Camaro can handle winter, if not cruise
BRIAN EARLY FOR THE TORONTO STAR
The new Camaro looks sharp but it's not as fast a machine as you might think.
At the Detroit Auto Show in 2006, the Chevrolet Camaro was a lusted-after concept. This year, it's a winter commuter.
Having fitted a six-speed manual SS with Pirelli winter tires, the folks at GM were comfortable enough with how it would negotiate snow that they lent it to me as my transportation from Toronto to the Detroit auto show and back.
I hadn't driven a Camaro before, but having never owned anything other than rear-wheel-drive cars, I was confident that with enough care I'd be able to keep from doing any spontaneous sheet metal restyling along the way. I was actually hoping to encounter the kind of heavy snow that had made last year's trip so interesting.
As it turned out, the most snow I saw was located in several unplowed parking lots. It did snow fairly heavily during my first morning's commute between my hotel in Windsor and Cobo Hall, just across the river in Detroit. The Camaro SS's sophisticated three-stage stability/traction control made short, easy work of roads and ramps that were greasy with salty moisture.
In full "off" mode ("on," "traction off," and "competition" modes are available, too), it also allowed the kind of easily controlled, wheelspin-induced tomfoolery that makes rear-wheel drive so entertaining. Quick, 180-degree turns in the snow were just a handbrake snick or throttle stab away.
The Camaro served pretty well as a highway distance-eater, with the most pervasive sound coming from the dual exhaust. For a car cursed with '60s-style aerodynamics, frameless door glass and steamroller-technology 20-inch tires, road and wind noise were much less than I expected.
A good Boston Acoustics audio system with XM radio and integrated MP3 player controls – ideal for the radio dead zone west of Toronto – easily overcame the ambient noise.
To no one's astonishment, the Camaro's firm ride and abrupt damping telegraphs expansion strips and broken pavement pretty well. It is, however, blessed with accurate, properly weighted steering that requires little correction unless severely truck-rutted pavement is tugging and pulling at the wide front tires.
This is not a perfect car by any stretch – the trunk opening is laughable, rear-seat access requires Olympic gymnast dexterity, and visibility out past the low roof, high sills and thick windshield pillars is best described as "bunker-like." I also nicknamed the single interior light near the (overly large) rear-view mirror as the "coal miner's lantern" for its meagre effectiveness in the Camaro's dark cabin.
That said, I could still live with it as the second vehicle in a two-car family. The 12.9 L/100 km fuel consumption I experienced (22 m.p.g.) isn't far off what my current four-cylinder daily-driver averages.
Surprisingly, my biggest complaint with the Camaro is speed. At 100 km/h in sixth gear, the 426-hp 6.2-litre V8 is barely off idle, turning just 1200 to 1300 r.p.m., and it drones.
Doing 110 makes things better (no more drone), but this car is like having a little "Victory Red" devil sitting on your shoulder prompting "come on, 135 is just 2000 r.p.m. Do it!"
So while this bright red attention-getter may be able to post 0-to-96 km/h times in the sub-five-second range, remember: it's not faster than a speeding ticket.
Freelance writer Brian Early can be reached at bandb.early@ sympatico.ca
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