Question about "Agility Training" Camaro Article - Feb 2017 Issue

I found your "Agility Training" article in the February 2017 interesting. I have a couple of questions I'm hoping one of the GRM folks might be able to answer (eg. perhaps Ed).

1. How appropriate do you feel the 6th Gen Camaro is for AutoX (ignoring classing)? By that I don't mean is it decent for a "muscle car", I'm asking is it an effective/fun car for AutoX period?

2. The article indicates you tried multiple specs of the car with and without the lowering/sway bar kits. I'm not certain what you drove, but here's a recap of available factory configurations: The base I4/V6 cars have the base suspension. The base SS has FE3 suspension. The 1LE package for the V6 uses the FE3 suspension from the base SS. The 1LE package for the SS uses the FE4 suspension from the ZL1.

How would you rate the effectiveness of the lowering/handling kits compared to the factory configurations? Would the lowering/handling kit be a route to create a V6 1LE+ (>=FE3) suspension level in a I4/V6 car? I don't know if this can be answered, but I wonder if putting the SS version of the lowering/handling kit on the I4/V6 cars might obtain SS 1LE+ (>=FE4) level suspension?

Hi Snrub.

Lots of good questions in there. And thanks for reading!

Before answering your first question, I should state that all of the driving we did behind the wheel of the Camaros was on a road course, rather than an autocross course. I do believe it could be a good autocrosser, but if I were buying one strictly for that purpose, I would probably go for the four cylinder turbo. I dare say the four cylinder didn't feel like much of a downgrade from the V6 on track. Plus it's almost 350 pounds lighter than the SS in stock trim. So maybe the best autocross Camaro is the one farthest from their "muscle car" image?

That second question is a mouthful, but I think I understand what you're getting at. We drove two versions of each powerplant: The first of each pair was in stock base form. The second had all the upgrades. This meant that we couldn't exactly experience the effects of just one upgrade at a time. However, the differences in stock vs. upgraded performance was definitely more pronounced in the 4-cylinder and V6 cars.

As for whether or not you can create a more capable car than the 1LE using the SG3 and SC1 kits, the short answer is I'm not sure. We didn't drive 1LE on track (We drove the 1LT, 2LT and SS). But if I were comparing the base SS (has the FE3 suspension) to the V6 with SG3 and SC1 kits, I would say the SS is still the slightly better performer. Take that statement with a grain of salt though, since there are other aspects of the SS (and the 1LE for that matter) that make it feel and perform better.

But at the end of the day, it comes down to your preference in feel.

Thanks for your response, it's very interesting and helpful. I really value information from a reliable source like you folks. There are so many ways to obtain the opinions of lay-people, but one cannot know whether they have any validity.

I sort of assumed your experience was on an autoX course due to the reference to GM's 2 sec improvement on a 1 minute autoX course claim. Track experience is just as relevant for my purposes, I was mostly interested in learning about the car's nimbleness/handling improvements, etc. Thanks again!