MOTOR TREND:
2014 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 First Ride
Goal: To ‘Beat the ****’ out of Anything Ford Can Put on the Road’
By Scott Burgess
October 15, 2013
The Z/28 arrives at dealerships around March 2014, and there are still a lot of unknown details about this car. Its price? More than the $56,000 Camaro ZL1. Its production goals? Only a couple of thousand each year. Its performance? Really fast.
But Tuesday’s event wasn’t about getting all the answers. It was about letting Steve show off a little bit.
The hand-built 7.0-liter V-8s in the prototypes didn’t rumble, or growl, or even scream as much as they roared with a resonance that quaked through my body. The naturally aspirated LS7 will crank out 505 horsepower and 481 lb-ft of torque, Chevy engineers revealed earlier Tuesday morning.
One of the cars on the track’s apron was responsible for a 7-minute, 37.4-second run around the Nurburgring, Germany’s ultimate proving ground, where Chevrolet has already run 1000 miles with the Z/28. That time was in the rain. Chevy promises better times to come.
Some of the carmaker’s best drivers sat behind the wheel of these particular Z/28s, their smiles big and wide. Today, their job was not to abuse the car’s suspension and brakes to make sure every part lives up to Camaro’s legendary moniker. No, these drivers were about to abuse auto journalists with the blunt instrument of a Z/28.
Of course, the Camaro’s real target isn’t the media. It’s anything built with a Blue Oval on it.
“Our goal, my goal, is to beat the shit out of anything Ford can put on the road,” said Al Oppenheiser, the Z/28’s chief engineer. “That’s a common goal from the top on down.”
Chevy says the new Z/28 is a true track car, and it has already bested the Ford Mustang Boss 302 Laguna Seca on GM’s development course. Of course, that is a home-field victory, and the final Z/28 has not been independently tested or compared to Ford, Dodge, or anyone else offering up a highly tuned sports car.
I can tell you it’s probably a bad idea to chew gum when riding in the Z/28. Also, try to push your head against the back of the Recaro seat to stop the helmet -- with your head inside -- from hitting the window during cornering.
This car is downright amazing on the track. Chevy has changed 190 different parts when compared to the 2014 Camaro 1SS. It’s more powerful and lighter, and has the grip of a hungry anaconda. The 305/30ZR19 Pirelli Trofeo R tires were so sticky and the brakes so strong during testing that the rims rotated more than 360 degrees inside the tire. GM solved the problem through special beading and scoring inside the rims.
Perhaps the first thing you notice with this car is not the acceleration -- that’s expected -- but the braking. The 15.5-inch carbon-ceramic two-piece front rotors with six-piston Brembo calipers and 15.3-inch rear rotors help provide up to 1.5 g in deceleration. And the braking power stays with you. According to one of the drivers, you can do 22 grueling laps on the 2.9-mile course before you run out of fuel and you won’t experience any brake fade.
Of course, all the weight reduction Chevrolet did to the Z/28 also helps it stop quickly. Weighing 3837 pounds, the Z/28 drop got lighter in every possible place. The LS7 is 63.7 pounds lighter than the LSA. The wheel packages saved 48 pounds. Engineers pulled out the air conditioning, lightened the rear seats, and even pulled out acoustic deadening and insulation out to save a sum total of another 41 pounds. Floor mats? Redundant wiring in the harness? Trunk trim? Nope, that’s all gone. All in the name of speed.
The first time my driver hit 100 mph, I hardly noticed until he kept that speed going into the corner and I tried to hold myself in the seat. For a number of reasons, the Camaro does not come with a handle for the passenger to grab and curse.
As we cleared a small hill the suspension extended, but the car quickly planted itself again. The Z/28 produces 440 pounds more downforce than the SS model. The front splitter creates more than 200 pounds of downforce and instead of using expensive carbon fiber, the splitter is made of plastic, meaning it will only cost a few hundred dollars to replace. (And Chevy saves hundreds building it.)
Every surface was studied and analyzed to improve the car’s aerodynamics. The rear spoiler, hood vents, rockers, and fender flares help the Z/28 go faster. During the test run, some parts have not been finished, as engineers continue to toy with different rear spoilers hoping to create an adjustable one worthy of the track.
Coming out of the long sweeper, the Z/28 felt track scary, and that’s from the passenger seat. The car, which has a lower center of gravity than the SS, never wobbled and the back end stayed surprisingly stable. When my driver hit the acceleration hard, the car crouched more.
The driver clicked through the gears quickly, winding them out and finding the next one on a track he could nearly drive blindfolded.
The stiff suspension makes the Z/28 track-capable and also something many owners won’t want to suffer through on a daily basis. As Chevy engineers said Tuesday, “it’s made to drive to the track on Saturday, smoke everyone and then drive home.” So unless you work at a track, you might want a different daily driver.
Every part of the new suspension has been overhauled. The front springs are 85 percent stiffer and the rear springs are 65 percent stiffer. The Canadian company Multimatic Inc., which builds special dampers for Formula 1 racing, created the dampening system for the Z/28.
But any track demands a stiff ride. And the Z/28 delivers, at least from the passenger seat, where you don’t feel the steering or even the click of the six-speed manual.
As we hit more than 150 mph along the front straightaway, though, none of that seemed to matter. From the passenger seat, the Z/28 is still a thrill ride -- an angry, head-jostling, neck-bending thrill ride.
Now, if only it had something I could grab on to.
Read more:
http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...#ixzz2hvbAwW34