Why The 2014 Camaro Z/28 Won Motor Trend’s Best Driver’s Car: Video
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You may have heard that Chevrolet’s no compromise Camaro Z/28 won Motor Trend’s 2014 Best Driver’s Car competition, but what does that mean exactly? After all, ‘Best Driver’s Car’ sounds like a bit of a gray area. Chevrolet decided to let MT editor-in-chief Edward Loh describe what it means to be the car most appreciated by true drivers.
A driver’s car will usually be all about the raw, unadulterated driving experience. Something that sacrifices nothing to give you maximum amounts of driving pleasure. Something that makes you feel confident and connected to the road. A test like this is becoming increasingly more important, because as the market shifts towards electrically assisted cars and turbocharged engines, finding a pure driving experience will start to become harder and harder.
Many cried out that the Z/28 should not have won Best Driver’s Car, but if you think of raw driving experiences, not much else on MT’s list really qualified. It has a manual transmission, huge Pirelli Trofeo R tires, naturally aspirated 7.0-liter V8 and Brembo carbon ceramic brakes are all the components of a machine that was meant to be driven.
Still don’t hear us out? Maybe Loh’s remarks in the video below can help you better understand where they were coming from with their decision.
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I have been blessed and fortunate that in my lifetime I have owned several performance vehicles, many of them ‘exotics,’ and driven a great deal more. This last Saturday (having decided to put off my Z06/07 order till the 2016MY so as to have the opportunity to see it/drive it in person before I buy it) I purchased a black 2015 Z/28, and in the brief time I have owned it it has been the most pure and sincere driving feeling I have ever experienced, as in better than a night with both Svetlana and Anouchka level happiness … that is not hyperbole, and this is me just puttering around, and I haven’t even had a chance to take it to the track yet.
This is the best way I can characterize it … sitting in neutral at a red light, feeling every revolution of the engine, the whole vehicle throbs and shakes in anticipation. It’s like it’s nervously tapping its fingers in angst as it whispers ‘let’s freakin’ go already’ under its breath. It’s like sitting on the tip of the arrow whilst the crossbow rope is under the highest t possible tension before it is released, except I’m both the bow and arrow simultaneously. It’s the highest energy sensation whilst standing still, it’s insanely exhilarating … and I’m still in neutral. Rowing through the gears is beyond description, every single sense is overwhelmed by the experience … a half hour drive is exhausting through the sheer amount of sensory input, and leads to a grin that may take some physical therapy to reverse.
This car isn’t about 0-60 or 1/4 times and trap speeds, it is about the pure joy of driving, as I imagine it was experienced many years ago before DCTs, forced induction, AWD, electric hp, and all the trappings of technological advancements. I love driving a GT-R or a GT3, and as wonderful as the experience of driving those vehicles may be there is always something lacking, namely, my deepest participation.
Sorry for the diatribe … did I mention I like my Z/28? 🙂
A Chevy won 😀
Its the Camaro and not the Corvette D: