Say Goodbye To The Camaro With A Retro Review Of The Rad IROC-Z

Dust off those acid-washed jeans and embrace the wrath of 215 horsepower beneath fake hood louvers.

1988 Camaro IROC-Z

Christopher Smith

By: Christopher Smith

Jan 7, 2024 at 12:00pm ET

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Friends, the Chevrolet Camaro is dead. But it's not forgotten. That will never happen so long as we have instant access to 20 gazillion videos on YouTube, more than a few of which are devoted to the Camaro. Many of these clips focus on the fifth- and sixth-gen cars, but to pay proper respect to Chevrolet's war horse, we turn to the greatest Camaro of them all.

The Camaro IROC-Z debuted for the 1985 model year, bringing more power, more bling, and bigger Z branding to the lineup. We mean that last part literally, as a Camaro with bold IROC-Z decals on the doors was every bit a bragging point in the '80s car scene as chrome 5.0 badges on a Ford Mustang. And this old Motorweek review shared by latemodelracer78 on YouTube opens with the Z in the classic '80s shade of Light Yellow. Our mullets are growing just thinking about it.

There's an actual racing connection here, too. The International Race of Champions – yes, IROC – was a series based in North America that put drivers from multiple motorsport genres into identically prepared cars. Through the 1980s that was the Chevy Camaro, and as such, the street-based IROC-Z got tweaks to the suspension, bigger wheels and tires, and some extra power under the hood. For its 1985 debut, that took the form of an optional 5.0-liter tuned-port injection V8 making 215 horsepower.

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What was that like for a performance enthusiast in 1985? Motorweek speaks highly of the Camaro's "neck-snapping" acceleration, reaching 60 mph in 7.1 seconds and covering the quarter-mile in 14.8 seconds at 90 mph. Considering many passenger cars of the day struggled to reach 90 mph at all, that wasn't too shabby.

1985 Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z

By the end of the IROC-Z's run in 1990, power would increase to 245 hp from a 5.7-liter V8. Manual transmissions were available on lower-output 5.0 engines, but the edgy, wedge styling and bold IROC-Z branding remained the same. The deal between Chevrolet and IROC ended, and the racing series itself would eventually fold in 2006. But for a few glorious years, we had the Camaro IROC-Z. May it live forever.

Farewell, Camaro:

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Source: latemodelracer78 / YouTube

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