Sunday 25th June 2017

Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE 'ring lap: Time For Tea?

Really quick cars go sub-eight; really, really, quick cars go sub-7:30; then there are those under 7:20...

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There have been numerous Nurburgring lap videos recently, with the likes of Honda claiming the FWD record, Alfa Romeo having a go in the Giulia Quadrifoglio, Lamborghini's Huracan Performante getting under the seven-minute mark and NIO setting a staggering (and silent) lap with the EP9.

Up until now it seemed mainly just the European manufacturers making a fuss of the battle for Nurburgring supremacy, but now Chevrolet has had a go in the Camaro ZL1 1LE. And what a go! Driven by Bill Wise, Camaro's ride and handling engineer, he said, "The harder you push the Camaro ZL1 1LE, the more it rewards you on the track." And that is very clear, with an incredible 7:16.04 lap.

According to the press statement, the 1LE had its suspension adjusted for optimal track performance and was running on the production Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3R tyres. The 1LE is now the fastest Camaro to have ever been around the Nurburgring, beating the standard 10-speed automatic ZL1's time by 13.56 seconds.

Watch the video here.
 

[cib24]

Nice time, but damn that car is so ugly. It has a great chassis though.

[Charybdis]

May be the fastest manual car around the ring?

[ducnick]

Fairly sure that record is still held by a Porsche 956. Fastest production road car with a manual, maybe

[CaymANTH]

Woah, what a lap - 173mph - looks much better with a manual - great noise too.

[twizellb]

Thats impressive
Much better watching from the safety of my chair, as a passenger would be terrifying.

[SlimJim16v]

cib24 said:

Nice time, but damn that car is so ugly. It has a great chassis though.

It's a muscle car, they're not meant to be pretty.

Anyway, impressive performance and sounds good.

[thegreenhell]

Charybdis said:

May be the fastest manual car around the ring?

It's still 4 seconds slower than the 2010 Viper ACR.

[anonymous-user]

....and some people say American cars don't handle! I'm glad things like this exist. We need more RHD yanks with big V8s we already have the Mustang. Thank God there's something to save us from the dull, diesel monotony of German boxes.

[DPSFleet]

The Americans are now getting their act together, shame about the build quality but in the USA these are cheap.

[Veeayt]

Why does it sound like a four banger?

[SlimJim16v]

$70,000 over there, about £55,000. Although will cost us a lot more than that, even if officially available.

[anonymous-user]

Veeayt said:

Why does it sound like a four banger?

So we can help you with your deafness issue, which particular "four banger" do you think it sounds most like?

[Boosted LS1]

Veeayt said:

Why does it sound like a four banger?

Maybe you're hearing it from the side of the track. it'll have been different if you were right behind it travelling at the same speed, lol. :-)

[SuperHans.]

With the same engine, what time does the Corvette Z06 with all the bells and whistles do?

[ma7mgte]

DPSFleet said:

The Americans are now getting their act together, shame about the build quality but in the USA these are cheap.

Have you seen the latest J.D. Power Initial Quality (An American car industry report) study? Chevrolet is doing just fine. Many European and Asian brands not so good.

Edited by ma7mgte on Thursday 22 June 23:39

Edited by ma7mgte on Thursday 22 June 23:39

[Digga]

cib24 said:

Nice time, but damn that car is so ugly.

I like the brutalist looks of the Camaro.

cib24 said:

It has a great chassis though.

Chassis I reserve judgement on. From the video - not always accurate and could be the driver/style - it looks to have quite a bit of understeer. Not sure those poor front tyres would want to do another lap at that pace.

That being the case, kudos not only for holding 160 + mph into Tiergarten, but for actually eking out a bit more speed into the dip. Balls of steel.

[thegreenhell]

It's a good lap time for something that has the same weight and aerodynamics as a small building.

[AlexKing]

Not wanting to start a fight, but doesn't the lap timer start further along the straight than it finishes?

[RB Will]

AlexKing said:

Not wanting to start a fight, but doesn't the lap timer start further along the straight than it finishes?

That is standard practice. Its how a full lap is timed.

[thegreenhell]

This seems to come up every time there's a new Nurburgring video. Manufacturers don't time along the T13 straight. The timing start point is the end of the pitlane armco on the right, and the end point is the painted line across the track just after the last right hander. This is because the manufacturers use the T13 pitlane and there is a speed limit in effect on that straight during industry pool testing.

Also, before the new tourist start area was built about 15 years ago, Touristfahrt also used that pitlane, with a physical barrier across the track halfway along that straight to prevent you doing full flying laps, so these timing points are the longest extents of track that can be timed on this track configuration.

Obviously, you can time proper full laps if you have exclusive hire of the track, but nobody bothers to do that because your laptime will appear to be about 5 seconds longer than it needs to be compared to everyone else using this slightly shorter lap.