Remember when I got my first 4-speed
Bought it from the corner lot
Dragged it till the tread wore thin
Was the summer of sixty-nine
Welcome back to the golden era of muscle cars, officially. Ford started it, and they kept it alive, and they restarted it with their retro Mustang design for 2005. Now Chevy is playing its old role again, showing up late to the game, but certainly bringing a big hitter to the plate. This long hood/short trunk 1969 Chevy Camaro Revival, or Chevy Camaro revisited, is the classic reformed by the hands of today's designers. The angular body is so muscular and even is slightly reminiscient of t4he 1970's-era bowtie-badged pony cars. The way the fenders and the hood roll up tightly and converge at the front leaves just the tiniest amount of room for a grille. This concept looks much more aggressive and yet much more aerodynamic, modern, and functional than the original.
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| GM Car Czar - & Berkeley grad - Bob Lutz can make this happen! Send him your vote: |
Aggressive was certainly a term which colored the last generation of Firebird and Camaro, the ones that died. Too aggressive may not be the way to go. But Ford is showing that retro definitely is, and retro well-encompasses much of the ambiance of this design.
The Camaro we see on the stand is aggressive, muscular (a good thing in a muscle car), modern, angular, and bold. Narrow headlights glare defiantly at the road ahead, and the grille is drawn thin and wide across the Camaro’s face to provide a fierce, growling expression. Undulating fender lines add sex appeal. A long, long front hood makes blatantly obvious where the power is, and the short rear deck emphasizes a body designed to tightly fit the functional structure of the car.
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| Aluminum 6.0-liter LS2 V-8 = 400HP + 30 mpg highway! |
What, conceptually, lies under that long hood: a Corvette motor. Could you expect less? That’s what the last Camaro SS used, that’s GM’s big hero motor, the one they use in the GTO, the Trailblazer SS, the SSR, anything they can fit it into and smoke the competition with. It’s money. It’s 400 horsepower and 400 lb-ft of torque, give or take depending on the application. Even with a detuned version, that would wipe the floor with any standard V8 competitor muscle car. Depending on the weight and gearing, it might also be enough for a potential future SRT-8 Challenger, while achieving high gas mileage with a tall overdrive 6th gear from the Tremec T56 unit, and from GM’s Active Fuel Management™ (which turns off four cylinders when the car is running on light load conditions). But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
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| Muscular haunches convey the true purpose |
The concept car wears exaggeratedly enormous 275/30 21-inch tires up front and even bigger 305/30 22-inch wheels at the rear, as a macho display of high-volume raw Americana power. The 6.0-liter LS2 motor promises to be just the kind of hot rod powerplant this bowtie burnout machine needs to back up its formidable looks. Independent suspension at all four corners, with economical MacPherson struts up front and a multilink rear with progressive rate coil springs and gas shocks, promise good road compliance; 15-inch rotors with four piston calipers make this a dream for a brake-heavy road course with its high stopping system heat capacity and anti-fade characteristics.
And that word is unfortunately one thing one might have to stamp this car with - at least exactly as it is. Should GM build this car? Absolutely, no doubt, they need to produce a higher volume of exciting cars. An SS Camaro would lend some real credentials to Chevy's SS line. But this body looks a but unrealistic, rather complicated for something that would need to be competitive in the $25,000-$30,000 range for a normal V8 model. Either that, or a sacrifice might be made in material quality or manufacturing techniques to get the look right that would lend this Camaro an air of cheapness. But if GM's team can come together to make a design like this which pays homage to the first-gen Camaros but balances simplicity in manufacturing, and if they offer a good quality for the money car - take the GTO as a perfect example - then GM will have a knockout sure to boost the brand.`
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| Just the right touch of the '69; but more modern |
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| photo courtesy GM Media |
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| photo courtesy GM Media |
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| Get in, sit down, buckle up & shut up! We're in the "small block" V-8 zone now; photo courtesy GM Media |
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| photo courtesy GM Media |
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| photo courtesy GM Media |
