Skip to main content

Faster than a Murcielago, the Camaro Z/28 is the best thing you can get for $75,000 … or is it?

Chevrolet has finally priced the 2014 Camaro Z/28 and the number is both surprising and also, for lack of anything better to say, not surprising. I’ll cut to the chase: it’ll run you $75,000, including a $995 destination charge, but excluding tax, title, license and dealer fees.

If you’re thinking this seems like a lot for an American pony car with some aerodynamic bits and a bigger engine bolted on, you’re right. Look at it from another angle, though, and it’s a steal.

What angle is that? It’s the one where you realize that the Z/28 is faster around the infamous Nurburgring than a Porsche 911 Carrera S and the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640. Those cars cost $84,300 and $380,000 respectively. Suddenly, the Chevy is quite the deal.

What do you get for that money? You get a 7.0-liter LS7 V8 that makes 505 horsepower and 481 pound-feet mated to a close-ratio six-speed manual, which is backed by a Torsen limited-slip differential.

Chevy is also quick to note that the “Camaro Z/28 is also one of the first production cars fitted with race-proven, spool-valve dampers, which allow four-way damping control, enabling engineers to precisely tune both bump and rebound settings for high-speed and low-speed wheel motions.”

This all sounds great. That is, until you really think about it. Digital Trends contributor Peter Braun perhaps put it best when he said, “Driving the Z/28 must be absolutely terrifying. And driving it the rest of the time has to be uncomfortable as all get-out.”

So there we have it. You can have perhaps one of the coolest, fastest, best handling American pony cars of all-time that – for a measly $75,000 – can beat a Murcielago around the ‘Ring … and your spleen right out of your body.

If it were my money, I’d get the top-spec 556-hp 2014 Cadillac CTS-V for two fewer grand. But that’s just me.

Nick Jaynes
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Nick Jaynes is the Automotive Editor for Digital Trends. He developed a passion for writing about cars working his way…
The Apple Car was reportedly dubbed ‘the Bread Loaf’
A man checks his phone in an Apple retail store in Grand Central Terminal.

A 2020 prototype of the so-called "Apple Car" was dubbed "the Bread Loaf" for its looks, according to a Bloomberg report on Wednesday.

In a deep dive into the costly project, which Apple canceled last month, the report described the vehicle as “a white minivan with rounded sides, an all-glass roof, sliding doors, and whitewall tires [that] was designed to comfortably seat four people and inspired by the classic flower-power Volkswagen microbus.”

Read more
The Rivian R2 SUV is up for preorder for only $45,000
Rivian R2

You can now get a Rivian without spending more than $70,000. After months of rumors and leaks, Rivian has finally taken the wraps off of the Rivian R2, its newest SUV, and the first to be built on the new Rivian R2 platform. The R2 is built to be Rivian's "Model 3 moment," or its attempt to build a car that's more accessible to the general public and thus could be sold at a much higher volume than the R1S or R1T ever were.

The R2 certainly cuts some corners to achieve the lower price point, but it actually still has a lot going for it -- especially as an electric SUV in this price range. It goes up against the likes of the Tesla Model Y, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Mustang Mach-E, and Kia EV6, but it's much more of an SUV than a crossover-sized car and should appeal to those who want something larger and with Rivian's design sensibility.

Read more
The R3 is Rivian’s surprise electric crossover
Rivian R3

Rivian didn't just announce the R2 platform at its latest launch event -- in a surprise twist, it also announced the R3 crossover. The R3 is Rivian's smallest car yet, offering a size much closer to the likes of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 than the SUVs that came before it.

Of course, not only is the Rivian R3 smaller, but presumably, it's also cheaper. Rivian didn't reveal actual pricing for the car, but it did say that it would be less than the R2's $45,000 price. Also, it may be some time before we start seeing the R3 on the road -- the car will follow the R2, which isn't set to be available until the first half of 2026.

Read more