The Chevrolet Camaro was introduced to the world as Chevy’s answer for by Ford revolutionary affordable performance car Mustangbut at that time gas crisis There isn’t much performance left to offer around. I grew up in one Ford family, but even Ford Mustang of the era struggled to live up to its original muscle car claims. This era was a dark time for high performance cars, and this Motorcycle week Classic review of a year 1982 Chevrolet Camaro Berlinetta proves it.
The Camaro mentioned is the new third generation of Camaro, in the short-lived Berlinetta trim. Berlinettas aim for more luxury than tradition Camaro muscle car formula, with a softer suspension and a more luxurious interior. Berlinettas were offered with either a 2.8-liter V6 under the hood of the Motorweek test car or a carbureted 5.0-liter V8. Neither engine delivered great performance, and all Camaros of the time were slow. Motorcycle trends tested the most powerful Camaro of the time, a 1982 Camaro Z28 with a fuel-injected version of the Berlinetta’s 5.0-liter V8, and that model only achieved a 0-60 time of 9.4 seconds.
This Motorweek Retro Review doesn’t include a 0-60 mph run, but it does include a number of other acceleration measures, the most shocking to me being the Berlinetta’s quarter-mile time. The test car took 19.4 seconds to run the quarter mile at top speed and only reached a trap speed of 70 mph. For reference, motorbike week A 2015 Mitsubishi Mirage road test resulted in a quarter-mile run of 18.8 seconds, and the Mirage has just three cylinders under the hood that send power through a CVT transmission. That is slow. Yes, every car in the early 1980s had similar power, but it’s still interesting to look back in time and see what the automotive landscape looked like in the past. Give it a watch and remember that auto enthusiasts may feel bad about looking down the barrel of the electric vehicle age, at least we’re not driving performance cars that take 20 seconds to complete a quarter mile.
