Motor Trend is maintaining a very high level of excellence with their YouTube shows. Editor in Chief Angus Mackenzie and professional driver Randy Pobst weigh in here on this battle to see who has made the best modern muscle car, Ford or Chevrolet. You could even go as far as to say that these two cars represent the state of the muscle car genre. They no longer settle for only going in a straight line well. In fact, they test the Laguna Seca lap time before the drag race for this video and Motor Trend loves to do drag races. Besides the testing, Mackenzie and Pobst do a phenomenal job describing the details and nuances of each car so you can understand their natures even if you never get to drive one in real life.
Some people say that we are in the second golden age of the muscle car. Each of Detroit’s Big 3 have revived their performance car nameplates and the horsepower wars are on again. Further proof that the muscle car is alive and well is that you can buy factory built drag racing cars again. Ford turned the Mustang into the Super Cobra Jet and Dodge has a MOPAR Drag Package for the Challenger. Now GM has joined the game by reviving the COPO Camaro. COPO stands for Central Office Production Order which was a process used by a dealer in the 60’s to get GM to install a 427 into the Camaro even though that combination was never intended for production. 69 COPO’s were built in the 60’s and now GM will only build 69 of the new COPO’s. The new COPO was developed during the off-hours at the GM Powertrain Plant in Wixom, Michigan by all the hot rodders who worked there. The rear suspension has been converted to a 4-link solid axle and it will be available with three engine options.
The guys from Hot Rod Magazine also got a chance to tour the Wixom Performance Build Center in the other half of the building in Wixom. That’s where they hand build all the LS3’s for the Corvette Grand Sport, LS7’s for the Corvette Z06 and the supercharged LS9’s in the Corvette ZR-1. They also got to play with the Camaro ZL1 on the dragstrip and take a look at the new 1LE handling package.
Motor Trend has been doing this series on YouTube that pits two cars “Head 2 Head.” This episode is particularly interesting for more reasons than just the Mustang vs. Camaro rivalry. It’s old school analog vs. new school digital. The new Camaro ZL1 is GM’s first entry into the world of the electronic sports car that was ushered in by the Nissan GT-R in 2008. It’s been equipped with a sophisticated traction control system and magnetorheological shocks. Traditional shocks use valves that restrict oil flow through its body to control motion. The magnetorheological shocks use electromagnets to control the flow of magnetic fluid through their bodies. This allows a computer to read the road surface with a sensor and then adjust the damping forces of the shock with the electromagnets. The same type of system is used on the Cadillac CTS-V, Corvette ZR-1 and the Ferrari 458 Italia, but the ZL1’s shocks are the latest generation of the technology.
What this showdown boils down to is the digital vs. analog driving experience. The computers in the ZL1 aid the driver in maximizing the potential of the car when putting down lap times. However, it still doesn’t drive the car for you. A driver with skills will still put down faster times than a novice in the ZL1. That’s where cars like the Mustang Boss 302 Laguna Seca come on. The Mustang can be driven without driver aids. What the car does is in direct response to the driver’s input. The analog car gives you plenty of feedback so you can push to the absolute limits. Get it wrong and it will punish you, but that’s how you learn to become a better driver. The digital age of the sports car is great, but I hope that it grows hand in hand with the traditional analog car instead of completely taking it over. I think both are necessary so that drivers can grow along with technology of the cars. The technology has to amplify driver skill, not replace it.
This is what being a car guy is all about. Meet Bob Hall. He’s the owner of this Pro Touring 1968 Chevrolet Camaro. It’s the car he’s wanted since he was 18 years old. After he picked up the project, he decided he wanted it be more potent than a stock restoration and the vision for how the car currently sits was born. Check out the video for a road test and the story behind the build.
Chevrolet put together this mini-documentary about the community of owners they met at a national gathering put together by the fifth generation Camaro forum, Camaro5.
