So start out, this is my girlfriends car and I didnt have high expectations coming into the car. Everyone know how it is the with V6 and 4 cylinder cars, they’re “less cool”. They’re inehrently wrong for having an incorrect number of cylinders. Many an auto jorunalist has been laughed off for positive comments about V6 pony cars, even when the turbo 4 cylinder foxbody pumped out more hp than the 5.0 V8. But driving this thing has changed my mind about these things, and about the camaro as a whole.

So the camaro, the first thing you see when you get inside of it is what you cant see. The visibility in these things is as bad as they say, albiet significantly better than the earlier generations of camaro if you can beleive that. But other than that its a nice driving position, just as comfy ripping mountain roads as it eating miles, and unlike the V8 it’ll do high 20’s on the highway while only sucking down the finest 87 octane fuel. Quite a cheap thing to keep on the road. It’s packed full of stuff you really would not expect from a decade old base model pony car, you can change the stiffness of the steering on the fly, and in the sport setting (which me and her have never left since she first turned the keys) it has an excellent weight and is not at all inconvenient to use in a parking lot. I didn’t even know it was “sport mode” until I scrolled through menus while bored. The seats are heated and cooled, and its got all the media bullshit you screenophiles so desperately need, albeit in a reasonable 8 inch screen rather than some hideous 30 inch horror show.

Well enough about the stuff you don’t care about, onto the driving experience when you start to push it hard. The transmission is excellent, not quite a dual clutch, but its seriously impressive and its hard to catch it slipping. The 8 speed cracks off quick downshifts and quick up shifts. I’ve never been offended by its response time to a paddle input and i seriously hate most torque converter autos. The 6 speed in the early camaros is totally hopeless, by the time it takes to think about downshifting the newer 8 speed could have changed gears twice. Despite only having okay tires (mid tier all seasons from a reputable brand) it takes all you can throw at it on the road and is just happy to turn in. It’s behavior at the limits is completely docile, the slight groan of the tires fades into an easily remedied under-steer. The rear end is just as happy to wiggle aroud and snap back into place. My first ever autocross run with it I was able to extract solid performance out of it, solely because of how easy it is to drive. Throw 200tw on it and I fear what it would be capable of. My guess is some of the CAM-T guys would be seriously butt hurt by an absolute base model smoking their loud and flashy live axle mustang. The 0-60 is mid to low 6’s, more than enough to have a ton of fun on the road. Tbh the supercharged monster versions don’t appeal all that much to me as street cars, considering how fast the regular SS is. But we all know the new generation of supercharged Camaro’s were built for the track not the street.

For the daily drive there’s truly not much to complain about. The ride could be a little softer, but that would ruin whats so good about this car. The balance between compliance and sharp handling is very well done on this car. Barb won’t be too upset driving this to church because Terry said we only buy MURICAN in this household. Sure she’ll never exceed the speed limit credit to her 1.5 second long reaction time and questionable ability to even drive at all these days, but between the radio, the heated seats and backup cam the number of dents it receives may be small enough to look good from 10 feet away. Credit to Chevy for making such a great car for the spec that nobody really cared about, and with that onto my last remarks about the car.

Every time you drive it, you cant help but know what you’re missing out on. Every time I floor it I think of how much better it would sound if the engine bay was full instead of missing two cylinders. Every time I chuck it into a corner I think about how the lighter and much better LTG motor would be more fun, the turbo 4 cylinder with forged internals, happy to reliably push V8 power with basic bolt ons. You always miss that extra 50-100hp and or -100lbs to the nose you would get if you simply chose the better model either above it or bellow it. The V6 is a strange middle child, enough cylinders to satisfy the boomers who don’t even know what a turbo is, but vastly undercutting the V8 in terms of price. They’re by far the cheapest to buy on the used market. And with all of that, despite it being the worst Camaro of that generation, it still drives a little better than any Mustang I’ve been handed the keys too (a 4.6 3v with heavily modded suspension, and a 3.7 mustang with a 6 speed manual). It is truly a shame that Chevy killed this wonderful legacy off to build some more forgettable electric slop that will be nothing more than an Equinox EV with 800 volts and a 0-60 of 2.whatever. I get it, the next gen Camaro will be faster, but it’s going to weigh 6000-7000lbs and be hopeless on a track. As per usual, as soon as Chevy perfected the Camaro, they sent it off to the gulag.

Rest easy sweet prince, the used market will always love y’all.