Don’t underestimate the 2016 Camaro, or indeed how important it is. The chunkyTransformers styling may border on the caricature from some angles, but the Camaro is deadly serious when it comes to winning new converts to GM: a full 63-percent of the outgoing model were General Motors virgins. So, when Chevrolet asked if I wanted to take the current engineering prototype out on the track, it seemed rude to say no.

Chevrolet has been playing up the improvements in handling, chassis, and suspension between the 2015 and 2016 cars, and so I started out in the outgoing model for a baseline. In a turn around Detroit’s Belle Isle track- let’s call it warm, edging on faintly spirited – the 2015 Camaro V6 showed no reluctance on the straights, its 323 HP and 278 lb-ft of torque still enthusiastic.