It’s not everyday that I get to see the name of my alma mater in headlines with a Camaro as the lead-in picture, but this is awesome. General Motors has a program called EcoCAR 3, which aims to “redesign a Chevrolet Camaro to reduce its environmental impact, while maintaining the muscle and performance expected from this iconic American car.” Sixteen North American universities were given a Chevrolet Camaro and were cut loose in 2014, with four years on the table to develop a Camaro that not only was cleaner, but just as stout of a performer as a Camaro is expected to be. There are guidelines for the program, but one that isn’t set in stone is powertrain development.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Daytona Beach campus has been cranking on their Camaro since they got the car and have been quite busy. Their choice of powertrain: A 2.4L four-cylinder E85 engine was yanked out of a Chevrolet Equinox, was paired up with the 8L90 eight-speed automatic from a Cadillac ATS, and two 70 kW motors supply the electrical side of the hybrid equation pull power from either the four-cylinder or from 350v, 18.9 kWh lithium-ion cell battery packs located in the trunk. The Camaro did gain 700 pounds during the conversion, with 600 of those pounds being battery weight in the back, which should make handling rather entertaining, if not outright twitchy. But what really has our attention are the figures: The target for the car is 53 mpgE, but the 350 horsepower is a decent figure for a four-cylinder pony car right now, and the 657 ft/lbs of torque should calm any concerns anybody has about performance being lost.
The students are into the second year of the project, and the Camaro is already up and running, and the team is preparing to head to Yuma, Arizona and San Diego, California for the EcoCAR 3 Year 2 final competition. Here’s hoping that the first thing seen from the team’s hard work are a pair of electrically-enhanced tire stripes on the pavement….and bonus points if you can get Ernie the Eagle to fit behind the wheel!
(Courtesy: Jalopnik)
Embry Riddle Aeronautical University?
It sure is a riddle why students are messing around with hunks of Chevy shit while they should be learning how to push the boundaries of powered flight or whatever it is that they do there…
I can tell them how to make a Chevy fly though – just drive it off the highest cliff you can find!
With those torque specs, I’d like to see them put that drivetrain into a Silverado and bring it to truck events to take on coal-rolling brodozers.
I\’m afraid those specs aren\’t enough to beat even a stock diesel, brosef.