Hay guys. I've been busy as can be lately, getting pulled in all different directions, but I HAVE been spending a little bit of time here and there working on the "height" problem with the Camaro build. And I have come up with a rather interesting solution.
As we've spoken on earlier, the Gen 4 Camaro has remarkably similar specs to the Lamborghini Aventador and making a Lamborghini replica out of that generation Trans am (Fire bird to be specific) has already been done.
CarKitInc- Mercy-4 Completed - YouTube
But as you know, my focus has been on a better matching replica. The chief problem being the height of the vehicle.
I have been playing with something for a while now. It's not a perfect solution but it dramatically reduces the major gap in height between the gen 4 Camaro and Lamborghini Aventador while also partially solving other problems.
Since we can only bring the Camaro down so far without tampering with the F body, we in stead bring the Lamborghini up. What I mean by this is the Lamborghini has a lift feature that raises the suspension a few inches to allow it to clear speed bumps and such. Since it's unlikely many of us are going to be adding this feature to kit cars, it's probably better to do our kit cars to match lifted suspension anyway so they don't get bashed to pieces while driving around town. I have not yet figured out exactly how much it raises on the real thing but from what I have seen in a video of the Murcielago, it looks like it raises about 3 inches.
Hydraulic Lift System on Lamborghini Murcielago - Jimmy540i.com - YouTube
Furthermore, after installing correct diameter wheels, the suspension can be lowered to an inch lower then stock, bringing the difference in height from a little over 6 inches to as little as 2 inches which may be conveniently worked with by (as I had planned) slightly raising the angle of the upper part of the car. Better yet, if you replicate that 3 inch raise in the wheel well, you'll probably get rid of most; if not all of that "pregnant front end" look. Of course, there's still a 5 inch difference in wheel base, but with only 2.5 on each end, that should be very easy to work with.
So you end up with this. A slightly taller canopy, a windshield that is back set 2 or 3 inches, slightly thicker A pillars, a slightly shorter wheel base, 1 inch thinner overall width and MAYBE a vented hood like that on the triangle. Otherwise, we're virtually unchanged from the original design. It's basically the Aventador version of that non-stretch Gallardo kit.
And that all is without tampering with the F body, and on an "easy to come by" car that you can get with an LS1 V8 engine!
Save only for the suspension lift, this is what those differences look like in a 3D perspective (the changes are to the car on top.
