Low Key in L.A.
A Stripe-less Bumblebee Debuts out West.
by Hib Halverson, Content Director
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Design Chief, Tom Peters,
and Designer, Sing Yup Lee, present the
2010 Camaro to Los Angeles media. Image: CHpg
Staff. |
It was petty basic–a
yellow, 2010 Camaro RS rolled onto a turntable at GM's
secret, West Coast Design Studio. A low-key, but proud,
Tom Peters, the car's exterior design Chief, told a
select group of Southern California press a lot of what
he couldn't say for the last 30 months.
Ok. It was a
development vehicle, built to production-intent, but it
was the closest thing anyone had seen on an official
basis to the Camaros we'll all be able to buy next
Spring. At auto shows, worldwide, it'd been two and a
half years of all-Concepts, all-the-time. Numerous "spy
shots" of undisguised Camaro protos. Seemingly viewed by
billions, a video of an SS at the Nurburgring. We had
Transformers–eventually in an IMAX version, no
less–with a sequel (Transformers: Revenge of the
Fallen) on the way. All the while, millions of hits
on this web site, but all that was an appetizer with no
meat and potatoes...until Monday, 21 July, 2008
Actually, the Los
Angeles reveal of the new Camaro was a refreshing change
from media dog-and-pony shows we've attended in the
past. GM Designer, Sing Yup Lee, simply drove the car
into the display area at GM's Design facility in North
Hollywood, California, got out of the car, then, let it
"speak" for itself.
When Camaro fans who've
followed the car's evolution here on the CHpg, first see
a production '10, they'll realize that, when GM kept
saying that production will be very close to concept,
they weren't BS'ing. It is utterly amazing how much of
the Concept's appearance was "productionized".
"I mean, look at this,"
a smiling Tom Peters told the Camaro Homepage,
"the hood perimeter is within 1-mm of the Concept! There
are other differences, too," he continued as we
kneeled at the front of the car, "but they're small
things...like the offset of the front fascia from the
grille, for crash (so the car can pass frontal
impact crash testing) is a little more on the
production version. The headlamps are different. The
concept used LEDs. These are HID.
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"Look at this
Bow-Tie. I wanted it not as 'fat', so it's wider, but
not as high. Much better, I think. The 'RS' emblem is
new. And," he pointed at the roof, "it's higher, to get
more headroom, but it still has what I call the 'reverse
mohawk.'"
Peters also pointed out that the cold
air intake, shown on all the concept cars, only made
production on the SS models. Base cars, with the V6
engine, will not have that intake |
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Tom Peters' thinner, wider gold Bow-Tie.
Image: CHpg Staff.
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The production sideview mirrors are larger and shaped for
Federal safety standard requirements. Image: CHpg Staff. |
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The RS badge, signifying
a special trim level which can be
ordered all Camaros, and HID headlights were not seen on
the Concept cars. Image: CHpg Staff. |
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As Tom and I continued
our walk-around, I figured it had to be some kind of
first for a production car to match a concept vehicle so
closely. The sideview mirrors are somewhat larger to
meet Federal requirements. Same with the side marker
lights. The wheels on the RS are 20s, but Concepts had
21s. In fact, there are a bevy of wheel choices for the
new Camaro, 18s, 19s and 20s.
The "Camaro" nameplates
on the front fenders are all silver instead of silver
with red accents. The door handles are not recessed and
are a little wider to make them more ergonomic. To
stiffen the structure, the production car has a
B-pillar, whereas the Concept was a hardtop. In order
to: 1) meet Federal crash worthiness requirements
relating to fuel filler pipes and 2) make room for the
top hardware we'll see on the 2011 Convertible, the gas
filler moved from the top of the rear deck to the upper
part of the rear quarter panel.
The reverse lights were
moved outward. The taillights are slightly different.
The exhaust tips are not quite as large and there are
two different sizes: smaller for V6 and bigger (but
still smaller than the Concept tips) for V8s. |
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Chevrolet
announced three engines, all with six-speeds: a
7000-rpm, 304-hp, 3.6L direct injection V6,
manual or automatic; the 396-hp, 6.2L L99/auto.
V8 with AFM and the 422-hp, 6.2L LS3/man. V8. We
asked Cheryl Pilcher about the much-rumored,
turbocharged, inline four-cylinder engine.
"Right now, we've got (V6) fuel economy the
competition can't match–26 miles per gallon,
highway, but all things are on the table, now.
That'd have never been on our radar two years
ago. I wouldn't say a four cylinder is planned,
but under present conditions, nothing gets ruled
out." |
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Chevrolet's Camaro Product Manager,
Cheryl Pilcher,
discusses fuel economy and other details with West Coast
reporters. Image: CHpg Staff.
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North American Chief Engineer, Al Oppenheiser
has been on the new Camaro since the start. He
was in charge of engineering the Concepts and,
once final development moved from Australia to
the U.S., he got the Chief's job. We asked him
about final preparations for regular production.
"We had our 80% calibration ride at the end
of May and we're going to do our 99% cal ride
the middle of next month," he said.
"We're set to start pre-production on the 19th
of September."
We learned from
GM sources that the final build of development
vehicles took place on 21 July. The first run of
saleable units, which some on the "outside"
refer to as "pilot cars," begins in early
November. Normal production begins in
mid-February of '09.
It's amazing
how effective GM's "hype" of the Fifth-Gen car
has been. The General milked 30 months of buzz
out of a squadron of globe-trotting show cars,
leaked video and stills along with product
placement in a movie blockbuster. Tom Peters
told us a story about how executives agonized
over the cost of shipping one of the Concepts to
auto shows in Brazil. After they did it, Tom
told of his boss, 2nd Gen owner and GM. V.P.
Global Design, Ed Welburn, flying into Sao Paulo
to find the city plastered with billboards
showing the Camaro Concepts and the Brazilians
going nuts about the car. |
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Al Oppenheiser is the Global rear wheel drive platform's
Chief Engineer in North America. What you feel, hear and
brag about when you finally drive one of these cars will
be much influenced by decisions he's made. Image: CHpg
Staff. |
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"This car is big in
China," Tom
Peters continued. "Few Chinese know its name is
'Camaro' but, since 'Transformers' was big in Asia, they
are crazy about the car and just call it a 'Bumblebee'.
It's cool that the design is so successful across such a
wide range of people and tastes."
What we saw last Monday
out in L.A. was impressive. Our brief experience with
the car left us with these preliminary observations:
The production-intent Camaro looks great on the outside.
It's design is "as advertised", ie: it's the "less
retro" than the Dodge Challenger and the For Mustang,
but the inspiration of the '69 Camaro stands out very
strongly. The interior is comfortable, well-executed and
somewhat more spacious than was that of the 4th Gen
cars. After 20 years of Camaros with hatchbacks, having
a trunk is a different feeling. The RS option adds a lot
of nice appearance items to the base Camaro exterior.
We'll bet a lot of V6es will be ordered with the RS
package.
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CHpg
Staff. |
What we didn't get to
see last week was a Camaro SS. No telling when Chevrolet
is going to let us close to one of those but, we can
tease you a bit about the SS when we post an exclusive,
in-depth technical article on the Camaro SS's,
422-horsepower, LS3 engine. We'll be putting that
article up very soon here on the Camaro Homepage.
For video coverage of
the Warren, Michigan reveal of the new Camaro,
click here.
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