First off I'd like to once again thank SLP Engineering for inviting us to what is most likely the last event of it's kind. On Thursday May 10th the Montreal F-Body Association, Toronto F-Body Motorsports, and the Ontario Camaro Club were invited to attend SLP's 2002 Media Ride and Drive. For those not familiar with this event, SLP invites media people to come down to Pontiac Michigan and drive their new offerings for the up coming year. This years cars were the new Camaro SS, Firehawk, Camaro RS, Firebird GT, and the all new Ford Thunderbolt pickup truck.

The idea behind the event is very simple. You wake up, you get shuttled to the Pontiac Silverdome, you scoff down some breakfast, your then shuttled out the parking lot where an Auto-X cone course is setup and where sits a line-up of NEW 2002 cars with the keys in the ignition and fresh rubber on the mags. The rules are simple, if the cars is sitting there with no one in it, you get in the driver seat and you GO. That's it that's all.

The cars available were:
3 x 6 Speed Firehawks with Firehawk EP tires
3 x 6 Speed Camaro SS with BFG KD tires
1 x Automatic Firebird GT
1 x Automatic Camaro RS
2 x Ford Thunderbolt
1 x Base Ford Ranger

The day was fun and perfect, the sky remained overcast protecting us from the harsh sun and glare. The course was short but still demanding. Through out the day the KDs seemed to remain the best grip tires of the bunch. The poor 6 cylinders, even with the little power they had, seemed to have problems staying on the circuit when pushed. Many of these saw 360s all afternoon in the hands of different drivers. The new hawk spoiler seemed to be liked by all. The new air lid for 2002 peeked the interested of a few. This lid IS NOT the same as the aftermarket one sold by SLP currectly. And the lid is still under develoment.

Happy to say that no cones died in the hands of any of the invited, maybe a few were sideswiped. Unfortunately a few saw their demise at the end of the event when the SLP people decided to take the cars out for a spin Let's just say some turns were both a surprise and a challenge to some.

As a whole the event was a lot of fun. It's unfortunate this will probably be the last one of it's kind since this year is the final year of the F-Body.

Too bad we live so far away from cool stuff like that.....what a great experience and event to be a part of!

Thanks for the write-up......it's the closest we'll be able to feel like we were there.

thanx...