The 2016 Chevy Camaro has only just started arriving at dealerships across North America, with GM releasing its expected performance figures earlier this week. With a claimed 0 to 60 MPH of just 4 seconds flat for the SS, the sixth-generation Camaro can handily outgun its main crosstown rival, the 2015 Ford Mustang. But of course GM isn’t going to stop there, and we’ve already had numerous sightings of a camouflaged, high-performance model likely packing a supercharger.
However, this video from the Nürburgring’s North Loop circuit (i.e. the “Green Hell”) is easily our best look yet at whatever GM is cooking next for the sixth-gen Camaro.
Now here’s the thing, a lot of media outlets are saying this is the 2017 Camaro ZL1, but we’re just not convinced. Conventional wisdom is that the supercharged 6.2 liter LT4 engine from the Corvette Z06 and Cadillac CTS-V will also be installed in the 2017 Camaro. But if you listen closely to the above video, there isn’t any hint of supercharger whine. Of course you can’t really hear the supercharger on the Z06 or CTS-V either, so you could also say that makes it more likely that this is, indeed, the ZL1.
The other options would be the return of the Z28 ahead of the ZL1, giving Chevy a head-to-head track competitor with the Shelby GT350R. A new Camaro ZL1 would have to line up against the 707 horsepower Challenger Hellcat, which seems increasingly unlikely as by the time a ZL1 actually made it to dealerships, Hellcat production will be finishing up, possibly for good. There’s also the off chance that this is a revamped 1LE package, but flying to Germany to test a few suspension and brake changes seems like overkill to us.
All we really have is speculation at this point, so let’s put it to a vote. Are we watching the 2017 Camaro ZL1, Z28, or something else entirely?