I have absolutly no idea at all where to post this. and i know some people are going to be mad at me for even asking this, but bear with me, Im new to all of this, Ive had my z28 for about a year now. As far as preformance i thought it went, best to last, Z28-IROC-RS.... what do all of those mean? i looked up z28, it said it was just the VIN that got it the z28 name. nothing special....but a lot of people have been very impressed with my car and not believed that it was stock, i always thought it was just because it was a z28. I have been told that Z28's were the best as far as camaro performance. is it true? what order does it REALLY go in. i have an 83 by the way.

 

IROC
Z28
RS

Following is some general info on the IROC from the home page/Camaro Tech Data that you may finding interesting: The new IROC-Z option was available on the Z28 and came with new 16x8 aluminum "IROC-Z" rims, P245/50VR-16 Z Rated Goodyear Gatorback tires, fog lights, new grill with CAMARO on front license plate panel, .5 inch lowered ride height, body colored valances, (ground effects) Delco-Bilstein rear gas shocks, special front struts, increased spring rates, special jounce bumpers, 5 degrees of caster in front wheel alignment, (up from 3.5 on Z28) 'WonderBar' front frame rail stiffener, special valving in the steering box for increased steering effort, larger rear stabilizer bar with stiffer bushings, IROC-Z exterior decals and interior "Z28 IROC-Z" dash badge, and a thinner two-color lower body stripe.

JamesC

 

ohhh ok...i always wondered why people said z28 Iroc..i was always like "but those are TWO different cars!!!"

 

IROC-Z(28)

JamesC

 

Just depends on the year. Generally the Z/28 is the cat's pajamas for all years. The Z/28 has always been the top line camaro. (5th gens excluded... but I think it's coming back)

The only exception is from 85-90 where the IROC-Z/28 package was an upgrade over the Z28. The "base" Z28 was still available in 85 and I think maybe 86, but I think by 87 they were all just plain IROC-Z(28s). Then in 1991 they lost the IROC badge and just started calling them Z/28s again, and in a general sense, the newer cars were faster than the older cars, so I think in theory a 92 Z28 would outperform an 89 IROC which would outperform an 85 IROC which would outperform an 82 Z28.

The key is to understand the IROC package was a special package available on Z28s until 87 or 88 when you couldnt get a Z28 without the IROC package. Basically, an IROC is a Z28.

The RS began as an upgrade on the sport coupe to give it IROC ground fx... just to give it a better look. Then in 1991 the RS became the base model as tehy got rid of the sport coupe. The berlinetta was dropped at some point too... The berlinetta was a sort of luxury sport coupe.

 

The basic differences between the two, at least 85-87, can be seen in my first post.

JamesC

 

Actually there isn't enough information here to completely answer your question. It depends on what years you are talking about. If you are comparing 2 cars from the same year, in every year that both the IROC and Z28 were produced (1985-1987) they had the exact same engine options, so you could have a z28 that was faster than an IROC in any year that they were both produced other than a few small suspension upgrades that the IROC had. Starting in 1991 the IROC name was dropped and basically the Z28 became what the IROC was and you could only get TPI engines in the Z28 I also believe the suspension's were the same for the 91-92 Z28 as the IROC but I'm not sure of that.

So a 91-92 Z28 would be faster than any Iroc produced other than the 90 which had the same HP rating in their engines. So I guess my point is it depends on what years you are talking about and what engine options you have. Some examples would be a 85 IROC would not hold a candle to a 92 Z28 but likewise an 82 Z28 would get torched by a 90 IROC or if you had a 87 Z28 with an LB9 against a 87 IROC with an LG4 the Z28 would probably take the cake there.

So not to start a fight with you James but when you get an IROC you really only get a few suspension differences and other cosmetic add-ons. Other than that they are pretty much the same car.

 

You type faster than me LOL

 

What makes them different makes them different . No fight here. I knew before I hit the submit button that there'd be differences of opinion. I welcome them.

JamesC

 

Ok cool I know we had a difference of opinion in another thread and I'm not looking to start a war here. But from what I see here is the only performance differences are different shocks and struts, stiffer springs, a jounce bumper (whatever that is), a wonder bar (which I have read really works good and I'm surprised they're not on all 3rd gens), an extra 1.5 degrees of caster, a different steering box and a larger rear stabilizer bar.

In my opinion in the 20-25 years these cars have been around I'm sure the different shocks and struts are worn out by now and I'm sure the springs are not as strong as they were when new, I would also be surprised if the jounce bumper did anything when new, but the larger rear stabilizer bar and extra caster are things that can easily be changed or improved however I am curious about the wonder bar as I have heard it adds body stiffness could somebody please chime in on what this is, and if it is added to other cars.

Also again I'm not trying to insult you, but in my opinion cars of the 80s didn't have all that great of performance compared to today's cars. I read somewhere once that people thought that the Viper was going to be so valuable because it had more than 400 HP and many people thought we would never see another 400 HP production car again, obviously 15 years later there are all kinds of them. Now with all that being said we all love these cars and they do have some flaws and I think that's what this website is all about fixing those flaws.

 

Ah, the old Wonderbar (IROC specific). The following link is interesting, I think, especially the transformation of its being a Band Aid to a performance part:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...questions.html

JamesC

 

so then lets say the year 83' which is what i have, at that time was a z28 the best you could get for what camaros they had? that's what i was told when i bought it. either way i still love it.

 

Then that's really all that matters--and there was no IROC or RS at that time.

JamesC

 

well again there is no definitive answer since there were 3 different engine options for 1983.


and that is the best piece of advice to anyone on this board, if you like it great it doesn't matter what it says on the side of the car. A 3rd gen is a 3rd gen.

 

Yeah thats true, i know i like it, and other people like it too. I'm glad i found it.