The famous quote “It’s more fun to drive a slow car fast than drive a fast car slow” rings true for a lot of cars. For example, it relates well to the Civic Si, the Volkswagen GTI, and even the Chevrolet Camaro. Yes, the Chevy Camaro, but not the V8 version, or even the V6, we’re talking about the turbocharged four-cylinder version. Now, before you click off this page, hear us out, because it might just be the best Camaro trim level that you can buy.

A turbocharged four-cylinder?

When the turbocharged engine debuted in the Chevy Camaro back in 2016, we laughed at the idea of it. The Chevy Camaro has always been a brawny muscle car that we would associate with a powerful V8 and smoky burnouts. Even the thought of a V6 in the car made us chuckle.

However, it’s been a few years and now that other American sports cars like the Ford Mustang come standard with a turbo four-cylinder, as well as many other import sports cars, the idea of that engine setup in just about any car in the market is commonplace.

After all, a turbocharged four-cylinder provides the best of all worlds; it’s powerful, efficient, and lightweight. And when it comes to a heavier like the Camaro, weight, and balance makes all the difference.

The 1LE package

Chevrolet’s 1LE package has been offered on the Camaro for the past few years, but mainly for the V8 version. Soon enough, it trickled down to the V6 iteration and then the turbo four-cylinder.

For those not in the know, the 1LE package is a track-oriented list of modifications, or enhancement, that you add to your Camaro when you buy it. It mainly focuses on improving the car’s handling characteristics which, as you can imagine, helped the heavier V8 Camaro out significantly. But it also has some appearance modifications.

The package includes:

• A satin black hood wrap
• A black front splitter
• Black side mirrors
• Black rear spoiler
• Black 20-inch wheels with Summer tires
• Brembo 4-piston front calipers and brakes
• Performance suspension components (shocks, stabilizer bars, and cradle mounts)
• Engine oil and differential coolers
• A limited-slip differential
• Alcantara flat-bottom steering wheel
• RS badging

A perfect combination

As we can see, with all of these handling and cooling modifications, the 1LE package does well in making the Camaro handle better on a road course or any real racing situation.

But the beauty of adding it to the Camaro 1LT with a turbo four-cylinder is that you will get a car that handles well, has a decent amount of power, is 300 pounds lighter, and costs far less than the V8 version.

Let’s not forget that the 2.0-liter turbo engine puts out 275 horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque, which is more than adequate for regular street driving. Plus, you can rev this engine out to redline more often on the street than you can with the V8, so technically, you can have more fun at a safer, and legal, limit.

A well-rounded performer

Now that we have the recipe for a well-rounded American performer, you might be wondering how much it costs. If you play around with the configurator on Chevrolet’s website and just add the 1LE package to the Camaro 1LT trim, then you’ll be right under $30,000.

We would say that’s quite the bargain for a car that you can enjoy every day on the streets without getting into trouble and take to the track on weekends. And if you think it’s slow, just put your right foot down harder and see how fun it is to drive a slow car fast.