Salt, snow and speed: Pushing the new Camaro from Utah to Montana

Fully wound out in second gear, a 2016 Camaro SS stick-shift is good for almost 80 mph. That’s 129 km/h. At the top of second anywhere in Canada, you’d already be deep into ticket territory, with four more gears to go.

But I’m accelerating onto I-80 in Utah, where I can legally use all of second gear. It’s one of five U.S. mountain states where the interstate speed limit is 80 mph, and my mission is to drive through them from Salt Lake City to Bozeman, Mont. It’s about 660 kilometres by the most direct route, an easy day’s drive if your only goal is getting there. But this trip is about the journey. And I have 36 hours to do it.

By way of a press preview, Chevrolet sent relays of journalists in 2016 Camaros around the United States through all 48 contiguous states. Each of the 16 legs have fixed start and finish points, but otherwise, says Chevrolet, “What states you visit, what route you take, where you stay and what you see is up to you.”

Photos by Jeremy Sinek

My leg is scenic, new to me, and I’m drawn to the speed theme that runs through the route. Besides the 80-mph freeways, it’s just a 200-kilometre side-trip from SLC to the Bonneville salt flats, where the world land-speed record topped 1,000 km/h for the first time.

And then there’s Montana, where, briefly in the late 1990s, daytime speed limits were abolished on some roads. The limit is back now (80 mph), but I feel the need to pay homage.

First the detour to Bonneville, which highlights another facet of Camaro gearing. At 80 mph in sixth, the manual is loafing at just 1,900 rpm. For the last 70 kilometres to Bonneville, I-80 runs dead straight and, at the start of the superstraightaway, roadside signs warn: “Drowsy drivers pull over if necessary.” There’s the paradox. Drowsiness would be far less likely at 80 mph than at 100 km/h. But if it happened anyway, the crash would be bigger.

The endless straightaway is an opportunity to take stock of the Camaro’s interior. Materials are immeasurably better than before, but human factors still take a back seat to The Look. According to designer Scott Wassell, Camaro buffs told Chevrolet they wouldn’t object to much-needed improvements in visibility and ergonomics, but not if it meant compromising the shape. Well, just look at it. The 2016 is 100-per-cent new, yet the basic shape and proportions are barely different from the 2015. Enough said.

Still, basic at-the-wheel comfort is fine. Also apparent on the road to Bonneville is the absence of wind noise, remarkably so considering the ferocious wind gusts that presage an incoming winter storm.

This wasn’t a good year for speed on the salt. Two major events were cancelled because the flats were too wet. It’s been raining today, too, but that doesn’t stop one pair of bloggers from taking their Camaro out onto the salt itself. Of course, it ends in tows.

During the Salt Lake City layover, Chevrolet put winter tires on the Camaros. That blurs the finer nuances of steering and handling, but I know from previous drives in Camaro V-6s that this chassis, inherited from the Cadillac ATS, is a master-class in precision and balance.

And, as it turns out, the tire change may have been a life-saver. Thirty minutes west of the salt flats, I exit I-80 and turn northeast on State Route 233 to begin a dog-legged drive back through Utah toward an overnight in Rexburg, Idaho. The high desert is dusted white, and outside temperatures are in low-single-digits. Yet even this rumpled, meandering two-laner allows 70 mph, at which speed the combination of winter tires and the Driver Mode Selector’s most relaxed snow/ice setting keeps the drive comfortable and secure.

Next morning, I point the Camaro toward Yellowstone National Park. The plan is to deke through the northwest corner of the park en route to Bozeman.

By the time Highway 20 crests the Targhee Pass into Montana, it’s full-on winter. Even the city streets of West Yellowstone, gateway to the park, are skating rinks. Yet the 455-horsepower, rear-wheel drive Camaro remains eminently driveable. The closest I come to a wipe-out is walking through the parking lot into the Yellowstone Visitor Centre … where I’m told the park closed for the season two days before.

That leaves Highway 191 north through the Gallatin Range as Plan B. Perhaps it’s just as well that low-hanging clouds mask the full majesty of the scenery. The packed-snow road surface and regular oncoming 18-wheelers require full attention.

Missing Yellowstone brings me early to Bozeman, where the roads are clear and dry. After 1,100 kilometres, I still haven’t had my fill of the SS, so I continue west on I-90. Two exits farther along, I turn back, and coming down the on-ramp I treat myself to one last fix of the Camaro’s savage acceleration. It’s the only way there is to legally enjoy the full performance of a car like this on public roads. But the thrill lasts only a few seconds. At the top of second I snatch third, and I’m ticket bait – even in Montana.

The writer was a guest of the auto maker. Content was not subject to approval.