Chevy unveils high-performance Camaro ZL1 with 550 hp

[DainBramaged]

Chevy unveils high-performance Camaro ZL1 with 550 hp



The long-rumored high-performance Chevrolet Camaro -- wearing the ZL1 badge -- made its debut today at the Chicago auto show.

The Camaro ZL1 packs GM's supercharged 6.2-liter V8, rated at 550 hp. It's mated to a six-speed manual transmission with dual-disc clutch system.

Other goodies include a magentic ride control system and a hood with carbon fiber vents.






Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110209/OEM04/110209730/1156#ixzz1DWb4gWWF






The 2012 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 debuted today at the Chicago Auto Show. It is the highest-performing Camaro and the most technically advanced car ever developed in its class. The new ZL1 continues the momentum of Camaro, propelling it into an entirely new realm of leading-edge performance technology. It is planned to launch at the beginning of 2012.

Motivated by a supercharged V-8 engine producing an estimated 550 horsepower (410 kW), the Camaro ZL1 will be the fastest Camaro ever offered by Chevrolet. And more than just power, the ZL1 features technologically advanced and highly developed chassis and suspension systems that help it deliver balanced, track-ready handling and braking power to complement its high engine output. Rigorous development of the ZL1 is ongoing, and official estimates of the car’s capabilities will be released later in 2011, as testing nears completion

[Sanity Claws]

1. I wonder if the Onion will put VP Biden in one of those new Camaros

and have him wash it on the White House lawn. http://www.theonion.com/articles/shirtless-biden-washes-trans-am-in-white-house-dri,2718/

[Brother Buzz]

2. Switch'em Danno

How soon will the car be showcased on Hawaii-Five-0?

[LynneSin]

3. For the men who feel their penis just isn't big enough

:hide:

[kentauros]

4. No, that would be the Bugatti Veyron

[LynneSin]

5. That's for the man whose penis never descended from the body cavity

:hide:

[kentauros]

7. Sounds like the very definition of Jeremy Clarkson

:P

[MorningGlow]

8. Snerk

:thumbsup:

I like it better in blue. :P

[DainBramaged]

6. They may call me Peanut, but not from lack of desire for horsepower.....

I'll take the Cadillac CTS-V for $50,000 Alex.........

[Mopar151]

14. Depends

If you can't be seen in anything but one of these, (or a giant pickup) that could be an issue. Of me, and the guys I know who race stuff with an even higher power/weight ratio - we could give a shit what we drive to work. Most of us have found out we can get in plenty of trouble with 100 horsepower..... Tires are another matter, tho.

[EOTE]

9. Holy crap! I never thought we'd see this.

I know that many a Corvette owner has thrown a fit over not having the fastest GM or by having a near equally performing Camaro which greatly undercuts the price. I was damned surprised when they put the LS9 in the CTS-V (Ok, LSA). So it looks like this will be the exact power train as the Caddy? Hot damn! If they can keep the price under $50 grand, this is going to be an awesome seller for GM. No Mustang, not even the GT500s with their primitive rear suspensions will be able to touch this. Will this be the first stock 11 second Camaro?

[DainBramaged]

19. It should be VERY easy to get this over 600HP

K&N, smaller pulley, MAF sensor, headers and better mufflers and we should see 600+ easy.


Daily driver.


Every day.


On the street

600HP for the masses for under $50,000

[EOTE]

21. I've seen a number of tuner CTS-Vs with over 700hp.

The real fun begins when you swap out the supercharger for twin-turbos. I've seen a number of LSA and LS9 TT setups which put out more than 900hp. It's an amazing engine.

[jmowreader]

54. With one small caveat

"The masses" don't drive $50,000 cars.

[sakabatou]

10. I have to ask...

Is it a "bitchin' Camaro?"

[EOTE]

11. Only the bitchinest. NT

[sakabatou]

12. I'll see what The Dead Milkmen have to say about it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v3CzvQ9e_w&feature=related

[ileus]

13. Let's get the camaro high

[Mopar151]

16. A 200 shot of nitrous otta do it n/t

[EOTE]

15. Wait til you see the donuts it could do on your lawn. NT

[Mopar151]

17. Any ol' front drive

will do awesome donuts in reverse.

[EOTE]

18. FWD sucks, though.

I owned my last FWD vehicle in 2003 and I'm NEVER going back. Unless engineers manage to completely eliminate torque steer and understeer. I had heard that so many of FWD's demons had been resolved in recent times, especially with the smaller and sportier cars. I drove a friend's Integra and it was kind of fun. I decided to try my luck with a GTI. It was a fun little car for a while, but the dynamics get boring rather quickly. Even though my GTI had a ton of power (230hp at the wheels), it lost its charm within a few months. I then drove an AWD R32, and while it didn't have nearly the power to weight ratio of my GTI, it was a lot more fun to drive. I currently drive a very modestly modified Subaru Outback. It's not nearly as quick as my GTI, but I'm not bored with it after just a few months. RWD and AWD are the way to go.

[Mopar151]

26. That statement was only germaine to donuts

Most of us don't infinite options when it comes to wheels. In my current price range for a daily driver, which end drives is not the most important criteria.
As it happens, I've driven a 250+ hp. FWD race car, that had NO torque steer on equal traction, and cornering limits high enough that any significant understeer had to be deliberatly provoked. My old race car actually had problems with power understeeras, as it had 57% rear weight bias static and would transfer even more under accelleration. And I know ITB guys who run huge rear swaybars to make their Rabbits oversteer ("rotate") at the apex of the turn.

[EOTE]

30. I'm sure FWD race cars are a lot more fun than a typical GTI.

And yeah, I know with significant investments, torque steer and under steer can be controlled. However, I've yet to find a production car that managed to tame them. In the past, I'd be happy with them a few months and then as soon as I started to push them, I'd become annoyed. Perhaps in the future, one will be able to get a FWD car not plagued by FWD demons right from the factory.

[Mopar151]

35. Actually, not all that different.

The signifiant investment in the car I drove was in chassis stiffening and optimization of suspension geometry - not cash. The front "horns" on the Rabbit/Golf/gti are notoriously weak and flexible - the bracing required to make one act right goes well beyond the "stress bar" bolt-on - which our series considers a safety item, not a performance enhancement.
Quick pic -

My curent car - note engine setback, offset.

[flvegan]

36. My Mazdaspeed 3 is FWD and dyno'd at 260hp.

But then, they built that one right to specifically counter the torque steer and understeer.

[Mopar151]

39. Mazda's good like that

I had a GLC wagon backalong - there was ample evidence all over it that Mazda really sweats the small stuff - I particularly remember the engine castings as being the product of exemplary foundry and pattern work.

[Fire Walk With Me]

20. ...

:thumbsup:

[Fire Walk With Me]

22. They should demand proof of being able to drive something like that

before selling it to someone. Anyone. Just because you can afford it doesn't mean that you won't wrap it around a tree!

[EOTE]

23. Where would one draw the line?

The Corvette ZR1 has 800lbs fewer to haul around and an additional 80hp. There are a number of cars with crazy power to weight ratios nowadays. Hell, even a number of Lotus vehicles have similar power to weight ratios even though their lilliputian engines put out a fraction of the horsepower. The great bulk of the people buying these vehicles will never drive them to a fraction of their potential.

[guitar man]

49. There's already such a requirement

It's called a drivers license.

[Blue_Tires]

24. 550hp??

What GM should have done was settle for 500 normally aspirated horsepower and concentrate on weight reduction

[EOTE]

25. They already did that with the Z06.

505 hp to be exact. And I'd love to see that LS7 in a Camaro too. But seeing as the new Camaro is fairly heavy, even in V6 trim, I'm guessing they nixed that for the same reason they didn't put the LS7 in the new CTS-V. GM execs said it didn't have the low and mid-range grunt to eke supercar performance out of such a heavy vehicle. It's a heavy platform, but it carries its weight well.

[Throd]

27. I wanna stick one in my '73 Cutlass Supreme

And leave the paint all fucked up like it is.

[Mopar151]

37. Not a bad plan.....

But expensive. Aftermarket (including GM performance parts) stuff gets better and cheaper for "old school" cars - though, at power levels like that, you need to beef up the whole car to handle it.
Our friend Dain Bramaged has insider knowledge of a good "recipie" for your body style - the LS 6 Chevelle of that era.

[Throd]

41. I'm sticking a pretty outrageous Chevy 350 in it as it is

Normally I would want to keep it all Olds and stick a 455 in there, but I got a screamin' deal on a totally built 350 and couldn't pass it up.

I don't think the stock rearend can handle the upgrade and there are a few other bugs to work out, but it should be fun. Those once ubiquitous Cutlass Colonnades aren't so common anymore.

[Mopar151]

50. Get a couple catalogs

Speedway Motors - Grassroots stock car racing uses thousands of these chassis, making it a very fertile ground for cheap upgrades

A&A Manufactiring - supplier to Speedway and many aftermarket OEM's, ithis is like welder's tinkertoys - one of your interests should be in the bracket kit to hang a 9" Ford on your 4-link, and in the brackets to adapt GM disc brakes to same.

If, in the course of converting and upgrading, you end up with a 5 x 5" bolt pattern , you;ve opened yourself to some super-good, and amazingly cheap, wheel upgrades. The NASCAR spec wheel for it's top divisions is a 15 x 9.5, 4 1/2" backspacing masterpiece, with a cnc spun rim - and the teams sell piles of 1-year used ones for $30 apeice ot less - check muscle motorsports on the web or E-bay

[Throd]

58. Thank you sir. I shall look into that further.

[Bombero1956]

28. 2012 Shelby Mustang GT350

Whether it's Eleanor you think of when you hear GT350 or the racing greatness of the original Shelby Mustangs, the new 2011 Shelby GT350 should quicken your pulse. If it doesn't, there's a 624-horsepower "R" tune add-on that will do the trick.

Yes, it's a Mustang, but don't let that fool you. The standard 525-horsepower supercharged 2011 GT350 scampers to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds and runs the quarter-mile in 12 seconds dead at 121.4 mph. It can corner at 1.05 g, and shuts it down from 60 in 107 feet.

http://www.motorauthority.com/blog/1050211_2011-shelby-mustang-gt350-final-specs-new-624-hp-package

624 HP try again GM.

[DainBramaged]

29. Hennessy make s 703 horsepower blower Camaro, because we had one in our shop

brand new, owner needed warranty work on the radio.

Try again Shelby.......


And the bestest part is when the new Camaro comes out, I get to drive them. Just like I do the 'vettes that get stuck in people's garages........because I do all of the prgraming on the vehicles........



http://www.chevrolet.com/corvette-zr1/

[Bombero1956]

42. oh sure if you have $109,000 sitting around

The GT 350 comes in at $63,000. How about the Shadrach Mustang 900 HP. Hennessey also does the Venom 750R Mustang which has 750 hp.

[EOTE]

31. Yeah, and it needs an entirely new suspension to put that power down.

Which I'm sure is going to drive the price WAY upward of the ZL1's price. It's 2011 and Ford is STILL using a fixed rear axle in its pony car? This is basically nothing more than a tuner car. With a few grand, you can swap the supercharger in the LS9 for a twin turbo setup and get well over 800hp. And given the Camaro's IRS setup, it will actually be able to put that power down.

[DainBramaged]

32. This is the diff in the ZR1 and Camaro SS

[EOTE]

33. A thing of beauty.

Half shafts are really required if you want a decent ride and to be able to keep the power down in the corners. The Camaro may be a tad heavy, but having a modern suspension is worth it.

[DainBramaged]

34. We did a gear change on one of these recently

guy wanted a shorter rear (went to a 3.42 from a 2.79). Takes about 30 minutes to reprogram the computer to adjust for the new ratio. It lit up the tires on the 3rd to 4th gear change........:evilgrin: and cost him almost $1500......

[Initech]

44. If I won the lottery, I'd buy a Mustang 402.

[NuclearDem]

38. See you on the track...

My buddy's Challenger is always looking for some new competition.

[Paladin]

40. Just In Time For Things To Unravel In The Middle East.

Great, just what we need---the automotive equivalent of extended-capacity magazines for semi-automatic pistols. Just watch what happens to oil prices in the next few days, now that the socio-political unrest is spreading from Egypt to mega-producing states like Libya. What's the mpg rating on Chevy's new masterpiece? Just the sort of brain-dead action that put the domestic auto industry into the toilet. So glad our tax dollars bailed GM out, just so they could do things like this.....

[Bombero1956]

43. nobody bailed out Ford

Thank you very much. My Mustang GT gets 17 mpg city 22 hwy.

[Initech]

45. I'd love to get a Fusion Hybrid.

45 MPG plus Ford's SYNC system is one of the coolest things I've ever seen in a car.

[Swede]

46. They borrowed billions from the banks,which got billions from the government.

Semantics.

[Bombero1956]

47. wrong

Ford sold off Range Rover, Jaguar, Volvo, Aston Martin and controlling interest in Mazda.

[Swede]

48. Ford borrows $23 billion before credit freeze.

Ford has more debt than General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC because it borrowed $23 billion in late 2006 before credit markets froze. That gave the automaker a cash cushion to withstand the recession and avoid bankruptcy.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-10-26/ford-pares-debt-posts-record-1-69-billion-third-quarter-net.html

[Bombero1956]

51. so they did borrow money

but they borrowed in 2006 well before the disaster in the banking industry and before the government started bailing out the banks. You seem intent on portraying Ford as no different than GM and Chrysler. The fact of the matter is that Ford put a plan in place to get them through the tough times unlike the other 2 who went to the government and borrowed from the banks.

[DainBramaged]

52. WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

This thread is about a car, a Chevy, not a FURD, a Chevy, and you can bitch and moan about how much better FURDs are, but when it comes down to championships, races won, and parts available, as well as the longest made production car engine in history, Chevy kicks FURD so hard they became a Chrysler.


Jesus if you're so proud of your FURDs start a thread of your own.




BBBBBAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! it said reply to OP you couldn't even get your replies straight.

[Bombero1956]

53. know what?

I wasn't talking to you. I was responding to Swede. The same can be said about you and your love of all things Chevy. You're on ignore.

[Orsino]

55. The penis jokes are too easy to make, and I don't really want to hate on automotive enthusiasts.

I'm just not able to see this thing as much more than rather tone-deaf conspicuous consumption.

[DainBramaged]

59. You are entitled

if you don't hear the song in an exhaust note, we understand.....

[Orsino]

63. Yes!

I think there must be whole symphonies there, even if in this way I'm tone-deaf.

[Patiod]

56. My mom drove a Camaro until the day she died

I drove it to look for a car for myself after college.

After test driving something I could afford, I told the salesman that his car was broken: "When I put my foot on the gas, it won't go"

He laughed, and said he saw me drive in, and that the Camaro had 8 cylinders, and the car I tested only had 4.

"Well, you should think about putting in my cylinders" I told him.

To this day, I don't care if I'm driving a rust bucket, but I was it to GO when you hit the gas.

[DainBramaged]

60. Well, you should think about putting in my cylinders

Best line of the year....

[Patiod]

62. Actually: "you should think about putting in MORE cylinders"

I just can't type this morning. But the point remains the same....

[Tuesday Afternoon]

57. good looking vehicle

hell yeah

[DainBramaged]

61. But ya can't hug it like a kitteh.....

:hi: