New Feature Car: Phil's Camaro

[XcYZ]

With the help of Jeff Yeager, I was able to put a webpage together highlighting Phil Bunch's 69 Camaro, White Devil. What an amazing car. :hail:

Thanks, guys!

White Devil webpage (http://www.lateral-g.net/bunch/)



http://www.lateral-g.net/bunch/028.jpg

[mdprovee]

That is one GREAT looking car. Hope mine turns out jusy half as nice.

Mike

[PhaseShift]

If I may give some background on the Chinese characters and what the meaning is. The characters are Gui Lao; it is a phrase in Mandarin that translates "White Devil". (Gwaaa- long "A" like the month of May with a "Gw" in the front. Lao- short "A" in the bow, like "the bow of a ship") Now I have to be honest, it is something of a very light weight racial slur. It is akin to you guys calling me a "cracker". Well, I have lived as the 1 in a hundred million minority for so long that I call myself gui lao. If someone calls me racist, they can walk in my moccasins for 6 years and see how that is. ;)

OK, this actually has meaning. I am forever poking fun at myself and other white folks when I see them in China; saying things like "gui lao said so" or "gui lao wants a Coke without ice" etc...

I can not drive in China- it is illegal and dangerous, so I have a couple of drivers. The senior driver is a good man and has followed the Camaro RS project for the last 4 years. He asked me the name of the car and since I knew it would be white, I said gui lao. For a long time I have had an "RS" grille emblem on my desk at work, Lu picked up on this and plugged it in with the offhand comment. Thus the name; Gui Lao RS - White Devil.

[Ummgawa]

Makes a guy rethink how carefully he should assemble his car. This thing is a work of art, just beautiful. :thumbsup:

[Payton King]

Love your car. Let me see if I have this straight. You have been living in China for 6 years and still there, I assume that you built your car there, but you are not allowed to drive it? I am so confused.

[XcYZ]

Payton, the car is in Tennessee. Jeff (JYeager here on the Forums) has access to the car and helped me with the pictures.

[Musclerodz]

If it performs anything like BIG RED, I would call it "BIG RED's cute little sister".
It reminds me of BIG RED alot, with more detail and less brute, not to say it might give a good challenge.

Mike

[907rs]

Congrats on the feature, Phil! When will you be able to come back to the good ole USA for an extended stint and drive that puppie some more?

I don't think I could handle owning that car and being half way across the world from it. :( :(

[Teetoe_Jones]

Nice looking car you have there. I have 1 quick question, and I mean no disrespect-
On your Car Domain page it states you have a 14" engine setback from stock. How is this possible?
My car has a 6-1/2" setback and it is in the interior of the car by a bunch.
Like the name of the car, and the craftsmanship on the vehicle is outstanding.
Tyler

[PhaseShift]

Actually this is a good point. 14 inches was the target and I took the figure from the original layout document. In review, I wonder if the end number did not wind up a setback of only about 10 inches.


The firewall that is there is quite a ways back from the original- it is basically missing all of the firewall from the cowl trim below the windshield forward. The cowl trim was modified (filled in the grille since the heater vent is gone). If you look at the image on this link http://www.rscamaro.com/images/rsCamaro/firewall.jpg you can see where the new firewall starts right at the front of the doors. This is about 7" being the original location. The original setup had quite a bit of clearance with the motor; this setup has some clearance, but to get the motor loose of the bell housing, there is a plate on either side of the trans tunnel that is removable to give access to the bolts.


If you sat in the car with a seat and the firewall only, you could really tell that the thing was shifted back. The foot boxes help and the dash extends back a bit more than the stock one as well; I believe this somewhat helps to "hide" the modification.

[Raige]

Some beach.. :hail:

[Teetoe_Jones]

That is a crazy looking firewall. You are right that it hides the setback rather well.
Here is what a 6-1/2" setback looks like on my car:
http://www.t56kit.com/gallery/chassis/36.jpg

It just seems like mine is set back less than yours, but sits under the cowl panel by a bunch more.

Love the pedal master cylinder covers, I may need to work that one into my project.

Tyler

[PhaseShift]

Looks like you are really diggin to the car there man. I am looking forward to seeing that machine running down the road.

The amount you have moved the motor back is really evident in your car. Looks like to me that you are going to leave a lot of the stock firewall and I suppose the stock parts in place. That is going to be a lot tougher to accomplish than the job that was done on my car where the whole thing simply re-engineered and fabbed up.

Subjectively, to me your car looks like it has a TON of setback and mine looks like it has almost none. I have added an outlook item that is a reminder to look at this with a tape measure when I get back to the car next time.

And to be totally honest- Your question did set me off a bit. Not at you, but at _me_ for not verifying my info to make sure that all is fact. I appreciate you calling me out on this. I live in a world of facts, the micrometer and the stopwatch and all you did was point out an oversight. I can dig that as it pushes this project a bit closer to being really good. Thanks. :)

[Teetoe_Jones]

The only parts left stock on my car, are the very end caps of the firewall, the roof, A pillars and 1/4 panels. All else is fabricated and/or replaced with carbon fiber pieces. The entire floor, trunk, firewall ect is hand formed, so I won't be able to put anything that was stock back in place.
I built my car with a stict goal in mind- No messing with the geometry of placement of parts other than the way the C5R guys had it. So I built the entire car around the frame- this includes me widening the rear 1/4 panels by 2" per side to fit the wider track width of the transaxle/IRS setup.
That is why we call the car 50/50. The car is half Camaro and half C5 corvette, with a perfect 50/50 front to rear weight distribution.
I didn't mean to ruffle the feathers at all, just was curious on where you measured from to obtain that figure.
Keep up the good work, and get the car in the same country as you so you can beat on it!
Tyler

[Steve Chryssos]

It's a great car. Congratulations on the design and execution.