My Review:
The journey to a 6th Gen ZL1 began March 2016 with the Las Vegas media event announcement that a 640+ hp monster with a 10 speed automatic was coming. My excitement went through the roof as we all expected something big from Team Camaro and already had a taste of the supercharged LT4 engine from the Z06, but coupling this with a brand new transmission and alpha platform was icing on the cake. I wasted no time calling my local dealer (after checking in with Rodgers Chevrolet first of course) and started the sign-up list knowing it would be filling quickly. Well this paid off big time!!! Being #1 at a large Houston area dealer scored the 2nd production A10 ever. Only issue was I sold 2012 ZL1 #23 a little early (August) thinking new car arrival in October, then to find out the A10 was phase II set for Q1 2017 release. In hind sight it was a good decision, worked out well and my old car went to good hands in the local area.
First question I always get asked is “what mods are you going to do?” My answer to that is a little more power, w,ithout messing with the work GM did fine tuning this car to run 7:29 at Nürburgring. Transmission tuning alone went on for over a year! Why mess with that? Who out there has the resources to improve that? Suspension tuning has been in work since the last ZL1 and perfected with the new Alpha platform so I can’t see lowering springs in my future unless I find something was engineered only to meet government regulations. Not going to listen to the vendor who tells me I can make it better or it won’t cause any issues. Bottom line is I’ll make any mods with this in mind, but in my book more power is always good.
On to the good stuff… picked up my Summit White A10 with black stripe, performance data recorder, navigation from our Camaro Club sponsor, Classic Chevrolet in Sugarland TX and made my 1st drive with the salesman to get gas. My wife rode in the back seat so that’s at least doable. Afterwards I turned my 40 mile drive home into 200 miles and just couldn’t get enough. Now I have 1,750 on so time for a review.
Interior: Everything has improved ergonomically from button layouts to A/C controls and things I simply hadn’t paid attention to like... Being from Texas, I had a nice chuckle at Michigan engineering and the heated steering wheel until I tried it. Awesome feature and I use it every day now. Even in our current 80 deg temps. Cooled seats add instant flow all the way to the shoulder blades. It will surprise anyone in the passenger seat at how quickly it cools. Haven’t tried heat yet but the memory controls are nice as well.
My only beef would be the seats don’t recline far enough, however I do ride very comfortably at the recline limit. Might only raise it an inch or two on the track. Back seat space may have something to do with this limit. Also, don’t see any issues with helmet room. Definitely additional headroom in the 6th Gen and it’s a good thing since the seat recline won’t help get around lack of room like it did in the 5th Gen. I’m in a much better driving position in this car than I was with helmet in the last one so overall a nice improvement.
Electronics and menu items galore! I don’t think they missed anything here including 0-100-0 timer to go along with 0-60, 0-100, ¼ mile and lap timers. Saves your best times too. MyLink menus have a well thought out set up options suitable for different needs. For example, I like to drive with exhaust open, but still like to be in stealth mode at 4am when leaving for work. Don’t want to use MyLink every time I leave home for exhaust so auto mode works well to open/close using the console button for Tour, Sport and Track. Problem is Track also stiffens the steering wheel and I prefer Tour mode for that. So, I set the steering mode to Tour all the time. Now using the Track mode button to open exhaust doesn’t affect steering and I get the best of both worlds. Lot’s to play with and learning the settings takes a little bit of time, but they are very well organized and can fit a lot of different driving situations. A/C controls are the best I’ve had on any car. Easy to adjust and not directly in your face all the time. Great setup all around for the interior.
Exterior: No one can experience an exterior until they first wash or detail their own car. My immediate thumbs up were the painted and cleared rockers, splitter and diffuser which are heads above the previous raw plastic. Very easy to clean and shine up.
I was always a fan of the old-style tail lights and rear end, but this one is tops for me now and what’s even better is the front is simply menacing. No one can argue with that. I didn’t hear complaints over the old fascia and this one is just way over the top with functionality included. This is where cleaning takes a bit of time. Probably more so than the wheels which BTW aren’t too bad if you get the proper brushes (got mine from Adams). Brake dust washes off easily since they don’t have the rough finish like the SST 5 spoke black 5th Gen wheels. They clean up nice and I’m having a hard time finding anything better on the aftermarket for a 2nd set. Quite sure these will stay on 95% of the time for me.
The black stripe is killer and really accentuates the reverse mohawk. I do wish they had wrapped these over the edge like the Pace Cars because on a black/white car it shows the white line next to the glass. Also, a black painted On-Star antenna for stripped cars would be nice but the stripe would then need to be underneath or closer fit around. Gloss is nice too as it matches well with the carbon fiber insert and just brings it all together. I never had a doubt about painted insert and do not regret that decision at all. Especially for white. I’ll probably add some of the 1LE parts and wrap the hood so stay tuned for that
Drivetrain: I totally prepared myself for some disappointment here since this car is over 100 hp less than my previous ZL1. I did not like the stock LSA power level last time. Now past the magic 1,500 mile break-in it’s time to really dig in. So far a couple of 0-60 runs at 3.9 is all I’ve timed until next week at the track. I’ve gone wide open many times now in various situations and speeds and I’ll honestly say I’m not disappointed and a little excited. With the stock 5th Gen I was not happy with power, but later took care of that issue. With this car, I made plans that may now be put on hold since it’s perfect in bone stock form and hauls ass. Torque is the main component missing before. 650/650 is crazy and this Z pulls hard especially top end which I did not expect.
60’ times are a huge concern as there seems to be no way to totally turn off torque management. On a sticky track with drag radials this is extremely important and from what I experience and others with CTSV and Z06 the launch times are not good. I can feel the engine bog down and when holding the button down for 10 sec to turn everything off it still does it, but then introduces some wheel spin. Both ways I get the same times 0-60. Will try on the track next week but seeing all these 2.0 60’ times worries the hell out of me especially since I’ll be going up against Hennessey’s Hellcat auto in about two weeks. Trap speeds are great and the power is there. Just need to figure out a way to put it down. Seems this car is tuned up for the average Joe. I hope I’m wrong.
10 Speed Auto: – just can’t be beat. This thing shifts to 4th at WOT before hitting 60 mph and on easy driving it’s bam, bam, bam in to 4th without getting out of the parking garage. Cruises in 10th gear most of the time and with aggressive throttle it’s holding above 5k rpms. Nothing short of amazing and everything that was hyped about this transmission is true except for one thing. Holding the downshift paddle (left) does not always drop to the lowest gear. I’ve tried many different combinations and speeds and it might do it 10% of the time at best. But when it does, get ready because at 75 it will drop to 3rd in a heartbeat and you’re ready to roll. Love this feature, but just wish it worked. It can be done from the shifter as well.
Which brings me to my favorite part. The shifter slides to the left to keep you in manual shift mode then ratchets forward or backwards to quickly change multiple gears. On first try I didn’t’ think it was working, but then realized from 10th gear down to 7 it’s not going to change much, but so easy to drop multiple gears very quickly using this method. The shifter is full proof. Seems taps may not be and sometimes tap shift doesn’t activate at all. The display shows the gear when in manual shift mode so easy to tell. It’s so easy to pop the shifter to the left that I’ve done it a few times accidentally. Pop back to the right and you’re in drive again.
Can’t wait to try this auto on the track and I’ll add to the review once I do, but when the performance shifting notice comes up on the screen you know what’s up and the experience is like nothing short of amazing and how quick and crisp the shifts are. Even merging in traffic the car senses your acceleration and just jumps up and goes. Exhaust will blip a loud roar and off you go. Same with quick decal actions. The downshifts are performance based as well.
Bottom line: This car is not only a track monster, it’s easily a daily driver. In heavy Houston traffic, I’m enjoying the heck out of it and have no issues driving back and forth to work every day (70 mile round trip). Did this to get my break in miles and now I don’t want to stop. The Silverado will be taking a back seat now as the ZL1 comfort and fun factor has raised the bar.
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