Quote:
Originally Posted by Alain
I own both.
They are totally different cars. Hard to compare them with each other, they are built with two different purposes in mind. I thought I was going to end up selling one of them at some point but after the first six months of owning both I realized they are two totally different machines.
They both bring their own version of fun in the street.
The Hellcat's raw power, and ability to go sideways at any moment brings it's own brand of fun. Myself and anyone who gets in the passenger seat (usually my girlfriend) giggle like school girls whenever I blip the throttle. The sounds it makes (blower whine and exhaust) makes the car incredibly fun to drive on the local streets.
The ZL1 1LE doesn't feel as raw as the Hellcat in the local streets. You have to get the Camaro up to speed and into some twisty back roads and it will deliver. But, it will deliver with a slightly different brand of fun than the Hellcat. It's not the giddy schoolgirl giggling the Hellcat brings. ZL1 1LE delivers more of an awe-inducing, serious brand of fun. Meaning, more like a "wow, I can't believe this car can do that", that will bring it's own giggling and fun.
In my opinion, on local town roads the Hellcat is more fun to drive. You don't need high speeds or a lot of room to get that thing to act stupid (in a good way). If you don't live anywhere near twisty back roads, the Hellcat is the beast for you.
On local town rods the Camaro always leaves me wanting more, it's too quiet and too refined. In order for the Camaro to come alive it needs to be at speeds on a twisty back road. In that scenario the Hellcat takes a lot of effort to drive hard which in turn detracts from the fun factor.
BUT, if you realize that the Hellcat is not supposed to be hugging tight corners and you are ok with that and drive it accordingly, the twisty back roads can be fun as well.
Luckily for me where I currently live (on the border of Northern NJ and Upstate NY) I have my pick of either local, main street type roads (tons of fun with the Hellcat) and twisty mountainous terrain (tons of fun with the Camaro).
I love both of them and I'm truly lucky to be able to have both. My mood for the day is the deciding factor for which car I drive.
By the way the 350R falls somewhere in between the two.
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Great post thank you for sharing! They both are definitely different cars. So it seems like the Hellcat is the one that’s more entertaining and fun on the street. That’s cool that you live in an area with twisty roads I wish we had that lol. Since I live in South Florida it’s mostly straight roadways and highways with high speed limits and limited curves.
I truly do want a raw muscle sounding car and they both have their pros and cons but I like the fact that the ZL1 is the more balanced car. The ZL1 doesn’t sound too bad but I would probably have to change the exhaust on it to have more of a muscle sound, on startups it sounds a little raspy for my taste. If I could I would have both cars. Not having enough seat time in these cars makes it difficult as I’m sure they would speak to you more eventually to choose which is best suited for the individual.