Couple videos of first drive

The family was kind enough to come outside and do some camera work as I maneuvered the Camaro out onto the street:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmWIYpJrp8A

and around the block:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET-FRcrcH-w

for the first time.

Fortunately the car made it off the crazy curb we have without scraping anything…not sure the story would have been the same with the subframe connectors still in place.

In the first video it is amusing to see how freely the rear axle articulates as the car descends the curb/gutter.  That’s what having zero rebound will do for you!  🙂

Embarrassingly, I did stall the car on the driveway (mostly due to a small wheel interference issue I’ll soon fix) – and the lesson there, was it needs a new battery.  I’d let the PC680 in it now run down a couple times, and while it will rise to and hold a normal voltage, it doesn’t deliver diddly-squat when it comes time to turn over the motor.  Even with a plug-in battery tender/jump-starter at its max 80A setting, the motor wouldn’t turn over after the stall.  I thought this was some kind of dreaded starter heat-soak issue, but as soon as I supplied a battery-based jumpstarter multi kit (which is also an air compressor, light, and 12V DC/110V AC power source) it turned right over and fired.

Given how much a pain getting it going in that situation was, I’ve decided to go to a much larger (and unfortunately, heavier) battery for the time being – an Odyssey PC1200.  At 38 lbs. it’s about 2.5x the weight of the PC680, but delivers over 3x the reserve and more than 2x the cold-cranking-amps needed to get this high compression motor turning.  Will have to save the 4lb. lithium-ion PC680 equivalent for Nationals.