Your view of 'short lived' is quite obscured. Short lived relative to what? Relative to the present era of meca performance car production in history? Sure, if that's the case, my 2014 991.1 GT3 is very short lived to the new 2018 991.2 GT3 as it beats it on the Nurburgring by 14 seconds. In this scenario, one can also say the 918 Spyder is short lived to the new 2018 GT2RS as it beat the Spyder by 10 seconds (yes, it shocked me too). So, in today's world, it's fair to say that 90% of performance cars are quickly short lived. It's like computers, buy a new one just to find that it's performance is 2nd hand in 3 months.
Where you also fall short on your 'short lived' thesis is that the
14-15 Z/28 truly paved the momentum for GM Camaro Engineers to push the envelope of camaro performance into the future. The Camaros produced from 1970-2013 surely didn't - the Gen 5 ZL1 and 1LE gave a slight sneak peak, but didn't give THE birth.
You see, Gen 5 Z/28 owners - and every other camaro owner, including yourself - knows that the standard Gen 5 was a piece of s*&! and the birth of the Z/28 truly shocked everybody, from performance car writers, to porsche guys, corvette guys, dodge guys, volvo guys and everything in-between. Everyone was asking, how in the world could a Gen 5 Camaro be this good? You've heard it, and you were probably one of the tens of thousands that asked this same question. And no, the Gen 5 ZL1 did not start this major momentum just because it had more HP nor did the Gen 5 1LE just because it has 'some' track capabilities. It was about total performance and capability, uniqueness, and beauty all wrapped into one...the Z/28.
I don't need to itemized the lists of things the Z/28 possess that made it a truly unique car...like, the LS7, first car in production to have 305's up front....oh sorry, I got excited just thinking about all the goodies and couldn't resist typing a couple, hehe.
In essence, the Z/28 gave birth rights to your 1LE, the ZL1 and the ZL1 1LE, and ignited the Camaro brand into the future as a legit performance car/brand.
So now I welcome you to this specific Gen 5 Z/28 section of the camaro5 forum and the mindset of 99% of Gen 5 Z/28 owners.
Oh by the way, I have an extra bumper sticker that I can send your way that says: "The Gen 5 Z/28 paved the way..."
