in my 4th generation Camaro. From that point on, with each meeting the first question Tom would ask me is “how’s your Camaro running?”

During this year’s Classic Chevy International Convention, Tom invited me to ride with him to visit Ohio George Montgomery. Ohio George, as he’s called, was a former multi-time world drag racing champion and one of the first mid-western speed shop owners. Tom was a collector of model cars and he took models of Ohio George’s race car for him to sign. I truly felt honored to be in the presence of two great men. When Tom introduced me to Ohio George he stated that I was also a drag racer and Ohio George took me to a room where his last race car was covered, removed the cover and we posed for pictures. Now I’m not one to be easily awe-struck, but at this moment I was extremely excited to have the opportunity to be in Ohio George’s Speed Shop and it was all because Tom Trainor knew how much I loved the sport of drag racing. It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of Mr. Tom Trainor. He will surely be missed by everyone.

Well I’m back at my desk and to say that the Orlando World Street Nationals was blast would be an understatement. Each year this event gets bigger and bigger and the crowds clearly indicate that Orlando is the place to be if you like fast “door cars”.

Thursday evening started with motorcycle police officers blaring their sirens while escorting 6 and 7-second street type race vehicles down International Drive. The mighty sounds of full race engines roaring down the street sent shear excitement throughout the crowd. The cars were not ragged out race cars, but show-quality cars with beautiful chassis and paint jobs. I spoke to several car owners who informed me that they had more than $100,000 invested in their vehicles and from the looks of their cars I could believe it. These vehicles had extremely high-dollar motors in the $30,000 or $40,000 range with over 700 cubic inches. This is by no means a poor man’s sport, considering the expensive motor homes and double-stacker car haulers.

The racing continued from Friday morning and late Friday evening with racers traveling great distances to attempt to qualify for one of the 32 spots in four classes. I personally knew of two racers who spent an unbelievable amount of money just to qualify and once they qualified, equipment problems forced them to load up their cars and head home. I believe the lowest class, “drag radial” cars required an 8.58 E.T. just to get in the show! Now understand that I’m talking about a car using tires that have grooves in them and are DOT certified for the street. The fastest car in this class ran in the seven second range at over 190 miles per hours with DOT tires. This is unreal! On Sunday the real racing began and it was down to serious business for the drivers who made it into the “big dance”. These drivers put on an unbelievable show with several drivers doing wheel stands that completely wowed the crowd. It’s amazing the amount of vehicle control most of these drivers displayed. During the entire weekend only one race car was totaled and the drivers only received minor injuries. As you can tell from the information above, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and as previously stated this show gets better and better each year. I’ll provide photos soon.

Although being a car guy and having such a fun job to boot, there still comes a time when I need a few days of R&R. I will be out of the office until October 18th, enjoying the great Florida weather and watching the World Street Finals held in Orlando.

I often thought about why we as men get so excited when we see the UPS or FED-X drivers in your neighborhood. Is it because they may be bringing you that special go-fast goodie that you can’t wait to install?

I can’t explain my excitement the other day when the UPS driver arrived to deliver my package. I had been waiting anxiously for several days for the new nitrous and fuel solenoids to arrive and I could hardly contain my excitement when I opened the box. Located inside were two beautiful solenoids just screaming for my quick installation and believe me it was worth the wait. I remember when I was a child I felt the same jubilation during Christmas, but it’s different now because now I’m Santa Claus.

On the flip side of the coin, nothing is worse than receiving a box you’ve been waiting several days to receive only to open it and discover the parts inside are wrong. No matter how well you explain yourself to the sales representative, human errors will occur either by the sales representative or by the parts puller. Everyone in the automotive industry understands how the return of parts directly affects their bottom line.

Being in the industry I can only offer what I feel are helpful hints to at least give you a better chance of getting your order correct the first time. (1) Make sure that you obtain your sales representative’s name, (2) Request that your sales representative repeat the part numbers after you provide them, just to make sure there’s not a key punch error. (3) Avoid rush orders, they tend to have more problems since everyone is rushing to fill your order, more mistakes are possible and (4) re-verify your “ship to address” to make sure that your parts are headed to your address not someone else’s. The above tips will go a long way towards your order being correctly processed and you maintaining that Christmas jubilation feeling.

Being a car guy through and through, I read most of the high performance car magazines in the industry and I personally feel that most are turning into sales issues.

How often have you purchased a new car magazine and found it full of those small business reply cards? It’s not uncommon to purchase a car magazine that has more than 150 pages and find that it contains six or eight short stories, but the rest of the magazine is full of sales ads, beer ads, smoking ads and yes, even Viagra ads. I certainly understand that these ads pay the bills, but where does it stop. Many years ago it was nice to read a car magazine and get content. As an example, the old Super Stock magazine really provided its readership with content and photos. It was great reading about how a guy took a showroom Corvette and made it into a record setting class winner.

Today’s magazines are full of stories that leave the reader questioning the entire story. As an example, Joe Smith provided a story about how he found this car in a barn and built the car into a show winner as well as a performance car. Joe Smith’s car runs in the 9’s at the track and weighs 3600 pounds with a small block Chevy. Now most readers would want to know what performance enhancements were done to make his car go that fast, but the story falls short in providing this information. Some magazines provide tech articles and leave it to the reader’s imagination as to how the part was installed.

Car magazines are big business and I can think of several big name magazines that are missing the mark when it comes to what readers really want. If you take a look at the newest magazines on the market that cater to young, small, foreign car enthusiasts the writers and publisher are in tune with each other. The tech articles have great photos and they list the vendor as well as the cost of the product and the advertisements are not about beer or smoking.

Magazine prices have continued to climb with some costing nearly $6.00. Now I don’t know about you, but to me shelling out $6.00 for a car magazine that’s full of advertisements and very little car information is of little value. I won’t name what I personally feel are magazines that are missing the boat, but when it comes to good content, Chevy Rumble is one of the best. I feel that you really get your money’s worth and if you’re looking for a Camaro magazine that has no advertisements and is full of Camaro content, look no further than Camaro World magazine. So the next time you plop down your hard-earned money for a car magazine, make sure you review it first for content.

I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but I feel that it’s worth repeating over and over again. Kids require direct supervision and there’s no better way to supervise your son or daughter than taking him or her to car shows. When kids have something they can focus on such as cars it stimulates their young minds and causes them to dream. Some of the best car designs came from young minds that were allowed to dream and be creative.

It’s easy to work on your car and include your children in simple tasks such as cleaning wheels or polishing bumpers, but many parents do not. By training your children at a young age to learn not only about cars, but about the reasons you travel great distances to these shows; to meet nice people and see cars similar to yours with better features.

Some of us are getting older and have no plans for the vehicle that we’ve poured our hearts, souls and money into. When we depart this world and leave our most prized possession behind, wouldn’t it be nice to have our young adults continue our hobby rather than simply selling the vehicle. Tomorrow’s engineers are on the horizon and it behooves all of us to do as much as we possibly can to encourage them to become automotive engineers. Our current engineers don’t have the ability to create cars that are light, fuel-efficient and spectacular-looking wrapped-up into one vehicle. When I say fuel efficient I’m talking about 60-mile-per-gallon gasoline cars that are great to look at, not some rounded glob with big wheels. So the next time you prepare to attend a car show, take that future engineer along for the ride, you’ll be glad you did!

To a car guy, working on cars is supposed to be fun; however, I must be getting old because the “fun” part of this is getting the better of me. Long gone are the days when I had to replace a cam, in search of that next tenth of a second when I was a NHRA class racer. After 15 years of racing I decided that it was time for the race car to become someone else’s “fun” and I would get a Camaro simply to keep clean, drive and have fun.

Well, after purchasing a new Camaro it wasn’t long before I felt the need for speed. I now find myself once again in search of that last ounce of power to get my Camaro into the 9-second zone. I will admit that no longer worrying about tech inspectors wanting to tear my engine down puts the “fun factor” back into racing.

Each year I say that I’m not going to race on the drag strip anymore, and sure enough I find myself saying that next year will be my final year of drag racing. My plans are to close out my drag racing in November during the annual “Nights of Fire” race and possibly selling or giving this car to one of my sons if they want this beast. Until this happens, I plan to continue my quest for the 9-second zone with more testing next week. I’ve installed new parts and much more in the “power-adder” department, so we shall see what the fruits of my labor bring. As I continue to have fun, installing more shocks and rewiring additional electrical parts, my mind is always busy thinking about my next project. Of course it will be a Camaro, without a doubt!

Have some Camaro owners lost their minds? Yesterday I saw a 4th Gen Camaro painted lime green with lemon yellow racing stripes and wheels that came from another planet. Now I know this is America and we have the freedom of choice, but the question in my mind is: why didn’t this Camaro owner buy a Honda or Ford and paint those vehicles wild colors. Why do this to a Camaro?

Camaro owners come from all walks of life, and to many the Camaro is simply a mode of transportation. To a Camaro enthusiast like me, this vehicle was made to modify its performance and enhance its beauty. There’s no greater feeling than stepping on the gas pedal and feeling the power push you back in the seat. And there’s no better sight than seeing your baby waxed, the wheels polished and ready for that cruise to the local hang out to be admired by others. Lime Green paint jobs, multi-colored wire looms, giant boom boxes filling the entire back windows of Camaros are out. What’s in is clean designed, well-detailed Camaros with performance packages.

The sad thing is that 4th Gen Camaros are cheap now, and anyone with half a brain can purchase one and paint it like they are entering a circus contest. I feel that the young Camaro purchaser should be required to fill out a form stating his intended use: are you planning to enter your Camaro in a tractor pulling contest? Do you see weird colors during the day or night? Did your parents kick you out of the house? And if the answers are yes to these questions, the customer should be directed to a car lot that sells Fords, Hondas, or Neon’s.

So to true fellow Camaro enthusiasts I say, thanks for keeping our hobby alive for its real intended purpose!

Living in Florida affords car enthusiasts lots of opportunities to attend car shows throughout the state. There are several car show publications listing the numerous events going on every week. However, the one thing that bothers me most is the vehicle year limitations placed on car entries in shows. To me a car enthusiast is a car enthusiast and by limiting a certain year group you also limit the number of new young and upcoming car enthusiasts.

If a young guy works all week to buy new parts for his Camaro or Mustang and he wants to show his vehicle to others, promoters of car shows should welcome him with open arms. I understand why certain limitations are placed due to space, but in most cases space is not the underlining reason to disallow certain year groups. I recently attended a local Friday evening show that had no such year limitations and the parking lot was packed. It was great seeing the old cars mixed with the late model performance cars and seeing the old timers walking around gathering ideas for their next project. During that car show a flyer was placed in my car advising me of another car show and in bold print it stated “limited to pre-1972 and earlier vehicles”. When I asked the gentleman who was promoting the show why year limitations were placed, he responded with “I think folks want to see older cars in car shows” I pointed towards my late model Camaro where there were numerous people congregating around it and said I wonder what they’re looking at! He just walked away without a word! People prejudge cars like they do people and everyone thinks they know how to promote a car show, but I can tell you from experience that the best car shows are the ones that have something for everyone.

I’m not criticizing the Mustang-only shows or specific type vehicle shows, just the shows that only want a certain year group to attend their “open to all types of vehicles between 1955 and 1972” car shows. The best way to keep our hobby going is to let the promoters know just how we feel.