Originally Posted by tweeter81
I'd love to make a guess, but the bottom line is that we don't have enough information to even hazard an educated guess.
The bare minimum facts we would need to know are as follows:
a) Horsepower and Torque = equal to, or more than the CTS-V
b) Curb Weight = 4000-4100 lbs
c) Suspension setup = at least stiffer than the SS
What we do know:
1) It appears that the Z/28 will have wider, better tires than the CTS-V, which should theoretically help in the grip and handling department
yes
2) If the current manual (6-spd) CTS-V weights approximately 4050 lbs, and the current manual (6-spd) Camaro SS weighs approximately 3750 lbs, then I would surmise that the Z/28 will fall pretty much in between, say 3900 lbs.
your weights are around 100 lbs too low for the CTS-V and SS
3) The brakes should be, for all intents and purposes, identical the the CTS-V's 6-pot/4-pot Brembos - which are fricking awesome factory brakes. I have a first gen CTS-V, and my factory 4-pot/4-pot setup is arguably one of the best components of the car for track duty.
4) Probably the final gear ratio will be the same as the CTS-V.
5) The ride height be a bit lower, for a more aggressive muscle car look. The CTS-V doesn't have to sit as low because it is more the luxury look.
I'm pretty sure the CTS-V rides lower than the regular models do, and I would hope that the engineers did it for performance more than style.
6) The coefficient of drag is most likely slightly lower on the Camaro than the V.
not necessarily. The CTS and the Camaro are pretty close aerodynamically. And if the Z28 has improved downforce over the SS then that will hurt its Cd
What all this tells us is that with all things being equal (HP, Final Gear Ratios, brakes), but the new Z/28 being a couple hundred pounds lighter and having more rubber with a lower Cd, it should for sure run faster around the Ring than the V.
Agreed
But, the big unknown here is what kind of suspension it has. If it has the V's Magnetorheological suspension, that part of the equation will be equal between the cars as well, and I have no doubt it will run at least 5 seconds faster because of all the other things I mentioned above.
On the other hand, if the suspension is a more conventional type, like the current SS has, then it probably might be a very close race (as in almost the same lap times). The reason why I am saying this about the conventional suspension is that we all know that GM will not go "far enough" or "aggressive enough" with a normal suspension setup to really get amazing grip numbers out of it. They aren't going to throw adjustable coilovers with really stiff springs, or adjustable camber plates on the car from the factory, the ride would just be too rough, plain and simple. While an amazing setup could be found with tweaking these things (Pedders, etc), GM won't do that in factory form.
The MR suspension is just as much about making the ride comfortable as improving performance. You could have setup as stiff as the MR gets at maximum, it would just be incredibly harsh when driving on public roads.
We won't have a clue on this until the actual time comes out, or we at least know the basics that I talked about above (a,b, and c).
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