The Chevrolet Camaro is one of the original muscle cars (or pony cars) of its era. It was built specifically to compete with the ridiculously successful Ford Mustang. The first-generation Camaro made its debut way back in 1967, and in the coming years, Chevy launched half a dozen iterations of the Camaro. The outgoing model represents the sixth generation of this handsome muscle car, and has been on sale since late 2015. In the United Arab Emirates, the Camaro is pitted against the likes of the Ford Mustang (obviously), Dodge Challenger, Toyota 86, and Subaru BRZ. Chevrolet offers the new Camaro in two flavors: as a hard-top Coupe, and as a soft-top Convertible.
The Camaro Coupe is priced at AED 140,000 for the 1LT base trim, AED 175,000 for the mid-tier 2LT, AED 225,000 for the spectacular SS trim with the V8, and AED 280,000 for the manic ZL1 package. In the meantime, the Camaro Convertible starts from AED 195,000 for the 2LT trim with the V6, while the SS car comes in at AED 247,000. Under the hood of the 1LT and 2LT Camaros, sits a naturally-aspirated 3.6-liter V6. This engine serves up 335 hp at 6,800 rpm and 383 Nm of torque at 5,300 rpm. Transmission chores are handled by an 8-speed automatic, with drive being sent exclusively to the rear two tires. This V6 not only sounds pretty muscular, but it also acts like it - hurling the 1.5-ton Camaro to 100 km/h in only 5.1 seconds. The Camaro V6 will continue accelerating up until its top speed of 250 km/h. It’s also not jokingly impractical, being able to deliver up to 10.0 L/100 km.
However, if you want the fastest Camaro, you’ll have to step up to the maddest one of ‘em all - the ZL1. In this avatar, the Camaro comes with a 6.2-liter, direct-injection V8 that’s also boosted by a supercharger. The end result is sent to the rear wheels in the form of 650 hp and a tire-shredding 881 Nm of torque. Using a 10-speed automatic transmission, the 1.8-ton ZL1 can scramble to 100 km/h from a standstill in an astonishing 3.5 seconds. That’s just absolutely crazy. And this is a muscle car! Of course, you can have it with some really sticky rubber, a massive rear wing, front splitter, and some more aerodynamic voodoo to ensure you don’t accidentally take off. Obviously, chances are that, if you’re buying a ZL1, you don’t really care about fuel consumption. In case you’re curious, it’s 14.7 L/100 km - and that’s if you drive it really carefully.
There’s also the Camaro Convertible, which, if you fancy, can be had in the performance-spec SS trim. This way, you can not only enjoy a bit of wind in your hair, but also cover ground at an alarming-enough rate. The pace comes from a 6.2-liter, naturally-aspirated V8 engine which not only delivers 455 hp and 614 Nm of torque, but also a muscle car-worthy, rich exhaust note. Burying your right foot into the firewall will result in a 0 to 100 km/h acceleration run-time of 4.2 seconds, before topping off at 250 km/h.
As for standard features and equipment, the fully-loaded Camaro ZL1 gets 20-inch alloys, Brembo brakes, sports exhaust, sports-tuned adaptive suspension, launch control system, Alcantara sports seats, sports pedals, paddle shifters, head-up display, automatic climate control, cruise control, 9-speaker premium sound system, and a touchscreen head unit with built-in navigation etc. Among the ZL1’ safety tech, there’s a full complement of up to eight airbags, active understeer control, a limited-slip differential, dynamic stability control, traction control system, lane-departure warning, and all-round parking sensors with reversing camera.
