It's the all-American muscle car that's actually a Holden Commodore. Holden's Australian headquarters played host this week to the official unveiling of the revived Chevrolet Camaro as part of the classic badge's global reveal. Despite its American heritage, Aussie know-how was called on to develop the two-door coupe.
The new Camaro was first shown as a concept at the Detroit show in January, 2006, after GM had axed the badge four years earlier. Its rolling chassis was developed in Australia from what was once called the Zeta platform (now the global rear-wheel-drive platform) — the same architecture as the VE Commodore.
But although the car has plenty of Commodore DNA, there is still no official word on whether Australians will get to drive it. Holden is still waiting on GM to make a decision about making the car in right-hand-drive.
“If there is confirmation of right-hand-drive, we'd be interested,” says Holden's John Lindsay. Holden designers and engineers have spent the past two-and-a-half years working on the project — along with the US design and engineering teams — as part of the push by General Motors to streamline its business.
“It's different,” says Peter Hughes, who is the design manager on the project.
“GM has gone global in the past few years and Holden Design has been part of that.”
Global warming hasn't been forgotten either. The 6.2-litre V8 engine uses the latest cylinder deactivation technology to save fuel by turning the engine into a fuel sipping four-cylinder.
And the new Camaro will also be available with a 3.6-litre V6 engine in the US.
However, it is obvious that while much of the original appeal of the show car has been retained, the production model has lost a great deal of the jewellery that adorned that car when we first drove it at a US speedway in 2007.
“Instructions were to interpret the Camaro as a contemporary design ... and to create the meanest street dog in town,” Micah Jones, lead interior designer on the show car project, said at the time. “In the interior there are definite cues from the classic '69 Camaro — especially in the gauges and dials, a reinterpretation of what was unique in that car.”
One of the visual delights of the concept was the pure, clean engine bay with nothing other than a brake booster and oil and water filler caps left to drag the eye away from the shining engine. The wires and odds and ends that usually give an engine bay its confused look were tucked away under plastic covers.
The milled and polished aluminium engine cover has made way for a more mainstream and cost-effective treatment — a pity, along with the integrated strut tower brace.
The side mirrors (slim to the point of being useless) and the bonnet-lip air intake are gone.
The long hood, short deck and wide stance of the concept remain and it appears rumblings at GM that the roofline needed to be lifted to allow more headroom have been swept aside.
The deep set anodised main gauges with matching centre cluster have survived. And the retro styling of the bucket seats, keeps the '60s theme rolling.
Reigning V8 Supercar Champion Garth Tander was on hand at the Australian launch — and even brought along his own 1969 5.7-litre, four-speed manual, V8 Camaro SS muscle car for a nice comparison.
