First Drive: Geiger Cars Chevrolet Camaro SS
Bombing through Germany in Geiger's Supercharged Lime Green Menace
March 29, 2011
/ By Nick Hall
A lime green Camaro SS with a supercharged whine, aggressive bodykit, writing on the windshield, and the number 13 on its side would draw stares even in downtown Detroit. We're not in Detroit, though, or even the United States. This is downtown Munich, Germany, BMW's backyard, and half of the people staring at the Geiger Cars Camaro SS think we're the coolest guys on Earth, while the other half think we're epic tools.
Europe is used to laughing at American cars. But the groundbreaking performance of the Corvette made a whole continent look again, and now the Mustang and Camaro SS have won a healthy following on the other side of the pond. Karl Geiger's outfit used to make most of its money selling Hummers and Dodge Rams to the cowboy-boots-and-line-dancing brigade. But now the younger crowd, footballers, and others are snapping up the latest-generation pony cars as fast as they're imported.
Geiger doesn't just import U.S. muscle. It tunes it, too. This Camaro SS comes with an Edelbrock E-Force Supercharger strapped to the LS3, pumping out some 560 horsepower through a new exhaust system that sounds like God is mad. The 6.2-liter V-8 finally has the bite to match its bark, and if the numbers quoted by Edelbrock are even close to accurate, this is a serious machine that could easily mix it up with the best the Germans have to offer - in a straight line, anyway.
Of course suburban Munich isn't really the place for us to test such theories, but we follow Geiger's man to a predetermined location, and he doesn't worry about such things. So we get a firsthand look of the Camaro SS spiking violently sideways off each stoplight as massive 22-inch rear Pirelli P Zero Corsas try and fail to contain the 488 pound-feet of torque. That's more than the Mercedes and way more than the BMW, if you're counting.
Which makes Geiger's estimated 0-60 mph time of 3.7 seconds to 60 mph sound perfectly reasonable, if you hook it up right. We have to wait for a dusting of snow to clear the road before we head out, and spend a very dull morning taking static shots in the company parking lot. But when I finally get behind the wheel, engage first on that tractor of a gearbox, and give the throttle an almighty shove I know one thing -- this car is properly, seriously fast.
The supercharger provides linear thrust, so there shouldn't be a spike in the torque curve and technically there isn't, but now you have to truly measure the throttle input or even those grippy Italian tires stand no chance. Once they start to spin there's little the traction control can do about it in sub-zero conditions.
The Eaton Gen VI TVS 2300 rotors are the same as those found under the hood of the Corvette ZR1, but Edelbrock fit longer, 12-inch runners to maximize the low end torque. There's also a cast aluminum tensioner, dual bar and plate intercoolers, extruded aluminum fuel rails, 52 lb-hr fuel injectors, steel idler pulleys, a high-flow air filter, and a color-coded aluminum engine cover. It's a beautifully engineered piece of kit, and Edelbrock's website is full of testimonials of individuals doing the install themselves.
It also comes with the kind of boost you feel just about everywhere, and while nobody talks much about top-end speeds because of the variation between cars, Geiger reckons on about 180 mph with the limiter removed.
That is brutally fast, and the Camaro's surprisingly slippery drag coefficient of 0.37 has only been slightly affected by Geiger's add-on parts, which you can order from the German base. The front and rear lip spoilers, side skirts, and diffuser won't make a huge difference to the high-speed grip in the real world, because it's not a track car and driving fast enough to exploit these additions will land you in jail, but they give the Camaro SS that added touch of menace on the aesthetic front.
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