On this episode of Ignition presented by Tire Rack
Category
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MotorTranscript
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)