He Had 580 Horsepower Sitting in His Garage – Then Almost Bought the Slower Camaro Anyway

A supercharged 5th Gen ZL1 and a naturally aspirated 6th Gen SS both land around forty thousand dollars used — so which one is the smarter buy? This guide walks through the fuse-pull exhaust mod, the factory Performance Traction Management most reviewers miss, and the real reason the creator almost picked the “wrong” car anyway. Watch to see which Camaro actually fits your priorities.

Forty thousand dollars buys either car. That is the entire premise of this comparison, and it should be a simple decision — newer technology against an older car with a genuinely stronger supercharged engine underneath it. Except the creator admits, partway through, that he almost talked himself out of the car with objectively more power, and the reason has nothing to do with the dyno sheet. What actually tips a buyer between these two Camaros turns out to be a lot more complicated than horsepower, and the comments prove nobody in this fanbase agrees on the answer either.

Two Camaros, One Budget, Very Different Engineering

The fifth-generation ZL1 and sixth-generation SS represent two distinct eras of Camaro engineering competing for the same buyer’s forty thousand dollars. The 5th Gen ZL1 pairs a supercharged LSA V8 with a stronger factory bottom end built to handle serious future modification, while the 6th Gen SS relies on a naturally aspirated LT1 with genuinely updated chassis technology, better factory brakes, and a more modern interior. On paper it looks like older-but-stronger versus newer-but-lighter, and the video spends real time working through exactly what that trade-off means in daily use rather than just comparing spec sheets.

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The Supercharger Whine Nobody Can Explain Away

Commenters keep returning to one specific detail: the sound and feel of the LSA supercharger under boost, which multiple viewers describe as simply more fun to drive than anything the 6th Gen offers, spec sheet be damned. One owner calls the ZL1’s whine “so much fun to drive” that it factors directly into a purchase decision most people would expect to be settled by numbers alone. That kind of emotional pull is exactly why buyer’s guide videos like this one exist — the “better” car on paper is not always the one that gets picked.

The Fuse-Pull Mod Every 5th Gen ZL1 Owner Seems to Know About

Buried in the comments is a specific, practical detail: pulling a single fuse on the 5th Gen ZL1 locks the exhaust flaps open permanently, giving the car a louder factory exhaust note at lower RPM without any aftermarket parts. It is the kind of owner-discovered trick that never makes it into a factory manual but circulates constantly within enthusiast communities, and its repeated mention here suggests it is close to a rite of passage for ZL1 owners looking to unlock more of the car’s factory-installed hardware.

PTM Mode: The Feature the Video Undersold

One of the more detailed corrections in the comments points out a factory feature the review glossed over — Performance Traction Management, or PTM, which gives ZL1 drivers four distinct traction and stability control settings, automatically adjusts steering weight and magnetic ride stiffness, and unlocks a dedicated Race suspension mode. The same commenter notes the ZL1 also comes with no-lift-shift and factory launch control, features that matter enormously to anyone planning to take the car to a track day rather than just driving it on the street.

Why the 6th Gen SS Wins on Livability

The case for the 6th Gen SS is less about outright power and more about what it is like to own day to day — one commenter frames it simply as “if you wanna leave it stock, 6th gen SS; if you wanna modify it or race, 5th gen ZL1,” a distinction that gets at the real decision most buyers are making. The 6th Gen’s updated interior lighting, more modern infotainment, and generally tighter chassis feel make it the easier car to live with, even if it starts from a lower factory power ceiling than the supercharged ZL1.

The Manual Transmission Question

Both generations offer manual transmission options, and the video spends time on how differently they feel to row through — the 5th Gen’s factory manual shifting experience against the 6th Gen’s updated linkage and clutch feel. For buyers who consider a stick shift non-negotiable in a car like this, the manual-specific driving impressions matter as much as any engine comparison, since a supercharged engine paired with a mediocre shifter can undercut the entire ownership experience the ZL1’s powertrain promises.

The Styling Debate That Refuses to Die

Ask this comment section which generation looks better and you will get genuinely split answers, with some viewers insisting the 5th Gen’s more aggressive, nostalgic proportions win outright, and others countering that the 6th Gen’s cleaner lines finally moved the Camaro away from looking like “a European tuner” knockoff of itself. That styling argument turns out to matter just as much as the mechanical comparison to a lot of buyers, since a forty-thousand-dollar purchase people plan to keep for years has to be one they actually want to look at in the garage.

The Real Answer: It Depends What You’re Actually Going to Do

By the end, the honest conclusion both the video and its comment section arrive at is that there is no universally correct answer — only a correct answer for a specific buyer’s priorities. Track-day enthusiasts and future modifiers keep gravitating toward the ZL1’s stronger bottom end and supercharged ceiling, while buyers who want a comfortable, modern daily driver with real Camaro presence keep landing on the SS. Both camps show up in force under this video, which is usually the surest sign a buyer’s guide got the comparison right instead of picking a side for content’s sake.

That split loyalty is unusual for a same-brand comparison. Cross-shopping a ZL1 against a Mustang GT or a Challenger Scat Pack tends to produce lopsided brand-loyalty comments; here, the disagreement is entirely internal to Camaro ownership, which suggests Chevrolet genuinely built two different cars for two different kinds of enthusiast rather than simply iterating the same formula twice. Buyers researching either car would do well to drive both back to back before assuming the newer generation is automatically the better choice. A weekend rental or a patient dealership test drive of both generations back to back will tell most shoppers more than any spec sheet or forum thread ever could.

Hit play on the full video and share your take in the comments below.