2018 Camaro Zl1 1le The Ultimate Track Ready REVIEW
Channel: Premium Cars
Date: 2018-01-13

The 2018 Camaro ZL1 1LE was built for track days. Specifically, for one recent track day at the Nurburgring where Camaro ride and handling engineer Bill Wise took it around those 73 corners in seven minutes 16 seconds. As they say in the Rhineland Palatinate, “Hooo doggies!”

There have been production street cars aimed at Nurburgring lap records before. Nissan offered the NISMO N Attack Package GT-R a couple years ago that lapped the Nurburgring in 7:08.679. The 493-hp BMW M4 GTS with its meaty rear wing lapped The Green Hell in 7:28. The Corvette Grand Sport and Mustang GT350R are also aimed at on-track performance. And Chevrolet was rightfully proud when its ZL1 Camaro clocked a 7:29.60 at the Nurburgring late last year. But 7:29.60 wasn’t enough. So Chevrolet engineers came back with a new track-attack pack dubbed the ZL1 1LE that blistered the ‘Ring in 7:16.04.

Ach du lieber, man!

The wing's the thing. Aero downforce is 300 pounds at 150 mph

The 2018 Camaro ZL1 1LE is a $7500 option kit for the Camaro that goes beyond the 1LE we drove last year, with everything a ringmeister racer could ask for. The aero package has a front splitter, dive planes and high-mounted rear wing good for 300 pounds of downforce at 150 mph. The chassis is hard-mounted to the front shock towers and rear cradle to gain stiffness and improve the car’s toe and camber curves. The suspension has adjustable ride height and adjustable camber in front and a three-position adjustable stabilizer bar in back. Multimatic’s brilliant new DSSV shocks offer precise control. Larger, lighter 19-inch alloy wheels are wrapped in unique new Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3R tires, 305/30ZR front and 325/30ZR rear. The whole thing is stopped by a Brembo brake package with 390mm front discs with six-piston Monobloc calipers in front and 365mm four-piston fixed calipers rear. Under the carbon fiber hood is Chevy’s mighty and powerful 650-hp 6.2-liter supercharged LT4 V8 mated to a Tremec 6060 six-speed manual.

There were no compromises in making the ZL1 1LE. It’s not just a bitchin’ Camaro, to quote The Dead Milkmen, it is the bitchinest Camaro ever.

“The track-focused 1LE package offers progressive levels of performance across the Camaro lineup, from the V6 1LE to the (V8-powered) SS 1LE,” said Camaro chief engineer Al Oppenheiser. “But with the new ZL1 1LE the progression takes a quantum leap – this is the ultimate track-day Camaro.”

Is it better in black?

The Execution

To show off its new creation, Chevy took a bunch of us to a brand-new race track way the heck up in Canada called Area 27. Area 27 is a two-hour drive from Kelowna, British Columbia, which is a 39-minute flight from Vancouver, which is a three-hour flight from L.A. You really have to want to go there. But once you see and drive the track you will want to marry a local girl (or guy), get Canadian citizenship, a Gilles Villeneuve tattoo and never leave. Undulating hillsides offer four stories of elevation change along Area 27’s 16 turns. Three of the curves are hidden behind blind rises. You rise, you fall, you drop down to apexes. It’s a lot easier to memorize than the Nurburgring and as soon as you feel comfortable on it – which is pretty quickly - you’ll be drifting through all 16 corners like you had a French-sounding surname and a huge mustache.

The ZL1 1LE comes with a manual shifter only. When Chevy launched the 1LE engineers went on at length describing how great the ten-speed automatic was. This leaves us confused as to why that automatic was not made available in this car. Sure, the manual is lighter, but the auto was supposed to be the be-all and end-all of Camaro shifters only a few months ago at the 1LE intro. Who knows?

My first laps were not in the ZL1 1LE, but rather two models down from that -- a 1LE V6-powered Camaro. This reminded me what a great track car that particular Camaro is, despite its nearly two tons of throw weight. It's smooth around the billiard-table flat new asphalt of Area 27. The V6 makes more than enough power to have fun flinging the car through Area 27’s turns and there's no sense that body roll is interfering with handling. Also, interestingly enough, there was never any sense to me that this car needed more aerodynamic grip, either.

Next up I drove the Camaro SS 1LE. Its V8 power and manual trans are a joy to lap the Canadian wilderness. Same thing with the handling on this car. I wondered what more anyone could want in a Camaro.