Chevrolet sends the Camaro to finishing school and ends up with an impeccably behaved monster.
It’s a curious truth of automotive engineering that, in general, the lower the volume target for a new vehicle, the more effort is invested in perfecting it. Engineers seem to sweat the nuances of a Ferrari far more than they do those of a Fiat. The same goes for performance models of mass-produced vehicles. With the tedious stuff already taken care of—say, making the car come together as easily as a SnapTite model on the assembly line—the performance guys are free to spend months toying with bushing stiffness. Unburdened by trivialities such as radio reception or defroster performance, the go-fast department finds time to lap a track for 24 hours.
Such is the back story of the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Development engineers fussed over seven iterations of their customized Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3 tires (three iterations are typical in vehicle development). They spent more than a year calibrating the 10-speed automatic transmission. And they made six separate trips to the Nürburgring in order to fine-tune the car, with the eventual payoff being a 7:29.60 lap, almost 12 seconds faster than its predecessor.
That exhaustive development was applied to some of the most astonishing hardware extant. Its magnetorheological dampers take their cues from sensors that read the road 1000 times per second; an electronically controlled limited-slip differential shuffles torque between the rear wheels with computer precision; and a wet-sump variant of the LT4 supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 delivers incredible thrust. Imagine a Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat that can corner, a Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 with an additional 124 horsepower, and a BMW M4 with even better steering. The Camaro ZL1 is all of these things and more.
The ZL1’s parts list is familiar. Many will think of this car as a Corvette Z06 with four seats, its base price of $63,435 equating to a $17,010 discount over the super-Vette. But the ZL1 is not exactly a Z06, even if bits of it certainly are shared. The ZL1’s own contribution to Chevy’s arsenal of performance parts is its new 10-speed automatic transmission [see “Explained” below]. The standard six-speed manual gearbox, with a well-weighted shifter and clutch pedal, is a much better choice for those who want to choose their own gears, but the auto is a ’box of magic.
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Coupe View All Photos
It allows a dramatic windup through first, then supplies a progression of rapid-fire rpm rewinds as you rocket to triple-digit speeds, the gearbox racing through upshifts with superbike-like snappiness. In Los Angeles traffic, conversely, the transmission picked through the ratios with virtually imperceptible gearchanges. At any pace, it shifts with minimal torque reduction and never hunts for the right ratio. When you demand thrust, the trans executes a sudden yet smooth downshift without any intermediate steps. Mat the throttle from 60 mph and a flawless tenth-to-third transition wakes the LT4 like a sleeping lion poked with a branding iron.Consider the ZL1’s 50-to-70-mph passing performance, a test we initiate once the transmission has selected its highest ratio as the car lopes along at 50 mph. At 2.1 seconds, the ZL1’s surge is just 0.3 second behind that of the 532-hp Tesla Model S P90D, which doesn’t need to shift its single-speed gearbox.
Having given it 650 horsepower and 650 pound-feet, the engineers leave it to the driver to exercise the restraint necessary to produce the best acceleration. Despite having launch control, the quickest way to 60 mph requires standing on the brake, then smoothly and slowly rolling into the throttle. The goal is to have the accelerator fully squeezed just as you shift into second. You must shift manually, else the autobox will upshift before the 6500-rpm redline, thinking your slow- moving right foot reflects a lack of commitment. Mastery begets glory. You’re moving a mile a minute after 3.4 seconds. The quarter-mile flashes past at 125 mph, just 11.5 seconds after releasing the brake.
Chevy makes only minor adjustments to the transmission calibration as you switch between the ZL1’s driving modes. In the sport and track settings, the engine cuts fuel on upshifts for faster gearchanges, which are accompanied by a satisfying blat, yet the computer still targets the same shift points. That changes when enthusiastic driving triggers one of three performance algorithms, still in sport or track mode. The first level holds gears when you lift off the throttle and rev-matches on downshifts, while the most aggressive mode constantly holds the lowest possible gear.
The controller watches throttle and brake inputs and lateral g’s to activate performance shifting or to revert to the standard setting after a period of soft-pedaling. The only way to decipher which performance algorithm is active is to study where on the 7500-rpm tachometer the needle is spending its time. It’s a slightly strange and opaque way to control the transmission, but it works surprisingly well. All it takes is a single corner of hard driving to trigger the performance shift.
The sheer number of gears removes a lot of the joy from manually paddling through the cogs. Not to mention that downshifts in this mode feel significantly slower and clunkier than when the gearbox is left to its own devices. Engineers did attempt to address the tedium of toggling through six or seven or ten gears by writing code that jumps to the lowest possible gear when you hold the left shift paddle, but we found the system to be wildly inconsistent. Sometimes the downshift was nearly instantaneous. At other times, whole seconds passed before the shift occurred. And sometimes, inexplicably, there was no shift at all, no matter how long we held the paddle.
The new 10-speed transmission, the addition of the eLSD, and an extra 70 horsepower make this ZL1 both faster and more rewarding than the fifth-generation ZL1. Yet the largest transformation happened when all sixth-generation Camaros moved from GM’s Zeta platform to the lighter, more nimble Alpha architecture. That change saves more than 200 pounds compared with the prior ZL1. It’s not light, at almost 4000 pounds with the automatic gearbox, but the ZL1 coupe moves with uncanny agility.
Equipped with staggered Goodyears, the ZL1 isn’t quite as neutral as the fifth-generation Z/28, nor is it latched to the pavement like that car, which wore 305-section Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R rubber at all four corners. It does, though, circle the skidpad at 1.04 g’s and haul its 3933 pounds to a stop from 70 mph in 143 feet, continuing to erase the notion of the American muscle car as a crude, one-trick, straight-line hero. Weighty electrically assisted power steering with a variable-ratio rack bends the car into curves with poise and precision. Understeer is easily abated with clean driving or a quick prod of the throttle, and the suede-wrapped steering wheel communicates the chatter of the front rubber instantly and clearly when the tires start to slide. GM’s excellent Performance Traction Management offers five increasingly lenient traction and stability settings to help the driver set a quick and safe lap time, no matter their skill.
A new line-lock feature (yes, the Mustang had it first) clamps down on the front brakes for up to 15 seconds so the driver can warm the rear meats before a drag run or smoke out the crowd at a car show. But really, who needs help spinning the tires with this much torque? The launch-control algorithm now offers both automatic and custom settings. The latter allows the driver to select the launch rpm and the amount of wheelslip, from 5 to 15 percent in half-percent increments.
The team that built the ZL1 pitches the car as equally adept at running quarter-mile drags, lapping Virginia International Raceway, and writhing along the Angeles Crest Highway. It’s certainly competent at any of those activities, but we think it’s truly exceptional at the last one, streaking down a great road and plastering a grin on your face. Strapped into the deeply bolstered Recaros by red seatbelts (standard with select exterior colors), we hammered the ZL1 over the highway through the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles, confident in its firm brake pedal and natural steering, the trans automatically holding the lowest gear, and the engine blasting anger through the valleys. Few things have made us happier this year.
We weren’t offered a chance to drive the ZL1 convertible, so we can’t say if Chevy has done anything to stiffen that rolling tub of Jell-O. The coupe, however, has no trouble managing the engine’s grunt, the road’s imperfections, and the considerable cornering forces the ZL1 can muster.
With the Camaro ZL1, Chevrolet mixes its most raucous, most capable hardware into a monster of a car at a bargain price. More tire and less weight could turn it into a true track rat, but it’s a car that you can live with every day and hustle across any piece of pavement, and we wouldn’t change a thing. The ZL1 is even greater than the sum of its special parts. Source by Caranddriver Website
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