The Chevrolet Camaro has always had a tough time fitting in alongside the likes of other American muscle car brands like Ford with their Mustang, and Dodge with their Challenger. Needless to say, this battle of the brutes has been on for ages, and as a result of the competition, we have seen some bewildering beasts leave all of their factories.
Dodge's current top-tier muscle car has to be the Challenger SRT Demon, and Ford's Mustang Shelby GT500. In response to those two big monsters, Chevy created the wildest Camaro to ever roam public roads, and it's called the ZL1 – here's why you need to drive one.
10 6.2-Liter Supercharged V8
In timely muscle car fashion, the Camaro ZL1 comes fitted with a ghastly supercharged V8 that has a displacement of 6.2 liters, but what's even crazier than adding such a gargantuan powertrain in a little muscle car, is the power figures that it produces.
Its supercharged V8 produces a whopping 650 hp and 650 lb-ft of torque, and while this might be marginally lower than the Mustang and the Challenger's power outputs, the Camaro is a lighter car since it only weighs in at 3,886 lbs – thus, 0-60 is possible in as little as 3.4 seconds.
9 The 1LE Extreme Track Performance Package Is The One You Want
There's a $7,500 optional package called the 1LE Track Performance Package. It doesn't bring any improvements under the hood of the Camaro, but it does change the entire appearance of the car, and actually makes one hell of a difference on the track.
The 1LE package adds wider, stickier Goodyear tires into the equation, magnetic dampers, intense Brembo brakes, and a swarm of black aerodynamic kit. This then allows the ZL1 to halt from 70 mph to a stop in just 137 ft – that's just one foot longer than it takes a McLaren Senna to do the same.
8 Manual Transmission
Carmakers have started to realize that they have to start giving buyers what they want, take for example the new Toyota Supra, after what seems like an eternity, they finally are offering it with a standard transmission.
Luckily, this was already the case for the Camaro ZL1 since the day of its launch, and even to this day, you can buy yourself a 650-hp rear-wheel-drive supercharged Camaro with a 6-speed stickshift – do with that information what you will.
7 Hennessey Upped The Ante
Hennessey is famous for two main reasons in the car world. Firstly because of their own in-house supercars like the new Venom F5, and secondly because they modify American cars to reach their ultimate potential – the Camaro is one of those American cars.
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Thus far, they've built three highly modified Camaros, namely the 1,000-hp Exorcist that's meant to dethrone the Dodge Demon, the 850-hp HPE850, and also the Hennessey Resurrection that produces a whopping 1,200 hp. If you can get your hands on one of these, we'd highly recommend getting into one of those and holding on for dear life.
6 The 1LE Package Is Illegal In Some Places
It's not often that you find a new car to be legal in some states in the US, and illegal in others, but the ZL1 is one of those rare instances – and no, it's not for any blaring obvious reason like its exhaust noise.
The ZL1 is illegal in California and Washington, alongside other regions around the world because it has an excessive amount of copper found in its brakes. There was a legal limit put on the amount of copper content brakes can produce because it impacts the wildlife, especially oceanic, and the ZL1 just didn't make the cut.
5 Better Value Than A Mustang Shelby GT500
Hold your horses keyboard warriors, we can explain. The Shelby GT500 starts life off at $80,815 and the Carbon Fiber Track Pack costs an additional $18,500, that means if you're not savvy with your optional extras, you can be looking at a six-figure Mustang.
On the other hand, the Camaro ZL1 costs $66,045 and once the 1LE Package is added, it has a sticker price of around $73,500. Both cars have similar performance figures and are equally dangerous to drive, the Camaro is just significantly more affordable.
4 Menacing Appearance
The most evil-looking car money can buy isn't a matte black Lamborghini Aventador, nor is it a Dodge Demon – it's this, a black Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 with the 1LE Package. From every angle, it just evokes fear in whoever is witnessing its existence.
Even without the 1LE Package, this Chevy looks like it would chop your head off with one quick snap, and afterward write a handwritten letter to your family explaining how well you tasted.
3 The Most Chaotic Camaro Ever
The base model Camaro is actually somewhat of a whimsical excuse for a muscle car. It's powered by a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine that emits 275 hp and 295 lb-ft of torque, it's by no means slow, but the Camaro definitely evolved quite a bit to transform into the ZL1 we know today.
In its ultimate form, the ZL1, the Camaro then produces more than twice as much power and torque as its original base model, and it looks so much more brutal than any other Camaro that came before it too.
2 The Ultimate Track-Orientated Muscle Car
Track-orientated and muscle car were two terms we never thought would ever see the light of day in the same sentence, but here we are. Of course, you know the 1LE pack adds a ton of downforce to the Camaro's build, and its tires increase grip all-round, so it fits perfectly on the Nurburgring.
In late 2017, Chevy sent a Camaro ZL1 equipped with the 1LE Package around the Green Hell to prove to the world that American muscle can also be as precise around a track as its European counterparts. So, the Camaro set a mind-boggling 7:16.040-time around the ring – that's faster than a Ferrari Enzo.
1 One Of The Last V8-Powered Behemoths Ever
The death of the internal combustion engine is upon us, and we're already seeing a decline in traditional V8-powered cars. Ford said that it will have its next-generation Mustang still fitted with a V8 powertrain, but Chevy is yet to comment on this matter.
Rumor has it though that Chevrolet will replace the gasoline-powered Camaro with an electric four-door sedan, so definitely do take the chance to get behind the wheel of a Camaro ZL1 while you can. But rest assured, its legacy will forever live on.