2017 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1: Meet the Supercar Destroying Camaro!

MotorTrend

On this episode of Ignition presented by Tire Rack

Transcript

00:00 (dramatic music)

00:02 This is the Chevy Camaro SS1LE.

00:16 It's loud, it's rear wheel drive,

00:22 and it's got the same V8 engine as a Corvette.

00:29 But, because it's a 1LE, it's also one of the very best

00:33 handling cars on earth.

00:36 Need proof?

00:36 Well, at last year's Best Driver's Car competition,

00:39 it finished in fourth place in front of,

00:43 oh, I don't know, an Audi R8 V10 Plus,

00:46 the Dodge Viper ACR, and a Jaguar F-Type SVR.

00:51 This is a serious driver's car.

00:53 The car is absolutely incredible.

01:00 (car engine revving)

01:03 But, and there's always a but,

01:06 I've long said that this chassis is so good,

01:10 Chevy ought to give this thing another 100 horsepower.

01:14 (car engine revving)

01:17 (dramatic music)

01:24 (car engine revving)

01:27 Ha, the Chevy gave it 200 more horsepower,

01:39 and they're calling it the ZL1.

01:42 Woo!

01:43 (laughing)

01:46 (car engine revving)

01:49 So, what does 200 more horsepower

02:05 and 200 more pound feet of torque look like on a drag strip?

02:09 Watch me dust this 1LE.

02:11 (dramatic music)

02:14 (car engine revving)

02:38 Oh yeah, leaving him for dead.

02:41 (laughing)

02:43 Not only is the ZL1 faster than the 1LE,

02:52 it's faster than the Shelby GT350R.

02:55 Hell, it's faster than the Hellcat.

02:57 Now, you can be forgiven for thinking it's a one-trick pony.

03:02 It's got a lot of power and torque,

03:03 goes faster in a straight line,

03:05 but that's simply not the case.

03:08 (car engine revving)

03:11 Shoving a monster motor where it doesn't belong

03:14 is the muscle car recipe.

03:16 That's easy.

03:17 That's been done a million times,

03:19 and frankly, that was the problem with the old ZL1.

03:23 But this is 2017.

03:26 The big Camaro is finally a complete package,

03:30 and here's why.

03:32 It's got the same tires, magnetic suspension,

03:35 and trick electronically locking limited slip differential

03:38 as the handling all-star 1LE.

03:41 It's also got wider fenders,

03:44 a carbon fiber hood with an air extractor,

03:47 a larger grill for better cooling,

03:50 bigger brakes, a wing out back,

03:52 and a shin-splintering front splitter.

03:56 How does all this go-fast tech make the big Camaro feel?

04:04 In a word, mighty.

04:06 (car engine revving)

04:10 But all that aggression does not come

04:17 at the expense of comfort.

04:18 So, like I said, while this car can beat anything up,

04:21 you as the driver are not getting beaten up.

04:24 The ride is pretty comfortable.

04:25 These Recaro seats are great.

04:27 The steering wheel's great.

04:28 And I think a large part of that

04:30 is due to the magnetic ride control dampers.

04:34 (car engine revving)

04:36 GM has developed this winging technology,

04:38 and the Camaro team has really perfected it

04:40 here in the ZL1.

04:41 It's just such a joy to drive this thing.

04:45 It just works so well.

04:47 And then also, when you do get on the power,

04:52 the ELSD, one of my favorite named parts

04:54 in all of Autodome,

04:55 the electronic limited slip differential,

04:57 really can put the power down.

05:02 And that's a common part shared with the CTS-V and the ZL6.

05:06 However, here it just works better.

05:09 Then we get to the transmission.

05:14 So, I've driven this car with a six-speed manual.

05:17 I'm also now driving it with a new 10-speed transmission,

05:19 co-developed with Ford Motor Company, up to a point.

05:23 And then there's a kind of a fork in the family tree.

05:25 And Camaro has developed this one specifically for the ZL1.

05:30 So, all the controls, the valving are different

05:32 than the common unit.

05:34 And while I prefer the manual for my own personal reasons,

05:37 chief among them being, it reminds me of the old CTS-V wagon

05:40 with a stick, this 10-speed is the quicker transmission.

05:45 More importantly, compared to, like, say, the CTS-V

05:47 and its eight-speed transmission, this one's better.

05:52 (engine revving)

05:54 The Bugatti Veyron famously had 10 intercoolers.

06:17 'Cause that giant engine makes so much heat,

06:20 it needs 10 heat exchangers to keep it cool.

06:23 The Camaro ZL1, 11.

06:25 (engine revving)

06:29 We know this is the same engine as the Z06, right?

06:33 It's the big, supercharged LT4.

06:36 And we've all heard how in the new Z06,

06:38 it's been having some overheating issues.

06:40 The Camaro team has ensured that the ZL1

06:43 is never gonna overheat.

06:45 It's got the main intercooler

06:46 with two auxiliary intercoolers flanking it.

06:49 On top of the supercharger, there's two more intercoolers.

06:51 And they've been redesigned and repositioned

06:53 compared to the LT4 in the Z06.

06:56 And then there's trans coolers, disc coolers,

06:58 that cooler's, this cooler's, everything.

07:01 We've been beating on this car for a week straight,

07:03 and it has showed no signs of overheating,

07:06 no signs of heat soaking, no nothing.

07:09 It just stays cool.

07:10 It also drifts really well.

07:16 The ZL1 sprints around our figure eight test

07:18 in 23.1 seconds.

07:20 That's two tenths of a second quicker

07:22 than a BMW M4 GTS, a Camaro SS1 LE,

07:26 and a Shelby GT350R.

07:29 In fact, the big Camaro is a tenth of a second quicker

07:32 around our course than an Acura NSX.

07:35 It takes a Porsche 911 Carrera S with all-wheel steering

07:38 to even tie the supercharged Camaro.

07:41 (engine revving)

07:46 (tires screeching)

07:48 So Chevy kept talking about,

07:49 when they were developing the ZL1,

07:51 they wanted it to be a triple threat.

07:54 They wanted it to be dominant on the drag strip,

07:56 and we've seen that.

07:57 Remember, 11.5 in the quarter mile,

07:59 that's the same as a Dodge Viper ACR.

08:01 They wanted it to be awesome on a back road.

08:04 Well, we're on a back road, it's awesome, let me tell ya.

08:07 (engine revving)

08:10 And lastly, they wanted the ZL1

08:12 to be the king of the racetrack.

08:14 Well, to prove that last point,

08:17 we're gonna have to get our buddy Randy Popes involved

08:20 and see what he has to say about it.

08:21 (engine revving)

08:24 Well, Randy, once again,

08:28 I find myself sitting next to you in a car,

08:30 racing around Big Willow Racetrack

08:31 at Willow Springs International Raceway.

08:34 This time, ZL1, what do you think?

08:37 - One of the things that they lectured us about a lot today

08:40 was this transmission.

08:42 Ba-boom, did you hear it?

08:43 It just downshifted on its own,

08:45 it felt the cornering G's

08:47 and went into its track mode on its own.

08:49 It doesn't have a sport mode, it's an automatic.

08:53 Everything's automatic.

08:54 (engine revving)

08:56 And you hear how close the gear ratios are?

09:06 Wah, wah, wah, wah, and it's like a 125cc motocrosser.

09:11 And I really enjoy that.

09:13 (engine revving)

09:16 - So you've driven 'em all, you've tracked 'em all.

09:23 How does the ZL1, where does it fit

09:25 into the pantheon of GM performance cars?

09:28 - Short story, it takes the tremendous power and torque

09:32 of the LT4 from the Z06 Corvette

09:35 and puts it into the wonderful handling alpha platform

09:40 of the Cadillac ATS, CTS, and Camaro.

09:43 - Okay.

09:44 - Great combination.

09:46 - Okay.

09:46 - Because that motor's a beast and it needs to be tamed

09:51 and this chassis can do it.

09:53 And the Camaro guys, they pulled it off,

09:56 they've done a great job.

09:57 (engine revving)

10:00 - I mean, I think that's what's so cool about GM,

10:02 they won't ever admit it publicly,

10:03 but like, you know, they allow internal competition now.

10:07 So you know, it used to be back in the day,

10:08 it's like you're making a Camaro,

10:10 you have to make it less powerful and worse than a Corvette.

10:13 Have to.

10:14 And now--

10:15 - Yeah, like it came in 9/11 deal.

10:17 - Yeah, yeah, so now--

10:18 - Unspun.

10:19 - Right.

10:19 Now, Camaro is free to make a car that,

10:23 I'm gonna say is a better driver's car than the Z06.

10:26 - I'm with you, Johnny.

10:27 - You know, and I bet you once we lap 'em,

10:29 it'll be, I don't know, I'm guessing here,

10:31 but probably right up there with the Grand Sport, you know?

10:34 - When I drove the car on track,

10:37 what I noticed was obviously different about these cars

10:40 is that in the Corvette,

10:41 I got white knuckles and a sweaty brow.

10:44 And in the Camaro, I got a smile on my face

10:46 and I'm steering with one hand.

10:48 - I mean, by the way, guys watching at home,

10:50 I was just watching Randy drift this car with one hand

10:53 while talking about sweating in a Corvette.

10:55 You know what I mean?

10:56 So like, obviously, that's just a great handling car.

10:59 So, all right.

11:01 - That's it.

11:02 - Yeah, oh yeah.

11:03 So here's what I propose we do.

11:04 Let's actually get you behind the wheel of this thing

11:07 and set a hot lap.

11:08 But instead of just doing the automatic,

11:10 let's do it head-to-head style

11:12 and we'll put the 10 speed up against the manual

11:14 and see which one's faster.

11:16 - Great, I love it.

11:17 - Cool. - I love it.

11:18 - Cool.

11:19 - See if all those gears are really worth it, right?

11:21 - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

11:22 (car engine roaring)

11:26 (car engine roaring)

11:29 (car engine roaring)

11:32 (car engine roaring)

11:35 (car engine roaring)

11:38 (car engine roaring)

11:41 (car engine roaring)

11:44 (car engine roaring)

11:55 (car engine roaring)

12:11 (car engine roaring)

12:14 (car engine roaring)

12:19 (car engine roaring)

12:27 (car engine roaring)

12:38 (car engine roaring)

12:41 (car engine roaring)

12:50 - Here's a few cars the automatic ZL1

13:04 is quicker around big wheel events.

13:07 Mercedes AMG GTS,

13:09 Porsche Turbo S and the McLaren 570S.

13:13 Even faster than the manual ZL1

13:16 beating Chevy's own Corvette Grand Sport.

13:19 The world is standing on its head.

13:22 The ZL1 achieved what it set out to accomplish.

13:31 It's fast in a straight line,

13:32 it's excellent on a back road

13:34 and in the hands of a pro racing driver,

13:36 it's one of the fastest track cars in the world, period.

13:41 But what I like most about the ZL1

13:43 is that in the five days I had it,

13:45 I went through six sets of rear tires.

13:47 This thing is an absolute smoking brute.

13:51 The only question that remains is

13:53 how completely unhinged will Chevy make the Z28?

13:57 Randy kept screaming at all the Chevy guys,

14:03 "It needs a better name."

14:04 My suggestion would be Satan Pony, right?

14:07 Satan Pony.

14:08 But in the end it's GM's call.

14:10 Or maybe Beelzebubba or Lucifer's Lament.

14:15 (dramatic music)

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