Mark was asked how his newest Camaro compared to the new Z28. On his first track outing Hellfire was about 1.5 seconds faster per lap at Gingerman than the new Z28. Here’s the rest of his response.
“A Gen 5 Camaro Z/28 is a full sorted track weapon. We spent 3 years dialing that car in and it is on awesome 60 treadwear tires. It had months in the wind tunnel to get the aero balance correct, we tested it on 8 race tracks, we tested 8 different tires on it, It has a state of the art performance traction management system on it and the ABS calibration is matched perfectly to the car.
On my first real track event with Hellfire to be faster than the Z/28 on 300 tread wear tires is doing something. I’m swapping to 200 treadwear tires, recalibrating the ABS, and making a small change to the springs for this weekend. I expect the delta between the Z/28 and Hellfire to get greater.
Everyone wants to believe their old muscle car will outrun the late model stuff. If you want to go fast for cheap buy a late model car.
If I put half of the money I have in my car in a C-6 Z06, GT3 or a GTR it would be a whipping fast. Way faster than Hellfire.
On a side note I don’t want a Z06 or a GTR, I do kind of want a GT3. LOL.
I do this because to get a ’69 Camaro to go this fast is fun and interesting.
I like going to car shows, SEMA and doing the Optima Shoot Outs.
It is just physics. They have better aerodynamics, better CG, better track width and most come with ABS. So take a ZO6 and gut it and you have a 2900 lb track car for about $35K. Or better yet get a C-5 Z06 for about $25K. Or you can by a POS ’69 Camaro for about $12K and pour about $100K+ into it and 3 years of your life and be close to as fast as a stock Vette.
I do this because I love to and the engineering challenge is fun.”
Mark
