Review Finds The 2017 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 To Be A Damn Fine Beast

When the Camaro Team went back to the drawing board, figuring out what the 2017 model year ZL1 should be all about, and Al Oppenheiser made it clear that the newcomer needs to be a helluva lot more hardcore than the model it replaces. But at the same time, it has to be more manageable to control both on the limit and in day-to-day scenarios like going to Walmart.

A lot of engineering, testing, and fine-tuning later, the real deal made it into production, and Motor Trend came to the same conclusion. It’s an entirely different package, a more complete machine than the foregoing model. “Since it has pretty much the same LT4 supercharged V8 as the Corvette Z06, did the car experience any overheating or heat soaking?” In short, no. MT’s Jonny Lieberman said that such things never happened during a week’s worth of testing, and that’s a breath of fresh air considering that the Z06 went into limp mode when Motor Trend put it through its paces in 2015.

The Camaro ZL1 also put the BMW M4 GTS to shame around the figure eight, and believe it or not, it also bested the Shelby GT350R and Acura NSX. That’s an awesome stat for a controlled environment, but what is even more surprising than the figure eight is that the ZL1 is also fun to thrash around on a backroad. Especially one with demanding corners.

What’s most intriguing about Motor Trend’s review on the ZL1 is the hot lap. Randy squeezed 1:26.15 out of the six-speed manual-equipped ZL1 and 1:26.47 out of the 10-speed automatic. And that speaks volumes on what Oppenheiser and Team Camaro achieved with the big bad Camaro from a driver’s point of view. Such bewildering performance comes at a price, though. More to the point, $61k for the most no-thrills variant of them all.