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Haha alright now before anyone accuses me of whoring my own car, this was Patrick's suggestion to have the first month be about the website/club owner as he did the same with the Mustang club.
So - that said, here's the article!
Be sure and check out the slide show and what not:
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8...o-of-the-Month
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8...o-of-the-Month
So - that said, here's the article!
Be sure and check out the slide show and what not:
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8...o-of-the-Month
This is my first installment of the Camaro of the Month (click here for more info) in cooperation with the Michigan F-Body Association at MiFBody.com. To begin my monthly feature of local Camaros and Firebirds, I am showcasing the car owned by the guy who started the club, Brian Meissen. This 1994 Chevrolet Camaro was Brian’s first car and has undergone an amazing transformation. I have seen and heard this car in person and it is a great looking and great sounding Camaro. If you live in the Macomb area, there is a good chance that you have seen the car out and about as Brian drives this car a ton…I see him at least twice a month during the warm weather months.
Brian had this to say about the life of his Camaro:
In 2002, I was 16 and looking for my first car.. I knew I wanted something sporty, but I didn't quite know what I wanted. We looked at everything from MGBs to a 1977 Corvette, a 2002 Trans Am LS1 6-speed manual to a 1994 Camaro 3.4L v6 4-speed automatic. My mom, having owned a '70s Camaro in her past, rallied for the Camaro and won. It was 8 years old but with only 34,000 miles on the clock. Little did we know the changes this little Red Camaro was bringing to my future.
The modifications started immediately with a Magnaflow exhaust followed by many customizations to the interior and exterior. Being in high school and not really into cars too heavily, I didn't have much direction with my car but I just wanted to make it my own. I wanted it to be different and easily recognizable, but I didn't want it to look like it belonged in a Fast and the Furious movie.
2005 was a very eventful year. I had been with a local Camaro and Firebird club for about a year by that point but they were restricted to 4th generation Camaros and Firebirds only. They were a great group, but I wanted to learn about all the years. As I sat down infront of my computer, a few searches returned the same surprising result: there was no website devoted to Michigan Camaro and Firebird enthusiasts. How was it possible? We're the motor city and we don't have a website for the Michigan FBody enthusiasts? Having been a computer nerd, the next course of action was swift and to the point - I registered MiFbody.com and created a forum community for Michigan Camaro and Firebird enthusiasts to hang out and socialize. While building the member base for my website, I was also building one truly unique vehicle. I had a new hood, spoiler, ground effects kit, and a set of rims all ready to go on the car. By August of 2005, "Red Alert" was born.
2007 was the start of something amazing. We were preparing to hold our 3rd Annual Meet & Greet car show at Kensington Metro Park and I was preparing to propose to my girlfriend ( she owns a 2002 Firebird
) who I had been with for only a year. The day before the show, I received a phone call that I will never forget. I answered the phone and was greeted by Scott Settlemire, the FBody Father, who wanted to let me know he was going to swing through our show and bring a few surprise vehicles for us to check out. Nothing can be more memorable than proposing to your girlfriend at your own car show with the silver Camaro concept and the Camaro convertible concept in the back drop. Since then, Scott and the Camaro team with General Motors has been unbelievably supportive of our car show - bringing test mules, production teaser vehicles, and last year the actual production vehicles for everyone to sit in and see close up. Red Alert saw a new feature added to the modification list - a fully customized 8" touchscreen computer mounted in the dash. The motherboard, hard drive, and power supply were mounted where the radio once occupied, and the screen was fiberglassed into the radio bezel. The carPC can handle playing all of my MP3 collection, provide GPS navigation, DVD playback, video games (when parked, of course), wireless internet access, and engine diagnostic and tuning capabilities.
By the fall of 2009, I had endured many a joke about how Red Alert looked mean but had nothing to back it up. I searched craigslist and found an LT1 with a ton of extras for a great price and the new project began. By spring of 2010, I had the LT1 cammed with a CC503 (known as the "biggest cam" for a stock heads LT1), 30lb injectors, a fully built transmission and 9.5" torque converter, and a 98+ rear end designed to handle more than my little v8 could put out. Although it made a few attempted appearances out on Woodward, it spun two bearings within the first 80 miles due to suspected issues with the block prior to purchase. The yearly Michigan FBody Meet & Greet car show was it's first appearance.
And here we are in 2010 - March 24th was the 5 year anniversary since I started the site and this 4th of July weekend will be 8 years since I bought my car. We have over 2300 members on the site, over 500,000 posts, with Google Analytics reporting over 1,000 unique hits a day. For what begun on a simple whim, I never would have dreamed that our little niche of the internet would have been so successful. Every day I'm humbled at the great people we have on our site, and every time I cruise my car I'm reminded how lucky I am. I never would have imagined how much that little Red Camaro would change my life.
Congratulations to Brian Meissen for being the Detroit Autos Examiner’s March Camaro of the Month! Stay tuned to your Detroit Autos Examiner for my monthly Mustang features and news from around the automotive world!
Brian had this to say about the life of his Camaro:
In 2002, I was 16 and looking for my first car.. I knew I wanted something sporty, but I didn't quite know what I wanted. We looked at everything from MGBs to a 1977 Corvette, a 2002 Trans Am LS1 6-speed manual to a 1994 Camaro 3.4L v6 4-speed automatic. My mom, having owned a '70s Camaro in her past, rallied for the Camaro and won. It was 8 years old but with only 34,000 miles on the clock. Little did we know the changes this little Red Camaro was bringing to my future.
The modifications started immediately with a Magnaflow exhaust followed by many customizations to the interior and exterior. Being in high school and not really into cars too heavily, I didn't have much direction with my car but I just wanted to make it my own. I wanted it to be different and easily recognizable, but I didn't want it to look like it belonged in a Fast and the Furious movie.
2005 was a very eventful year. I had been with a local Camaro and Firebird club for about a year by that point but they were restricted to 4th generation Camaros and Firebirds only. They were a great group, but I wanted to learn about all the years. As I sat down infront of my computer, a few searches returned the same surprising result: there was no website devoted to Michigan Camaro and Firebird enthusiasts. How was it possible? We're the motor city and we don't have a website for the Michigan FBody enthusiasts? Having been a computer nerd, the next course of action was swift and to the point - I registered MiFbody.com and created a forum community for Michigan Camaro and Firebird enthusiasts to hang out and socialize. While building the member base for my website, I was also building one truly unique vehicle. I had a new hood, spoiler, ground effects kit, and a set of rims all ready to go on the car. By August of 2005, "Red Alert" was born.
2007 was the start of something amazing. We were preparing to hold our 3rd Annual Meet & Greet car show at Kensington Metro Park and I was preparing to propose to my girlfriend ( she owns a 2002 Firebird
) who I had been with for only a year. The day before the show, I received a phone call that I will never forget. I answered the phone and was greeted by Scott Settlemire, the FBody Father, who wanted to let me know he was going to swing through our show and bring a few surprise vehicles for us to check out. Nothing can be more memorable than proposing to your girlfriend at your own car show with the silver Camaro concept and the Camaro convertible concept in the back drop. Since then, Scott and the Camaro team with General Motors has been unbelievably supportive of our car show - bringing test mules, production teaser vehicles, and last year the actual production vehicles for everyone to sit in and see close up. Red Alert saw a new feature added to the modification list - a fully customized 8" touchscreen computer mounted in the dash. The motherboard, hard drive, and power supply were mounted where the radio once occupied, and the screen was fiberglassed into the radio bezel. The carPC can handle playing all of my MP3 collection, provide GPS navigation, DVD playback, video games (when parked, of course), wireless internet access, and engine diagnostic and tuning capabilities. By the fall of 2009, I had endured many a joke about how Red Alert looked mean but had nothing to back it up. I searched craigslist and found an LT1 with a ton of extras for a great price and the new project began. By spring of 2010, I had the LT1 cammed with a CC503 (known as the "biggest cam" for a stock heads LT1), 30lb injectors, a fully built transmission and 9.5" torque converter, and a 98+ rear end designed to handle more than my little v8 could put out. Although it made a few attempted appearances out on Woodward, it spun two bearings within the first 80 miles due to suspected issues with the block prior to purchase. The yearly Michigan FBody Meet & Greet car show was it's first appearance.
And here we are in 2010 - March 24th was the 5 year anniversary since I started the site and this 4th of July weekend will be 8 years since I bought my car. We have over 2300 members on the site, over 500,000 posts, with Google Analytics reporting over 1,000 unique hits a day. For what begun on a simple whim, I never would have dreamed that our little niche of the internet would have been so successful. Every day I'm humbled at the great people we have on our site, and every time I cruise my car I'm reminded how lucky I am. I never would have imagined how much that little Red Camaro would change my life.
Congratulations to Brian Meissen for being the Detroit Autos Examiner’s March Camaro of the Month! Stay tuned to your Detroit Autos Examiner for my monthly Mustang features and news from around the automotive world!
357ci LT1, cammed, stalled, and driven. 
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