With 580 HP on tap, there’s no denying that the LSA under the hood of a ZL1 Camaro is going to see plenty of abuse from the guy sitting behind the wheel. These engines are designed from GM to take pretty much any kind of abuse that you can throw at it  – including an extreme amount of racing.

A broken piece of piston is never something you want to see underneath your new ZL1. Especially one that's primarily used to cruise the local car show scene.

Strangely however, we heard a report from our friends over at Camaro5.com about one owner who had an engine failure in his 2012 Camaro ZL1. But that’s not the part that’s strange. What is, is the fact that the car is reported to be totally stock.

According to the thread, the owner known as “Unreal” on the Camaro5 forums was simply cruising home from a local car show when he experienced engine failure, leaving bits of piston and connecting rods on the pavement and in the oil pan. 

According to his friend, “SSOOCH” who was following behind him in his SS, the ZL1 only has 8,000 miles on the clock, and was always driven easy without any sort of track time or abuse. The only modifications are a set of aftermarket wheels.

How or why this has happened is still yet to be determined, as the car was just dropped back off at the shop just the other day. Unreal is currently tooling around in an Impala LTZ loaner while the dealership sorts the Camaro out.

If and when we hear anything more about this car, or if we hear about another ZL1 with this problem, we’ll be sure to let you in on it.