Since 2014, the Chevrolet SS has been the face of GM in NASCAR’s top-flight series. The SS may be dead, but Chevy is far from finished with NASCAR racing. Today in Detroit, the automaker finally revealed the replacement for the SS, the 2018 Camaro ZL1 NASCAR Cup Car. GM Executive Vice President of Global Product Development Mark Reuss was joined by seven-time champion and Chevrolet and Monster Energy Cup Series driver Jimmie Johnson at the car’s reveal. The new car will hit the track next February at Daytona.
Like most NASCAR vehicles, this Camaro shares only a passing resemblance to the road-going sports car. It looks more like a Camaro than the SS did with its road-going twin, but it shares bones with every other car on the track. Under the hood rests a 358-cubic-inch (5.9-liter) 90-degree pushrod V8 making in the neighborhood of 900 horsepower. Like the engine, the tube-frame chassis and much of the bodywork is shared with the competition.
This isn’t the first Camaro to race in NASCAR, though it’s the first time the ZL1 moniker has graced the car’s livery. A similar Camaro SS races in the lower-tier Xfinity Series. As fast as these two may be, we still prefer cars with closer connections to what we see in showrooms, like the new Chevrolet Camaro GT4.R.
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