Watch 2018 Camaro ZL1 1LE Test Drive With John Hennessey: It’s “Hooked-Up”

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John Hennessey test drives a bone stock 2018 Camaro ZL1 1LE. Watch and listen to his impressions before it gets the 850 hp upgrade.

The 2018 Camaro ZL1 1LE ran an impressive 7:16 around the Ring recently and now John Hennessey gets his hands on it. He runs a new bone-stock ZL1 1LE on some back roads in Texas where his performance shop outside of Houston, TX is located. Even though his personal house was flooded out, his shop is fine and the roads have dried out after Hurricane Harvey, and it’s time to play.

He drives it on a country loop to give his impression of the car before it gets the performance HP850 upgrade. Not everyone can afford this upgrade, so it’s good to hear Hennessey’s thoughts on the stock model. You may be thinking about buying one, and John is impressed to say the least.

John describes the new Camaro ZL1 1LE as “hooked-up”, and calls it a balanced sports car. He pushes the supercharged V8 powerplant hard and gets it into some fun twisty turns on the roads 45 minutes from Houston. This is a track car and it’s not for the average fan.

The ride is a bit stiff, but there’s no downside to the car if you want the ultimate performance machine. John says the bone stock car, “Is a great performance value.” We can’t wait until Hennessy Performance upgrades the 2018 Camaro ZL1 1LE with their HP850 upgrade. Stay tuned.

Watch 2018 Camaro ZL1 1LE Test Drive with John Hennessey video

Photo credit: Hennessy Performance

Submitted by Mike Bonner (not verified) on September 13, 2017 - 6:06PM

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The ZL1 1LE has Multimatic spool valve dampers. Although the ride height is adjustable, I don't believe the damper firmness changes when switching across modes, i.e. Sport mode, track mode etc. I think when John put it in sport mode round 10:13 in the video, he hit a bumpier section of road. I think the suspension is always super firm but awesome on a track.