2014 Camaro Z/28: The Bad is Back

Photo credit: Autoblog.com

Like many of my fellow enthusiasts, my automotive preferences lie with low-weight, high-power performance cars. This sector is primarily filled with stripped-out Porsches, Ferraris, BMWs and Audis, which are more often-than-not unobtainable to the common working man. This disturbing trend of “less weight means more money” was not always the case, though. In the late 1960’s, America found itself embroiled within an internal motorsport battle-royale. The SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) developed a racing series called the “Trans-Am Series” that featured production-based race cars, which participated in either the Under 2.0 Liter or the Over 2.0 Liter class. European manufacturers, such as Alfa Romeo and Porsche, competed alongside the best America had to offer, with race-offerings from nearly every corporate division.

Grid from the Golden Era of Trans-Am racing

Ford developed the Mustang Boss 302, while sister company Mercury offered the Cougar XR7. Chevrolet masterminded the almighty Z/28, and the S-Code designation for the Plymouth Barracuda was made specifically for the Trans-Am series. These cars were piloted by some of the biggest racing names ever to grace the tarmac, drivers such as Parnelli Jones, Dan Gurney, and Swede Savage. However, my absolute favorite of the legendary Trans-Am drivers has to be Mark Donohue and his Penske/Sunoco Camaro Z/28.  

No other classic racecar has left quite the same impression on me than the royal-blue-on-yellow Sunoco Camaro. With Donohue at the helm, the Sunoco Camaro snagged the first place in the ’68 and ’69 Trans-Am series, thus cementing the Z/28 into racing history. The Trans-Am battle was not just relegated to the track, however. Trans-Am fever spilled over onto the streets of America as homologation specials roared from stoplight to stoplight. While the Boss Mustang badge was discontinued in the mid ‘70s, the Z/28 proved to have staying power. The Z/28 badge was carried on from ’68 through ’74, reintroduced in ’77, and continued all the way up until the final Camaro year in 2002. With the demise of the Camaro, it meant the demise of the Z/28, and the end to a road-racing legacy. Sure, some of the Z/28 models in the ‘70s and ‘80s were less-than-inspiring, but the badge was always so damn mean. The death of both the Camaro and the Z/28 legacy was a huge blow for the masses of Camaro fans worldwide.

However, I’m happy to report the Z/28 has returned to the world of the living. The badge is back. The ‘mean’ is back.

The bad is back.

Photo credit: Autoblog.com 

At the 2013 NYC Auto show, Chevrolet revealed one of the most hardcore vehicles it has ever produced. The 2014 Camaro Z/28 sports a 300 lb. weight reduction, thanks in part to thinner glass, a diet-heavy alacantara-swathed interior, and new lightweight wheels. Cog-swappers, rejoice; The Z/28 is a manual-only muscle car. The Camaro receives a heavily reworked chassis, carbon-ceramic brakes, and a sexy front-splitter/undertray system. Lets go back to the previous statement; Carbon-ceramic brakes….on a Camaro! What a world we live in…..

It also is fitted with a new engine, and oh my goodness, what an engine it is.

I have not been looking forward to the eventual and inevitable death of the C6 Z06 Corvette. The discontinuation of the Z06 would mean the discontinuation of the LS7, which in my eyes, is one of the greatest American V8s produced in the last decade. GM must have noticed my tearful depression, and amazingly, the 7.0L smallblock has been given a lifeline with the Z/28. Oh yes, America has a 427 Camaro once again. Do I smell a factory Yenko package on the horizon? I sure hope so. And for those not convinced, here is what you have to look forward to:

Lets recap. A lightened, manual-only 500 HP 427 Camaro with active-aero, Recaro seats, and carbon-ceramic brakes. Oh my. If that does not get your heart racing, please visit your doctor, because that’s the greatest list of options ever to grace an American muscle car, ever. If its not already apparent, I’m just a bit excited.

 These statistics are all well and good, but how does the Z/28 stack up to against its competition?

Well, the inadequate resurrection of the Camaro ZL1 nameplate has the Shelby GT500 covered, and the parts-bin special 1LE Camaro faces the Mustang GT Track Pack. The obvious choice would be to compare the Z/28 to the new Boss 302, but Ford dashed the hopes of fans everywhere with the news of no Boss for the 2014 model year. That being said, lets do a little math and logic to see if the Z/28 can come out on top.

In a comparison between the 2012 Camaro ZL1 and the quite ridiculous 2013 Shelby GT500, the GT500 is bested around a track setting by roughly one half-second. Then, according to Chevrolet themselves, the ZL1 is whipped by the Z/28 on an unnamed track by over a mind-boggling three seconds per-lap. Enter Boss, stage left; the ZL1 trounces a Boss 302 Laguna Seca by about two seconds in this professional MotorTrend comparison. Don’t even bother with the Dodge Challenger SRT8 392, as I highly doubt the too-heavy cruiser could even best a Mustang GT around a track. Also withheld are the Cadillac CTS-V and Corvette due to a higher price point and the fact that the Corvette is not a muscle car.  So, without any real world tests, drag strip rumbles, or diagnostics, we can unofficially say that the Z/28 is the fastest muscle car around a track setting. You can keep your 660 HP quarter-mile missiles, Shelby. I want this Camaro GT3 RS.

Photo credit: Autoblog.com

The return of the Z/28, Boss, Stingray, and ZL1 within a two year span indicates much for the future of American muscle. Maybe we will see a return of the Chevelle, 442, CobraJet, and Mach 1. Maybe a Boss 429?

How about we bring back Pontiac, first. 

6.0 GTO: Aussie muscle comes to America

My 2005 Torrid Red GTO (Manual)

As we pulled into the half-empty Lowes parking lot this morning, I immediately swung my car around to park next to a large, unassuming coupe. Underneath the rather bullet-like body was none other than a hot-blooded 2005 Pontiac GTO. The re-introduction of the GTO in 2004 was a classic GM exercise in pulling their oversees models to our shore, with GM doing what they do best: Rebadging. In this case, however, they happened to rebadge one hell of a car. Upon reading an extremely favorable review of the Holden Monaro by Car and Driver, the legendary Bob Lutz requested a test drive when he visited Holden in Australia. Finding the Monaro to be well-built, fast, and stylish, he commissioned the performance division of GM to “Americanize” the Monaro for US roads. This involved shifting the steering wheel from right-hand-drive to a left-hand-drive set up, performing an automotive rhinoplasty by transplanting a corporate Pontiac front-clip, and slapping on some Pontiac badges. Initially featuring the tried-and-true 5.7L LS1 in 2004, Pontiac felt as though the GTO needed some power to back up the legendary badge, so in 2005, they quietly slipped a 400 Horsepower 6.0L LS2 V8 under the hood, effectively giving the GTO the hot-blooded attitude it deserved. 

Until the introduction of the Shelby GT500 in 2007, the LS2 GTO was at the top of the muscle car food chain. With this performance shot in the arm, GM created another bittersweet situation where there was a GM car that had the performance to match a Corvette. And in the GM offices, that is quite the no-no. So unfortunately, due to lackluster sales and the new internal competition, the resurrected GTO was quickly killed off, effectively joining the ranks of the other infamous performers who matched the Corvette, including the GNX, WS6 Trans-Am, and the GMC Syclone. Pricing was a little steep at prices starting north of $30k, and many potential buyers defected to the retro-styled Mustang. When production ceased in 2006, only 40,757 GTOs had rolled out of the Holden factory.

The existence of the GTO sets a slightly melancholic pallor over the pre-2010 GM Performance division, as the captive import GTO led to the importation of the Holden VE Commodore, rebadged as a G8. Just like the GTO, the G8 was well-received by the critics, but was a slow-selling, high-priced gas guzzler, and was cut by GM after only two years of production. Pontiac may have gone the way of Oldsmobile and disappeared, but the GTO and the G8 remain fantastic send-offs to the storied performance brand of GM.

(Unfortunately, the GTO pulled away before I could snap a photo. Above is a shot by another photographer)