[markjohnson]

Well, leave it to the "new" Chevrolet to absolutely ruin and spoil another famous namesake. First the LT-1, then the LS-6 ........and now the ZL-1. Don't get me wrong, these are great motors and packages but they should have had FRESH names. To a REAL enthusiast, "ZL-1" brings to mind one main thing and that is "ALUMINUM 427 CID"! I recently looked at some of the SLP-versions of the new Camaros with their $70,000 price tags and all I could think about how just FLAT-OUT-STUPID can the powers-that-be with Chevrolet be to NOT learn their lesson after what happened to Camaros/Firebirds back in 2002?! They priced them out of reach (when the economy was good!) and everybody purchased Ford Mustangs instead. Let's just all sit back and watch as history repeats itself again because GM obviously DID NOT learn their lesson. Ford will win the PonyCar War again, undoubtedly.

As far as these new "Tuner" or "Dealer"-built Camaros go.......well, the Camaro has always been the "poor-man's-Corvette" and back in the late-'60's, if you couldn't afford an expensive BBC Corvette, you purchased a cheaper dealer-built Camaro that had the Corvette engine(a 427/454 usually)in it instead. It's actually a VERY SIMPLE formula that should have been followed by one of these new tuner/dealers instead of making the base model customer feel inferior to the customer that just purchased a $100,000 new Camaro. To spend that much money on a new Camaro is just ridiculous and foolish when a Z06 (or even a ZR-1) Corvette is a FAR superior car to the ANY of the new Camaros. They have Aluminum frames, giant tires at four corners, dry-sump oiling, etc. Incredible cars for the money! But, not everyone can afford one of these fine beasts, so somebody should have been buying brand-new Aluminum 427 Z06 Corvette crate engines and installing them into brand new base Camaros and selling them for between $50K-60K. This would've-could've-should've been a simple and basic affordable transplant package. Even in this down-trodden economy, I bet they would've sold the hell out of 'em.