The Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 is an undeniably impressive modern-day muscle car. With a supercharged 6.2L LT4 V8 engine making 650 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque, sophisticated magnetic ride control suspension and an available 10-speed automatic transmission, the Camaro ZL1 can keep up with cars worth two or even three times as much. Throw the 1LE package on it, which includes front canards, a large rear wing and other track-focused upgrades, and the ZL1 is immediately transformed into a track day weapon capable of devouring the Nurburgring in just 7 minutes and 14 seconds.
But while the Camaro ZL1 is offered with a handling-focused 1LE track package, there’s no equivalent upgrade kit for those Camaro fans who may want to take the ZL1 to the drag strip. If General Motors ever did offer such a package, it might want to look at Fiat Chrysler for inspiration. The automaker recently pulled the veil from the 2020 Dodge Challenger Super Stock – which is essentially a turn-key drag car with a headlights, indicators and a license plate.
The Challenger Super Stock is based on the Challenger Hellcat Redeye Widebody. With a supercharged 6.2L HEMI V8 under the hood, the muscle coupe is good for a massive 807 horsepower and 707 pound-feet of torque. Paired with a TorqueFlite 8HP90 eight-speed automatic transmission, the supercharged HEMI will help the Challenger Super Stock accelerate from 0-60 mph in just 3.25 seconds and complete the quarter-mile in 10.5 seconds at 131 mph.
A big contributor to the Challenger Super Stock’s impressive quarter-mile time is its wheel and tire setup. The vehicle comes with lightweight 18-by-11-inch lightweight drag wheels (the same wheels that come on the Dodge Demon), which are shod in 315-section Nitto NT05R drag radials at all four corners. Also included in the package are four-piston Brembo front brake calipers with 14.2-inch vented rotors and an asymmetrical limited-slip differential with a 3.09 final drive ratio.
A drive mode selector with a drag-focused Track mode is standard, as well. In Track mode, the vehicle will turn the paddle shifters on, set the steering to ‘Drag mode’ for maximum stability, turn the cabin A/C to cool the engine instead (known as the SRT Power Chiller) and change the suspension and transmission calibration. The electronic stability control also self adjusts for straight-line acceleration and the torque converter lockup point is changed.
Fiat Chrysler says the Challenger Super Stock is “not limited in production and will continue as the ultimate Dodge drag-racing model in the 2021 model year.” That means FCA will make as many of these drag racing specials as it can sell – and we get the feeling it won’t have any trouble moving them over the next couple of years.
Comments
This has been covered at length on both my Camaro and Corvette forums by myself and others
FCA is using a 13+ year old platform with the Challenger. Why? Their finances are in the toilet and they cannot afford to engineer a new vehicle to replace it (FCA has tried to sell Dodge numerous times over the past several years to no avail). They have done a ton with this platform over the years and I applaud them for that; however, it is very heavy and does one thing well…drive 1,320′ very fast. Asking it to run a road course or do anything else, is not going to end well. The Camaro and Mustang have evolved from pony cars to pony/sports cars. They can do a plethora of tasks very well. Drag race, road course, canyon carving, etc..
If you want to drag race and are not brand loyal, buy a Challenger. Dodge SRT has proven that they can do a lot with a very heavy platform and make it perform well in a straight line. Why GM would choose to handcuff themselves with such a linear model would be beyond bewildering. If you want to drag race your ZL1, you don’t need to put out much coin to make it compete with a Challenger or GT500. Headers, cat-delete, pulley swap, custom tune and voila.
And yet, the Challenger outsells the Camaro.
GM screwed the pooch when they made the Gen 6. Instead of engineering an entirely new car, they simply improved the Gen 5 (which outsold all other pony cars during that time). The Gen 6 is more of a Gen 5.5. The 5 & 6 are eerily similar in appearance, although the 6 gets the direct injection LT1, is lighter, has a vastly superior interior, etc.. Still, to the non-car person, they wonder why the 6 is ~$10-12k more than the outgoing 5 if they look so muck alike. The lack of sales have spoken and the 6 was a mistake by GM. IMHO, they should have gone away from the 5 altogether as they had done with Gen’s 1-4 of the Camaro. None of those cars looked alike and were complete departures from the prior Gen.
The Mustang look the same overall since 2005 with the same platform, the new gen Challenger is the same car since day one, I don’t get when uninformed people keep thinking the Camaro isn’t selling like fries because it looks the same or it has supposedly less room then the cramped Zeta Camaro.
As for price, have you priced a Mustang GT?, and forgot about the limited models. Challenger after the 5.7 R/T gets expensive quick.
I’ll disagree with that Mustang statement, since I actually like the ~2005 Mustang, and really dislike the current one (based entirely on looks, never driven either).
As for why exactly the Camaro isn’t selling as well as the now quite old Challenger, not looking great is probably part of it, but at least once a week there are enough comments on this site to probably answer it better.
The 2005 Mustang (S197) ran until 2014 with a strong refresh tucked in between and ran with the retro theme. The 2015-current (S550) was a complete departure from the S197 and went futuristic with the aesthetics. The two look nothing alike and it was Ford that actually did the scientific study among customers, showing that they want a newly styled vehicle every 4-5 years.
Again, charging $10-12k more for the Gen 6 Camaro over the Gen 5 and having them look very similar, was a mistake by GM. As a GM C7 Grand Sport owner, (and the prior owner of a cammed/bolt-on ’11 Camaro SS) I want to see GM succeed in the 2+2 segment. With that being said, I do not truly believe that Barra and her crew want to stay down this path. As we speak, they are heavily pushing EV and CUV’s. We shall see. The Camaro is a staple of Americana.
No the S550 is the S197 with a better name, just like the SN-95 Mustang is a better name but a 79′ Fox Fairmont underneath.
Don’t know where the $10k figure come from but the Camaro before Covid LT1 models were picking up also $24-26k for the base model is on par with the Zeta models.
I believe the Camaro will be more spacious and practical next go around but it’s history or all-electric if that fails.
Again, the S197 was a retro-styled Mustang just like the Gen 5 Camaro. The S550 went away from the retro theme and went futuristic. They look nothing alike.
To each their own. If you feel as if they are spitting images of each other, enjoy.
The $10k figure came when I bought my ’11 2SS, 6spd. convertible, then went in ’16 and looked at the same exact car in a Gen 6 at every Chevy dealer in the area and the average price increase was $10-12k (MSRP sticker).
The problem with people in our society is that we have this throw away culture/ newer is better. Yes FCA does not have a lot of cash on hand right now. Their finances are actually not in the toilet mate. Their late CEO love him or hate him did pay off most of their debt. So he should be applauded for that. It is a mistake to say that FCA has not made incremental improvements to the LX platform. People keep complaining about it but it sells and people consider it a great muscle car. As for the mustang Ford has done a great job of bringing it to the whole world.
So the Camaro should lose the muscle car tag based off of your points. As Dodge arguably makes the only muscle car at the moment. The numbers prove that Americans still love the old school muscle formula. As much as I like GM they have not listened to the Camaro fans. GM has a bad tendency to leave their cars hanging. Dodge continuously advertises their vehicles and introduces new trims. Keeping them fresh in people minds. Dodge definitely has a hip cool factor culture do it. GM does not do the same. I’m sure we will see a JD power Chevy and some soft new family commercial though. Oh but they cannot do the JD power awards because Dodge recently scored very high!
As much as I like the Camaro, I must admit GM has just been outdone this generation. They do not have the balls to do anything about it. They truly do not care at this point.
FCA has not once tried to sell the Dodge brand. Know your facts before you run your mouth.
LOL! They have tried to sell the brand at least 4 times on record.
Please stop. I have no time for teenage tough guys. It is both unintelligent and immature,
Yes, why not GM (or Ford) had not done this?. A street-legal drag racer should be available without the doofy body-kits, infotainment and stuff, sorta like a new 60’s style Road Runner.
They would only need to dial back the COPO a little. They’d sell every one they made.
Is this their answer for the GT500? 🙄
Dodge will never have an answer for a GT500, they can’t handle a road course without blowing the ass end out from underneath it.
Hey, GM. How about putting the ZL 1 motor in a LT 1 and sell it for 39,900. Seriously. You would sell a bunch
Hey, GM. How about putting the L83 (or even an L20 😣) motor in a Colorado so we can swap it out for a ____ fill in the blank! 😮
How about build a street COPO and use the LT-5, duh.
Back in the day [69 ] Camaro you could buy plates an drive it on the street, put a vehicle number on the fire wall windshield wipers , mufflers an a cat turn signals an brake lights on the car an its street legal ! And besides that it’s safer than any street car on the road! With a tube Cassie an full roll cage it doesn’t get much safer!!
That was extremely painful to read.
Are you seriously suggesting a late 60s car is safer to drive than a modern car?
Think he’s implying that factory drag cars were street legal in the 60s in which that isn’t true. A factory Hemi Super Stock Dart for example was totally a track only car.
A friend had a Copo Camaro in 1969 it was street legal from the factory, an so was a Copo Nova an COPO Chevelle SS!
Read again, COPO cars weren’t factory drag cars, special order but not factory track-only cars like the 69′ 427 Cammer Mustang, Hemi Dart and Barracuda S/S.
The Honda Civic is much faster on a track that this heavy dinodaur.
Perhaps, but this is intended for drag racing. Most muscle cars were never well known for handling anyway, as that wasn’t the point.
YOUR ON DRUGS , KEEP PLAYING WITH THE LITTLE RICE GRINDERS !!
Sadly, I drive a Mustang………..former owner of Camaros………..I will not buy a CAMARO because it isn’t driver friendly…….VERY POOR visibility, Uncomfortable seating, and a Cartoon look! There’s no doubt in my mind that the GM platform is very, very superior to FORD or FCA but the body is terrible!
All of my Bow Tie friends who bought CAMARO in the past have moved on to FORD or FCA.
I wish GM would get their act together on the CAMARO so that people have another option for FIX OR REPAIR DAILY (FORD) or the Challenger “TANK”!!!!!
When I ordered a C8 last summer the dealer had a ZL1 all black Camaro sitting there Priced at 65K I believe. At this time I just can’t see anyone spending 80k or more for a Camaro, COPO or not. I think the current vet makes it very hard to invest in building a high end Camaro in any sort of volume to make it profitable. I’m not saying that some of you wouldn’t buy one, just that they have to make a profit.
I am a GM fan , but they seem to have an issue with giving people what they want. I’m sure GM can afford to make a few street legal dragsters. I think they would sell much better than any FCA muscle car. A Camaro with eight hundred plus horse power would definitely be a number one seller. If I were GM , I would definitely take a gamble on it. Lord knows GM cancelled more models than a lot of car companies have in their lineup right now.
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