The most powerful member of the Camaro range, the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 has just passed the SAE tests and is ready to hit the showroom and impress everyone with its 580 hp and peak torque of 754 Nm, more than 150 hp more than its predecessor from the 60’s.
According to GM’s press release, the world’s fastest Camaro will be available in showrooms across the United States starting with Spring 2012. Even though there was no mention about it, Chevrolet could also consider selling the Camaro on other markets, especially Europe, where there’s a competitive supercars market and the Camaro’s performance figures would recommend it as a fierce competitor for other cars: it has more horsepower than the Ferrari 458 Italia, more torque than the Aston Martin DB9 V12 and it’s power to weight ratio is a lot better than the Porsche 911 Carrera GTS.
Under the bonnet, the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 is powered by the same 6.2-liter V8 LSA engine from the Cadillac CTS-V. On Cadillac’s high performance sedan, the engine delivers 556 hp at 6,100 rpm and 745 Nm of maximum torque starting with 3,800 rpm. However, in the United States, the Camaro ZL1’s main competitor will be the upcoming Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, which is rumored to deliver around 620 hp or even more. According to GM, the Chevrolet engineers chose the ZL1 engine over the LS9 from the Corvette in order to avoid the two models cannibalizing each other’s sales. But even so, the Corvette’s engine only delivers 420 hp, which is a lot less than what the ZL1 engine is capable of, while the Corvette Z06’s naturally aspirated 7.0-liter V8 delivers 505 hp at 6,300 rpm. On the other hand, the Corvette ZR1 is powered by the LS9 engine that delivers 647 hp at 6,500 and maximum torque of 819 Nm at 3,800 rpm, and this is model GM doesn’t the Camaro ZL1 to compete.
As for the performance figures, GM hasn’t released any details, but just to get an idea of what the upcoming Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 will be capable of, let me tell you the numbers for the Corvette: the ZR1 accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.4 seconds and reaches a top speed of 330 km/h (205 mph), while the Z06 does the 0 to 62 mph sprint in 3.9 seconds and has a top speed of 319 km/h (198 mph). For the moment, the most powerful version of the Camaro is the SS, equipped with a 6.2-liter LS3 engine that delivers 422 hp.