THE Chevrolet he took advantage of SEMA to show his vision of what the drag race of the future should be. Fifty years after introducing the first Camaro COPO (created to race in drag races) Chevrolet decided to introduce the electrified version: the Camaro eCOPO.
The prototype is the result of a partnership between General Motors and the drag race team Hancock and Lane Racing and has an 800 V battery pack. Powering the Camaro eCOPO are two electric motors that jointly charge more than 700 hp and about 813 Nm of torque.
To transfer power to the drag strip, Chevrolet combined the electric motor with an automatic gearbox prepared for competition. Interestingly, the rigid rear axle that we found on the electric Camaro is the same one used on the gasoline-powered Camaro CUP.
Quick to boot and load
Chevrolet announces that the new battery pack used by the Camaro eCOPO allows not only more efficient energy transfer to the engine, but also faster charging. Although it is still in testing, Chevrolet believes the prototype is capable of covering 1/4 mile in about 9s.
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The battery pack has been split between the rear seat and trunk area, allowing 56% of the weight to be under the rear axle which aids drag strip starts. At 800 V, the batteries used in the Camaro eCOPO have about twice the voltage of those used by Chevrolet's electric models, the Bolt EV and the Volt.