With a few days' worth of work, we took a low-13-second Camaro into the high 11s with a best of 11.96 at 115 mph.
For the past year or so, HOT ROD has driven and reported on the new Camaros, but we hadn't gotten our mitts on one to, well, hot rod. That changes this month, as we throw a bunch of parts and tuning to a '10 Camaro SS and see what it's worth at the track. The Camaro belongs to NMCA racer Robin Lawrence, and we're following along as he tears into his brand-new car. Initial testing in stock trim showed 374 rwhp and 375 rear-wheel torque on a DynoJet chassis dyno at Abaco Performance. Next, the car debuted at Cordova Dragway in Illinois to a curious and cheering crowd.
"The Camaro had a gathering around it every time I pulled into the staging lanes," Lawrence comments. With a soft launch and speedshifting the Tremec 6060 six-speed, the car ran a best of 13.02 at 108 mph-on the same day he drove it off the dealership lot and with 187 miles on the odometer. Not a bad start and certainly in line with what other Camaro owners have run. Mid-to-high 12s are only some sticky rubber away.
The first thing we did was try to make the car hook, so we mounted a set of Nitto NT555R drag radials. The Nitto tires are the perfect blend of street and strip and currently are the only 20-inch drag radials on the market. At 28.6 inches tall, the Nittos kept the overall gear ratio identical to what it was with the stock Pirelli tires. The 555R rubber dropped the 60-foot time from 1.98 to 1.85, thus bringing the Camaro's best e.t. to 12.73 at 108 mph. Lawrence tried several different techniques to go quicker, including holding it in Third gear instead of Fourth through the traps, due to the tall gear, but it was quicker in Fourth. The car was going through the traps around 4,500 rpm, or so the factory tachometer read.
In stock trim and with not even 200 miles on the odometer, the Camaro cracked off 374 rwhp and 375 rear-wheel torque on the DynoJet chassis dyno at Abaco Performance.
Solidly in the 12s, we then got serious with bolt-on parts. The GM Performance Parts catalog figured prominently in the program, as we gathered everything it had for the new Camaro. We also did some tuning with HP Tuners software and added an Abaco mass airflow meter and an Anderson Power Pipe. Then we cheated and sprayed the mother down with an NOS single-stage nitrous oxide kit with the company's whole gamut of electronic controls to program it.
We also put the car on a diet, lightening it up from its portly 3,950-pound stock heft by removing anything that wasn't necessary for going fast. We shed just over 80 pounds. When we were all done, we cracked off an 11.96 at 115 mph and learned a few things about the new Camaro. For one, it needs a gear. The stock ring-and-pinion has a 3.45:1 ratio, and we'd love to stick some 4.10 or 4.30 gears in the car, but as of yet, nobody offers steeper gears for the Camaro's rearend. "We had a centersection shipped from Australia that was supposed to have a steeper gearset. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a centersection for a Pontiac G8, which won't fit the Camaro," said a disappointed Lawrence. It proved to be a waste of time and money. The knock sensors also battled us. We could have turned them off with the HP Tuners software, but this is still a brand-new car, and Lawrence wasn't keen on melting the motor down. And we figured, neither would you. Next month, we're throwing a bigger cam and ported heads at this thing to see what's possible.
The Parts List Part RWHP Stock 374 HP Tuners tune 381 Abaco mass airflow meter and open filter 393 GMPP headers, mufflers, and airbox 397 NOS nitrous (with GMPP airbox) 500 NOS nitrous (with Abaco MAF and Anderson pipe) 514 Weight Savings Chart Component Savings Antisway bar 8.5 pounds GMPP shorty headers 9 pounds (4.5-pound savings each) GMPP mufflers 22 pounds (11-pound savings each) Fidanza aluminum flywheel 13.3 pounds Clutch Masters Stage 1 clutch 3 pounds Engine cover 4.6 pounds Nitto 555R drag radials 5 pounds Tire pump 6 pounds Wiper fluid reservoir (filled) 9.7 pounds Total weight reduction 81.1 pounds
