2016 Chevrolet Camaro : Current Models
Leaner, lighter, faster, tighter—whether or not you can tell from the pictures, the Chevrolet Camaro, Generation 6, lifts everything up a couple more pegs. It’s almost entirely new, and even before Chevy mentions a word about ZL1/Z28/1LE upgrades, the view from Ford HQ has to be formidable.
The next Camaro will launch with the Corvette’s direct-injection LT1 V8, the ‘vette’s optional eight-speed automatic, available adaptive suspension and a substantial weight reduction. It’s running out of places to catch—or surpass—the Ford Mustang.
Forget emotional attachment. We’re talking cold, hard numbers. The Camaro has been chasing Mustang since it was introduced in September, 1966, exactly 29 months after the original pony car took America by storm. By then, the Mustang was working toward its 2 millionth sale. Only once during Camaro’s first 35 years, before an aging assembly plant and a marginal business case buried it 2002, did it outsell Mustang for a significant stretch. That occurred in the late 1970s, concurrent with the final years of the down-sized, Pinto-based Mustang II.
Times were tough when Camaro returned from the grave in late 2009. The U.S. economy was in the dumpster, gasoline was as expensive as it’s ever been and GM was fresh from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. But a funny thing happened on the way to renewal. When sales were tallied at the end of 2010, the new gen 5 Camaro had outsold Mustang by 10 percent. It has topped Mustang on the sales chart every year since.
The current Camaro is larger than a Mustang. Like many of its predecessors, it’s had a power advantage in most iterations, but it’s also substantially heavier. Its edge has been a function of technology, including its independent rear suspension and Magnetic Ride Control in the ZL1. The Mustang was purer, maybe, but when it came to cold, hard numbers—and competitive acceleration or lap times—its advantage was singular: better power-to-weight ratios.
Now comes Camaro gen 6, unveiled May 16 at a public event in Detroit and expected this fall as a 2016 model. The bad news for Mustang, itself entirely new for 2015: Camaro’s weight disadvantage would seem to have disappeared, but its power edge remains.
The gen 5 Camaro’s sales success might explain the new one’s styling, which from 50 feet looks exactly like gen 5. We know the ’16 is a new car because nearly all its dimensions are smaller, but those who gripe about the new Mustang’s evolutionary design will have even more to complain about with Camaro.
Trust us. Up close, in the metal, the ’16 Camaro is clearly different. The same, but different. The steel is stretched tighter and the effect is more sculpted or svelte. It looks lower and wider, even though it isn’t. Aero improvements make it slipperier and substantially reduce aerodynamic lift. The new Camaro is the better looking car, right down to its mirrors—cleaner, even less adorned, and maybe less cartoonish.
Much of its weight loss is structurally fundamental. The current Camaro was developed on GM’s Zeta platform, which also hosts full-size sedans such as the Chevy SS, the Holden Commodore and the Pontiac G8 of yore. The ’16 Camaro starts with the Alpha platform—best known as the foundation for the compact Cadillac ATS sedan and coupe—though Chevy notes that 70 percent of its structural and suspension components are unique to Camaro. At 188.3 inches bumper to bumper, the new Camaro will be identical in length to the Mustang. Yet its 110.7-inch wheelbase is more than three inches longer, and its roof more than an inch lower. As significantly, according to Chevy: structural rigidity improves 28 percent compared to Gen 5, while body-in-white weight drops 133 pounds.
Weight reduction continues in the suspension, which applies new geometry. The multi-link front layout uses Macpherson struts and double-pivot controls arms. Chevy says the five-link rear design reduces squat and improves lateral control. The Camaro SS will offer Chevy’s active Magnetic Ride Control, which measures road and driving parameters 1000 times per second and adjusts damping rates at each shock to optimize ride comfort or control. The suspension assemblies are now predominately aluminum, and some models will use composite suspension links that are lighter than aluminum. Combined weight drops 21 percent, according to Chevy, compared to the steel-intensive suspension in the ’15 Camaro. That’s good for another 26 pounds.
Bottom line? Chevy says its engineers “have pared more than 200 pounds” from the 2016 Camaro, though at this point only those engineers know exactly how much more.
For the power part of the equation, the new Camaro will debut with three engines and six powertrain combos. All engines have direct fuel injection (the Mustang’s V6 and V8 have port injection), and all automatics have eight forward speeds (Mustang has six).
The base engine in Camaro LS will be GM’s turbocharged 2.0-liter four, tuned to 275 horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque (and not the first Camaro four-cylinder. That was the 2.5-liter Iron Duke in the IROC-era gen 3). Here, at least, Mustang retains a significant edge. Its 2.3-liter EcoBoost four is considered the mid-grade engine—more powerful than the Mustang’s V6, with 13 percent more horsepower and 8.5 percent more torque than Camaro’s four. In any case, Chevy promises 0-60 mph times under 6.0 seconds and 30-plus mpg highway with the Camaro’s 2.0.
Next up is Camaro’s familiar 3.6-liter V6, heavily revised and now equipped with GM’s Active Fuel Management technology, which disables two cylinders under light load to improve efficiency. Chevy estimates 335 hp and 284 lb-ft--up 12 and six units respectively from the ’15 Camaro, and out-powering both the Mustang 3.7-liter V6 and the EcoBoost four.
Then there’s the 6.2-liter LT1 V8 for Camaro SS. It remains the only direct-injected VVT cam-in-block engine we’ve met, though Chevy says 20 percent of its parts are specific to Camaro, including tubular “tri-Y” exhaust manifolds. Here Chevy estimates 455 horsepower and 455 lb-ft of torque, which would make this the most powerful Camaro SS so far. Those numbers also represents a 15-hp, 55 lb-ft edge on the Mustang GT’s overhead-cam 5.0.
The six-speed manual transmissions available with all engines are supplied by Tremec. The SS manual adds rev-match technology. The optional Hydra-Matic 8L90 torque-convertor automatic in the SS was developed for Corvette, and the 8L45 with the four and six comes with paddle shifts. It’s based on the 8L90 design, but scaled for the torque and performance envelope of the smaller engines.
GM’s output “estimates” have been conservative of late--typically below final SAE certification. We wouldn’t expect Chevy to say the new Camaro is “more than 200 pounds” lighter and not make the target. But let’s work with an even 200 and extrapolate. The 2015 Camaro’s published minimum curb weight is 3,702 pounds with the V6. Subtract 200 and we’re down to 3,502. The 2015 Mustang’s minimum--Ford’s pony got slightly heavier with the new-gen IRS car--is 3526 pounds.
Apply the same reduction to the SS, and divide by the horsepower estimates, and the Camaros should have a better power-to-weight ratio than their Mustang counterparts by as much as 10 percent. It’s not insignificant, and it hasn’t been that way in a long, long time. We note here that Chevy promises better lap times from the ’16 SS than from the current SS with the track-geared, stiff-suspension 1LE option.
Both four- and six-cylinder Camaros will offer a Brembo brake upgrade. The standard Brembo package on the SS has 13.6-inch rotors front, 13.3-inch rear, with fixed four-piston calipers. The LS and LT get 18-inch wheels, with a 20-inch option for LT. The SS will come standard with Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 run-flat tires on 20-inch rims.
All Camaros get a new Drive Mode Selector that adjusts eight vehicle parameter for Snow/Ice, Tour, Sport and–on the SS– Track modes. There are configurable high-def, eight-inch color displays, 24 programmable ambient lighting effects and wireless phone charging. Temperature is adjusted by turning the trim rings around the center dash vents, and all steering wheels are squared on the bottom. Most significantly, the gen 6 Camaro’s interior is much, much nicer than gen 5’s, measured by finish, materials and ergonomic function.
Yet the real promise rests in the driver’s seat. Two laps at GM’s Milford Proving Grounds in V6-powered engineering mules were more than enough to demonstrate significant improvements in both solidity and agility. This car is just more buttoned down. There’s almost no flex through washboard-gouged curves and no lateral dislocation. The electric power steering offers a significant improvement in feel, with no dead-spot on center.
The view out, on the other hand, is pure Camaro, and it’s at least a bit ironic. Throughout gen 5, the Camaro has been an easier car than Mustang to drive fast, on a racetrack, thanks to things like IRS and MRC. Yet it’s also been the more difficult—perhaps the more demanding—car to drive on the street. The slit-window, hunkered-in, pillbox view from the driver’s seat makes for constrained outward visibility, a lot of double-checking and occasional indecisiveness for the operator. While the sixth gen might have a slightly thinner A-pillar, the slit-window, hunkered-in, pillbox view remains.
It hasn’t seemed to hurt gen 5 Camaro sales. Beyond beating Mustang in total volume, Camaro has also beaten the Ford in six-cylinder ratio—almost two-thirds, according to Chevy—for probably the first time in five decades. Chevy also says that 63 percent of gen 5 buyers were new to GM. It all suggests that, beyond fighting for committed, old-school muscle car enthusiasts, Camaro could also be wooing some youngsters who might otherwise choose something like a Honda Civic Si, Scion tC or Hyundai Genesis Coupe.
Unless tastes have taken a significant turn, Camaro gen 6 shouldn’t change much. This car is the same, only a lot better.
The best news? We’re in for a straight-up fight. Both Camaro and Mustang are spanking new in the same frame, and the inevitable specials—the 1LEs, Boss 302s, ZL1s and GT500s—are still over the horizon. It’s going to get good.
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Sources : 2016 Chevrolet Camaro Photo | 2016 Chevrolet Camaro Article