As you may know by now, somebody listed on eBay what seems to be a pre-production 2016 Chevrolet Camaro headlight cluster. Due to the Transformers font-inspired Camaro lettering and that sticker that reads A1BC, chances are it may be the real thing and not simply a hoax made to hype things up gratuitously. Apart from this surprise leak, we have some other details worth sharing with you guys.
A Camaro6 forum member, the owner of a 2014MY Z/28 track gladiator, reported some interesting bits of intel regarding the development of the sixth-gen. Zfatuated’s thread starts like this: “By sheer stroke of luck it so happened I spent time over the past three days literally feet away from where the new Camaro was being R&D'd and test driven by a team of GM engineers and techs.”
A current-gen Z/28 “x”-VIN prototype was used during this testing session, with the forum member reporting that “a comment was made [by an engineer] that the 6th gen was anticipated to destroy a 350R Mustang.” Yeah, that sounds hardly believable, so please take it with a considerable grain of salt. Moving on to the relevant intel, we’re told that the research & development team is made up of “veterans of previous Camaro developments,” people that are “car guys through and through, no doubt.” Now that’s reassuring.
“The new car even with the camo has lovely lines. It is going to be stunningly good looking. Just like current gen, there is not a bad angle on the car.” Neat! A comment that made us wink wink with excitement is “I’d guess it is roughly 10-15% smaller in overall size than current gen.” It’s hard to tell if he was referring to the actual voluminosity or how the styling tricks your sight into believing that the vehicle is smaller.
Considering that GM officials previously declared that the 2016 Camaro won’t be heavier than the 2015 model year, we sort of correlate with Zfatuated’s “One could extrapolate from that it'll be lighter (10-15%?) than current gen,” a statement that may morph the SS model’s 3,695 lbs (1,676 kg) weight estimate into reality. With the engineers “at it very early and working very late every day,” our man saw a prototype that was a “NA V8 (based on the sound,” but was it the ‘Vette’s LT1 small-block V8 with 450 to 460 ponies?
The outgoing LS3 V8 is a little gray-haired, you can’t deny it. As for the last detail that our man noticed, we’re told that “at least one version will have MR shocks.” GM is no stranger to the so-called magnetorheological suspension. Made famous by Audi with the TT and R8, this kind of contraption was first used by General Motors on the 2002 Cadillac Seville STS. Taking into consideration that GM Alpha platform brother 2016 Cadillac ATS-V features a third-gen Magnetic Ride Control that delivers 40% faster damping, expect to hear great things from the 2016 Chevrolet Camaro as early as the New York Auto Show in April.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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