2014 Camaro ZL1- Chevy Pumps it Up

By Jeff Stork

 I pretty much grew up in the back seat of a first generation Camaro- a ‘67 SS ragtop, and so I was pretty pleased to see the return of the Camaro back in the Spring of 2009. I thought that the sixth generation offering was attractive in a respectfully retro way that was very true to Camaro’s roots, but even in SS trim I fell short of seeing it as an out and out performance car.

Well, like the little boy from Jerry Maguire who grew up and became a bodybuilder, things have changed. Chevy must have poured a whole lot of Muscle Milk into their pony car, because the ZL1 is like no Camaro you’ve ever seen, and muscle doesn’t even begin to describe this supercharged monster.

It’s not just an engine- so much of the ZL1 is special to the car that it’s like a Camaro body shell was dropped on a racing chassis. In fact, over a third of all the parts are unique according to Chevy. Yes, the 6.2-liter LSA engine (borrowed from the CTS-V) is impressive- what’s not to like about an all-aluminum supercharged V8 that delivers 580 horsepower and a whopping 556 lb-ft of torque, and has an exhaust note nothing shy of heavenly? Nothing. Seriously, I’d like to make the exhaust note into an alarm clock and wake up to it every morning.

But as I noted, ZL1 is much, much more than an engine. The test car had a six speed manual Tremec gearbox, there’s also a six speed automatic available as well- both specially modified to handle the torque of the LSA. The whole chassis is special- from the third generation magnetic ride control with three settings including “track,” 20” special wheels and tires, and monster Brembo brakes, to the front cross-tower brace and rear sway bar, this is one highly tuned Camaro.

It’s the only Camaro with electric power steering and what Chevy calls Performance Traction Management- which ties together the ride control, launch control, traction control and electronic stability control. In fact. the whole chassis package is so special they decided to offer it on the SS as the 1LE Track Package. The result? a Camaro that sticks like glue and handles do well that you start looking for the BMW badge. And for a car that can be a balls-out screamer, it’s remarkably smooth and nimble for around town driving. It’s almost like it has two distinct personalities, and we’ve all dated someone like that.

As any competitive bodybuilder can tell you, Muscle don’t come cheap. The ZL1’s base price including freight is $55,950, and our test car featured $1995 Recaro seats, $795 Navigation, a $600 carbon fiber hood insert, $500 worth of microfiber suede interior trim and to top it all off a $1300 gas-guzzler tax adding up to $61,140 which is serious money in anyone’s book. In fairness it should be noted that the cars offering comparable performance can cost many tens of thousands more- but it’s nonetheless a new and steep altitude for the Camaro.    

Of course nothing is perfect. With Red Hot paint the color of lava, enormous black wheels, a giant hood scoop and that oh-so-heavenly-but-loud engine noise, the ZL1 doesn’t exactly keep a low profile. Speaking of low, the coupe’s oh-so-low roofline makes for a cramped cabin and I’ve never seen a sixty-thousand dollar car that more needed a memory seat and didn’t have one. And I guess I’ll take the hit for the less-than-10-mpg observed fuel economy.

But at the end of the day, the most powerful Camaro ever is one hell of a well done GT. It screams when you ask it to, it sticks to the road and goes where you plant it - with no body roll and even a remarkably decent ride. It’s got that whole Ann-Margret “Kitten With a Whip” thing down pat. And while I couldn’t figure out how to fold the Recaro seats forward, there wasn’t really anyone I wanted to put in the back anyway.

So why would anyone want a nearly-600 hp supercar that can easily exceed any speed limit in Palm Springs in first gear? Because on the right road, it’s superb.

Oh, and the muscle boys loved it. :)

Model is fitness instructor Chris Bates. Photos by Jeff Stork

Quick Drive: 2013 Chevrolet Volt- EV Hold Everything

The year is winding down and suddenly there’s a flurry of last minute cars filling my driveway. One that’s always welcome to drop by is the Chevy Volt- one of my favorite cars, and in my opinion nothing less than the reinvention of the automobile. Although I covered it pretty thoroughly last year, there have been a couple improvements so I was eager to have another shot behind the wheel.

Last year I specifically challenged myself to use the Volt for a week as an everyday car without using any gasoline. It wanted to see what everyday driving would be like, and while I did put some thought into my daily travel- I organized my trips to eliminate duplicity, I didn’t do anything that wasn’t good common sense.

This year the Volt is different, and so was my plan. For 2013, The Volt is equipped with a new driving mode called EV Hold. The European-market Opel Ampera had it last year, and now we get it as well. EV Hold will bring up the engine and hold the battery in its current state of charge.

When its it useful? Highway trips. The Volt is most efficient as an electric car at speeds below 50 mph, speeds that would get you run over on a freeway. EV Hold allows you to drive between cities as a gas car (I averaged just over 40 mpg in my test) and switch back to electric upon arrival- thus using the Volt most efficiently.

I set the Volt into EV Hold mode and pointed the nose for Los Angeles. It worked like a charm. The Volt was smooth and quiet in EV Hold mode with its 1.4-liter generator whirring away, I averaged 39.5 heading into LA and 41.4 coming back. And once I got off the highway, I switched back into electric mode and drove around Burbank with a full 38 miles of range, and then switched back to gas and drove home.

So a car that I very much liked before works even better thanks to a simple enhancement. EV hold makes the Volt work even better by giving the driver the choice of when to use battery power and when to bring up the generator. It’s made a great car even better.

Behind The Wheel: 2012 Chevy Volt: A Week Without Gasoline

I've always been one fascinated by the next big revolution in Automotive propulsion. In the early 60's, I was mesmerized by the Chrysler Turbine Car- a gorgeous creation that hummed softly while slurping down fuel like it was free and emitting large quantities of Nitrous Oxides. Smooth operation, but emissions and fuel economy were both serious problems that were later shared by the Rotary engine as it struggled and ultimately failed to go mainstream in the 70s.

I was very impressed with the all electric GM EV-1 back in the 90s - the General's first electric car was quick and quiet, although the range issue never got solved and the car was tiny inside and out. I always thought they were onto something, but the range never quite got to commercially viable levels. Pure electric cars have always carried range anxiety along for the ride.

When the Chevy Volt came to market a year ago, I was highly intrigued- an electric car with a back up generator. In a nutshell, the Volt has a 16-kWh lithium-ion battery supplying a 111-kW electric propulsion system, plus a 1.4 litre generator with a 9.3 gallon fuel tank, which gives the car a total range of over 300 miles.  It seemed much more practical to me for the real world.

So when Chevrolet offered me the opportunity to test drive one for a week, I not only eagerly accepted, but I decided to take it a step further and drive the car as I would my everyday car- but with a goal of using no gasoline during our time together. To accomplish this, I parked my regular car away from home for the week- The Volt was my only transportation.

In many ways, I'm the right prospect for a plug in Hybrid. As a writer, I work from home a lot and live in a gepgraphically tight community where I don't drive extremely long distances. Some days I don't use my car at all, and most of my trips are less than 20 miles or so. So far so good, except that I do go into LA a couple of times a month, and I live in a desert- Palm Springs, to be specific. That means Air Conditioning- and some days, lots of it.  I was curious about how desert temperatures and the need for climate control would affect its range, which is estimated to be about 36 miles on a full charge.

My test Crystal Red Tintcoat Volt arrived as a fully loaded example, with Bose audio, Navigation, Premium Trim, Park Assist and polished aluminum wheels. It looked handsome inside and out, with a leather trimmed interior and four bucket seats. Everything had a well tailored look to it. I did note that the console was rather high, because the battery pack is nested beneath it. The Volt is a hatchback, and the rear compartment is on the smallish side, but the rear seats fold individually to accomodate most needs.

Behind the wheel, the first thing I noticed was the quality of the interior - comfortable two tone perforated leather seats with contrasting stitching, high quality soft materials, color graphics and information center, and a great deal of light all in all made for a light and airy cabin. Once the energy button was pressed, I was struck by the quiet- no engine noise, no transmission whine, just the soft whirring of the electric motors. Then out on the road thing I noticed an unexpectedly smooth ride- The Volt's propulsion system adds about 400 pounds compared to the gasoline powered Cruze, and as a result the ride quality is much improved.

The instrumentation was totally unlike a conventional car. There are two multicolor displays, one in front of the driver and one in the console. A small fuel gauge shows how much fuel is in the 9.3 gallon tank and displays an estimated range on gas. Beneath that is a battery gauge that estimates electric range, and at the bottom a display of estimated total mileage. A digital speedometer is in front of the driver and to the right is an efficiency gauge, like a fuel economy gauge of the 70's gone space age. A happy green dot (looking remarkably like the earth) rotates in the center of the display - it moves up and down as the gas and brake pedals are applied. The color changes the further it moves up or down. The driving lesson is obvious- jackrabbit starts and screeching stops are the enemy of electric range. The usual battery of engine monitoring gauges are absent.

I'd also done some reading online about the difference between low and drive in electric operation- there's no transmission gears in play, so the difference is the application of regenerative braking. In drive, lifting your foot off of the accelerator causes the car to coast. In low, as soon as your lift your foot off the gas, the regenerative braking commences. It allows you to drive at low speeds with minimal application of the brake pedal. So at lower speeds, under 35 mph, I drove in low, and over that I used drive, but downshifted before applying the brakes whenever possible.

Driving the Volt was very much to me like flying an Cessna. An airplane has a window of flight- a minimum speed to stay aloft without stalling, and  maximum safe speed before breaking up. In addition, the wings and ailerons must be kept within a tight range and all movements executed gradually. That's how I began to see the Volt as I moved through traffic.

Armed with the Energy Usage Screen that rates the efficiency of both driving style and climate control usage, I strove to keep the car moving whenever possible. I monitored the window of traffic more actively and worked more diligently at maintaining a steady and smooth speed that I would have in a conventional gasoline car, and my reward was range. I got as much as 44 miles of range (versus a projected 36) by paying attention to calibrated traffic lights and moving at a steady speed. But keep in mind, that I could have also just ignored everything and driven the Volt like a conventional car. The worst that could happen was that the generator might come on.

And then the heat came. The Volt and I endured some pretty unseasonal heat- 106 degrees to be exact. Throw in a couple of cranky passengers and I tested the A/C in "Comfort" mode. The range loss was less than I expected- only 3 miles - we stayed cool inside, and I still didn't end up needing the gasoline generator.

In fact, I didn't end up using the generator at all. I spent the entire week in exclusively electric power and it was a pleasure. I plugged the Volt in at night (120V takes about 7 hours) and awoke each morning to a "Fully Charged" message on the dash. The car was wonderfully quiet, and the hood stayed cool to the touch, which was another unexpected pleasure. The car performed flawlessly all week and I took quite a few people for rides. Often when I came out to the car, people would ask me questions about it. The highlight was pulling into the bank one morning as a guy was pulling out in a new Rolls-Royce Phantom convertible, and he was looking at me. That says quite a bit. The Volt did everything a conventional car does, except need gasoline. And of course, at all times there was a generator and a full tank of fuel, so if I had to go anywhere, all I needed to do was jump in the Volt and go.

I'm not saying I had no dislikes- but my observations were minor and had nothing to do with the propulsion. The front spoiler was a bit low and hit driveways everywhere. I thought a car in the Volt's price class should have a power seat. And there's no way to preserve battery power, for example if I wanted to drive to LA and save the electric range for when I get there, but that's being corrected for 2013.

The Volt doesn't make sense for everyone. Those with a long daily commute or who run long distances on the freeway would be better off with a Cruse Eco or a conventional hybrid. And certainly cost is a factor, as not everyone can budget $39,995 for a base Volt to begin with (although I would be remiss not to mention that tax credits available currently can offset almost $9000 of the purchase price in CA, and there's a very attractive lease deal as well.) But every new technology is more expensive at first, so hopefully we will see the affordability improve over time. Volt owners I have spoken to tell me that it costs them about $35 per month for the electricity to charge it at nights- so there's a genuine savings there as well, plus the freedom from dependency on big oil has a value for many consumers.

I found it to be one heck of an impressive automobile, indeed more than I had expected, that somehow has become a political football for reasons unlrelated to its actual attributes. But I believe that any car should be judged on its owm merits and not because of who was President when it was introduced. If you haven't checked the Volt out in person yet, I highly recommend that you take it for a drive. No gasoline will be needed.

Chevy Centennial Part 2: Chevrolet's Bewitching Bonanza

The presenting sponsorship is not a new concept. It dates back to the days of radio, when a program would have a single sponsor. Often the sponsor would be mentioned in the name of the program itself. The idea translated itself into television smoothly into the early fifties, and created a new opportunity for advertising called the "Roll-In".

The idea was simple- create a commercial that the program flows into seamlessly. The set, the actors in costume, all was continous. Generally the characters remained in character. "I Love Lucy" was a pioneer in this arena, with the Ricardos and the Mertzes seamlessly breaking into praise of Philip Morris and Hotpoint products.

Chevrolet was particularly adept that this as well. They broke into Prime Time Television with the Dinah Shore Chevy Show in 1953, and not only did Dinah share billing with Chevy, she also sang the Chevy jingle each week and appeared in the commercials as well.

By the early sixties, the concept was changing. The sponsorship tended to be shared by two or three different advertisers, so their name no longer appeared in the show's title. The concept of the rerun had also complicated the whole naming issue, but the roll-in advertising was alive and well. Also, some advertisers were beginning to sponsor several programs, so rather than "own" one program they became affiliated with several.

Chevrolet took an extremely prominent role in Bewitched- in addition to being one of the presenting sponsors (along with Quaker Oats,) Chevrolet furnished cars for the program and utilized its cast in roll-in commercials. You will note that there were different animated opens and closes for Bewitched that rotated weekly and bore the logo of that week's presenting sponsor.

But I've never seen anything quite like the spectacular Chevrolet created to launch their 1965 line up- they created a Super Commerical that blended the casts of three different Chevy-sponsored programs appearing together in a five minute announcement commercial. Bonanza, the Man from U.N.C.L.E and Bewitched were all Chevrolet sponsored shows and remarkably all took part in an unforgettable commercial.

The spot was called "Chevrolet's Bewitching Bonanza" and aired on Sunday, September 27, 1964 at the conclusion of that week's Bonanza. It opens on the set of Bonanza with Lorne Greene introducing Pernell Roberts as the latter drives a red Corvette onto the Bonanza set. Then Robert Vaughan appears along with a Corvair,and then the cast of Bewitched pop in- literally- ALL on the Bonanza set of Virginia City.

It is literally unheard of in advertising to mix the cast of the three shows in one five minute commercial and speaks to the emerging power of the television advertiser.

In this case, it is notable that all the actors use their real names versus their characters' names, but there is no mistaking the setting or the fact that they are all presented in character. Pernell Roberts for Corvette, Robert Vaughan for Corvair, Elizabeth Montgomery for Chevelle, Dan Blocker paired with Agnes Moorehead to introduce the Chevy II, and a young Michael Landon unveiling the full sized Chevrolet Impala Sport Coupe. And the parade at the end of new Chevrolets through Virginia City is not to be missed.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Chevrolet's Bewitching Bonanza, presented by Chevrolet and your Chevrolet dealer: