For every bit of praise that the Z/28 has received, it seems the car has gotten just as much, if not more, flak for its supposed faults. Chief among these critiques is the overwhelming price tag, which critics cite as a premium for what amounts to little more than reduced weight, bigger brakes, and uprated tires.
About a week ago, the guys at Motor Trend happened to have both a Z/28 and a 1LE in their parking lot, and decided to prove once and for all that the big red hot rod was more than the sum of its high-cost parts, especially when it came to the tires. As tested, the cars are priced at $75,000 for the Z/28 and $40,340 for the 1LE; but was there a fundamental difference when it came to performance? The team decided to exchange the tires between the two 5th-Gens, and see what sort of results the testing generated.
Fresh from the factory, the Z/28 runs on 305/30ZR19 Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R tires, while the 1LE uses the 285/35R20 Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperCar G:2. While this could be cause for concern with other makes and models, the trade was relatively painless, as both models could accommodate each other’s tire widths and wheel mounting thanks to clever chassis design on the part of Chevrolet.
Moving onto testing, the team expected to see the 1LE perform better on the dragstrip thanks to the wider Pirellis, and it did: the 1LE was quicker in both 0-60 performance and quarter mile elapsed time. Everyone thought that the Z/28 would do poorer with the slimmer Goodyears, yet it actually managed to do better, also running slightly quicker than it had with its original tires.
Braking was a different matter, however. Here was where conventional wisdom rang true, as the 1LE managed to cut back 7 feet of its braking distance with the Pirellis, and the Z/28’s performance was diminished by the Goodyears.
The Z/28 faltered again during the skidpad test, where switching to the Goodyears cut 0.2 g’s. The 1LE won once again in this course, as its capacity increased by 0.3 g’s. Still, the Z/28 was only a tenth of a g worse than the 1LE using the same tires, and the difference between before-after stats across both cars was smaller for the Z/28.
Finally, there was the figure-eight test, where the 1LE Pirelli test did nothing to change the time, and even hampered the g rating by two tenths.
Likewise, the Z/28 ran slower on the Goodyears with no change to the peak g rating, indicating that the car was likely cut down by less grip in the stopping and accelerating portions of the track.
In summary, the Pirelli-equipped 1LE was only able to succeed at half of the tests conducted on both cars, indicating that tires were not the sole reason for winning or losing. The Z/28 is definitely an expensive pony car, but its price of admission gives you access to a car that bears out the claims of its manufacturer: better engineering and parts nets you better overall performance.
For all the photos and the complete results, be sure to check out the full article on MotorTrend.com