Everything thats right with American engineering.
The Camaro SC550
I am a car enthusiast since I was a small child and in my opinion a car or make holds aways a bit of the the nation it came from. The Italians give us emotion and passion, we get style and elegance from France and technical innovation and precision from Germany. If I think of American cars I think of muscle cars. They are loud, powerful, pride and yet simple and sometimes, they are even a bit bonkers. Their engine sounds will make you shiver in joy and the old designs are breathtaking beautiful. Their power demands respect, never put your foot too hard down or you will leave a mile long trail of burned rubber or just go round in circles. By all their greatness they also come with great flaws. The complete inability to bring their power to the street. Soft and mushy suspensions, poor 3-speed automatic transmissions, bad weight distribution all that prevents those beautiful cars from making full use of their potential. Now a complete new generation of muscle cars has arrived, but this time we have someone who makes the connection between the beast and the road,
RKM Motorsport
The first impression.
It was on a tuner show that I heard the first time of
RKM. I walked through rows and rows of Japanese tuner cars. After a while I arrived a set up of a Ford Mustang GT. I looked a while at it and remembered the bad experiences I had with that car some years before. I turned around and suddenly I saw that beautiful
Camaro SC550 standing on a turntable at the
RKM booth. I never saw that new
Camaro before and I first thought it was a Dodge Challenger. I gazed at it for some time and walked around the car. I looked at the bodywork, checked for gaps between the Car and the bodykit, but everything was ok and well crafted. The Paint scheme was great and with its power it would even be competitive for races. My big question was, how would it handle? I took some information from the Booth and traveled back home.
The test drive and the deal.
After some phone calls I arranged a meeting and visited the
RKM Tuning Shop. I've met Kyle and Rojer M. they where very kind and gave me a small tour trough their garage. I was impressed by the quality of their work. It was time to make a deal. But I was still not sure. I asked "Well, it looks good, but what else will I get for my money?" Kyle took a key from the wall behind the counter and smiled. "Wanna try?". They took me to the backyard, were we found an almost finished SC550. "The interior needs still a bit of work, but it will drive great!" Kyle said. I was taking the driver seat and we drove to a small test track owned by RKM. On the track I finally dared to push the pedal down and boy was I impressed, the acceleration was impressive and so was the grip. I could not believe how well it handled, it was so precise and unlike any other muscle car I've driven before. After some laps I stopped and said "Thats it, I need one of these!" and Kyle responded "well, then we have a deal." and right he was.
My own Camaro SC550
I bought a Camaro SS in a friends car dealership and brought it to
RKM for the total conversion. I was impressed how fast the conversion was done, considering how small the
RKM team actually is.
As the car arrived, I decided the best track to test this car would be, of course, the great Laguna Seca raceway.
Track day at Laguna Seca
The Sky was clear it was sunny and pretty hot, nice day for some driving. The track was well visited, a lot of other muscle cars where also there. Time for them to meet the new kid on the block.
Acceleration
The acceleration is astonishing, I expected wheel spin but I got a kick in the back. The car just starts, I reached 70 mph before the other cars even had grip and started moving. The transmission is well set up, lots of torque trough all revs.
Handling
The car is on its equilibrium between power and handling, it has a lot of grip and feels very precise. It drives stable but never boring. It slightly tends to understeer which is a good thing. But do not get too cocky, it can also bite you really fast, if you slam the accelerator down or brake too hard into corners. Driving trough the corkscrew in this beast is just a awesome feeling.
Power
The tuning of the car concentrates mostly on the handling. The SC550 is not the the peak of what is possible withe the Camaro's engine. So you will probably meet tuned Camaros with more horses under the bonnet. But power isn't everything.
Appearance
I think the Camaro SC550 is the most interesting of the new generation muscle cars. I have chosen a white one with black stripes. Nothing on this car is subtle, it almost screams "I will eat you!" and the bodykit makes it even more evil looking.
Score
Acceleration - 9/10
Handling - 10/10
Power - 8/10
Appearance - 10/10
Final verdict
RKM Motorsport managed to take
everything thats right with American engineering, the powerful noisy engine, the great body design and the soul and finally connect it to the street. They created something I thought would never happen, a great handling muscle car.
http://img560.imageshack.us/i/xx8kssefys0o8srjea0.jpg
Anyway yeah, the R34's stability is unmatched by anything I've tuned so far and the EvoIX grips almost too much. It's very different from the IV, which slides a lot more.
I am a rotary fan myself and just bought one of these for a photomode comp. I would love to see this car with an "infinite grip" tune.
I like the Castrol more myself, it's got more character I think. 
). It sufficed out of the box, so I never tried fiddling with the others or trying them out in the first place (apart from the old 93 GT-R).
But yeah, it's fast and easy to drive, I dont think I could ask more from it without sounding like a small child. IT NEEDS ROCKET GUNS!!! 
