New Camaro from Chevrolet gets 4-cylinder engine

DETROIT — For almost 50 years, gearheads have swooned over the Chevrolet Camaro for its muscular looks, throaty exhaust and high-horsepower engines.

But a four- cylinder engine, long considered heresy, will be the base engine in the sixth generation unveiled Saturday at Belle Isle, a racetrack-equipped island on the Detroit River.

For longtime Camaro fans, word of a four-cylinder engine might conjure up unwanted images of the “Iron Duke.” That was the 90-horsepower engine Chevy put in the Camaro in the early 1980s to get better gas mileage after an oil embargo and gasoline shortages. The 1982 Camaro, with the Iron Duke as the base engine, was listed in 2007 among Time magazine’s 50 worst cars of all time.

“This is not the Iron Duke,” said Al Oppenheiser, chief engineer on the Camaro.

The new 2- liter turbocharged engine puts out 275 horsepower, more than many V-8 engines from years ago. And because the 2016 car is based on the same rearwheel-drive underpinnings as the Cadillac ATS, lightweight materials such as titanium and aluminum help cut 200 to 300 pounds from the hefty 2015 Camaro.

That makes a four-cylinder engine perform better, even though it’s projected to get more than 30 miles per gallon on the highway.

“I think it’s going to be the sleeper hot car, very affordable, very attainable for our customers,” Oppenheiser said.

As in the 1980s, fuel economy influenced the decision to use a four-cylinder engine. Although gas mileage isn’t a concern for most Camaro buyers, it is for General Motors, which must make progress toward meeting U.S. government regulations that require the new car fleet to average 54.5 mpg by 2025.