It all started on Halloween last year , well, it really started so much longer ago in the dream of a U.S. Airman. That's the day Deron Warman put in his order for a 2010 SS Camaro in silver ice metallic. He wrote in a blog on Camaro5, an online forum for aficionados of this all-American muscle car that he had never owned a Camaro before his 2010 Camaro SS/RS that he always loved them, always wanted one.
But between money and practicality it just didn't seem possible or feasible. With a family to care for and their income, it wasn't anything more than a dream or a thought. Warman took the delivery of his dream car on April 29.
He'd made all the pre-delivery interior and exterior color and design choices. After the delivery of the Camaro he named "Samantha," Warman would drive it around, showing it off, talking about it. He did a muffler delete "to get some sound in those pipes," he told his fellow Camaro5 enthusiasts. He took "a couple road trips and pulled 25 mpg," he said. He drove his Camaro to work daily, finding "that lone parking spot in the corner," he said. "And as Warman walked away, he'd turn around to stare for one last time before leaving her for the day.
Those days, though, wouldn't be the only ones he'd look back before leaving the car. But a little back story about being in yet another place, because that colors the front story about the Camaro, a Camaro called Samantha.
AFGHANISTAN-BOUND
Warman is a senior Master Sergeant, an E8, with more than 24 years in the Air Force. He's married to Maj. Teresa Warman, also an active-duty Air Force veteran, who's assigned to the Air Force Services Agency in San Antonio, Texas. They live nearby; Randolph Air Force Base is Warman's home station.
At the time of this writing, he was on his fourth and final rotational tour of duty assigned to the 451 Air Expeditionary Wing at Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan. He and his five-member team handled personnel support for contingency operations: personnel accountability; hostile and non-hostile casualty reporting; managing all inbound and outbound forces; and did requests for forces for the Air Force. They also managed such human resources tasks as promotions, re-enlistments, new assignments, etc. As team leader, Warman also managed Air Force contractors and Air Force civilians.
And the team did it 24/7, with each person working 12- to 14-hour days. It all seems so routine, as if working in an office back home in Texas. But being in a war zone is anything but routine, even if it's your fourth tour.
Still, he'd be in contact with his wife and children stateside. And he'd be in contact with the folks at RKSport in Murrieta, Calif., because he had left his dream car in their hands before heading off to that fourth tour in Afghanistan.
A BLOG POST LEADS TO CHANGE
Warman had come across an ad posted by RKSport on the Camaro5 forum looking for a Camaro to use for its SEMA build. It was 12 weeks before the SEMA show held on the first week of November. RK's Sean Tito said that Deron Warman had e-mailed him within minutes. Now, normally he doesn’t think people are too serious, but this guy was. He drove his car out to Tito’s house that same week from San Antonio to Lake Elsinore, California, - 1,362 miles. The next day they took the car to RKSport, and Deron flew home to San Antonio, leaving his Camaro with RKSport.
Warman wrote in the blog on Camaro5 that the guys at RKSport were awesome. From Sean, who had been so gracious to allow Warman to stay at his house for two nights and was a perfect host, to Mike Lozano, general manager who had walked him through the process of what would happen to his car.
Warman said that Bob, Smith, Mr. RK himself, had been there and talked at length with him, and showed him what a great company they were and had taken great care of him while in California. Deron also shared that Elisio, the designer, already had started to work on the car before he had left. Warman was sure that Elisio had got a great vision and talent to match, so he knew the end result would be something special.
Deron Warman said that the Airman turned and stared, but he wouldn’t be seeing her again for some time. That time would come in February, after Warman returned home. Not only would family be there to greet him, so would Samantha. But back up to the weeks before SEMA when he left the car with RKSport, turning around to see his Camaro already up on stands, with work already begun.
Tito said they had started the car the same day Deron had brought it to RKSport, which sort of had freaked him out seeing his car on jack stands and fiberglass that had been applied to the front bumper.
GROUND EFFECT
Sean explained what the RKSport team of designers and technicians had done to transform the 2010 Camaro SS. He said that RKSport had built a complete urethane ground effects kit, a rear fiberglass diffuser with real carbon fiber inlay between the splitters, a custom rear trunk spoiler with carbon fiber on the top, and a custom hood with more carbon fiber in the center. That hood extracted the heat from under the hood.
He also mentioned that Magnuson superchargers had sponsored that vehicle by giving RKSport’s team a polished TVS2300, which Mike Lozano and a friend, James Bawkey, had installed.
Sean Tito said that Exhaust, Eibach Springs, and Energy Suspension had been involved throughout RKSport’s build of the Deron/RKS Camaro. Roadwire Leather Interiors wrapped the seats with a unique hound's-tooth design and black leather. Wheels were supplied by TSW; He also added that RKSport had used a 20" staggered setup: 20x8.5 front, 20x10 rear, and Gorilla Automotive Products had donated custom lugs for the wheels. RKSport used Hankook tires.
GT Styling assisted with supplying RKSport their blackout covers. The brake rotors were stock from Brembo that RKSport had crossed-drilled and zinc-plated.
In Afghanistan, Warman would get photo updates of the car, seeing its transformation.
The finished Camaro went to Las Vegas, where, on display in the Energy Suspension booth, the car was used for R&D and the suspension company installed its products on it, as well.
Others who helped support the build included MGP's caliper covers and Hurst Shifter. AFE Advance Flow Engineering, provided an intake, but Tito says the installed supercharger left the team unable to use it.
BACK IN THE U.S.A.
Master Sergeant Deron Warman is back home. He's driving his dream car again.
As Deron writes, he was very thankful to everyone at RKSport for allowing him to represent their company and allowing his beautiful Camaro SS to be their "front gal” at SEMA 2009.
He says that he was thankful for what he had and been able to have from his wonderful wife and children to where he was in his life with everyday things: work, play, friends, everything. Deron Warman thought that truly he was blessed and as happy as one could be.
A man and his dream car, made even more of a spectacular dream by the reality of a quick response to an ad on a blog post brought to fruition by a team of aftermarket artisans at RKSport.
And, by the way, except for the cost of driving out from Texas to California and flying back home, the restyling of Samantha cost the Airman nothing more.