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NurburBring It On: 2010 Camaro Cuts a Hot Lap
DETROIT — You can't launch a car with any aspirations of "performance" and not do your time at Germany's famed Nürburgring racetrack — it's just plain expected these days. So General Motors Corp. certainly wasn't about to shy away from the 'Ring with the sizzling new 2010 Chevrolet Camaro. At Monday's official unveiling of the production version of the new-age Camaro, Inside Line chased down a ranking Camaro engineer and asked for the crucial lap time.
Doug Houlihan, GM's chief engineer for global rear-wheel-drive vehicles (the architecture underneath the Camaro, the Pontiac G8 and all that blowsy, big-V8 Holden stuff from Australia, where the platform originates), coughed it right up: A Camaro SS ran the Nürburgring in 8:20.
A quick scan of an authoritative listing (it definitely looks authoritative, anyway) of Nürburgring lap times at supercars.net shows cars posting a lap time of 8:20 include the E36-generation BMW M3 in 1999, the Porsche 911 GT3 (993 generation) in the same year driven by 'Ring ace Walter Roehrl and stuff like the Audi RS6 in 2001. For a little extra perspective on that 8:20 lap time, GM recently boasted the coming '09 Corvette ZR1 did it in 7:26.4.
"We learned a few things," from the 'Ring session, says Houlihan, which led the Camaro development team to tire supplier Pirelli for some subtle changes that he says fine-tuned steering response and turn-in, and also resulted in some nitty-gritty tweaks for suspension settings — all of which will further improve the Camaro's on-road handling.
Houlihan also said all Camaros — V8 or V6 — will feature the best StabiliTrak stability control system GM can offer; the SS enjoys essentially the software from the Corvette's magnificent Active Handling system that we insist remains the world standard in performance-oriented stability control. The Camaro SS stability control will have a track mode, a performance mode and a setting that fully disables stability and traction control. Stability/traction control for all Camaros can be fully disabled, but Camaro SSs with the six-speed manual also get a launch control feature.
Houlihan also said the 2010 Camaro's coefficient of drag is an OK, but unremarkable 0.35 for the SS and 0.36 for the LS/LT V6 models. Ed Welburn, GM's vice president of global design, said it's tough to get super-slippery aero numbers for cars with full-width grilles and recessed headlights — design cues Welburn and his styling team insisted on, obviously, to deliver on the 2010 Camaro's retro promise.
We whined the RS appearance package that adds high-intensity discharge, "halo ring" headlamps, unique tail lamps, a rear spoiler and 20-inch wheels makes it almost impossible to distinguish a V8-packing Camaro from a V6 job. But for those of you who can spot the difference of an inch, Houlihan says there's one giveaway: the exhaust tips for the Camaro SS, which is V8 only, are 96mm (3.7 inches) in diameter. But LT Camaros (standard 3.6-liter V6) — even with the RS package — have exhaust tips that are just 3 inches in diameter.
What this means to you: The Nürburgring number proves even if it's a little heavy, a Camaro SS can run with some pretty exclusive company. And with 300 horsepower, the Camaro V6 doesn't exactly earn the "secretary car" stereotype, either. — Bill Visnic, Senior Editor, Edmunds AutoObserver
Doug Houlihan, GM's chief engineer for global rear-wheel-drive vehicles (the architecture underneath the Camaro, the Pontiac G8 and all that blowsy, big-V8 Holden stuff from Australia, where the platform originates), coughed it right up: A Camaro SS ran the Nürburgring in 8:20.
A quick scan of an authoritative listing (it definitely looks authoritative, anyway) of Nürburgring lap times at supercars.net shows cars posting a lap time of 8:20 include the E36-generation BMW M3 in 1999, the Porsche 911 GT3 (993 generation) in the same year driven by 'Ring ace Walter Roehrl and stuff like the Audi RS6 in 2001. For a little extra perspective on that 8:20 lap time, GM recently boasted the coming '09 Corvette ZR1 did it in 7:26.4.
"We learned a few things," from the 'Ring session, says Houlihan, which led the Camaro development team to tire supplier Pirelli for some subtle changes that he says fine-tuned steering response and turn-in, and also resulted in some nitty-gritty tweaks for suspension settings — all of which will further improve the Camaro's on-road handling.
Houlihan also said all Camaros — V8 or V6 — will feature the best StabiliTrak stability control system GM can offer; the SS enjoys essentially the software from the Corvette's magnificent Active Handling system that we insist remains the world standard in performance-oriented stability control. The Camaro SS stability control will have a track mode, a performance mode and a setting that fully disables stability and traction control. Stability/traction control for all Camaros can be fully disabled, but Camaro SSs with the six-speed manual also get a launch control feature.
Houlihan also said the 2010 Camaro's coefficient of drag is an OK, but unremarkable 0.35 for the SS and 0.36 for the LS/LT V6 models. Ed Welburn, GM's vice president of global design, said it's tough to get super-slippery aero numbers for cars with full-width grilles and recessed headlights — design cues Welburn and his styling team insisted on, obviously, to deliver on the 2010 Camaro's retro promise.
We whined the RS appearance package that adds high-intensity discharge, "halo ring" headlamps, unique tail lamps, a rear spoiler and 20-inch wheels makes it almost impossible to distinguish a V8-packing Camaro from a V6 job. But for those of you who can spot the difference of an inch, Houlihan says there's one giveaway: the exhaust tips for the Camaro SS, which is V8 only, are 96mm (3.7 inches) in diameter. But LT Camaros (standard 3.6-liter V6) — even with the RS package — have exhaust tips that are just 3 inches in diameter.
What this means to you: The Nürburgring number proves even if it's a little heavy, a Camaro SS can run with some pretty exclusive company. And with 300 horsepower, the Camaro V6 doesn't exactly earn the "secretary car" stereotype, either. — Bill Visnic, Senior Editor, Edmunds AutoObserver
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