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The new sixth-generation Chevrolet Camaro offers a four-cylinder engine for the first time since the 1980s, and its 1LE handling package is now available for the V-6 model. The Ford Mustang, too, has turned to a turbo four in response to tightening fuel-economy and emissions standards. But lest you think the days of howling, rip-roaring V-8 muscle cars are fading, the 2017 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 is here to change your mind. A Z06 with a Back Seat? Debuting just ahead of the 2016 New York auto show, the newest version of the 10Best-winning Camaro is a no-holds-barred, supercharged V-8 beast. Of course, what you really want to know is how much muscle it’s packing. The answer is 640 horsepower and 640 lb-ft of torque, coming from General Motors’ LT4 supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 engine also found in the Corvette Z06. While the ZL1’s numbers fall 10 horsepower and 10 lb-ft short of the hottest Corvette’s, those figures still represent a whopping 60 horsepower and 84 lb-ft more than the last Camaro ZL1’s 580-hp 6.2-liter supercharged LSA powerplant. The latest ZL1 also weighs 200 pounds less than its predecessor, according to Chevrolet, thanks to the Camaro lineup’s move to GM’s lithe Alpha platform that’s shared with the Cadillac ATS and CTS. This improved power-to-weight ratio should make for blistering acceleration times. The last Camaro ZL1 we tested in 2014 hit the 60-mph mark in 4.1 seconds and ran the quarter-mile in 12.4. The 455-hp SS version of the new sixth-generation car trumped those numbers with a 3.9-second zero-to-60-mph run and a 12.3-second quarter-mile time. So, yeah, the ZL1 will be hellaciously quick. Six Speeds—or Ten! The ZL1 comes standard with a six-speed manual with active rev-matching capability, as you’d expect. But the big surprise is that the ZL1 will be the first GM product to offer the new 10-speed automatic transmission. This gearbox, developed in conjunction with crosstown rival Ford, has a 7.39 overall ratio spread, and Chevy says that the smaller ratio gaps between gears help optimize gear selection for acceleration and when exiting corners. Paddle shifters come standard. During a brief ride-along in a prototype ZL1 automatic, we were especially impressed with the 10-speed’s quick, crisp shifts. This new transmission will also be installed in seven additional models by 2018—we’d guess that the Corvette Z06 and the LT4-powered Cadillac CTS-V might be the next recipients. Although the ZL1’s horsepower and torque numbers seem strategically designed so as to not upstage the Corvette Z06, the Camaro team took more liberties with the chassis setup. Nearly all of the Z06’s best components are present in the ZL1, from the magnetorheological dampers to an electronically controlled limited-slip differential to GM’s impressive Performance Traction Management system. Standard 20-inch wheels are wrapped with Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar tires in staggered sizes of 285/30 up front and 305/30 at the rear. The Camaro ZL1’s Brembo brake rotors, although not carbon-ceramic, are humongous 15.4-inch two-piece serving platters (Chevy has not yet shared information on the rear brakes). Those front rotors are actually larger than the standard Z06 units, and they’re only 0.1 inch smaller than the carbon-ceramic rotors offered with the Z06’s upgraded Z07 performance package. Chevy also throws some shade at the Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 and its harder-core GT350R variant by saying that the Camaro ZL1 is prepared for track duty without any optional add-ons, as it comes standard with 11 heat exchangers for proper powertrain cooling. Visually, the 2017 Camaro ZL1 looks meaner than any sixth-gen Camaro we’ve seen so far. It’s not all for show, either, as the front splitter, rocker-panel extensions, and rear wing all are designed to improve the car’s aerodynamics for better high-speed stability. Helping with engine cooling, the hollowed-out Chevrolet “flowtie” badge makes its way onto the ZL1 after first appearing on the previous-generation Z/28. A new hood with the requisite power bulge incorporates a heat extractor, and the reworked lower grille maximizes airflow. The racy theme continues inside, with the standard Recaro seats featuring ZL1 badges and red stitching. The seatbelts also are red, and the flat-bottom steering wheel and shift knob are trimmed in microsuede. Track rats will appreciate the availability of GM’s Performance Data Recorder, which comes with a built-in camera and a GPS receiver that allows for location-based track maps. Look for the 2017 Camaro ZL1 to carry a starting price upwards of $60,000 when it goes on sale in late 2016. The ZL1 is significantly more powerful than the 526-hp Mustang Shelby GT350, while the 707-hp Dodge Challenger Hellcat has the Camaro beat in horsepower but has less-specialized chassis componentry. We’re certainly excited to see how the ZL1 stacks up when we get behind the wheel, so stay tuned.

We often get invited to drive what automakers assure us are prototype vehicles, but which turn out to be carefully cosseted show ponies rather than hardworking test mules. Doing so allows automakers to provide an early taste of a new model while still offering the plausible deniability of being able to say, “That’s not the final spec,” if we don’t like something. A Feral Fug That’s not the case here; we have no doubt that this gnarly looking Aston Martin DB11 is a well-worn development prototype. For starters, there’s the ugly dazzle-pattern camouflage that is peeling off in places, and it has a feral fug that suggests lots of engineers have spent many hours sweating inside of it. Yet the biggest surprise is the baby-blue leather trim. “Hideous, isn’t it?” says our chaperone for the day, Aston head of chassis development Matt Becker. Apparently the company’s prototypes are often finished in the colors nobody actually orders. “They must have had a fair bit of this left lying around. I can’t think why,” he adds, with a nice bit of English understatement. Even starting the prototype DB11 so that we can experience it—at the Bridgestone test track near Adria, Italy—turns out to be a challenge. A laptop needs to be plugged in to ensure that the car’s ECUs are running the latest versions of the chassis and powertrain software, and the first time the engine fires up, the TFT instrument cluster stays blank. A technician does the automotive equivalent of a reboot—disconnecting the battery’s negative lead for 30 seconds—and a second attempt brings both the engine and the gauges to life. “But the graphics aren’t finalized yet,” Becker advises. Much else isn’t, either. Aston Martin is letting us experience the car several months ahead of the official press launch, and the “that will be fixed” line gets a fair airing: from the transmission shunt when the car is put in gear and the stiffness of the steering-wheel buttons to the whistling noise as air comes past its preproduction door seals. But the car is close enough to final spec to reveal answers to some of the bigger questions about what is Aston’s most important new model in a generation. Much feels familiar. The low-slung seating position and the high beltline are straight from the DB9this car replaces, as are the P, R, N, and D gear-selector buttons laid out on the dashboard in place of a conventional shifter. But plenty is new, too. The TFT instrument cluster features a central tachometer that incorporates a speed readout and is flanked by display screens on either side, all crisply rendered. The steering wheel contains more controls than any previous Aston, including two paddle-like buttons to separately alter the dynamic modes for both the chassis and the powertrain, while the presence of a Mercedes-Benz control stalk for the wipers and turn signals gives confirmation of the Daimler electronic architecture that underpins everything. (This is a result of the companies’ technical partnership; we also note that the prototype’s key is a Mercedes fob, complete with three-pointed star.) Enter the Turbos The new 600-hp 5.2-liter twin-turbocharged V-12 engine produces vastly more torque than its naturally aspirated predecessor, with the full 516 lb-ft available from just 1500 rpm, and it’s immediately obvious once we get rolling that it’s a very different powerplant. Becker admits that getting the chassis to handle the engine’s output without complaint was one of his team’s bigger challenges (unlike Ferrari V-8s, the torque output isn’t limited in lower gears), but on the dry asphalt of the handling course, the DB11’s ultrawide Bridgestones find enough grip to deal with the urge without drama. The engine pulls strongly and with little lag. Indeed, to feel any hesitation, you have to set out to deliberately provoke the engine by manually upshifting into a higher gear and then standing on the gas—something the transmission will always avoid in drive by downshifting. From 3000 rpm on up, we couldn’t honestly discern any delay in response, with linear thrust continuing to build all the way to the 7000-rpm fuel cutoff. It feels effortless in a way that no current Aston does, but at the same time, it lacks the yowling top-end soundtrack of today’s naturally aspirated V-12. Instead, it emits a bass-heavy exhaust note laid over a muscular induction roar. Such is the price of progress: We’re told to expect the turbocharged engine to produce 25 percent better fuel-economy ratings. Considering Aston Martin’s claim of a 3900-pound dry weight (meaning without fluids) and the grip the chassis generates, the DB11 feels impressively agile through the twisty sections of the track we’re on. Becker previously served as head of chassis development for Lotus, and we detect something Lotus-like in the linearity of the steering and the feel that comes through the electrical power assist. In the softest mode, GT, the stability-control system does a good job of staying nearly invisible as it intervenes to help keep the Aston on its chosen line—you have to go into a tight turn way too fast before you’ll provoke understeer, and Becker says that even that tendency will be reduced with more work on the torque-vectoring differential. Nor is this the tire-smoking monster that the engine’s output numbers might lead you to expect. Even the powertrain’s most aggressive modes, Sport and Sport Plus, don’t deliver meaningful rear-end sliding under big throttle openings, although they do sharpen the pedal’s response and increase the engine’s volume levels. Our only significant complaint was with the gearbox’s leisurely upshifts in its manual mode, with a too-discernible delay between pulling the paddle behind the steering wheel and feeling the next gear arrive. Becker assures us that this will be tightened up by production and that the stroke of the paddles will be reduced by half. The track is too smooth to really assess ride, but the DB11 feels pliant while also nicely resisting body roll, even with the dampers in their softest setting. The brakes are good, too; Aston isn’t offering carbon-ceramics, but the iron discs deal with consistent hard use without complaint. Long before we get bored with caning the DB11 around what amounts to a private racetrack, Becker suggests moving to the wet-handling circuit, where tarmac is flooded under a constant depth of water to give a low-grip surface. It’s certainly that. With adhesion levels reduced to little more than that of a shot glass on a mahogany bar top, the Aston’s handling balance tips dramatically. The stability control abandons all subtlety as it attempts to keep the DB11 on track, and the back end squirms and battles for grip. Switching the ESC to its permissive Sport mode reveals just how hard the system was working to tame the V-12’s torque output, with even the smallest throttle applications delivering the unmistakable sensation of yaw as the back end makes a break for freedom; in this mode, a fair amount of rotation is allowed before the electronics step in to restore order. The system can be fully deactivated, and Becker was happy to demonstrate that, with enough talent behind the wheel, the DB11 can be turned into a $215,000 drift machine that can do pretty much a whole lap while traveling sideways. We leave Italy with many questions unanswered. We can’t tell you how the DB11 deals with a rough road or a traffic jam. We can’t even tell you how its central display screen looks or how easy it is to navigate among different functions, as the prototype’s system wasn’t working. What we can say is probably what matters most: Like the best of its predecessors, the DB11 is on course to be fast, effortless, and exciting, pretty much in equal measure.

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