Test Drive: 2011 Chevrolet Camaro SS Convertible
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“Bitchin Camaro.”
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Yep, people still say that. I hear it a couple times through the Camaro SS Convertible’s open roof during a weekend spin. I also got the requisite mullet joke while closing the top: “Don’t get your ponytail get stuck.”
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Point is, Chevy’s muscle car, reborn three years ago as a coupe, now available as a drop top — still attracts those comments, and with the top down, you can actually hear them, even over the low burble of its idling 6.2-liter V8. But I’m not sure the car really deserves the cracks anymore. Sure, like its forebears of the ‘60s through the ‘90s, the Camaro’s still all about cheap speed. But Sang Yup Lee’s exterior design — sculpted haunches, high beltline, low cockpit — still looks more future-forward than throwback. It’s the most modern, cohesive design statement of all the new muscle cars, from headlight to dash typeface. Less “remake,” more “inspired by.” And the fabric-roofed convertible maintains nearly all of the coupe’s menacing silhouette.
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It includes nearly all of the handling, too. Chevy may have chopped the top, but they didn’t let the Camaro go soft. I find this out on a fast, flashy run as I point the car’s bulging hood towards deep Brooklyn and L & B Spumoni Gardens, New York’s most under-sung slice joint—a place so unhip that mullets might still be in. On the curvy, waterside drive on the Belt Parkway, I don’t notice a loss of composure versus the remarkably stabile coupe. The convertible runs stiff, thanks to additional shock tower braces that have been engineered in to offset the loss of the hard top’s torsional rigidity. Of course, all of the power is there, 426 horses, taking orders through the Tremec six speed’s big, meaty manual shifter. It’s a blast to drive, and the car’s gutty bursts of acceleration are even more addictive with the top down.
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Good news for you, bad news for your mullet.
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LOVE IT: All the Camaro’s nose singe-ing, burnout power paired with the sybaritic pleasures of a drop top.
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LEAVE IT: The shiny, reflective plastic cladding on the dash and doors seems cut-rate. And where’s the noise? We wouldn’t mind an engine note a few ticks
louder.
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The Specs
2011 Chevrolet Camaro SS Convertible
Price: from $37,500
Engine: 6.2-liter V8
Horsepower: 426 @ 5,900 rpm
Torque: 420 lb.-ft @ 4,600 rpm
0-60mph: 4.9 sec
Top speed: 155mph (electronically limited)
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Posted by Dania
on 11:17. Filed under
Camaro,
Chevrolet,
Convertible,
Drive
.
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