At Car and Driver, we care about numbers, what with our storied history of testing and publishing performance data, curb weights, and more on hundreds of cars per year. So our empirical selves can appreciate Chevrolet’s latest data dump on the sixth-generation Camaro, which outlines the company’s performance estimates for the 2016 Camaro coupe with every transmission and engine combination. Oh, and the roughly 200-pound weight savings Chevy touted at the Camaro’s initial reveal? As it turns out, that was a conservative estimate. Read on for a full breakdown, but remember—these are only Chevy’s estimates. We will endeavor to verify them with, you guessed it, our very own tests:
-
Acceleration
-The 2016 Camaro will come standard with a turbocharged 2.0-liter four with 275 horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque. According to Chevy, that will be good for a 5.4-second zero-to-60-mph time with the manual transmission and 5.5 with the automatic. With either transmission, the quarter-mile is a 14-second trip, with the manual car reaching the traps at 100 mph and the automatic 1 mph slower.
-With the mid-level V-6 (335 horsepower, 284 lb-ft of torque), the Camaro hits 60 mph in a claimed 5.2 seconds with the manual transmission and 5.1 with the automatic. Again, the quarter-mile race between the stick shift and the auto is close, with the former reaching the traps in 13.7 seconds at 102 mph and the latter in 13.5 seconds at 103 mph. In our testing, a 2010 Camaro V-6 with a six-speed manual reached 60 mph in 5.9 seconds and motored through the quarter-mile in 14.5 seconds at 99 mph.
-
Finally, the Mustang GT–chasing Camaro SS, with its 450-hp Corvette-sourced V-8 engine, blasts to 60 mph in as little as 4 seconds flat with the same eight-speed automatic used in the Corvette. (Albeit turned around, and working with a different calibration and final-drive ratio; otherwise, the 8L90’s internals are identical to those in the Corvette Stingray.) The stick-shift model is just 0.3 second slower, but the gap closes by the quarter-mile, with the auto nailing a 12.3-second time at 116 mph and the manual version needing an additional 0.2 second and traveling 115 mph. For context, the quickest fifth-generation Camaro SS (with 426 horsepower) we tested reached 60 mph in 4.6 seconds and demolished the quarter-mile in 13 seconds at 111 mph. A 2015 SS 1LE did slightly better, but it came with far stickier tires (and a different suspension tune) than did regular SS models.
-
The Great Curb Weight Under-Promise
-Although both the V-6 and V-8 2016 Camaros have more power than their fifth-generation equivalent, credit for the improved acceleration times must also be shared with the cars’ weight reduction. Chevrolet ditched the old Camaro’s bulky, heavy, sedan-based Zeta architecture for the stiff, light Alpha bones found beneath the Cadillac ATS. In doing so, we’re told, the Camaro shed about 200 pounds; that figure has since been expanded upon, and, well, Chevy has been underselling the weight loss.
-
We’re told that the V-6, automatic-equipped Camaro 1LT is 294 pounds lighter than an identically equipped, 3729-pound 2015 1LT. (The quickest fifth-gen V-6 Camaro we tested weighed 3807 pounds.) A 2016 1SS with the manual transmission sheds 223 pounds compared to a 2015 1SS, which Chevy says weighed 3908 pounds. (In our testing, a fairly well-optioned 2010 SS manual weighed 3860 pounds.) If those weight deltas hold true, the new Camaro will have pulled off one of the more epic diet regimens in modern automotive memory. But what about the 2.0-liter, turbocharged base-model Camaro? Chevrolet claims it, with the roughly 20-pounds-heavier automatic, will weigh 3339 pounds, making it the lightest of the bunch and 390 pounds lighter than a ’15 Camaro V-6 with the automatic transmission.
--
- -
- Chevrolet Camaro, a Celebration: Sixth-Gen Coverage, History, and More
- -
- Lookin’ for a Fight? The Complete History of Our Camaro-vs.-Mustang Comparison Tests
- -
- 2016 Chevrolet Camaro: Everything You Need to Know About the Sixth-Generation Camaro
- -
-
Soon we will be putting as many Camaro variants as we can on our scales—and through their paces at the track—to get figures of our own, but in the meantime, the takeaway is this: The new Camaro certainly will be lighter than the car it replaces, and while the weight savings came out of a car that was too heavy to start with, the sheer size of the weight deltas are impressive and bode well not only for straight-line performance, but also for fuel economy and handling, too.
-
from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/1Y1uHTu
via Agya
