There is no brand more iconic to American racing than Chevrolet and thankfully for the everyman they have used each ounce of their storied racing history in producing the 2014 Camaro Z/28. First produced in 1967 to compete as a racecar the 2014 Z/28 is not designed to compete anywhere specific, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a racecar at heart.

Taking its cues from the original Z/28 the 2014 has no air conditioning, is only available in a manual transmission and features a V-8 motor. Though both V-8’s the new Z/28 has an LS7 motor that was originally found in the Z06 Corvette. To better put into perspective how far the Z/28 motor has come since its inception the original got 290hp out of a 302 cid while the new 427 cid LS7 7.0L motor is capable of producing over 500hp and 470 lb-ft of torque. Though capable of greater numbers the motor is optimized for track performance.

In order to maximize the performance of the motor Chevy had to pay a painstaking amount of attention to the weight of the Camaro. From dropping the wheel size an inch from those on the SS and ZL1 saving 42 pounds to shaving fractions of millimeters from the glass thickness in the rear window every element of the Z/28 was analyzed to shed pounds from its Camaro brethren. With the slimmed down body and optimized ZL1 motor the Camaro’s suspension was finely tuned to accommodate both. It stands to come with race-proven, spool-valve dampers making it the first production car to do so. Additionally, the chassis features stiffer string rates and suspension bushings to perfect the cornering of the Z/28 Camaro.

The 2014 Camaro Z/28 should be hitting the streets late 2013 which will still give you plenty of time to find a track nearby or at the very least some seclude streets to open her up.

[Shout-out to Chevrolet!]