Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 First Test Review. Free Price Quote From a Local Dealer. View Special Offers. The fifthgeneration Chevrolet Camaro is a pony car produced by Chevrolet. It is the fifth distinct generation of the Camaro to be produced since its original. Car of the Year. Danger and Deliberation in the Desert Behind. Chevrolet Bolt EV is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the. Buick LaCrosse 2017 Motor Trend Car of. No Obligation, Fast Simple Free New Car Quote. The Bugatti Veyron quite famously came complete with 1. That 1,0. 01 horsepower projection of Ferdinand Pichs ego made so much heat it needed 1. The 6. 50 horsepower 2. Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 has 1. The Camaro Convertible offers the same roof line as the Camaro Coupe with a fully automatic softtop that seamlessly disappears beneath the hard tonneau cover with. Insert Spinal Tap joke here. Such is the extreme nature of the latest, probably greatest, and without question most powerful Camaro the Bow Tie brand has ever sold to the public. Unlike the obvious competition Chevys looking at you, Hellcat, the ZL1 isnt simply extreme for extremes sake. The Camaro team gave the sixth generation Camaro all flavors of performance enhancers for a reason. Three of them, actually Camaro boss Al Oppenheiser wanted the ZL1 to be the best ponycar on the drag strip, on a canyon road, and on the racetrack. Chevy is marketing these three objectives in the parlance of our times as ZL1triplethreat. Thats no small task. But luckily for Oppenheiser, he had the right platform, the right team of engineers, and the right parts bin to make an attempt at glory. For instance, even though horsepower is up by 7. ZL1, weight is down by 1. Alpha platform, which also underpins the Caddy ATS and CTS families. The front fenders on the ZL1 are flared compared to other Camaros in order to accommodate the 2. Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3 tires, which are shared with the SS 1. LE. On the 1. LE, the front tires just stick out. Of course, theres also the matter of the miniature atomic device of an engine. Its called the LT4, and its most familiar iteration is the 6. Camaro Zl1 Automatic Vs Manual Watches' title='2013 Camaro Zl1 Automatic Vs Manual Watches' />Corvette Z0. A slightly detuned 6. Cadillac CTS V. All three versions are 6. V 8s with a top mounted 1. Check out the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 review at CARandDRIVER. Use our Car Buying Guide to research Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 prices, specs, photos, videos, and more. Wouldnt it be amazing if the Honda City Turbo and its Motocompo scooter were featured on Jason Drives Hmmm. You kids wanna see something cool Heres a hires wireframe cutaway of the Infiniti Prototype 9, the fauxvintage electric race car concept that should be lame but. Heres the part Chevrolet doesnt want me to say In the Z0. LT4 has cooling issues. The mighty Corvettes heart heat soaks or overheats. Remember those 1. I was talking about The Camaro ZL1 will not overheat. I tried, but even after six sets of rear tires in four daysnot jokingthe thunderous V 8 never so much as simmered. Two of those 1. 1 heat exchangers are actually the intercoolers that straddle the supercharger. They are redesigned and repositioned for ZL1 duty. Its also important to note that the ZL1 version of the LT4 makes exactly as much power and torque as the Z0. In generations past, the Corvette would have to officially at least make the most power. These days, Camaro is free to be as strong as can be. Also of great interest on the ZL1 is the debut of GMs 1. Co developed to a point with Ford, Chevys hopped up Camaro version gets unique gearing, valving, and control software. Gears one through six are very tightly spaced, seventh is direct, and eight through 1. Should you opt for the six speed manual version of the ZL1, the feds are going to hit you with a 1,3. Dvb-T Mac Drivers there. Gas Guzzler tax. The EPA jury is still out on the numbers for the auto, but theres a chance that because of those three overdrive gears, 1. ZL1s might only get hit with a 1,0. Meaning that the 1. That said, Im still betting on the 1,0. When the old 5. 80 hp ZL1 made its debut in 2. Shelby GT5. 00. That burly Shelby and its weirdly long gears hit 6. The old ZL1 got to 6. Chevy is claiming that the 2. ZL1 needs 3. 5 seconds to 6. Luckily for you, we have a test team, and we were able to verify the 3. However, in the quarter mile, the best road test editor Chris Walton could get was 1. Why the discrepancy Were chalking it up to Californias 9. Michigan. Yes, Virginia, the 6. Camaro requires premium. Still, 1. 1. 5 seconds in the quarter mile is quicker than both the phantom out of production Shelby bogey and the Dodge Challenger Hellcat, which needs 1. A time of 1. 1. 5 seconds in the quarter mile beats a hell of a lot of supercars, too. The ZL1 isnt just quick in a straight line. The monstrous Chevy also excels on our figure eight handling circuit, where it laid down an elite time of 2. To give you some context, the 1. LE version of the Camaro, the BMW M4 GTS, and the Shelby GT3. R all require 2. 3. A time of 2. 3. 1 seconds ties the nearly two ton Camaro with the 3,3. Porsche 9. 11 Carrera S with all wheel steering. Speaking of Porsche, the quickest figure eight lap weve ever recorded was laid down by the 9. Spyder 2. 2. 2 seconds. Meaning this Camaro is less than 1 second off the best there is. The GT5. 00 takes 2. Hellcat needs 2. 4. The ZL1 needs only 9. Anything less than 1. Since I drove it last July, Ive been describing the Camaro SS 1. LE as one of the very best handling cars currently on sale. We gave it fourth place at last years Best Drivers Car competition behind the aforementioned Carrera S and the GT3. R, as well as the winning Mc. Laren 5. 70. S. Theres a strong temptation to think of the ZL1 as merely a 1. LE with an extra 1. However, all that auxiliary cooling and the addition of nearly 2. ZL1 of the 1. LEs grace and fluidity. As a result, the ZL1 does not dance like a ballerina. Instead, it hits like a heavyweight boxers fist with a horseshoe hidden inside the glove. There might not be a whole lot of feel, connection, subtlety, or whatever other sparkly words scribes such as me use to wax poetic about the ineffable. Youre not dancing with the road youre beating it to death. Would the Shelby GT5. Hellcat be able to keep up No way. This thing freaking flies. Those Goodyears are not only remarkable, but the Camaro team also did a wondrous job with the ZL1s rearend, both lowering the roll center and making the familial electronic limited slip differential e. LSD in GM speak work better here than in any other application. This baby is a drift machine. Also, and quite importantly, the rear wheels have no problem putting down all the LT4s power. I tried several of the Performance Traction modes Wet, Sport 1, Sport 2, Race, but I quickly realized that the ZL1 is so capable that turning off all nannies was the optimum way to roll. Dont just take it from me. In the aggressive driving modes, such as Sport and Track, the throttle actually opens more slowly to get more control. Thats necessary when the tires are near the cornering limit, our on call pro racer, Randy Pobst, says. We often have the manufacturers engineers out to watch us lap their cars. Sometimes they even listen to what we have to say. Especially Randy. Chevy engineers gave me credit for suggesting that. And I think its fantastic. I have long believed that a more aggressive throttle opening in sport modes is a bad idea because it makes the driver less smooth. I am flattered. At the big track at Willow Springs Raceway, we had Randy lap a SS 1. LE, a ZL1 with a six speed manual and a ZL1 with the 1. The 1. LE ran a 1 2. Thats a great lap, especially when you consider that time is 0. Camaro Z2. 8, which is a former BDC winner and track focused monster with more horsepower and torque. Next up was the ZL1 with a manual. That stick shift ran a blistering quick 1 2. Corvette Grand Sport 1 2. Mercedes AMG GT S 1 2. Porsche Turbo S 1 2. Mc. Laren 5. 70. S prototype 1 2. Impressed yet Next up was the ZL1 with the automatic transmission. Randy only managed a time of 1 2. Thats enough to embarrass all of the European sports cars mentioned above but slower than both the Grand Sport and the manual version of itself. To be fair, Randy felt the tires pressures werent set correctly, and that the abuse meted out through Turn 8 was heating the drivers side front too much, causing understeer through terrible Turn 9. The 1. 0 speed should be quicker than the six speed, but it just wasnt happening. Randy strongly felt there were some tenths left in the automatic ZL1. He worked with a couple of engineers from Chevy and kept adjusting tire pressures and lapping. The result An unofficial lap time of 1 2. ZL1s optional Performance Data Recorder PDR. A Mc. Laren 6. 50. S Spidera mid engine, 3,2. Yes, you read that right. What Happens At The End Of The Lying Game Book'>What Happens At The End Of The Lying Game Book. The quarter million dollar Mc. Laren got beat by a Camaro.