Camaro ZL1 1LE Is Crazy Fast Around The Nurburgring

I’ll admit it; I’m a Mustang guy. I own a Mustang and have loved them since I was a child. But I will also give credit where credit is due, and can be quite magnanimous in my praise.

The 2018 Camaro ZL1 1LE deserves a heaping of praise. This beast lapped the Nurburgring in 7:16.04, putting it amongst some pretty fast and expensive company. Here’s a small example of the cars that the 1LE is faster than:

– Porsche 911 GT2 RS

– Radical SR3 Trubo

– Nissan GT-R

– Ferrari 488 GTB

– Gumpert Apollo Sport

That’s pretty impressive! That puts only a handful of cars fast around the Ring that the 1LE.

The base ZL1 model is already a majorly fast car. It comes with an LT4 engine that can pound out 650 HP. The base ZL1 ran the Ring in 7:29.06; approximately 13 seconds slower than the 1LE variant, but still faster than cars like the Porsche 911 Turbo S and the Mercedes SLS AMG GT.

The 1LE does not actually produce any more horsepower than the base ZL1, but comes with a few more tweaks that make it such a track day monster. For starters, the 1LE has shorter 5th and 6th gear ratios compared to the base ZL1.

It also has a massive rear wing that produces much more downforce than the regular ZL1, super sticky Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3R tires, and Multimatic’s DSSV shocks.

All that to say, this is one seriously fast, yet surprisingly affordable, car.