The
new z28 camaro was unlike any muscle car you've ever seen before it has brakes
that you'd expect to see on a European supercar. It shares its engine with the
old z06 corvette and it's got suspension components that it shares in common
with the aston martin one-77 in fact i'm convinced that this car is the coolest
one to hit showrooms in all of 2014.
Whichever
we first showed this car about a year and a half ago at the New York auto show.
They were very plain about the fact that it's probably a little bit too hardcore
for most owners to want to daily drive. It costs about seventy five thousand
dollars and for that price you get a pre prep track weapon under the hood. You've
got a seven liter naturally aspirated ls7 v8 that makes 505 horsepower and 481
pound-feet of torque. The only transmission available is a traffic TR sixty six
speed manual. You also get massive carbon ceramic brakes and suspension from
multimatic a company in ontario Canada that you would normally find supplying
formula one race cars in total chevrolet says there are a hundred and ninety
parts unique to the z28 camaro with one goal in mind being fast as stink around
a racetrack.
Now
i can't emphasize this enough the z28 is a hardcore track special chevrolet
through almost everything possible
out in the name of saving weight. In fact this car weighs just over 3,800
pounds despite the massive engine and all the componentry that went into making
it so fast around a track. For example the windows are thinner the floor mats
are gone. There's only one speaker and air conditioning is optional everything
in this car says track machine in much the same way that. You would expect in
something like for example the porsche 911 gt3 the aerodynamic enhancements
that. You see on the car are more than cosmetic in fact. They're functional and
chevrolet says that they'll generate up to a hundred and fifty pounds of
downforce other items special to the z28 that. You can see from the outside
include those carbon ceramic brakes that i mentioned earlier and also specially
made wheels from alcoa which by the way have a 305 with rating all the way
around. On the front and the rear those wheels come wrapped standard and
Pirelli trofeo our tires that will help the camaro to pull more than a G in the
corners but most of what makes the z28. So special is invisible from the curb
and after all we're at gingerman in southern Michigan.
So
let's get on the track and drive all right now I know what you're thinking
seventy five thousand bucks for a Camaro that doesn't even make more power than
the CL 1 or the shelby gt500. They've gotta be nuts right but this isn't like
any other camaro I've ever driven. In fact this car is absolutely incredible i
mean just the corner and grip. You get alone is stunning not to mention the
carbon ceramic brakes and stop this car despite. The fact that with more than
3,800 pounds. Wait until later in a braking zone than any rational person ever
should end she still stop it's miraculous. Which brings me to one of my next
points when chevrolet was developing this car. They ended up going to alcoa the
wheel supplier and asking them to media blast. The wheels and what that means
is that. They actually gave an abrasive edge to the inner part of the room
where the rubber sets and the reason for that is. that these pirelli trofeo our
offers so much grip on the ground that. They were actually spinning on the rims
as the car was breaking while it's being tested on the track I'm impotent. Return
right now is just remarkable scars practically telepathic you just that knows.
Where you want to go in the whole thing just goes with you and a lot of that
has to do with the suspension and the tires. It is worth mentioning though that
these things aren't cheap and you're going to go through rubber pretty quickly.
In fact each one costs about five hundred bucks you can expect to spend two
thousand dollars each time you replace the tires and if you're doing insert a
heavy driving that will happen pretty frequently. It's easy to forget about
because honestly the throttle response is just incredible i mean that seven
leader ls7 is just a jam it's amazing. Give it a little bit of poke with your toe
and you get a little bit of gas really lay it down and my god just take some
hits. It's addictive and I think honestly one of the things that makes this car
as fun to drive as addictive as it is the fact that you still get a manual
transmission to play around with and you know really the only other hardcore
track special car that's coming from a factory. These days is arguably the 911
gt3 the 991 generation. They're moving to pee, ok so in a lot of ways I kind of
see this as a value bargain I mean think about it for a second it costs about
75 grand which is a possible. I won't say that is going to outperform that card
but the fact of the matter is this thing is just so much fun to drive and when
you think about it that way it makes a lot of sense. The z28 camaro is big it's
heavy. Even with all of the light waiting that. Chevrolet did and it will go
through tires and gas like a frat party on cakes but none of that matters
because it. Turns everything you thought you knew about muscle cars right
upside down. You know I don't say this very often but if you have the money by
this thing and buy it now.
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