2012 Chevy Camaro ZL1 vs. Mark Stielows Red Devil 69 Camaro - HOT ROD Unlimited Episode 13 - video Dailymotion

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On this episode of HOT ROD Unlimited

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00:00 On this episode of Hot Rod Unlimited, we're going to find out if the world's most badass '69 Camaro

00:05 can outrun the world's most badass new Camaro.

00:08 Today we're at Gingerman Raceway, which is in South Haven, Michigan,

00:21 and it's a place where a lot of pro-touring competitions go on,

00:23 and a place where a lot of the OE's test their new cars.

00:27 And so we're going to put those two things together.

00:29 We have pro-touring superhero Mark Stelo in his '69 Camaro called the Red Devil.

00:35 This car is the ultimate of taking brand new components off of late model cars

00:39 and parts from the aftermarket and putting them on a 40-something-year-old skin

00:43 to see if you can make the ultimate '69 Camaro that both handles and can be driven

00:48 any day, any time with a stereo and air conditioning.

00:56 So we're going to pit that car against the brand new ZL1 Camaro,

01:01 which as you know is the top of the line,

01:03 most radical street Camaro that you can get from Chevrolet.

01:06 But the question is, which car outruns which car here at Gingerman?

01:15 Mark Stelo's been around the pro-touring industry for a long time.

01:20 As a matter of fact, I photographed his first '69 Camaro in 1992,

01:25 and since then he has built a bunch of really famous Camaros that are just at the top of the pack.

01:30 He's also a GM engineer and was actually involved in the development of the ZL1,

01:35 and he's a suspension engineer, really knows what's going on.

01:37 He was the best guy to test out both of these cars,

01:41 but we had to make sure that he was not going to sandbag it.

01:44 Mark is hooking up a V-Box onto the car, which is for data logging,

01:47 so we can see exactly what's going on on track.

01:50 And I'm going to get in with him for the first couple laps while the track's wet

01:53 and see if we can go dry it out a little bit.

01:55 The other thing is, and I know people are going to ask this,

01:58 what's your personal agenda here? What are you going to sandbag?

02:01 Do you make this car look good to save your job,

02:04 or do you make your car look good to be a super hero?

02:06 I do my best in both.

02:08 So you're going to drive the same in each one?

02:10 I'm going to go as hard as I can.

02:11 So it's no lift shift.

02:14 Oh really?

02:15 Yeah, it's cool.

02:16 Is it programmed for that?

02:18 Yeah.

02:19 Is your car also?

02:21 No.

02:23 It is, but I don't like doing it.

02:24 Taking a few warm-up laps with Stilo and the ZL1,

02:30 the thing that's evident is that this car is going to be disadvantaged

02:33 because of its weight and because it only makes 580 horsepower,

02:36 and he's got a lot more than that.

02:38 But he's really up against technology here,

02:41 because the new Camaro is wider, which makes it handle better,

02:44 but it also has independent rear suspension, which the 69 does not,

02:48 and Chevy's magnetic ride setup, which is an advanced system of controlling

02:53 the shock, jounce, and rebound actively as you're going around corners.

02:57 We did all of our testing with the Camaro in performance setting number five.

03:00 Next up, I hopped in the Red Devil.

03:06 This is my first time ever in this car.

03:08 I really only know it by reputation,

03:10 because it has won a bunch of these pro-touring shootouts.

03:13 As a matter of fact, right here at Ginterman the weekend prior to this,

03:17 it outran every other muscle car there by about three seconds on the lap time.

03:22 My perception is this thing takes a lot more skill to drive fast.

03:26 Oh, yeah.

03:26 The Red Devil is obviously just more violent and brutal than the ZL1.

03:35 It makes a lot more noise, it sounds wicked, it's got more horsepower,

03:39 it seems trickier to drive, it doesn't ride quite as well,

03:42 and you can tell that Stilo is just muscling the thing around the corners more.

03:47 Overall, it's a more raw driving experience,

03:49 and yet still the tightest '69 Camaro I've ever been in.

03:54 This thing has no shakes or rattles.

03:56 It's pretty amazing.

03:59 It's a lot more fun from a violence and sound point of view, that's for sure.

04:04 At the end of the day, what are we going to sit back and look at the data and say?

04:10 I'm going to predict that lighter weight and more power is going to prevail,

04:14 which means the Red Devil will win.

04:16 We good?

04:18 Yeah.

04:18 When Stilo came off the track in the ZL1,

04:41 he seemed pretty happy with the performance, but here's what's amazing.

04:45 A few weeks before we were at Gingerman, Automobile Magazine was there with a driver

04:49 who had actually been the 2007 Indy Lights Championship,

04:53 and that guy ran a 1.44.53 in the ZL1.

04:58 But today, Stilo laid down a 1.42.05.

05:03 That's way quicker.

05:05 He's pretty sure that that is the quickest lap time around Gingerman ever in a brand new ZL1.

05:10 OK, you ready?

05:11 Yeah, wish I hadn't put such a good lap time down on the ZL1.

05:16 I'm OK with it.

05:16 Well, let's see what you can do.

05:18 All right.

05:20 [ENGINE REVVING]

05:22 Well, Mark called it.

05:46 He told us that the Red Devil was going to be quicker, and it was.

05:49 He ran a 1.39.05, about two and a half seconds faster around Gingerman than the ZL1.

05:56 But the thing that we looked at in our V-Box data,

05:59 which shows us a plot of acceleration at points all the way around the track,

06:03 is that both cars hung right with each other in the corners.

06:06 They pulled the same lateral Gs at about the same speeds.

06:10 But what happened is that the lighter Red Devil with more horsepower

06:14 just simply outran the ZL1 in the straightaways.

06:17 So what did we learn today, aside from the fact that we get paid to play with

06:25 Camaros on racetracks, which is actually pretty bitchin'?

06:28 I think the takeaway here is it's really, really impressive that Chevrolet is making

06:34 a brand new car that for $55,000 almost runs right with an old muscle car that's been hot-rodded

06:41 to a level that is at the very top of its field.

06:44 Man, is it awe-inspiring.

06:46 You can take an old muscle car, bolt on Detroit-speed suspension,

06:50 put in a late-model engine and transmission,

06:52 sort it out perfectly, and outrun the baddest that Chevrolet has to offer.

06:57 In the Camaro platform, anyway.

06:59 Maybe we need to do this again with a Corvette.

07:01 This has been Hot Rod Unlimited.

07:03 We've had a blast.

07:04 Hope you have, too.

07:06 [CAR ENGINE]

2012 Chevy Camaro ZL1 vs. Mark Stielows Red Devil 69 Camaro - HOT ROD Unlimited Episode 13

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