It’s not often that car companies, especially domestic ones, come out with something that blows everyone away. Dodge did it with the Hellcat Challenger, Ford did it with the SVT Raptor, and this year, Chevrolet dropped the hammer with the debut of the 2014 Camaro Z/28.

Edward Loh, editor-in-chief at MotorTrend, clutches the Best Driver’s Car issue as a Z/28 awaits “fun time.”

We became intimately familiar with the car not too long ago, as we piloted the machine around a wet test track during an unexpected summertime rain. We felt it then, and we feel it now – the Z/28 has proven itself as Chevrolet’s awesome track performer.

And just last week, the Bowtie higher-ups are probably quite happy to hear similar praise from the likes of MotorTrend, who have anointed the car as the “Best Driver’s Car” of the year. Edward Loh, editor-in-chief of the magazine, explains all that made the Z/28 this year’s pick for the prestigious award.

“It truly is [about] taking the cream of the crop of the motor kingdom, only the sports cars, only the fastest, only the most powerful, and trying to get them down to their essence: what makes them the best driver’s car,” says Loh. “The Camaro Z/28 won on the merits of getting the fundamentals correct.”

Loh goes on to credit the car’s exceptional drivetrain, including its Tremec TR6060 transmission, monstrous LS7 V8, as well as the gigantic PZero Trofeo R tires as key parts of what made it all a winner. “I think it says volumes about where American car manufacturing is, and where Chevy is in particular,” says Loh as a closing thought.

The Z/28 has indeed pushed the envelope for Chevrolet, and definitely represents some of the best engineering and practicality to come out of General Motors in recent years. Stay posted here on LSXTV as we see where and when the 2015 Z/28 will drop.