The engineers of the 2014 Chevy Camaro Z/28 were told to build a fast car, and though that seems like a clear-cut mission, all sorts of complications arose during the process. They improved airflow to the engine with the flowtie but that was only one obstacle. They also had to contend with slipping wheels.
No, not the tires slipping across the pavement in an epic skid, but the wheels actually slipping within the tires. It was a problem caused, oddly enough, by just how well-engineered and fast they’d made the 2014 Chevy Camaro Z/28 in the first place.
The tires on the car, Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R tires, work along with Brembo carbon-ceramic brake rotors. The tires have a special track-oriented tread design that combines with those carbon-ceramic rotors to get 1.5 g in deceleration force. Turns out, the tires stopped, but not so much the wheels.
They confirmed this with the simplest of technology – a piece of chalk. Engineers marked the tire at the start of the lap, and then were able to see that the wheel had moved 360 degrees from where it had been at the start.
One solution that’s used by racers to combat this problem is the addition of abrasive paint around the bead of the wheel. They gave this a shot on the 2014 Chevy Camaro Z/28 but it wasn’t enough to stop the wheel slip.
They finally solved the problem with media-blasting, a technique where a gritty material is fired through an air gun at the surface of the wheel to add texture to the paint.
You’ll have a chance to see the results of the engineers’ efforts to make the 2014 Chevy Camaro Z/28 a performance machine when it hits dealerships this spring.
Check out this video of the 2012 Chevy Camaro ZL1…
Nicole Wakelin fell in love with cars as a teenager when she got to go for a ride in a Ferrari. It was red and it was fast and that was all that mattered. Game over. She considers things a bit more carefully now, but still has a weakness for fast, beautiful cars. Nicole also writes for NerdApproved and GeekMom.
