As you probably already heard, read and saw, the Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 recently set a lap time of 7:37.40 in the rain at the Nürburgring Nordschleife track in Germany, beating the Camaro ZL1 by four seconds, the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 and Mercedes-Benz SLS by two and a half seconds and the Porsche 911 Carrera S by half a second.
However, the Z/28’s time was set on a wet track, which means the car can be even faster in dry conditions. Actually, GM reckons the car could be considerably faster. “Based on telemetry data from our test sessions, we know the Z/28 can be as much as six seconds faster on a dry track,” said Al Oppenheiser, Camaro chief engineer.
That would bring it into Porsche 911 Turbo S or Porsche 911 GT3 RS (7:33) territory (7:32), making it quite a remarkable achievement. But until Chevrolet takes the Z/28 for another lap of the Nürburgring, there’s some new information about the car.
The 7.0-liter LS7 V8 engine develops 505 horsepower and 481 lb-ft (652 Nm) of torque and is only offered with a close-ratio six-speed manual transmission. The gearbox distributes power to the rear wheels via a limited-slip differential featuring a helical gear set, rather than traditional clutch packs.
Mark Stielow, performance engineering manager for the Z/28, said the engineering approach favored weight-saving over horsepower – the optional air conditioning system says a lot about the car.
“We didn’t put a ton of horsepower in this car. We chose a light, efficient package and we need to make up all our time in the hardware spots. We need to brake harder, corner harder,” Stielow said, according to The Detroit News. It looks like they made it, as the car can achieve a G-force of 1.08 in corners and its Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes are capable of 1.5 Gs in deceleration.
Production of the 2014 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 will begin in the fourth quarter this year at GM’s Oshawa plant in Ontario, Canada. It will arrive in U.S. dealerships late in the first quarter next year, with GM likely to limit production about 3,000 to 4,000 vehicles a year. Fuel economy, top speed and pricing have yet to be announced.
By Dan Mihalascu
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