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The wait is almost over and soon the most powerful Camaro in history will make its debut on streets and tracks all across the US. While GM puts on the finishing touches on the ZL1 and runs the final tests (like getting it crash tested), they recently turned loose a few automotive journalists with their new toy at Bondurant’s Road Course out in Arizona. Representatives from several publications got the rare chance to test out the ZL1 before the rest of us, and give us their opinion on the supercharged track monster.
Though they were impressed with the acceleration of the ZL1 on the drag strip, the writers from Autoblog and Jalopnik were more impressed with how powerful and poised the ZL1 was around Bondurant’s track.
Autoblog’s Jeremy Korzeniewski writes “To say we were impressed by the overweight Camaro’s ability at Bondurant would be an understatement. With an official curb weight of 4,120 pounds, this car should be more of a linebacker than a ballerina. And it is. But it’s a linebacker wearing a fluffy pink tutu and those crazy lace-up shoes with blunt-tipped toe boxes… and we mean that in the best way possible.” The only negative things about the Zl1 that the Autoblog team pointed out are the typical poor 5th Gen visibility, and the lackluster EPA estimated gas mileage that will earn the ZL1 the dubious title of “Gas Guzzler”, forcing you to pony up an extra $1,300 to cover the tax penalty imposed by the government.
Jalopnik’s Joel Johnson also compared the new ZL1 to a bull rather than a ballerina saying, “You’d have to really hate cars not to enjoy throwing a ZL1 around a track. I could point out how it’s not exactly nimble compared to lighter sports cars (including the Corvette), but that would be like belaboring the ways that bull-riding isn’t like ballet.”
Johnson goes on to add, “That is the ZL1 in a nutshell: an incredible, frightening behemoth of a car, entirely too powerful for its own good, but reined in by clever engineer-wranglers who have worked very hard to allow even terrible drivers to keep themselves safe.”
So far, so good. It’s looking like the ZL1 is fully capable of living up to the hype after all. Check out Autoblog and Jalopnik‘s full ZL1 reviews for more details on how the car performed during their time at Bondurant. Stay tuned to LSXMag for more ZL1 reviews in the coming weeks before it finally hits the streets.
