2024 Chevrolet Camaro Garage 56 Edition Sprinkles Le Mans Mojo on ZL1

When you think about what a NASCAR Cup Car is, and what you'll typically find competing at Le Mans in the GTE field, you'd think this Garage 56 Camaro would be out of its league. Turns out it's not, and many changes were made to ensure this Gen 7 Cup car would not embarrass itself in front of the world's stage at the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans. Especially considering this is the 100th running of this historic race and even more eyes are upon this year's race than ever before.

The one thing you'll quickly notice is just how big the Garage 56 Camaro is, even when compared to the GTE entries. Despite their FIA GT3 design and using street chassis, the GTE cars are still much smaller than the NASCAR Gen 7 car. The Garage 56 entry looks even more gigantic when compared to the Hypercars.

The noticeable differences between the Garage 56 Camaro and Hendrick Motorsports normal NASCAR Cup Camaro are the additions of strakes on the nose and rear quarter of the body. Also different are the additional strakes on the roof and a larger rear wing. Then, when the sun sets and darkness falls, the next obvious change lights up the road ahead. That's right, this Cup car runs a full set of front and rear lights loosely based on the street going Camaro. By "loosely" we mean the shape is generally right. Even so, the lights do provide some excellent forward vision for the drivers. Inside the cockpit, the steering wheel is a butterfly-style rather than the round wheel you'll typically see in a Cup car.

What you won't see is what matters the most, however. The normally iron rotors are replaced by carbon rotors and the bracing found in the front and rear clips have been modified and removed in some cases. Most of the bracing is related to impact resistance for bump drafting and banging at short tracks, but the total weight loss over the Cup car is around 400 pounds.

What you'll also notice is that the Garage 56 Camaro doesn't run any doors. Instead, the Garage 56 entry is the only car to run only a window net and require drivers to hop in by climbing through the driver's side window. The NASCAR Le Mans car also doesn't run with an air jack system, so when this Camaro needs its tires changed, the pit crew lifts each side using a pump jack—just as the Hendrick Motorsports team is used to. At Le Mans, teams can only have two tire changers across the wall at a time and this lines up with what NASCAR does on a regular basis.

That experience and the speed at which that jack can lift a car and the tire changers able to swap tires was put on display during the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans Pit Crew Challenge. The Hendrick Motorsports team was able to fill and change four tires in just 10.364 seconds, which was 0.116 seconds faster than the Northwest Aston Martin Vantage AMR in the GTE class and only 0.053 seconds slower than the ORECA 07-Gibson of Team WRT in the LMP2 class. The Peugeot 9X8 TotalEnergies team was the fastest of this competition with a time of 10.067 seconds, just 0.297 seconds faster than the Hendrick Motorsports Garage 56 team. Maybe air jacks are just a little overrated.

Despite its still bulky size and NASCAR roots, the Garage 56 Camaro isn't as slow as you'd expect it to be. Even in the corners, this modified NASCAR Gen 7 was 4 seconds per lap faster than the best GTE-AM entry and only 9 seconds per lap slower than the slowest LMP2 entry at the last practice session before this story went live. These are impressive numbers for a car that spends most of its racing life just making left turns.

It's all been a momentous showing for NASCAR, Hendrick Motorsports, and Chevrolet. The car has been a hit with everyone watching the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans, and interest in NASCAR has been on the rise since it turned its first laps at La Sarthe. Even before the big race is run, the Garage 56 Camaro has won in the hearts and minds of those cheering on what's supposed to be an unclassed underdog. That's why it's worth making another special edition of the 2024 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1: the Garage 56 Edition, announced during the 100th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. There's just one major problem.

The Garage 56 car is certainly worth celebrating, but given its modifications to race and surprising competitiveness in France, we were expecting more than a decal package and special paint job—even if it's a pretty cool decal and paint job. Look, the 2024 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 is a great car on its own. But it's too bad the Garage 56 Edition doesn't celebrate its namesake with a modified handling package or re-tune of the 6.2-liter supercharged LT4 V-8, even if just a nominal one to make the Garage 56 Edition that much more special. What it does get, however, is pretty cool: a similar looking Cup-style spoiler, dive-planes on the 1LE front fascia, and Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperCar tires—nothing to shake a tire iron at. If you want one, you should know there will only be 56 examples of the 2024 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Garage 56 Edition to be had.

Whether you're interested in a Garage 56 Edition or not, you can watch the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans exclusively on MotorTrend+ and MotorTrend TV.

This year's race—and the pageantry that goes along with the Le Mans Centenary—is shaping up to be one of the best in years and motorsports fans by the millions will be watching when the green flag drops and the cars begin roaring around the Circuit de la Sarthe. Once again, MotorTrend+ as well as the MotorTrend TV channel will be the EXCLUSIVE SPOT IN THE U.S. and Canada where fans will be able to stream and watch the full 24 Hours of Le Mans in its entirety, from qualifying to race end.

As the exclusive home of the 2023 Le Mans race, MotorTrend+ will bring fans unprecedented access to the entire 24-hour spectacle, including practice and qualifying beginning on Wednesday, June 7, the green flag at 9:00 a.m. ET (6:00 a.m. PT) on June 10, and the checkered flag after a full day of furious on-track battles. In addition, MotorTrend+ users will be able to view the from the dashcams of multiple competitors (some 16 in all), and other special presentations will be available to access prior to and during the Le Mans weekend.