IMO, if GM dropped weight 150 off both LS/LT and SS packages, people wouldnt be so upset.
I drive a 4200lb 4 door land boat that has 200hp and gets 19mpg if I do 90% highway.
Ill take a 3900lb Camaro SS with 422hp that gets 24mpg.

 

Methinks that's a reasonable target.

A 150-160 lbs. diet to a 3700 lbs. curb weight would be a good goal.

That being said, the train has left the station. Cars tend to get heavier over thier lifetimes, not lighter.

 

Obviously this car did now meet Jenny Craig as we were told..

 

I'm sure this sub3900lb SS will perform well. GM gave it serious brakes (4pistons all around with 14"/14.4" rotors F/R), the power is there and is the most you'll find in a car south of $42k, and the Hp:weight ratio is a noticeable improvement over the 3450lb 350hp 4th gen (9.2lbs/hp vs 9.8). Best of all, they did a very nice job of distributing all that weight as evenly as possible (52/48 F/R) so the car won't be nose heavy.

But don't think the sub-3,900lbs won't affect performance. Even with all the good things i've mentioned above, i wouldn't be surprised if the 5th gen posted performance figures only marginally better than the 4th gen cars.

We all know it's a vastly improved and much nicer overall car than the 4th gens, that's not up for debate but the question that remains is how much of a performance improvement can we expect? Guess we'll know once production starts and cars hit the lots.

 

I think it did and that's what has kept it under the G8 weight despite numerous performance and safety upgrades.

From what I've seen and read this car seems to have and airbag in every corner and they are not light. The IRS is also not light and it seems that it was also upgraded for power, we'll find out soon enough how that went.
The interior while some may say gimmicky does have quite a bit of content. GM didn't go cheap on it. The SS has some serious brakes and suspension to compliment the LS3.

It's been said over and over that the Zeta roots doomed this car to a high curbweight and yet that was the only platform that was feasable enough to get it's business case passed and to even get the Camaro back. So we're stuck a bit between a heavy Camaro and having one at all.

 

Hmmmm...

That's a pretty good point right there.

 

Kappa can't be stretched to build a pony car-sized vehicle. Even if it were feasible, it would still need to have upgraded components to reliably handle a V8, further increasing weight.

 

Which is why I said they should have taken the time to develop it such that it WOULD be stretchable to create a 2+2 coupe (i.e., Camaro). They were more interested in getting the Solstice/Sky to market quickly. I think they should've developed it further such that it could have also been the basis for the Camaro.

Somewhat, but road loads drive chassis weight far more than powerplant loads. A Kappa Camaro for damn sure would have wound up SIGNIFICANTLY smaller and lighter than what we got.

 

Forgive me for not having the specific details, but I remember this issue being brought up some time ago. The engineers who worked on Kappa said it could not be stretched without spending an astronomical amount of money to basically redesign the entire chassis. Since Camaro needed to be developed on a budget, this was an unacceptable option. The Y-body was also looked at as an option, but it was considered too expensive as well.

Zeta was chosen because it was cheap to produce, flexible, and relatively strong. Unfortunately, that translates into additional weight due to the use of less expensive and heavier materials. Isn't it better, though, to have a slightly heavy Camaro than no Camaro at all?

 

All will never be happy. Quality parts weigh more than cheap parts. This is not the same cheap cars anymore. Try being happy that its quite a bit less than the challenger instead of crying about how much more it is than the Mustang. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

 

hmm, carbon fiber, titanium, and aluminum all weigh less than steel. Steel costs less than any of them.

 

Exactly. The Camaro SS is the coupe equivalent of the G8 GXP, and it's 190 pounds lighter. If anyone takes the time to compare other car lines with two and foor door versions, they'll see that dropping 190 pounds is actually quite an accomplishment.

Btw, did anyone notice 14" disks (brakes)? That can't be light, but they'll work a lot better on the track.


People hoping for 3500-3600 just weren't being realistic in the era of 2900 pound Civics!

 

I wouldn't call it cutting corners exactly but...

I would bet good money on the L99 having standard valves which would chop off the rev ability. That was a good portion of the reson the L76 only reved to 6000RPM as well, or why the LS1 only went to 6200RPM.

As far as the guys changing out the cam, you would probably be swapping out the springs for a big cam anyway so I don't see the problem.

 

I assume that you're also including the Camaro Team in that group.

 

There wouldn't be a need for the 14" disk brakes if it didn't weigh so much! It needs the bigger brakes to stop because it's so much heavier to begin with.