Chevrolet Camaro Prototype
Issue 19, April 2007
While Chevrolet fans can now officially high-five and put down deposits for their imminent Camaro coupe and convertible, off to the side remains a patient but loud contingent of Pontiac lifers who want their own version of General Motors’ new rear-wheel-drive beast. It’s been a poorly kept secret that the Camaro’s “Global RWD” architecture will also underpin the next Pontiac coupe, but at this time the car’s name has yet to be formalized. The company’s revitalized GTO nameplate existed—slightly sacrilegiously—from 2003 to 2006 after a twenty-nine-year hiatus, and it would seem to be a likely candidate.
Or would it? A better choice would be “Trans Am,” the brand name retired in parallel with the Firebird/Camaro at the end of 2002. The name remains in the intellectual property war chest behind Bob Lutz’s desk and some within the company say it’s set for a return. The basic thinking behind the name is: if the Camaro is coming back in man pants, Pontiac must answer.
We recently had the pleasure of test-driving GM’s new prototype for these cars. Specifically, Chevrolet let us in its Camaro coupe concept around Homestead-Miami Speedway immediately after the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. During the drive, our experience was reined in to a maximum speed of 30 miles per hour at 2000 rpm and in fourth gear, but the 400-horsepower LS2 6.0-liter V-8 wanted so desperately to be let off the leash. Sadly, it would never get the chance.
The version of the LS2 dropped in the Camaro prototype was updated with Active Fuel Management cylinder deactivation, which Chevy claims gets you 30 miles per gallon while cruising the highway. (If any Camaro owner, however, is caught averaging 30 mpg, WINDING ROAD will send thieves to the culprit’s home to steal the car and set it free.)
GM desperately needs to get these coupes and convertibles on the road before the Mustang phenomenon grows out of control, if it hasn’t already. In its first twelve months, the Mustang sold 160,975 units, so the Chevrolet/Pontiac effort will be a crosstown also-ran if it doesn’t sell at least 150,000 in its first year out of the Oshawa, Ontario, plant.
It was such a shame to be so limited in our drive time, but we did get in it long enough to rekindle old and very happy memories of pulling donuts in various Detroit-area high school parking lots back in the late 1970s, preferably during snowstorms at night after basketball games and swim meets. A personal recollection, but you know what we mean. The Camaro is a good-memories car, but it will still sell to younger buyers looking to pull their own donuts.
There will be much in the way of modification by the final design squad at Holden in Melbourne, Australia, before Chevy and Pontiac coupes start rolling off that line in Canada, but we can still enjoy this 1969 flashback. Certainly this prototype’s chassis will change. While our tester used a heavily adapted version of the Sigma chassis that debuted in 2002 under the Cadillac CTS, the production version will employ the Global RWD (formerly “Zeta”) platform, set to carry the next Chevy Impala and Monte Carlo as well.
Whether the Chevy and Pontiac coupes are hits will be up to the public. GM’s new breed will likely start thousands more than a Mustang, but there’s no question it will be more refined. Whereas the Mustang rides on a solid rear axle, the Camaro is set to have a proven independent multilink rear suspension that should make it one hell of a driver’s car in this class.
As we sat in the Camaro concept, we noticed a familiar roof height and overall length—about the same here as on our old friends’ original Camaros, while the shoulder line front to back was roughly four inches higher and five inches wider. The feeling is more mature than back in our parking lot days, and the proposed handling package and power unit are destined to be miles better. We wait with bated breath to know the standard wheel and tire setup; these custom twenty-one-inch wheels up front and twenty-two-inch in back are way too much to hope for, as are the accompanying prototype Goodyear 275/30 and 305/30 semi-slicks.
Look for a 3.6-liter V-6 base model named simply “Camaro” and a hopped-up 6.0-liter V-8 with either the Super Sport (SS) or International Race of Champions (IROC) acronym tacked on. They’ll launch together and be followed six months later by their droptop siblings. And for Pontiac? Whatever comes of it all, we hope it goes for the gold—a big, gold, screaming chicken, that is.
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