2017 Chevy Camaro ZL1 Crushes Previous Time At the 'Ring

Watch as the new 2017 10-speed Camaro ZL1 set’s a lap time of 7:29.60 on the Nurburgring.

Do you have 7 min and 29.60 seconds to spare today? We sure did. In fact, I think I watched this Camaro ZL1 video no less than five times (or at least had it running in the background) so you know I was impressed.

Well if you’ve got the time, and have been wondering what all this 10-speed automatic hype has been all about, you might want to find a nice quiet corner of the room to view this next video, because it’s a good one.

A video has just surfaced showing the 2017 Chevy Camaro ZL1 setting a fast lap time at the Nurburgring of 7:29.60. But what makes this Ring time so special is that it’s 11.67 seconds faster than the previous ZL1 model! In racing, an 11-second gap could easily be the difference between a podium finish and dead last.

More from Videos

Don’t believe it? Well, here is a good example for you. In July, Formula One Championship leader Nico Rosberg was given a 10-second driver penalty for the F1 British Grand Prix Race which cost him his second place finish, bumping him to third.

But more importantly, this 10-second penalty narrowed the points gap for the F1 Championship to just 1 point over his teammate Lewis Hamilton.

So yes, 11.67 in racing terms is a lot of time to make up. Well, Chevy has just shown us that they are fully invested in the ZL1’s 10-speed automatic transmission.

And they are not the only company to jump into this new technology. Ford is also using the same transmission in the 2017 Ford Raptor as well.

Camaro engineer Drew Cattell clocked the Ring time, and if you pay close attention to the nice camera setup in this video, you will see that Cattell doesn’t even touch the paddle shifters for this run.

According to Dan Nicholson, vice president, GM Global Propulsions Systems:

"“With world-class shift times on par with the world’s best dual-clutch transmissionsand the refinement that comes only from a true automatic, the 10-speed deliversincomparable performance on and off the track.”"

The Chevy Camaro ZL1 features a 6.2-liter supercharged LT4 V8 which produces 650 hp and 650 lb-ft torque.

Next: Staying Classic on Nurburgring Video

The video shows just how quick this automatic transmission can react on the track, and when you think about just how much time was shaved off it’s previous Ring time, it has us very interested in checking out this transmission for ourselves.

GM also has plans of building no less than eight different models with this type of transmission in 2018.

Home/Videos

2017 Chevy Camaro ZL1 Crushes It’s Previous ‘Ring Time

By Kelly G. | Oct 25, 2016

Watch as the new 2017 10-speed Camaro ZL1 set’s a lap time of 7:29.60 on the Nurburgring.

More from Videos