Turn 10 Car of the Week: Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z
By P. Rodriguez
Pictures courtesy of www.Iroczone.com and www.thirdgen.org
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far, far away your Ferrari loving, Formula 1 addicted author of this blog article used to own…wait for it…brace yourself…an utterly bitchin’ Camaro. Not only did I own a Camaro, I freaking adored it and to be completely honest, I still miss it to this day.
The unique combination of questionable styling, horrible build quality, mountains of interior plastic, the mullet reputation, and a massive V8 that would roast the tires through 2nd gear resulted in a car that was, well…absolutely incredible! You know I really can’t explain how or why, but the pile-of-dishes ride quality and constantly rattling interior just never seemed to bother me. With the T-tops down, some quality tunes, and the V8 screaming, life was good. With that said and in honor of my former sled, I must pay homage to the most bitchin’ of all Camaros, the IROC-Z.
I would like to begin by setting one thing straight, IROC stands for the International Race of Champions. Contrary to popular belief IROC does not stand for any of the following: Ignorant Redneck Owns Car, I Race On Credit, Italian Retard Out Cruising, I’m Really Out of Cash, I Run Over Cats, Idiots Ride Of Choice, I Race Other Cars or the classiest of them all I Run Over Children. In fact the only reason the IROC-Z went into production was to commemorate the Camaro being chosen as the official vehicle of the series. With the obligatory wisecracks out of the way, let us dive right into our car of the week.
In all honesty, the 1980’s wasn’t exactly a watermark period for car enthusiasts who were after factory performance. Engines were choked off by miles of vacuum lines, too many EGR valves and one catalytic converter per cylinder. Holley 4-barrels were nowhere to be found and even the garbage 2-barrel carburetors had been replaced by new-fangled fuel injection systems that on a good day, kind of worked. Heck, 150 horespower off the showroom floor was more or less par for the course.
With that in mind and knowing that it wasn’t going to be possible to stuff a tactical nuclear bomb under the hood like they had done in the past, the engineers at Chevrolet had to focus on the suspension to increase smiles per mile. The IROC-Z received more aggressive spring rates, Delco-Bilstein dampers and a lower ride height. Beefier sway-bars were installed and 16x8” aluminum wheels were shod with sticky Goodyear Gatorbacks. The net result was a freaking F-body pulling almost 0.9G on the skidpad!
For those you not fortunate enough to have been behind the wheel of an F-body while performing an aggressive cornering maneuver, let me shed some more light on those skidpad numbers. Here is how the scenario usually unfolds:
1. Driver turns into corner at 20-30mph over the suggested speed.
2. Massive amounts of body-roll ensue and the tires wail in agony.
3. a. The rear end encounters a small bump, crack or seam in the pavement.
-or-
3. b. Driver applies even a modest amount of throttle.
4. Rear end snaps-over and attempts to kill the driver.
Needless to say the IROC-Z was pushing the Camaro into uncharted waters and the chassis was not up to the task. During development, engineers found that the front frame rails were actually bending under the now much stronger cornering forces. While the Camaro chassis will never be known as anything more than a high-end rickshaw, the engineers were able to solve this problem by installing cross-bracing underneath the steering rack.
Anyway enough about all this cornering nonsense, let us move on to the burnouts and stoplight domination of Hondas… err import hot-rods. Although not available on the earlier model years, the L98 small-block V8 (yes freeway cruising Corvette guy, us F-body heathens stole your engine again) churns out 345 ft-lbs of torque at a workman like 3200rpm. This isn’t like the late model GM small-blocks that have much more “peaky” horsepower and torque curves, no folks this is real world, street friendly power. Nothing fancy just chuck your blue collar back in the seat, tire melting, stump pulling, good old-fashioned torque.
There is one quite small, inconsequential even, downside to this lovely chunk of iron. In a classic display of what makes GM…well GM, they somehow managed to not offer a manual transmission or the 3.42:1 axle ratio with the highest performance engine option. However all is not lost, a really hot IROC-Z is only one ZF 6-speed transmission and pumpkin swap away!
Styling wise the IROC-Z is nothing short of pure 1980’s bliss. I challenge anyone to find a car whose style is a better representative of the decade that brought us everything from Guns N' Roses to Molly Ringwald (and for the record, that dude in Sixteen Candles would have been way cooler if he had ditched the 944 for an IROC-Z). From the louvered hood, to the aggressive side skirts, the chiseled body of the IROC-Z brings me back to the 80’s every time I lay eyes on one. For good measure a giant IROC-Z badge was plastered on the side to remind everyone of just how cool you are.
For the past couple days I have been mulling over how to best describe what makes the IROC-Z, and all Camaros in general, so freaking rad. On the surface a car with a crap chassis, Monday morning hangover build quality and frightening cornering habits seems like the worst idea since the Pontiac Aztek, but it simply isn’t. In one of life’s beautiful twists of fate the Camaro is truly a great car.
To this day nothing I have ever driven has given me the same feeling as my Camaro. No matter how crappy of a day I was having I could hop in the F-body, go tear up the back roads and all my problems seemed to melt away. It was like having a 350 horsepower psychiatrist, sans the weird questions, goofy couch and a $200 dollar an hour bill.
So, to all members of Camaro Nation out there I salute you -- hell, I am one of you! All this salivating about Camaros makes a guy quite thirsty, maybe I can convince J. Mason to head over to the pub after work and raise two pints of PBR in honor of this American legend…
P. Rodriguez is an automotive writer who, when being completely honest, will admit that a small piece of him died when GM axed the Camaro.