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.

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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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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.

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But Token here has it right.

The original Z28s were built for TransAm, which required engines smaller than 305ci.

[en.wikipedia.org]

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