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In the midst of celebrating their title as America’s Favorite Performance Brand, Chevrolet invited a number of journalists over to the Virginia International Speedway to test drive their new Camaro ZL1. Lucky journalists signed right up to take advantage, but one got a little more than he bargained for.
Aaron Gold from About.com took his turn on the track after a rain cloud made its way through the area and tried to play it safe during his turn. Unfortunately, he may have played it too safe. Gold says that he was "way off the proper line" and had the car in second gear when it should have probably been in third. He "gave it a bit too much juice, broke the rear tires loose, and that was it." The Camaro ended up going off the track, sliding forward and sideways onto the wet grass, and went nose-first into the tire wall.
Gold didn’t suffer any injuries and GM has assured him that the damages on the Camaro ZL1 are cosmetic, which is all good news. Another plus is that Gold was able to test out the OnStar system, which automatically sent out an SOS call, before a live operator came on to see if Gold was okay.
As a refresher the ZL1 is powered by LSA 6.2-liter supercharged V8 engine that delivers a total of 550 horsepower and 550 lb/ft of torque. The muscle car can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds and can reach a top speed of 184 mph. So we guess these numbers are just too much even for a professional driver.
Automotive Journalist crashes Camaro ZL1 at Virginia International Speedway originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 28 February 2012 12:00 EST.
