FRESH: 2014 Chevrolet Camaro SS 1LE

When the 5th generation Camaros debuted in 2010, I don't feel like I would be going against the grain by saying I was not a fan. Following the trend of Ford and Dodge with the retro re-styling of the Mustang and Challenger, Chevrolet's Camaro was my least favorite, mostly because of the roughly 450lbs of weight added on from the previous generation, and the visual aesthetics. But after driving the 2014 Camaro SS 1LE 5 years later, it's starting to grow on me.

I often am asked what my thoughts are on the Camaros, because many kids my age that aren't dreaming of Ferrari Enzos and Lamborghini Aventadors are dreaming of the Camaro, any year from 1966 to 2015. And while I appreciate that it's at least a more realistic mindset to acquire a Camaro over a $400k supercar, I have never thought of a Camaro as a car I would like to own. It is likely because I (A): Do not have one my father spent years restoring in our garage, and (B): I have never seen any of the transformer movies. So I hadn't had any interest in one until a friend pulled up in his shiny new "Red Hot" 1LE.

 Before even getting into the driver's seat, The longer I looked at the car the more I liked it. First off, the face lift applied to the Camaros in 2014 was a step in the right direction. A little more aggressive in the nose, and a significant improvement in the taillights. Also, everything the 1LE Performance Pack adds on does the car a lot of justice. From the matte black hood, prominent splitter and spoiler, and 20" matte black wheels, it's definitely a car that'll make you look twice. And as a bonus, it's twinning perfectly with my lovely DD.

Looking at it is one thing, squeezing it through an Autocross course is another. It didn't help that the "brilliant" course designer (myself) erred towards favoring a 2000 lb Miata with 275/35/15 Hoosiers when in doubt. 

One thing that was an ultimate struggle with this car was visibility. The windshield pillar slopes back at such a low angle, and in combination with it's long, wide snout, it would take more time than I had to learn the edges of the car. This can be seen in action below, where after I magically made it through the first run clean, I got a little too comfortable for round 2. 

(Working on a way for my video quality to not suck)

The Camaro pounded all 426 horses to the pavement extremely well. With a good set of street tires underneath of it, you could come much closer than I would have expected to fully applying the throttle exiting corners. The turn-in was very quick, contrary to what would be expected from a car weighing in at 3875lbs according to Chevrolet. Standard in all the Camaro SS models is a variable ratio, variable effort electric power steering rack. While it is very helpful for differentiating in force between pulling out of a parking space and racing on the track, the steering felt numb (as a lot of new cars do) when trying to get a feel for the car. 

To sum things up, I was genuinely surprised (in a good way) by the overall performance of the fifth generation Camaro fresh from the factory. Big thanks to Daisy Import Auto Care (http://daisyimportauto.com/) for bringing the car out, I'm anxious to drive the car again with a few improvements that are planned for it over the off-season!