GM dropped the Corvette’s 350 cu. in. V8 into the IROC-Z but the Mustang GT still left it in the dust. The insightful Steve Magnante tells us why.
In the early 1980s, the muscle car competition between the Chevrolet Camaro and the Ford Mustang heated up. Buyer demand for more fuel-efficient cars increased following the previous decade’s oil crises.
As a result, Chevy lightened the Camaro by 500 lbs. And in 1985, the automaker sweetened the deal by offering the IROC-Z performance package, with the Corvette’s 350 cu. in. V8 option becoming available in 1987.
This sleeker, faster Camaro should have been able to definitively settle the dispute between the Bow Tie and the Blue Oval 3rd-gen muscle cars. But, as YouTuber Steve Magnante explains in the video, there’s more to this story than engine displacement.
The Camaro IROC-Z’s Outstanding Features
On a junkyard crawl in Bernardston, Massachusetts, Magnante talks about what made the Chevy Camaro IROC-Z competitive. For example, its 350 cu. in. V8, identical to that of the Corvette, made 250 hp and an impressive 330 lb-ft of torque.
The Australian Borg-Warner rear-axle assembly was also an advantage. The four-pinion, 7.75-inch differential transferred more torque to the car’s rear end than the standard 7.25-inch. The IROC-Z also had 16-inch wheels, giant disc brakes, and a T-top.
