Chevrolet Camaro SS: Comeback a muscle car legend

The bright neon lights of the city are stroboscopes via the Chevrolet , which is blacker than every night. The fifth generation of the C hevrolet Camaro takes the first one as a model and looks like a real muscle car for the first time in almost four decades - and thus like a car that you shouldn't be stupid about Page turns on. Especially not in the seedy corners of the city.

The Chevrolet Camaro celebrates its retro revival

With the Camaro celebrates after Ford Mustang and Dodge Challenger the third US muscle car in its retro revival. Because of him alone, it would be a shame if the lights really went out in what is probably the worst managed company in the world - General Motors. With the Camaro, the ailing general proves what he can still do best: build cars as if the sixties had never ended. The recipe for a muscle car comes from back then, in which the chassis of a garbage truck meets a V8 the size of a swimming pool. Both disguise a body that should not appear intimidated like the boss of a Moscow disco. Because muscle cars were never about finesse or technical superiority - but about performance and coolness at a budget price. The Camaro with the 304 hp V6 engine costs 23,040 US dollars in America. Geiger Cars wants 49,900 euros in Munich for the SS with V8 engine. Porsche demands 414 euros more for the 265 hp basic Cayman.

The 6.2-liter small block hums under the hood

But a Porsche -Alternative is pretty much the very last thing the Camaro wants to be. So the Chevrolet guys are only modifying the old recipe subtly. Instead of the big block, which now has a capacity of 9.4 liters, they hang the small block under the hood. The debuted a year after theThe first Burger King restaurant opened in what was still quite the New World - in 1955, when Winston Churchill resigned in Great Britain, Fangio won the third of his five Formula 1 world titles and Romy Schneider was crowned Empress Sissi. In the course of its life, the V8 has now not exactly modest 6.2 liters. Despite the major overhaul in the nineties, its chain-driven camshaft is still centrally located in the V and pushes a total of 16 valves with rods.

The body of the new Camaro looks like a caricature of the 67 line

Modernity captures the Camaro at the rear, giving it an independent suspension instead of the overhead Rigid rear axles inherited from generations. In addition, he gets ESP as standard, which Chevrolet does not cheer too enthusiastically. Could be understood as a bit meme-like by the traditional audience. The contemporary chassis and electronics are hidden under a body that looks like a caricature of the 67 line - with a grim look, broad shoulders and the low window line.

Inside, too, the new Camaro quotes the old one

The driver sits on comfortable, well-formed leather upholstery and does not see much of the night because of the small windows, that wanders by outside. Inside, too, the new Camaro quotes the old one. Like the tachometer, the speedometer sits in a separate cube. Its scale only reaches up to 180 km /h, which seems a bit careless because the Camaro has used it up after just 15 seconds when accelerating from a standstill. The V8 hammers and roars ahead, dominating the car and the driver. Every trip becomes a search for a worthy duelist - a mountain, a straight line, an Porsche Boxster . But with its sheer strength, none of them are real opponents to the Chevy, only victims.

The Camaro quickly turns in and bites into a neutral line

This whole thing about cornering, it now has it too. Not like a kart, but the comparison would be nonsense anyway - no car drives like a kart, only a kart drives like a kart. The servo-delayed steering is obdurate when it comes to feedback requests, but unlike its ancestors, who understeer with the force of a landslide If you fought against changes of direction and then rotated rear-ahead into the green side on small gas taps, the Camaro quickly turns in and bites into a neutral line. The ESP shrugs off authoritatively. So he no longer fights his driver like a cop at a rodeo. The fact that it is as suitable for light-footed curve ballet on narrow country roads as a sledge hammer is for playing the xylophone is due to its ample dimensions. Such a normal country laneis tight for the Camaro. It takes the driver the bulky dimensions of the Chevy - almost as long and even wider than a VW Multivan - internalized. Much of it is not wasted on the interior, but enough for four.

The Camaro is also well suited for long journeys

It is even suitable for long journeys, bounces comfortably without swaying, and stays quiet when the motor hums at low speeds. He can do that well - 140 km /h demanded a mere 2,200 tours in sixth gear - and then there is still a lot of air between the gas pedal and the floor pan. Because the V8 rushes ahead from 1,000 tours, it is hardly worthwhile to use the short but bony shifting gearbox with further gear changes when the big step is there. Doesn't look really sporty. But even on a night cruise, the evil eye gives the Chevy the overtaking prestige of a pit bull who doesn't just want to play.

The Camaro is back and whoever challenges him to a duel is making a mistake. Because it doesn't matter how fast you are, but who is after you.