lutador83

Last night I ran into an old friend of mine from high school on the road who I hadn't seen in years. Turns out he had bought a Camaro V6 RS with every single option imaginable. So we pulled over and in addition to catching up on life, we started talking about cars.

I sat inside the Camaro and got a chance to check it out up close and personal. I didn't think the interior was as bad as people thought. The dash was a bit weird along with the steering wheel. I found it neat however that the car gave navigation right in between the speedometer and rpm gauges. First time I had seen that. All in all I thought it was a nice car. But frankly, I thought the previous generation, especially the 2002 Camaro SS, had more presence than the current model.

That being said, I'm curious as to how the SS really performs. People say that you feel the power more because you don't have to rev the motor as high as we do to feel the power. I know that was something I felt very different between the 05-09 and the 99-04 GTs. Though weaker, I felt that the 99-04 GTs had a more muscle car feel to it than the current body style.

Maybe I should go to my local Chevy dealer and see if the SS really is a bad *** machine...

karman

Back in the day, I loved GM cars.
I test drove the previous generation on Camaros and Firebirds and decided that I loved the power.
I also decided not to buy one because I couldn't see properly out of the cabin and my head felt too close to the roof when I adjusted the seat to be in position where I could almost see. (If you were tall or short you ended up with your head near the roof if you wanted to know where the edges of the car were.)
Every review of the new Camaro says that the visibility may be even worse and I agree.
I think they did a pretty good job on the outside of the car. It looks decent.
I don't drive a car from the outside.
If I have to drive a car in traffic I want to be able to see out of it okay.
The Mustang I can see out of. That's one of the reasons I bought it.
If the new Camaro had visibility equal to the original one that would be good enough too, but it doesn't.

Antigini-GT/CS

Hell to the no.

My hips are nice enough, don't need an oversized pair hanging around.

SONICBOOST

I love the new camaro and previous camaros... But would buy a 2011 5.0 before a new Camaro SS.

Edit- I thought about getting a new camaro but I love my mustang way too much and have invested too much into it to get rid of it..

cdynaco

Nope. No Steve McQueen model.

jedikd

IMHO nope. The styling is far too "look at me I was in Transformers" for my taste and it seems to be a classic case of form over function. The car itself is just too darn heavy for what I'm looking for in a car. The 2011 5.0 is right at the borderline of weight and I'm happy to hear the next-gen Mustang may go on a 100-200 lb diet.

I always laugh when I hear the Camaro guys say "oh but next year we're getting gears, CAI, etc," more HP will not fix the Camaro, it needs a new platform that's lighter and more functional. HP will make the car faster in a straight line, less weight makes cars better in every aspect (fuel, acceleration, braking, handling, etc).

Green96GT

How dare you speak such blasphemy on this here site. Motor Trend tested camaro ss against the 2011 Mustang 5.0. The Mustang was faster and handled better than the camaro and was motor trends pick. I feel when you buy a Mustang you are not just buying another sports car. You are buying a piece of history and heritage. The Mustang was americas first sports car and they have never had to stop production of it in over 45 years now. Plus I have been told that the Mustang holds its value better.

lutador83

That's the exact reason I purchased my CS. I am merely wondering if the Camaro is indeed a nice machine. Would I buy one? No. Since I was a kid, the only car that really gets my blood pumping is the Mustang. Aside from that, I would consider a Corvette as my brother has had two and I have a lot of respect for those cars.

I just wanted to see if anyone here has driven one and perhaps pushed it a bit to see what they thought. If I had to buy another muscle car aside from the Mustang and it had to be one of the current models, I would take Challenger over the Camaro anyway. The Challenger may be heavy and slower compared to us and the Camaro, but its styling, in my opinion is very nice.

WaltM

Never considered Camaro or Challenger for a second. I bleed Ford blue.

cdynaco

I graduated HS in '74 so I caught the tail end of the muscle cars before our friendly Saudi's screwed everything up.

My family was a Pontiac family so I liked the LeMans (sister had one) & GTO, also the Olds 442 (had one briefly till the POS blew up), but mostly the Chevelle SS 396, all of which were similar GM body styles. I also liked the Road Runner and Cuda.

But I spent most of the time in my friend's 66 2+2 289. It was cool!

Just never really liked the squished up styling of the Camaro or the Firebird/Trans Am. Looked like they got sandwiched between two semi's.

Dixie_Flatline

Get the CHE K-member brace with torque limiters and a set of prothane motor mounts and you'll feel your engine all across the rev range....

WaltM

My '05 crushes my old '01 in every aspect; and it didn't need any add ons to do that.

RCCollins

I think the Camaro looks great, it is a little oversized IMHO, as is the Mustang. I would never even consider one however because of the Government Motors/Too big to fail situation, I would never support any company with their mentality.

MustangGuy

Never! Too bloated and overdone. Now the Challenger is another story. Sweeeet!
But I would NEVER trade my Mustang for one.

metroplex

The new Camaro looks slick except:
Horrible instrumentation
Unsafe interior visibility
Ugly tail lamp chrome trim rings

Other than that, the SS is faster than the 2011 GT w/ the Coyote V8 and the GM LSx motor has a lot more potential. Ford skimped on the Coyote and not supplying direct fuel injection just to save $200 per engine.

cdynaco

They said they achieved close to the same advantage with the redesigned heads/injector placement in conjuction with valve timing.

excerpts:


The engine was engineered from the beginning for supercharging or EcoBoost, so why not EcoBoost the engine now? "We were able to meet our objectives without it, and quite frankly, it's quite expensive," Mike educated. "On this platform, its $50 to do DI on the V-8 with two pumps and eight injectors ... And the other thing is, we only had two years to deliver it, from initially talking about it to spitting 'em out at the factory. It could have been potentially one of the technologies that tripped us up in terms of timing."
So, while 90 percent of Ford engines will boast boost by 2013, having the Mustang GT engine make power the conventional way costs less and better fits its market. Furthermore, as we'll see later, the Coyote team found ways of gaining much of the EcoBoost fuel economy and efficiency gains with zero extra cost. We think a crisp, naturally aspirated revver like the Coyote was definitely the right call for the Mustang, and think it will remain a fresh alternative in an increasingly turbo world.
Perhaps the final major head-design challenge was packaging everything into the downsized Coyote head. This was only slightly complicated by leaving room for an EcoBoost fuel injector. Its path low on the intake side was protected during Coyote development in case Ford decides to fit the somewhat bulky direct injection injector to the 5.0-liter in the future.
Direct Performance
Some may wonder why the Coyote is not debuting with EcoBoost, Ford's combination of direct fuel injection and turbos. It's a fair question, but after driving EcoBoost in everything Ford puts it in, we're not missing it on the Coyote.

EcoBoost is efficient, torquey, somewhat revvable, and expensive. For a performance car, its personality is a hint cool, without an exhaust snarl or light-speed snappiness. In fact, after 25 years of driving performance cars, we're convinced there is nothing better than a crisp 400-500hp, naturally aspirated small-block when it comes to driving fun. The Coyote comes awfully close to perfection on paper, so we're really looking forward to driving it.

For the Coyote team, Mike Harrison expresses the inevitable concern. "I'm personally worried that when it launches people will think, 'Oh, doesn't it have DI on it? You know, it's not relevant.' I'm a bit worried about that, but I hope the metrics will speak for themselves, because we're delivering DI-like performance. We're trying to leave the impression it is fully competitive without it."

A big reason Mike isn't too concerned is the Coyote has garnered much of EcoBoost's advantages without the cost.

As a Coyote team engineer put it, "On a naturally-aspirated engine, the biggest benefit of DI is charge cooling-and it's a volumetric efficiency benefit and not a tolerance benefit. We squirt the injectors while the [intake] valve is open, and it's open a long time, which we haven't done before. It seems simple and gets you half the benefit of DI-for no costs at all."

The only apparent downside is cylinder-wall washing at low engine speeds, so the injector is limited to closed-valve periods at low rpm. Also, the camshafts change valve timing, so that's something else to synchronize with the injector in the engine management calibration.
http://www.mustang50magazine.com/techarticles/m5lp_1003_2011_ford_mustang_gt_50_coyote_engine/index.html

2006stang

Ironic you would post that.......I took Moms L99 SS (bone stock) out for a spin today and it's not a bad car at all but it is not as quick as my GT (mods in sig) because of its curb weight....probably in a 0-120+mph dash the extra cubes will shine on the top end but not 0-60 or 0-100mph....ain't gonna happen if traction is equal. The SS handles as good, rides as good, more interior space, not as much headroom, both are equal on fit and finish, visibility is not nearly as good as my GT, styling is purely objectional so I won't comment, interior is not as attractive but is simple and everything is easy to get to after you get used to it, both are comfortable, both stereos are top notch, both are toooooo quiet stock. Both have a big aftermarket. My GT is equal to the SS in everyway that interest me and the GT is the better bargain and I like the GT retro styling better than the SS "almost but not enuff" retro styling but believe it or not....not everyone wants a Mustang and Chevy lovers who wants a 4 seat Chevy and likes the new styling have a nice option in the SS. The new 5.0 will blow its doors off by virtue of the weight advantage. So would an Edelbrock blower on mine and still have a few bucks leftover for speeding tickets and tires. Would I buy new SS.....hell no! Would I take it after she is done with it for a deeeeep discount....hell yeah! But I wouldn't trade my '07 for a 2010 SS or a 2011 5.0 GT? Nope because the '05-'09 styling with a few retro mods is modern perfection. Now a '69-'70 Boss or Mach 1.........hummmmm.

MARZ

I don't know if one can definitely state that the Camaro SS is faster than the 2011 Coyote-equipped Mustang GT yet. The new Mustangs are just NOW arriving at dealerships; the rags' numbers, while probably not realistic for most drivers out there, were very impressive, too. Furthermore, in regards to overall potential, again, how does anyone know, yet?

metroplex

I take whatever Ford says with a huge grain of salt. Direct injection with a N/A engine makes a sizeable difference in power and fuel economy. They can justify the $200 cost savings however they want, but they're going to make the Coyote a DI engine sooner or later and probably fix the myriad of problems 4-5 years later.

cdynaco

Does the camaro have DI? Or inject in an open valve?


Ford says it was only a $50 difference (not $200) for fuel pumps and injectors. Don't think they would have skimped $50 if it mattered much. The bigger concern apparently was putting a fairly new technology on a new Mustang engine without the sufficient time to make it bullet proof, and I doubt they want their flagship vehicle to be a guinea pig.