Road and Track, August 1st, 2006
The shape is seductive; the rumble of the 400-bhp 6.0-liter LS2 V-8 beneath the hood beckons. Chevy’s Camaro concept casts its own spell, promising sporty 2-door performance in the best of American pony-car tradition.
Slipping behind the wheel of this show car does little to diminish the car’s allure, despite the concept’s cobbled-together combination of a shortened Sigma platform from the Cadillac CTS with the Corvette’s V-8, 6-speed and brakes. The interior, designed by Jeff Perkins, is purely for show, but nicely blends retro cues with modern digital readouts. The deep-dish wheel and instruments set far into their bezels would likely be flattened out in production.
Looking at the car, and driving it, one thinks it would be a no-brainer. But viewed in the cold, hard reality of cash-strapped Detroit against a backdrop of rising gasoline prices, the picture is fuzzy. The key is finding the right hardware that will keep the price in line with the already successful Ford Mustang.
GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz told Automotive News that Chevy has to sell 100,000 a year to make it work, which means that while we all want the V-8 sounds, the linchpin will be a mass-market V-6 mode. The company has gone back to the drawing board on the global Zeta platform, hoping to work some magic to make the Camaro a reality; this would give it an independent rear suspension versus the Mustang’s live axle.
If the approval is given—look for a decision by the fall—the U.S. platform would also support a rear-drive successor to the Impala. The question is, do they have the guts to pull the trigger?
