That's a good comparison! And for the money of an SL63 you could probably have 4 Z/28's. One to compete with an SL, BOSS, GT500 and SRT8.

 

2011-2012 Mustang engine line up.

3.7 V6 - 315 hp

"Coyote" 5.0L - Mustang GT (350-400 hp)

"Road Runner" HO 5.0L - SVT Boss Mustang (425-450 hp, higher redline)

GT500 - 555 hp/555 lbft


Also, Shelby GT350 delayed, maybe canceled? Too much overlap with the SVT Boss.

 

as far as a performance comparrison it would probably be good. but a mercedes is a mercedes. your buying the name there.

 

I read an interesting article in my morning paper's Friday Auto section about the increasing use of turbochargers in production cars (mentioned EcoBoost) and also touched on clean diesels.

I may be in the minority, but I'd love a turbo-diesel option in the next generation Camaro.

 

I think that would be pretty cool myself. On this gen or the 6th gen. Too bad GM can't make a business case for one, the 2.9L V6 turbo diesel sounded like a pretty neat piece.

 

I checked out this car yesterday. http://www.nickeychicago.net/vehicle...d=251&page_id=

It was sitting so much lower than the stock ride height Camaro next to it, that it almost made it look like a 4x4. I wonder how much lowering you can get away with on this car. Not only did it look so much better, I can only imagine that it might sharpen it's chassis dynamics.

 

I like everything but the hood.

I was at my Chevy store yesterday, and saw an aqua blue SS w/ the white rally stripes. I'd seen the color on the HHR and didn't like it, but dam on the Camaro it looked great! White stripes were killer too. Thinking real hard about getting this combo now.

 

That's a Nickey Chicago car. If you're from the midwest, the former Nickey Chevrolet made a name for itself selling all sorts of dealer built performance cars and COPO's in the '60's.

Anyway, that car was at the Mecum auction. My Camaro club has a contract to drive the cars for Mecum at their auctions.

Nickey also had this car for sale there. http://www.nickeychicago.net/vehicle.php?id=241 And I drove it. I hopped in and noticed a purple post-it note on the speedo which said "BAD BRAKES!" Oh great and WTF! Luckily the brakes kind of psuedo worked well enough to get it on the auction platform, (probably would have made an awkward cable TV moment, had they failed completely there ). Anyway, after it was sold, I had to drive it to the "sold" lot, which meant cutting through the main tent, where mega-dollor, exotics, COPO's, former race cars and street rods were parked. Gee, I hoped the brakes wouldn't fail totally there.

I get to the lot, find a nice parking space, and....and.....NO BRAKES. Luckily, a C4 convertible was there to stop me.


Some day ask me about the Ferrari I was driving, which nearly burst into flames in the middle of bidding...


Speaking of COPO's. In an alternate universe, maybe Chevy could call the LSA Camaro a "COPO" and really focus the Z/28 to compete directly with the 2012 Boss. But like you said earlier, it may not even be possible for this gen Camaro to compete directly with the Boss Mustang.

 

Boss isn't out.

It won't be for a couple years.

We don't know the price.

We don't know the position it will take.

We do have a pretty good picture of the Z28, though.

The GT500 has been out for years.

We already therefore know which Mustang the Z28 is aimed at without a poll.

Perhaps we should be thinking about a another new edition of the Camaro.

 

Z/28 isn't out.

Z/28 won't be out for a couple of years.

We don't know the price of the Z/28.

We know exactly the position the SVT Boss will take.

As we do of the SVT Boss.

Yep. It's too bad the 2007 GT500 which Chevy slavishly imitated, won't be around to get beaten by it.

Oh yeah, we know for sure. This is more about what GM "should" be aiming at.

Any suggestions?

 

Ha, that reminds me of a similar story that happened to me in about 1987, though not on as great a stage. I was driving a '65 Galaxie 500 at the time, and as I was leaving school on my way to work, the brakes felt funny, a lot more travel, and better feel than they usually did (when they "worked" they had 2 modes, no brakes or locked). Anyway, right when I got to work (at a mall), bam...no brakes. I threw it into L, rolled through a stop sign, and by the grace of god, there was some sort of automotive shop up in the corner of the big mall lot. I coasted over there, and luckily it was on kind of an incline the last little bit, so I put it in N, and miraculously it came to a stop exactly on the 2nd row of parking for that shop. I slammed it into P when it stopped just before it started going backwards downhill, got out, and told the guy the brakes were gone. Went to work, came out 5 hours later, and paid him for a new master cylinder install, and I went home . Got very lucky that day. If it would have happened on the road, I would have rear ended someone at 50 mph in a '65 Ford w/ a lap belt .

The Boss sounds like a great package, certainly more attractive than what we have there now w/ the Camaro. But at the same time, we can't have the current Camaro fail because then there probably won't be a next gen Camaro to get us back down to where we'd all like to be, or at least closer to it. This is our '71 Mustang, accept it . GM knows the deal w/ this car, I'm confident that given the right tools, they'll do a lighter, smaller car next time around.

And on an unrelated note...tomorrow is order day for ours !

 

Exactly! I was talking to someone afew weeks ago and he said the exact same thing to me..this is our '71-'73 Mustang. And yes, GM does know it, they're not stupid - and have every intention of changing that next time around.

BTW, congrats in advance!

 

You are pretty neive about the whole deal.
Charlie isnt saying that the Z28 should combat the M3, but that it should take its image, its balance, its essence, from the M3, not its price point and image.
The M3 is the best sports coupe on the market this side of 100k.
Ford knew what it was doing by testing the upcoming 2011 Mustang GT to the M3. They arent gunna charge 60k for the Mustang, but they want to take the DNA from it, and morph it into thier own.

Come on people...you cant all be that dense. If you could buy a Camaro Z28 that outhandled the M3, the greatest and purest sports coupe on the market, for 1/3d the price, you wouldnt be proud of that?

But having a big nose heavy 60/40 spit drag Camaro is something to stand up and salute too?

 

You are exaggerating, Camaro would be no where near a 60-40 front-rear balance even with a S/C.

Have a read of this...
The reason why the Camaro is selling so well is because it is not a BMW M3 rival. Those who want a BMW will opt for one. Camaro has its own character and it's part of its own attraction.

 

I'm not sure you know what naive means.

You are arguing that Z28 should be a lighter Camaro with a focus on handling. GM is proposing a Z28 that offers supercharged V8 power in a good looking, decent handling (if not world beating) package. I happen to like GM's conception of what the car should be. Naivete played no part in the thought process that led to my conclusion that I would like to buy such a car.

A lightweight car would probably also be interesting to own, but, given the option, I'd go for the S/C V8.