2014 Camaro

Did you know

• Motor Trend named the Z/28 its 2014 Best Driver's Car in September 2014, the first American-brand car to win the award in its seven-year history, over a field that included the Porsche 911 Turbo S, Nissan GT-R Nismo, BMW M4 and i8, Jaguar F-Type R and Alfa Romeo 4C. The editors wrote that the fifth-generation Camaro had gone from a muscle car that handles pretty well to a Best Driver's Car winner, a transformation they called astounding.
• The Camaro sold 86,297 cars in 2014, up 7.1 percent and its second-best year of the run, for a fifth straight win over the Mustang, but the lead evaporated late: nearly 11,000 cars ahead after ten months, only 3,662 by December after Ford sold 8,728 Mustangs in November and 9,511 in December as the 2015 redesign arrived. The Challenger sold 51,611.

  Original CamaroFacts figure. Sources: 2013 reference table 2014 reference table 2015 reference table

• In March 2014 Motor Trend took the Z/28 to Barber Motorsports Park against a Porsche 911 Turbo S and a Nissan GT-R Track Edition. Randy Pobst's 1:36.17 in the $75,000 Camaro beat the Porsche's 1:36.34 and the Nissan's 1:36.45, though only after they dropped 6 psi from each tire following a slower 1:37.28. GM's Mark Reuss replied "Booya."
• Asked what the Z/28 does in the quarter mile, chief engineer Al Oppenheiser, whom Motor Trend called the seventh Camaro chief engineer in GM history, said the team had never launched it: the car was developed for track duty alone. Motor Trend's own test car ran 12.3 seconds at 117.2 mph.
• For the Z/28's Nürburgring run, Chevrolet said the team logged 10 hours and nearly 1,000 miles on the Nordschleife in a week under GM's 24-Hour Test, with development driver Adam Dean at the wheel for the 7:37.40 lap. Oppenheiser said telemetry showed it could be as much as six seconds faster on a dry track; the test, first used on the fourth-generation Corvette, tracked 15 data channels then and 130 now.
• In June 2014 GM recalled every 2010-2014 Camaro built from December 3, 2008 to May 23, 2014 because a driver's knee could bump the ignition key out of Run, cutting the engine and possibly disabling the air bags. The recall covered 464,712 U.S. cars and 511,528 worldwide, GM knew of three crashes with four minor injuries, and the fix was to remove the key blade from the flip key and supply two new keys.
• Engineers call it 'flying car' logic: the Z/28's Performance Traction Management uses ride-height sensors to recognize when the tires briefly unload over a crest, such as the Nürburgring's Flugplatz, and holds torque instead of cutting it, so the car doesn't lose momentum. It was PTM's first use without Magnetic Ride Control and was refined at Milford, Virginia International Raceway and Road Atlanta.
• Of the 97,632 Camaros built for the 2014 model year, GM's build tally lists 2,436 ZL1s (1,895 coupes and 541 convertibles), 2,468 SS models with the 1LE package (676 1SS and 1,792 2SS) and just 515 Z/28s, all with black interiors.