There’s a new Chevrolet Camaro variant in town, and that is the 2019 Camaro Turbo 1LE. It’s the least expensive way to get the 1LE treatment and it’s meant to court more buyers to the lower end of the pony car’s spectrum—the kinds of buyers who can’t shell out nearly $40,000 for a Camaro SS.
It’s born and bred for the track, so what better place to have the 2019 Camaro Turbo 1LE strut its stuff than at Car and Driver’s Lightning Lap? It’s the twelfth iteration of the track test and the publication rounded up some of today’s hottest performance cars to see how they managed around Virginia International Raceway (VIR).
As usual, C/D splits the cars into five segments: LL1, LL2, LL3, LL4 and LL5. This year, a new LLTruck category is present for performance SUVs as well. The Camaro Turbo 1LE falls in LL1, which means its priced under $34,999 as-tested.
Of the LL1 cars, the Camaro Turbo 1LE managed to be the quickest of the three, beating out the Subaru BRZ tS and the Honda Accord Sport 2.0T. But, the Camaro also outpaced the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk (yes, the one with 707 horsepower), and the Kia Stinger GT. The Camaro’s final time was 3:05.6, which puts it a tick behind a few other cars.
The Audi RS3 tied the Camaro Turbo 1LE with an identical time and the Subarur WRX STI Type RA was less than a second quicker with a 3:04.9 time around VIR. The rest of the competition starts to pull away from the Camaro. Although it performed well, it was hardly the most satisfying car of the day. Judges felt the extra $1,495 is well spent for the V6 1LE with more power and just overall driver gratification. Last year, the V6 1LE ran a 3:04.00 flat as well.
Comments
Still looks significantly better than the SS.
Still won’t buy a v6 Camaro.
Did you even watch the video? It’s not a v6. I’m surprised at how good the motor sounded for what it is. I personally wouldn’t buy a v6 camaro either, but I hope these sell like hotcakes so as to help keep the models like the ZL1 around.
Considering the 4 cylinder looks exactly like the 6 cylinder my comment still stands. I can update it to
Still won’t buy a 4 or 6 cylinder Camaro.
Today’s V6 Camaro is as fast as a Z28 SS Camaro from the year 2001. I’d buy one for sure if Chevy would redesign it so a driver can see out of it and so it looks as sophisticated as the chassis is.
I actually just bought a used ATS Coupe V6 AWD because I hate the Camaro’s styling. I dig the ATS coupe but what I really love is the Mustang. Chevy should poach the Mustang designers and put them in charge of their design studio!
A 2001 z28 could do low to mid 13s, a v6 is mid to high 13s, so almost but not quite.
I’ve had mid 13 second cars in the past and they’re peppy at best. I feel low to mid 12s is the sweet spot and that’s what a SS gets you. Any faster is hard to use on the street and any slower is boring.
I bet it drives like a champ. Kudos to Chevy for mixing it up and offering track cred for lower budgets.
A Trifecta tune away from making really good power.
They boosted the V6 to 355-Hp for 2019, could that foretell and increase in Hp for the Turbo. It would be nice if it made 300+ Hp.
Chevrolet site is still showing 335hp for 2019.
355 HP from the V6 is awesome sauce