ZL1 sledgehammer

HSV’s Camaro ZL1 isn’t cheap, but nothing else in its price range comes close to delivering the same kind of sledgehammer bang for buck, as Bruce Newton discovered when he was let loose in HSV’s new performance flagship.

Brauwahhhhh, bup, brauwahhhhh. As the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 goes up in tyre smoke on Sandown’s front straight, exhaust bellow reverberating through the empty grandstand, somewhere up there in racer’s paradise Bob Jane is surely smiling. Jane, an all-time racing legend, died last year and is sadly missed. But there’s no doubt he’d have cheered on this rubber-melting display.

Jane raced the original rst-gen ZL1 Camaro to victory in the 1971 and 1972 Australian Touring Car Championships. It was the 1969 model with a 427 cubic inch big block V8 engine and he won

the Sandown round in ’71 and nished second in ’72 – but that year with the small block 350, which Jane had been forced to t as part of CAMS’ (futile) attempt to handicap the Camaro.

So it’s appropriate we’re back at this track nearly 50 years further on, lighting up this murky mid-winter’s day in the latest supercharged V8 ZL1. This one, unlike Jane’s awesome beast, is a road car. But what a road car. Get a clean launch and you’re propelled up the road like a rocket, emulating the quarter mile King the original ZL1 limited run was designed to be back in ’69. But get to the corners and the resemblance drops away.

The ZL1 stops with presidential authority, steers with accuracy, grips with tenacity and res off the corner like the Big Bertha cannon it truly is.

Yep, this is a great American muscle car. But there’s now more than a little Australian innovation mixed into this amazing act. That’s because it’s ‘remanufactured’ by HSV (or Holden Special Vehicles as it is rarely referred to these days) from left- to right-hand drive at its Clayton factory just a few kays west of here.

‘Re-what?’ some of you might be asking. Well,

if you’ve been following the HSV story since the closure of local Holden manufacturing you’ll know it’s diversi ed from hot Commodores into multiple ventures. That includes taking Camaros from Lansing in Michigan where they are built, bringing them to Melbourne and converting them to right-hand drive.

They prefer to call it remanufacturing because the aim is to roll a car out that’s original equipment spec. Part of that is obtaining full vehicle compliance so import numbers are not restricted. Few converters do that.

HSV has been offering the naturally aspirated Camaro 2SS V8 in right-hand drive to eager punters via Holden dealers since September 2018, lling a hole in the General’s line-up created by the death of the V8 Commodore.

Back then HSV was pessimistic about adding the ZL1 any time soon. Happily, as we’ve reported since in AMC, hurdles have been quickly overcome thanks to strong support for the project from both Holden and General Motors in Detroit.

Really, it’s only appropriate that the ZL1 has come to Australia, and not just because of the Jane connection. Many later HSVs had a blower. Think of the Gen-F GTS, Gen-F2 Clubsport and of course, the farewell GTSR W1. All of them powered by small block Chevy V8s. But none of them are the awesome LT4 that drives the ZL1 forward in such fury. In local tune it makes 474kW and 815Nm, which is slightly down on the US numbers. I’m tipping you’re not going to notice the difference.

And it still tops W1’s 474kW and 815Nm to make it HSV’s most powerful vehicle yet. And yes, of course, it’s a pushrod, but there’s variable valve timing, direct injection, the supercharger is integrated into the intake manifold and fuel rails and there are no less than 11 heat exchangers.

It punishes its rear wheels via the choice of a surprisingly malleable six-speed manual transmission or shiny new 10-speed automatic transmission and an electronic limited slip differential. Performance potential is towering, with four second 0-100km/h times on-call with or without the aid of customisable launch control. Those mountains of tyre smoke are also available at will, the auto even has a line locker to make that process impossibly easy.

A bi-modal performance exhaust amps up the soundtrack, active Magnetic Ride Control dampers vary the suspension behaviour to suit what you’re doing with the car, Brembo six-piston monobloc callipers work with 390mm two-pieces rotors up-front to do the stopping.

HSV has traded in the ZL1’s staggered 20-inch Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres for local- t Continental ContiSportContact 5 rubber, working on the basis that they will provide better all-weather grip.

That’s the only real chassis change HSV has made. You really are getting the authentic US experience. Like the 2SS, HSV’s not tinkered with the technical set-up; rather, its focus has been on making sure everything works in right-hand drive.

The exhaust was modi ed to comply with ADR pass-by noise limits and a bunch of unique items had to be sourced or developed in-house to achieve ADR compliance. These included taillamps, headlights, seatbelts and exterior mirrors.

HSV had to develop a blanking plate to cover over two driving lights for the front fascia because ADRs only allow two DRLs, it had to add rear wheel coverage spats and make modi cations to ESC tune. It also had to develop a new clutch arm because the standard pedal clashed with a

rewall structural member. A new front swaybar was needed because the original fouled the rack motor when it was swapped.

All that gear doesn’t come cheap. The sixspeed manual version of the ZL1 will set you back $159,990 plus on-road costs, the 10-speed auto an extra $2200. That might stagger you, but check new car pricing and you’ll see nothing on the Aussie market these days can match it for price and outputs at the same time. Nothing since HSV itself stopped building cars anyway…

Hey, no-one could argue the ZL1 is the most re ned car on the Aussie market – it’s hard to see out of, is noisy, lacks safety gear like autonomous emergency braking and has poor internal storage, a miserable rear seat and a tiny boot – but if outrageous bang is what you want for your bucks then you don’t need to look any further.

My brief taste of ZL1 ends with driving instructor Gavin Harvey chauffeuring some hot laps. There’s more connection to the past here because he’s the son of the legendary John Harvey. Of course, ‘Slug’ drove for Bob Jane with much success in the late 1960s/early 1970s, so our day connecting past and present is ttingly complete. The talent’s clearly owed on through the generations because Gavin’s fast and smooth or violent and sideways depending on his aggression level. The ZL1 is happy either way.

In 1971 the ZL-1 ruled Aussie tracks. In 2019, ve generations of Camaro later, it is the muscle car King of Aussie roads. Bob would be pleased.

STOP PRESS: As this issue of AMC headed to press, news outlets in the US reported that General Motors had suspended development of the seventh-generation Camaro. The next-gen Chevrolet Camaro was in its initial development stages ahead of replacing the current sixthgeneration car in 2023. These uncon rmed reports claimed information from ‘multiple sources within GM,’ reaching out to Chevrolet for official comment but drawing only a statement of ‘we will not engage in speculation.’