Instrumented Test
TESTED
Now that the government’s stake in GM is below five percent, the automaker is launching new models with giddy abandon. That’s especially true at Chevrolet, where the lineup runs from the vest-pocket Spark to the garage-busting Suburban with a generous helping of performance models in the meaty middle.
The newest bow-tie brawler, Chevy’s SS, is a classic V-8, rear-drive performance model for enthusiasts needing more doors, seat space, and trunk room than offered by the Camaro and Corvette. Built in Australia and based on similar underpinnings used for the GM’s previous thunder from Down Under, the beloved Pontiac G8, the SS is convincing evidence that bailing GM out of its 2009 bankruptcy was a shrewd move.
Like the architecturally similar Camaro, the SS has unibody construction supported by front struts and a multilink rear suspension. The SS’s 114.8-inch wheelbase is 2.5 inches longer than the Camaro’s and 3.7 inches shorter than that of the Caprice PPV cop cruiser. Thanks to reasonably tidy overhangs, a reverse-kinked quarter-window, and impressive design restraint, Chevy’s performance flagship convincingly mimics the BMW 5-series Pontiac targeted with the G8 just before that brand slipped into the abyss.
In sync with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in which SS-badged sleds compete, there’s a V-8 under the hood that borders on bawdy. It burbles at idle, howls to its 6000-rpm redline, and revs to its 6600-rpm fuel cutoff in spite of the pushrods that operate two large valves per cylinder. Because the SS is powered by an LS3 V-8 instead of the Corvette’s new LT1 engine, GM’s newer technologies—variable cam timing, direct fuel injection, and cylinder shutdown—don’t live here. As a result, the EPA brands the SS a gas guzzler and adds a $1300 tax to the $44,470 window sticker.
Actually, that’s a modest stipend considering the acceleration packed into this family hauler. Thanks to its relatively svelte 3931-pound curb weight, sticky Bridgestone Potenza RE050A tires, and easy-to-launch six-speed automatic transmission, the 415-hp SS sprints to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds and through the quarter-mile in 12.9 seconds at 111 mph. That’s comparable to the times of the quickest stick-shift Camaros we’ve tested and only half a second or so behind the illustrious C7 Corvette. It would be interesting to see if a manual transmission might help the SS’s drag-race potential, but that alternative is not a part of this low-volume program.
