On this episode of HOT ROD Unlimited
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00:00 On this episode of Hot Rod Unlimited, we're going to find out if the world's most badass '69 Camaro
00:05 can outrun the world's most badass new Camaro.
00:08 Today we're at Gingerman Raceway, which is in South Haven, Michigan,
00:21 and it's a place where a lot of pro-touring competitions go on,
00:23 and a place where a lot of the OE's test their new cars.
00:27 And so we're going to put those two things together.
00:29 We have pro-touring superhero Mark Stelo in his '69 Camaro called the Red Devil.
00:35 This car is the ultimate of taking brand new components off of late model cars
00:39 and parts from the aftermarket and putting them on a 40-something-year-old skin
00:43 to see if you can make the ultimate '69 Camaro that both handles and can be driven
00:48 any day, any time with a stereo and air conditioning.
00:56 So we're going to pit that car against the brand new ZL1 Camaro,
01:01 which as you know is the top of the line,
01:03 most radical street Camaro that you can get from Chevrolet.
01:06 But the question is, which car outruns which car here at Gingerman?
01:15 Mark Stelo's been around the pro-touring industry for a long time.
01:20 As a matter of fact, I photographed his first '69 Camaro in 1992,
01:25 and since then he has built a bunch of really famous Camaros that are just at the top of the pack.
01:30 He's also a GM engineer and was actually involved in the development of the ZL1,
01:35 and he's a suspension engineer, really knows what's going on.
01:37 He was the best guy to test out both of these cars,
01:41 but we had to make sure that he was not going to sandbag it.
01:44 Mark is hooking up a V-Box onto the car, which is for data logging,
01:47 so we can see exactly what's going on on track.
01:50 And I'm going to get in with him for the first couple laps while the track's wet
01:53 and see if we can go dry it out a little bit.
01:55 The other thing is, and I know people are going to ask this,
01:58 what's your personal agenda here? What are you going to sandbag?
02:01 Do you make this car look good to save your job,
02:04 or do you make your car look good to be a super hero?
02:06 I do my best in both.
02:08 So you're going to drive the same in each one?
02:10 I'm going to go as hard as I can.
02:11 So it's no lift shift.
02:14 Oh really?
02:15 Yeah, it's cool.
02:16 Is it programmed for that?
02:18 Yeah.
02:19 Is your car also?
02:21 No.
02:23 It is, but I don't like doing it.
02:24 Taking a few warm-up laps with Stilo and the ZL1,
02:30 the thing that's evident is that this car is going to be disadvantaged
02:33 because of its weight and because it only makes 580 horsepower,
02:36 and he's got a lot more than that.
02:38 But he's really up against technology here,
02:41 because the new Camaro is wider, which makes it handle better,
02:44 but it also has independent rear suspension, which the 69 does not,
02:48 and Chevy's magnetic ride setup, which is an advanced system of controlling
02:53 the shock, jounce, and rebound actively as you're going around corners.
02:57 We did all of our testing with the Camaro in performance setting number five.
03:00 Next up, I hopped in the Red Devil.
03:06 This is my first time ever in this car.
03:08 I really only know it by reputation,
03:10 because it has won a bunch of these pro-touring shootouts.
03:13 As a matter of fact, right here at Ginterman the weekend prior to this,
03:17 it outran every other muscle car there by about three seconds on the lap time.
03:22 My perception is this thing takes a lot more skill to drive fast.
03:26 Oh, yeah.
03:26 The Red Devil is obviously just more violent and brutal than the ZL1.
03:35 It makes a lot more noise, it sounds wicked, it's got more horsepower,
03:39 it seems trickier to drive, it doesn't ride quite as well,
03:42 and you can tell that Stilo is just muscling the thing around the corners more.
03:47 Overall, it's a more raw driving experience,
03:49 and yet still the tightest '69 Camaro I've ever been in.
03:54 This thing has no shakes or rattles.
03:56 It's pretty amazing.
03:59 It's a lot more fun from a violence and sound point of view, that's for sure.
04:04 At the end of the day, what are we going to sit back and look at the data and say?
04:10 I'm going to predict that lighter weight and more power is going to prevail,
04:14 which means the Red Devil will win.
04:16 We good?
04:18 Yeah.
04:18 When Stilo came off the track in the ZL1,
04:41 he seemed pretty happy with the performance, but here's what's amazing.
04:45 A few weeks before we were at Gingerman, Automobile Magazine was there with a driver
04:49 who had actually been the 2007 Indy Lights Championship,
04:53 and that guy ran a 1.44.53 in the ZL1.
04:58 But today, Stilo laid down a 1.42.05.
05:03 That's way quicker.
05:05 He's pretty sure that that is the quickest lap time around Gingerman ever in a brand new ZL1.
05:10 OK, you ready?
05:11 Yeah, wish I hadn't put such a good lap time down on the ZL1.
05:16 I'm OK with it.
05:16 Well, let's see what you can do.
05:18 All right.
05:20 [ENGINE REVVING]
05:22 Well, Mark called it.
05:46 He told us that the Red Devil was going to be quicker, and it was.
05:49 He ran a 1.39.05, about two and a half seconds faster around Gingerman than the ZL1.
05:56 But the thing that we looked at in our V-Box data,
05:59 which shows us a plot of acceleration at points all the way around the track,
06:03 is that both cars hung right with each other in the corners.
06:06 They pulled the same lateral Gs at about the same speeds.
06:10 But what happened is that the lighter Red Devil with more horsepower
06:14 just simply outran the ZL1 in the straightaways.
06:17 So what did we learn today, aside from the fact that we get paid to play with
06:25 Camaros on racetracks, which is actually pretty bitchin'?
06:28 I think the takeaway here is it's really, really impressive that Chevrolet is making
06:34 a brand new car that for $55,000 almost runs right with an old muscle car that's been hot-rodded
06:41 to a level that is at the very top of its field.
06:44 Man, is it awe-inspiring.
06:46 You can take an old muscle car, bolt on Detroit-speed suspension,
06:50 put in a late-model engine and transmission,
06:52 sort it out perfectly, and outrun the baddest that Chevrolet has to offer.
06:57 In the Camaro platform, anyway.
06:59 Maybe we need to do this again with a Corvette.
07:01 This has been Hot Rod Unlimited.
07:03 We've had a blast.
07:04 Hope you have, too.
07:06 [CAR ENGINE]