Yahoo Autos 2017 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Manual
From the June 2017 issue
Every superlative, compliment, and rave you’ve heard about the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 collects inside your head before you drive it. A veritable Lake Mead of positivity builds up behind your mental Hoover Dam, which is just waiting to collapse under the weight of unfulfilled expectations. Except the 650-hp Camaro ZL1 not only lives up to the hype, it exceeds it, especially when equipped with a six-speed manual.
Let’s get one thing out of the way: The manual is three-tenths of a second slower to 60 mph than the car’s 10-speed automatic. That may sound like a deal breaker if acceleration numbers rule your sad life, but a 3.7-second run to 60 is still astonishing for a 3904-pound prop from a Michael Bay film. It also helps that the stick saves you $1595; the base price is $63,435.
Does it help that it does 60 mph in first gear? Actually, it doesn’t. That tall first gear makes the ZL1 tough to launch. We got our best times by revving it to a needle’s width above 2000 rpm, releasing the clutch pedal, and quickly rolling into the throttle. Open the throttle too fast and the Goodyear blimps in back light up like the Hindenburg. If you’re too slow on the gas pedal, the engine bogs. This Camaro’s launch control had been disabled, but we regularly beat the system anyway. Like we said: Sad!
Balancing tire slip to achieve the best launch takes some skill, but there’s gratification in the DIY approach. Go ahead—jam the shifter into second as fast as you can at 60 mph and keep the gas pinned; it’ll take it. Do burnouts for days, stomp on the brakes from 70 mph to zero in 141 feet as many times as you want, and circle the skidpad at 1.07 g’s. Run it repeatedly to the 6500-rpm redline to hear the supercharged V-8’s 96-decibel howl. The ZL1 is always happy to endure what’s necessary to extract its performance. Its commitment to making your jaw drop is absolute.
A stream of feedback flows through the Alcantara-wrapped steering wheel. Chevy resisted making the wheel as thick as a Burmese python and we’re grateful, not because our hands are tiny, but because the thin-rimmed wheel is the only delicate part on the entire car. That wheel, along with the lighter steering efforts afforded by the tour and sport modes, helps the big ZL1—it’s roughly the length of a Toyota Camry and three inches wider—read as small and nimble as a BMW M2. Press hard into a corner and the ZL1 belies its mass by turning in with supernatural agility. There’s no drama, no roll, no fuss, and should you engage the rev-matching function, no need to heel-and-toe downshift.
Here’s the part where we complain about seeing out of the Camaro. Chevy built a concept car for the road, and concepts rarely consider practicality. Granted, you do get used to it in the same way you’d get used to wearing a baseball cap right above your eyes, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s patently juvenile. It’s paradoxical that a car so finely honed and impeccably developed looks like a full-scale Hot Wheels toy. More proof that cars shouldn’t be judged by their covers. Or numbers.
Specifications >
VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 4-passenger, 2-door coupe
PRICE AS TESTED: $65,230 (base price: $63,435)
ENGINE TYPE: supercharged and intercooled pushrod 16-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injection
Displacement: 376 cu in, 6162 cc
Power: 650 hp @ 6400 rpm
Torque: 650 lb-ft @ 3600 rpm
TRANSMISSION: 6-speed manual
DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase: 110.7 in
Length: 188.3 in
Width: 74.7 in Height: 52.4 in
Passenger volume: 85 cu ft
Trunk volume: 9 cu ft
Curb weight: 3904 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS:
Zero to 60 mph: 3.7 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 8.2 sec
Zero to 150 mph: 19.3 sec
Rolling start, 5–60 mph: 4.2 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 12.0 sec @ 122 mph
Top speed (drag limited, mfr's claim): 191 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 141 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 1.07 g
FUEL ECONOMY:
EPA combined/city/hwy: 16/14/20 mpg
C/D observed: 18 mpg
