Chevy thinks its 505bhp Z/28 can take
on the best the world can offer, so we brought one over to the track, where a
GT-R, an M6 and a tame racing driver were waiting...
Zee, not zed. Let’s at least get that
straight. And while we’re at it, Cam-aero, not Cam-ahro. Trying to inflict Brit
pronunciations on this particular Chevy (emphatically not a Chevrolet) is like hearing
Americans trying to wring their mouths around ‘Buh-keeng-haim Pal-laice’. It
just doesn’t sit right.
But on what level does the Zee-slash-28 sit
right in the UK anyway? It hardly fits alongside the Aveo or Orlando, does it? And,
in fact, Chevrolet is soon ending its tenure here and shutting up shop, so the Z/28
isn’t here as a brand-building exercise and won’t be available except through import
channels.
The Z/28 carries a
welcomed and honest muscle car feel
You can see why we did. The Z/28 isn’t the
most powerful Camaro (that’s the supercharged 580bhp ZL1), but it is the most
track ready. There’s no carpet in the boot (barely a trace of paint, in fact),
air-con is an option, the standard stereo comes with just a solitary speaker
and the tyres – well, we’ll come on to the tyres.
It’s 16ft long, 6ft five wide and weighs
3,820lb (you’ll find translations in the spec panel). It has a 428 cubic inch
V8 – oh, alright, that’s a 7.0-litre. It has no yellow-bellied turbos and
doesn’t drive through one of those liberal-lovin’ double-clutchers to a
chicken-ass 4WD system. It is emphatically not a Porsche 911 rival, which is
why we haven’t got one here. Instead, we’ve lined up a BMW M6 and the Nissan
GT-R. Europe and the Orient exemplified.
The refinement of
the M6 is truly impressive, with near silence from the engine at steady speeds,
while it is also more involving to drive than before, with much more steering
feel
The German coupe has twin turbos and a
double-clutch gearbox. The Japanese has all that and four-wheel drive, too. The
Z/28 sits at Dunsfold and squints at them from under that hooded brow. It is
Clint Eastwood. It sees plenty to sneer at. But those turbos mean both have a
power and torque advantage over the Chevy, although the technological overload
they carry means they’re heavier, too. And more luxurious. Well, they have more
toys to play with – describing the Nissan as a luxury car is like mistaking a
ninja for a sumo. A mistake you only make once and not at close range. The BMW,
on the other hand, is more of a cruising thing. It has plush leather chairs and
a cabin which shows plenty of evidence of ‘design’. The other two clearly
thought ‘too much effort’ and went back to either studying the properties of
zen traction systems or figuring out when to press ‘stop’ on the
cylinder-boring machine.
Nissan
has revised the throttle response for this GT-R, making it aggressive and
relentless
So, oddly, it’s the most and least
technologically advanced cars that have most in common, that have clearly put
driving dynamics at the top of their tick sheets instead of everyday desirability.
They have the same track focus.
