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Detroit, 5:09 PM
Fri Dec 11
29 posts in the last 24 hours
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06/22/09
06/22/09
Writ by Ben on 3-20-09:
Paul Eisenstein at The Detroit Bureau is reporting GM is shelving plans for a 570 HP Camaro Z28. The reason? It would be prohibitively expensive for GM at this time. With a program price around $50 million, the Z28 got the axe in favor of other efforts.
GM doesn't have $50 mill to blow on this thing, and if they did, they need to spend that money on other shizz, like the Volt and Cruze. Once those start selling and generating revenue, GM can revisit the Z28 concept.
06/22/09
When I was younger, my friend had a convertible Camaro- all black- with the license plate IROC:EM
He also had hammers on it, but those were cool at the time.
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Similarly, I believe Wes when he says that the Mustang has great steering feel and handles so well that you are inclined to forget that it is a live axle car, but even so, I would still be willing to bet that the Camaro outhandles it.
@WhoistheWalrus: A fair point.
As far as I know, the demand for the GT500 has been through the roof since it came out, so much so that the dealer near me always charged well above sticker, and they still couldn't keep them on the showroom floor.
Perhaps the Camaro SS will eat away at GT500 sales as it offers 90% of the performance for ten grand or more less than the cost of the GT500.
@Rock517: An extra 110hp and an unbelievably refined live-axle chassis will do that. Given the chance, though, I think that the Z/28 would edge it out.
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I like the CTS-V, but I think that the Camaro is the better looking car, and, plus, it's a frickin' Camaro. It just plain looks meaner. Until such time as I have kids, I would rather theoretically have the Z/28 Camaro.
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06/22/09
Base Six
Base V8
SS
Z/28
ZL1
There has been no production ZL1 since.
In the third gen, the SS nameplate was dropped and the Z28 took its place, while the IROC-Z took the place formerly occupied by the Z28 nameplate, until the Z28 nameplate was also dropped until 1991.
With the fourth-gen, the IROC-Z nameplate was dropped, and both the SS and Z28 nameplates returned, but in reverse order, with the Z28 nameplate being the middle trim, and the SS the highest trim. There was a protoype fourth gen ZL1, but it was never intended for production, and was more of a stunt on the part of the engineering department to prove that they could stuff a big block in the fourth gen body.
06/22/09
But Token here has it right.
The original Z28s were built for TransAm, which required engines smaller than 305ci.
[en.wikipedia.org]
03/20/09
03/21/09
03/20/09
Wait, what?
03/20/09
Shit, if you strapped the engines of every car I've owned into 1 vehicle, it still wouldn't equal 570 horsepower. Besides, the Z28 name has been irreversibly tarnished by garish tape stripes and mullets.
03/20/09
I remember when a good friend of mine from high school returned from his tour in Viet Nam as a helicopter pilot. He told us he wanted to buy a car but he wasn't familiar with what was available. Me and my buddies looked at each other and said in unison: "Z-28!" So he called around and found a Z-28 for sale at a dealership. I still remember. We walked into the back warehouse. It was completely empty except for one light grey Z-28 in the corner. He bought it on the spot, drove it over to a local tire dealer and exchanged the stock wheels and tires for some mags and glass-belted radials (the hot setup at the time). Then, he went off to be stationed at an Army base in North Carolina. He wrote a few times before we lost contact with him. He loved his Z-28 and the twisty roads in the area. He and his Army buddies would go out road racing. The cops got to know them and left them alone, they were vets, after all.
Another thing I remember about that original was that it had no mufflers. There was a section of exhaust pipe that was sort of corrugated. At low rpms, the corrugation broke up the pulses of exhaust and made a reasonably "quiet" note. But at speed, the corrugation was ineffective and the exhaust was effectively wide open. Man, did that thing scream!
All other Z-28s may have been good cars but the original was the best, no doubt. A factory hot rod if there ever was one.
03/21/09
03/20/09
then it will not slip on the supercharger pulleys
CARRY ON!
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So we won't have a $50k Camaro called a Z28. We never had one anyway.
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Nope.
Any change to the drive train, etc will result in both new design costs and most likely new tooling. Not to mention validation and calibration is all redone top to bottom. Then you have to crash test everything again, it just adds up, fast.
So yes, you could build a few mules for way less, but actually getting them production ready, with robust parts isn't gonna happen for cheap.
Do you think that GM wants to kill this if they could afford not to? What is your explanation for motive then if the numbers are a lie?
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03/20/09
Once the Camaro production line gets cranking, we're going to see Yenko, COPO, and IROC homages that will make the cancelled Z28 look like the Cavalier z24 you had in college.
As the convertible was engineered along side the coupe, I have no doubt that it will become available in a year or so, the economy willing.
03/20/09
/drool
03/20/09
How is my mullet going to look windswept when I emerge triumphantly from my Camaro after a raw and vigorous burnout...only to find the acid smoke if burning brain cells and rotten Chinese food that fell out the door-less backseat during my shenanigans?
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I just had an idea..
Yous guys know about this kinda shit, with peoples in all kinds places...
How much do CARS actually cost.
Like what is the price to engineer, design, build a car.
Preferably a standard:
Like the Silverado
F-1fitty
Accord
Fusion
Malibu.
What is the going price to make a car from scratch?
And how is it (stupid question time) that Fitty mil. is expensive?
Did they spend more than that to engineer the Lambda, Lambda, lambda Lambda quads.
Shit knows they spent more on that to build the failed GTO, and Solstice / Sky twins..?
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03/20/09
Variants... er... vary. It's highly dependent on volume and content.
Fifty million is cheap for a variant program, but GM is strapped so they're cutting everything they can.