The argument over the V6 verses V8 is a good debate, but it is just not enough data to determine anything yet. I can say I going to get the V8 now, and change my mind when I go actually test drive it. The most valuable concern for the consumer is pricing. I feel until some official pricing comes out I am going to remain neutral on what is the better value. Everyone has posted some excellent points, such as the resale value, how it will sound, and how would it handle. I know first I said it was V8 or nothing, but imma take a step back and wait so I can make a more intelligent choice.

 

I spent over 1/2 the '80's driving'em, and I think all of you just looking at "horsepower" numbers, ignoring "torque" and weight etc, are overestimating a V6 5th gen Camaro...that's all.

Will it be faster than the "majority" of past Camaro's?....only if you're including all the 3.8's, 305's, 2.5's, 2.8's, 3.1's and later 3.8's...etc.

That's why I stated "350ci. Z's...I drove'em, modified'em, and will say I've rebuilt my fair share of carburetors, and most "I've seen" were capable of hitting high 14's, if tuned up correctly, good tires and all.(non modified)

I could'nt be happier that the New Camaro V6 will have 300hp or more, but I am also realistic, not expecting it to be the fastest Camaro ever!
Faster than majority, I guess we'll see....
Respectable, ofcourse!

Excellent Post!........my POV as well.

 

I am including those, and making the point that it they add up to the majority of Camaros ever built. Just because they're V6s or small V8s doesn't make them "not count." They say "Camaro" on them, right?

If they were "tuned up" they were modified. I'm talking about off the showroom floor as a consumer would have bought them in the mid 70s/early 80s. Yes, those cars were easy to mod, it didn't take much to get them back to the earlier performance specs, but stock Car and Driver got 0-60 in 8.6 seconds and the 1/4 in 16.3@83 MPH for the 77 Z28, 0-60 in 7.3 and the 1/4 in 16.0@91 MPH for a 78 Z28 and 0-60 in 8.5 and 16.4@86 in an 80 Z28.

With those times stock, it's going to take some finagling to get into the 14s. The incredible torque of these cars (I have a W72 6.6 Trans Am, remember) makes them feel really fast. I think my car feels much faster than the Supercharged Regal GS my dad used to have. But I know by numbers it's not.

I never said it would be the fastest Camaro ever. But I stand by my previous assertions. I expect it to run comparably to, or a little faster than a DI CTS - 0-60 in 6.3 and the 1/4 in 14.8. That would certainly be plenty fast enough to run with those Z28s above, no?

 

Originally Posted by Eric77TA:
Uncle, if you want to include all the models that really don't represent what Camaro was, and could be...badge or no.

BTW, here's one quick search, which I'm sure I could find many more, showing "Z28's" well in range for a good driver to hit high 14's.
Z28's, not smogged out LT's or Berlinetta's..
And I'm sure I can find many showing slower times as well...depending on the drivers, tires, track conditions etc...........
Plus we all know cars like the ZL1's, LT1's etc, were fun to launch back then, driver skill was a tad more important then.


BTW, they have my 1990 IROC listed at 6.5 0-60 and 15.0 in the 1/4....
and I personally took my "bone stock, paper filtered", stock street tired, L98 (350)IROC to the drag strip and ran an average of 14.40's and a best of 14.29!....tho I bet most mags had them in the 15's ...food for thought.

 

If it says "Camaro" on the back, it's a Camaro. You can't say "Well, that's not a Camaro, because it doesn't fit my argument." If it was produced by Chevrolet as a Camaro, it represents what Camaro was at some point in its history. They were all great cars for their time.

Who said those weren't good drivers? I'd assume those driver's were trying to get the best time possible? I think those times kind of make my point, actually.

The 2nd gen examples from my previous post were ALL 350 Z28s - not LTs or Berlinettas:

0-60 in 8.6 seconds and the 1/4 in 16.3@83 MPH for the 77 Z28, 0-60 in 7.3 and the 1/4 in 16.0@91 MPH for a 78 Z28 and 0-60 in 8.5 and 16.4@86 in an 80 Z28.

And if you'll remember in my original post - TPI and 350 3rd gens were on my list of cars that I did not think that the 5th Gen. V6 would necessarily be faster than.

The 74-84 (and most 85-92) Camaros simply weren't fast stock by today's standards. Do they have a lot of potential? Yes, they're small block Chevys, after all.

I love old Camaros and Firebirds, more than new ones, so I'm not denigrating the cars of the past in any way, but I think we should HOPE that Camaro performance would improve over 35 years.

 

LOL at those L98 magazine tests, were they all non-G92 cars or something?! I've seen other tests more in the range of what they actually run, low-mid 14's with a 6.0-6.2 sec 0-60.

 

The 5th V6 Camaro will be more than a match for most 3rd gens that are remotely stock. Hell the 3.8L 4th Gen was a match for most of them except the L98s.

 

Does GM sell this DI 3.6 as a crate yet?

 

There's someone on a Solstice forum saying their dealer told them it's $5,189.

Don't know if that's fact or not...

 

I'll take a V6 IF:

it comes with 4 wheel disk brakes (likely)
performance suspension uprade (likely)
Alloy wheel package available (likely)
6-speed manual (hopefully)

I'd still prefer the performance/sound/feel of a huge V8 but, I definitely won't be ruling out the v6 with current gas prices.

Not yet Discussed!

One of the big points I'm not seeing in this whole V6 vs. V8 debate concerning gas mileage is the cylinder shut-off technology. If this technology is available on one of the v8's I don't see why a 3800 lb vehicle couldnt get 30 mpg in 6th gear at 65 mph (running on 4 cylinders)? Has there been any recent discussion of this tech hitting the camaro? Or are you all basing these fuel mileage predictions to include fuel/cylinder management systems?

 

i know on honda cars the mileage between a car with cylinder management and one that doesn't is roughly 1-2 mpg. not a big difference.

 

The Ls3 Camaro's mileage without AFM won't be too bad, my friend has an Ls1 Gto (Which the Gto is more or less the same size/weight as the Camaro is going to be) and he gets like 17 city 25 highway. And sadly enough, that's way better than my V6 Explorer... So an Ls3 (even without AFM) is going to be fairly fuel efficient as V8s go.

 

Either way, it'll be better than my 9.5 MPG city.

 

I never knew honda had cylinder management on their cars...

And as far as gas mileage goes between the V6 and V8, I really doubt there will be a huge difference. Figure if its a 3mpg difference, its not going to save much money, unless you drive crazy amounts. Even with gas prices what they are at now. Now if the V6 ran on regular... then maybe it would be lookin better, but I doubt it would run on regular.

ok, just looked up G8 numbers... V8: 15/24 V6: 17/25 and about $2K difference between a V6 and V8... if this is what the Camaro numbers are going to be looking like, which is a very good chance, then I'd say V8 all the way, its worth the 2/1 mpg worse and $2K more

 

That was 2005. It's now 2008 and things are different.

http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage...5480070&page=1

The V8s are outselling the V6s...and that's WITH the increasing gas prices.

Personally, I don't see the point of getting an american muscle car if it's not going to match the show with some go. But to each his own.

Edit: The site seems to be acting funny so I'm going to post the article in it's entirety.

Detroit carmakers flex their muscle cars
By Bernard Simon in Toronto
Friday May 16 2008 13:05

Buyers of Ford (NYSE:F) 's Mustang muscle car have sprung a surprise on the Detroit carmaker with their gas-guzzling model of choice flying in the face of rising petrol prices.

For years, the six-cylinder version of the Mustang outsold its more powerful and thirsty V8 stablemate by two to one.

While the rising fuel price has helped damp overall demand, the mix has tilted sharply in favour of the V8, which now makes up more than half of sales.

Such enthusiasm for the growl, acceleration and status of an eye-catching sports car gives hope to Ford and its two Detroit rivals, General Motors (NYSE:GM) and Chrysler, that demand for their new generation of muscle cars will prove more resilient than the faltering market for gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles and pick-up trucks.

The first Dodge Challenger built in almost three decades rolled off an assembly plant near Toronto last week. GM expects to launch its new Chevrolet Camaro early next year, and Ford is working on a new version of the Mustang, also to be unveiled in 2009.

The top-of-the-line Challenger, with a 6.1 litre engine, can reach 60 miles an hour in 4.9 seconds. But it achieves a modest 13 miles per gallon in city driving and 18mpg on the highway.

All 7,000 Challengers earmarked for production as 2008 models have already been sold. Output of the 2009 model will be significantly higher.

"These cars don't tend to be daily drives," says Fritz Wilke, Mustang's marketing manager. "They tend to be the third car in the garage." He describes them as "an emotional purchase".

Even so, muscle cars have not escaped the slump in the US motor industry. Mustang sales between January and April, totalling 34,500 units, were almost 40 per cent lower than the same period in 2005. Ford sold 135,000 Mustangs last year, compared with 419,000 when the car made its debut in 1964.

The carmakers are not oblivious to the impact of high petrol prices and tightening fuel economy regulations.

GM initially planned only a V8 version of the Camaro when it announced plans two years ago to revive the model, which was discontinued in 2002.

It has subsequently added a six-cylinder version. In contrast to the Mustang, "we expect the V6 to be the majority of sales," says John Fitzpatrick, the Camaro's marketing manager. "Times have changed," he adds.

The new Camaro's fuel consumption has yet to be disclosed. The six-cylinder Challenger R/T achieves 23mpg and the lighter Mustang 26mpg.

Bob Lutz, GM's vice-chairman, recently mused that the carmaker was also considering a four-cylinder Camaro.

GM aims to broaden the Camaro's traditional market of male baby-boomers by targeting younger customers and women.

It elicited about 500,000 responses to an insert into the DVD version of Transformers, a film starring a Camaro. Seven women are among the 15 Camaro enthusiasts invited to a sneak preview at GM's testing grounds outside Detroit this weekend.

Mustang has adopted a "steed for every need" strategy. Part of the price of a "Pink Warrior" Mustang is donated to breast cancer research. A glass-roofed version will appear this summer.

These niche models now make up about a fifth of Mustang sales.

The 2008 "King of the Road" Mustang, delivering 540 horsepower, drew 1,000 orders; another 571 are being built for 2009.

"How much do gas prices come into effect [for these buyers]?" Mr Wilke asks. "Probably not a whole lot." Still, some analysts take the view that, after an initial burst of acceleration, sales may be less muscular than the cars themselves.