2016 Chevrolet Camaro: First Drive

The sixth generation of Chevy’s iconic muscle car takes everything you love—or hate—about the Camaro and turns it up a notch.

What it is: 2016 Chevrolet Camaro, two-door sports car

Price as tested: $26,695 for the V-6; $37,295

Competitors: Ford Mustang, Dodge Challenger

Alternatives: Chevy SS, Chevy Corvette, Dodge Charger

There’s a good reason The Dead Milkmen’s about a “bitchin’ Camaro” is one of the punk standards our time. Like punks themselves, the Camaro has long stood out for its brazen commitment to individuality. It has always been about kicking ass and taking names.

The new 2016 Chevy Camaro is no different. It’s not nice. It’s not polite. And it definitely likes to growl, as we discovered in our first drive last month around scenic Hell, Mich.

While the changes may look small from the outside, the Camaro has an all-new chassis. Visually, the designers over at Chevrolet decided not to mess too much with a winning formula. The 2016 model retains that muscular, hunched over look from previous generations. The greenhouse is still achingly small; in fact the whole car is a bit tighter, shaving a few inches in every dimension.

Not to be outdone by the EcoBoost option in the Ford Mustang, the first factory turbocharged Camaro arrives with a 2-liter 4-cylinder base model, good for 275 hp and 295 lb-ft of torque. The 6-speed manual transmission version will get to 60 mph is 5.4 seconds, while the 8-speed automatic adds a tenth of a second.

The 3.6L V-6 engine now knocks out 335 hp and 284 lb-ft of torque, with only a slight speed bump over the turbo’s run to 60 mph, at 5.2 seconds in the manual, and 5.1 seconds with the automatic. But those are the supporting players to the real star, the 6.2-liter V-8 in the SS, now churning out 455 hp and an equal amount of torque. Sprint times are much faster with this bad boy: 4.3 seconds while rowing your own, and 4.0 seconds in the automatic.