Tagged with 'tires'

You may have heard about General Motors engineer Mark Stielow’s 1969 Camaro “Red Devil” before. It’s a fully custom Pro Touring Camaro packing a 7.0-liter LS7 under its hood which is garnished with the cylinder heads, valvetrain and supercharger from a Corvette ZR1. Underneath, it’s equipped with a 3.25:1 nine-inch axle, a limited-slip differential and a full Detroit Speed suspension system. He’s since sold the car, but back in 2012 when it was still around, him and Hot Rod magazine pitted it against a brand new Camaro ZL1 in a time-attack style race.

Chevrolet engineers rocketed the performance of the Zeta-based fifth-generation Camaro to new heights with the hard-core 2014 Camaro Z/28. They bench-marked the car against top tier supercars which cost thousands of dollars more, like the Nissan GT-R and Porsche 911. So far, the Z/28 has proved to be more than a worthy competitor on the racetrack, posting an extremely fast time on Germany’s infamous Nurburgring, but how does it work as a road car and is it faster around Barber Motorsports Park than a GT-R? We find out on this week’s episode of Motor Trend’s Head 2 Head.

Watch a pair of 2014 Z/28 Camaros run around Barber Motorsports Park (Video)

Ever wonder what it would be like to be given free reign to race a 500+ hp, tire-shredding, asphalt-devouring all-American muscle car around a professional racing circuit? Well, our friends from Car and Driver sure know how, and are allowing the rest of the world to partake in the breathtaking thrill-ride of a 2014 Camaro Z/28.

The new 2014 Camaro Z/28 is so fast, it outran its own tires. Here's how Chevy fixed it.

It's well known that the Chevy Camaro Z/28 has the widest front tires of any production car. At 305 mm wide, those tires produce tremendous grip--especially since they're Pirelli P Zero Trofeo Rs. In fact, they make so much grip, the Z/28 was spinning the tire around the wheel under braking--the Z/28 was, in effect, outrunning its tires, or at least their ability to grip the wheels.