2.0-Liter Camaro Fights Base 2.0-Liter Porsche 718 Cayman for American Glory

The thought of anything less than a V8 sitting under the hood of a Camaro is blasphemy for a lot of muscle car lovers, but the downsizing trend has had its say and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Besides, it opens the model to a new section of the market who can afford to spend $27,000 on a weekend sports car, but not much more.

The Porsche 718 Cayman is a completely different proposition. Even with the tiny 2.0-liter engine, it still bears the weight of the Porsche name, which means it'll be considerably more expensive. Randy Pobst says the German coupe is double the price of the Camaro, and he's just about right as the Chevy starts at under $27,000 and the Cayman at about $57,000.

However, Randy didn't go through all the trouble of taking the two cars out on a runway to compare prices. He's there to see which is quicker, which is more agile, which is the better machine. Knowing the nature of these vehicles - the American, large and heavy, usually powered by a big engine, but not in this case; the German, small and nimble, will easily outmaneuver its opponent - it's pretty easy to predict an outcome: the Chevrolet will win the drag race, and the Cayman will win everything else (acceleration/brake test and the slalom).

A look at the specs, however, and it's bad news for the Camaro. The 2.0-liter turbo unit only develops 275 hp, which is 25 hp less than the four-cylinder boxer in the Cayman. Torque figures show a similar difference, only this time it's in Camaro's favor: 295 lb-ft (400 Nm) to Porsche's 280 lb-ft (380 Nm). With both cars sporting rear-wheel-drive transmissions, it's all down to the weight, and with an excess of roughly 200 pounds, it's not looking good for the Camaro.

However, in the good old spirit of barroom poker games, the American is hiding an ace up its sleeve. The Camaro may only have the puniest of engines, but it also has the 1LE track package which gives it a stiffer suspension and a much better fighting chance in the slalom challenge. Will that prove to be enough to bear the invading German? Hit that play button and find out.