Seven Of Ten Quickest American Cars At Nürburgring Are GM Performance Vehicles

When the 2018 Camaro ZL1 1LE lapped the Nürburgring’s Nordschleife in 7:16.04, over 13 seconds quicker than the standard automatic ZL1, it wasn’t the whole story. Seven of the ten quickest American cars ever to tackle that track wear a GM badge, and the reasons why say a lot about how seriously Chevy started taking the world’s toughest test.

The 2018 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE provided some shock and awe yesterday when it was revealed the muscle car turned world-beater ran the famed NÃ¼rburgring Nordschleife in a crazy quick 7:16.04. But, how do other American performance cars stack up?

⚑ Featured Gear

Start Car Conversations →

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Full article:Â https://goo.gl/LVB7s7

A 7:16 lap doesn’t happen by accident, and it doesn’t happen alone. GM didn’t just build one fast Camaro, they built an entire leaderboard of them. When the numbers came in from that record ZL1 1LE run, muscle car fans started counting, and the tally was almost embarrassing for the rest of Detroit: seven of the ten quickest American cars ever to lap the Nürburgring’s brutal 12.9-mile Nordschleife wear a GM badge. That’s not a fluke or a one-off halo car flexing for a press release. That’s a company that quietly decided to get serious about the world’s hardest test track, and the Camaro was just the tip of it.

How the ZL1 1LE Beat Its Own Sibling by 13 Seconds

The 2018 Camaro ZL1 1LE ran the Nordschleife in 7:16.04, more than 13 seconds quicker than the standard automatic ZL1 Chevrolet had tested the year before. The 1LE swaps that car’s 10-speed automatic for a 6-speed manual and bolts on real endurance-racing hardware: adjustable suspension components, front dive planes, and a carbon fiber wing, all backed by 650 horsepower from a supercharged LT4 V-8. At the time, GM’s official number placed it as the 14th fastest production car ever recorded on that stretch of German asphalt.

What It Takes to Crack GM’s Own Top Ten

Cracking a top ten dominated by names like Porsche and Lamborghini is not something a muscle car does by showing up with a big engine. It takes a manufacturer willing to spend real development time and real money lapping a track most of its customers will never see in person, purely to prove the chassis and aero actually work at the limit rather than just on a spec sheet.

The Other Six GM Cars on the List

Chevrolet did not get to seven of ten by accident. The rest of that list leaned heavily on cars wearing the same bowtie, with Corvette variants doing plenty of the heavy lifting alongside other quick Camaro trims. That kind of depth on a single manufacturer’s leaderboard is rare anywhere in the world, let alone from a Detroit brand that spent years being written off by import loyalists as incapable of building a genuine road-course weapon.

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Republished by Blog Post Promoter