Chevrolet Camaro 2014 Z/28 Hot Lap!

Chevy only built this Camaro for two model years before quietly pulling the plug, and that was always the plan. Powered by a 505-horsepower LS7 borrowed from the Corvette Z06 and stripped of anything that wasn’t earning its keep, the 2014 Z/28 wasn’t chasing quarter-mile bragging rights. It was built to embarrass cars on a road course, and Chevy made sure almost nobody would ever own one.

What would you rather, this or the Hellcat?

There’s a reason GM only let this Camaro exist for two model years and then quietly retired it — a car this focused wasn’t built to last, it was built to make a point. Under the hood sat an engine borrowed straight from the Corvette Z06, tuned exclusively for one job: turning a mass-produced pony car into something that could hang with actual road-racing machinery. No supercharger, no forced induction gimmicks — just a huge naturally aspirated V8 and a chassis worked over until it barely resembled the Camaro parked next to it on the showroom floor. Chevy built so few of them that most enthusiasts never got the chance to actually drive one, and the number is smaller than you’d think.

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An LS7 That Didn’t Belong in a Camaro (And That’s the Point)

The 2014 Z/28 borrowed its 7.0-liter LS7 straight out of the Corvette Z06 parts bin, and Chevy didn’t detune it for street manners. Rated at 505 horsepower and 481 lb-ft of torque, it was the most powerful naturally aspirated engine GM had ever stuffed into a production car at the time. Paired with a six-speed manual and a set of Pirelli PZero Trofeo R tires — the first time that ultra-high-performance rubber had ever been fitted to a production car — the Z/28 wasn’t chasing a quarter-mile time. It was chasing a lap time, and it showed.

How Rare Does “Limited Production” Actually Get?

GM originally floated the idea of building 3,000 to 4,000 Z/28s across the model’s run. What actually left the factory was far smaller: just 1,801 units total across the 2014 and 2015 model years, hand-assembled through GM’s Performance Build Center. That kind of scarcity, combined with a genuinely track-focused engineering brief instead of a trim-level badge job, is exactly why these cars have held their value so well in the years since.

Track Car First, Muscle Car Second

Weighing in at 3,836 pounds with a 7.59 lb/hp ratio, the Z/28 wasn’t the fastest Camaro in a straight line — that title belonged to the supercharged ZL1. But point this thing at a road course and it would embarrass cars costing twice as much. That’s the trade-off that makes the Z/28 such a fascinating footnote in Camaro history: Chevy built a genuine track weapon wearing a production badge, sold it for two years, and then let it disappear.

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