The entire internet will have to wait in the wing for official 2017 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 performance numbers a little longer, according the Camaro chief engineer Al Oppenheiser, who sat down with us during the 2016 New York International Auto Show. Because even if he gave us some 2017 Camaro ZL1 0-60 acceleration times, or braking distance, or even a Nürburgring lap time today, chances are they won’t be same when the supercar launches later this year.
“To be honest with you, it’s too early for us to submit to the SAE for horsepower and torque numbers, because we’re still in development,” said Oppenheiser. “I know the show car looks beautiful like we could drive it home today, but we’re not going to be in production until the end of the year. And we’ve got a summer of tuning that we’re still gonna do.”
And tune, they shall. Oppenheiser went on to emphasize how he and his team want to extract as much potential out of the 2017 Camaro ZL1 as possible.
“We’re gonna push right to the very end, when you gotta say ‘done,’ and if we can get another couple tenths of a second off our lap time, if we can get another tenth of a mile per gallon… anything we can do to help keep pushing the car,” he continued.
“We’ve got a great track season coming up. We’re going to take advantage of it. I’m not hiding things from you, we’re just not ready… we’ll get into great detail as we get closer.”
The 2017 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 is expected to launch in the fourth quarter of 2016, featuring the supercharged 6.2L LT4 V8 engine as seen in the 2016 Cadillac CTS-V and Corvette Z06. The engine is preliminarily rated to 640 horsepower and 640 lb-ft of torque, and is mated to either a six-speed manual transmission, or an all-new 10-speed automatic transmission with short ratios and DCT-beating shift times.
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Comment
This is like a fine wine and it needs to be sipped not guzzled.
GM is well known for doing tweaks right up to production. That is one benefit to the new flash computer programs. To be honest they know what it will do but they will string this out till it it released this summer. Most times we see the numbers in August.
This is all gamesmanship with Ford to try to be out in front of each other.