Camaros at SEMA 2011: Hot Wheels and Lots More
by Hib Halverson, Content Director
 

The last couple of years, the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA), the performance aftermarket’s trade organization, has held its giant exhibition right around Halloween. A far as Camaro goes, there’s a message in that because, well...the SEMA Show seems like one big Camaro costume party.

General Motors’ 19,500 sqft. display at SEMA 2011 had Chevy’s iconic sports coupe dressed in a number of eye-catching getups, but there were no ghosts or goblins involved. All these Camaro concept cars were built either as precursors to some production variant GM may offer in future model years, to test the waters for future Camaro options and accessories or to motivate Camaro enthusiasts to personalize their cars.

“Go to any Corvette or Camaro enthusiast event and you will have a hard time finding a factory-stock vehicle,” Chris Perry, Chevrolet’s Vice President, Global Marketing and Strategy told the Camaro Homepage. “These are cars which owners treat as canvases to express their personalization and high-performance dreams. This has been a part of the car hobby for decades. The SEMA Show is the perfect venue to test new customization concepts for Camaro, and to inspire new owners to start modifying their cars.”
 

 Hot Wheels Concept

Fulfilling the wish of every child who has ever played with one, Chevrolet and Mattel, Inc’s. Hot Wheels Division joined forces for some full-scale fun and created a life-size Hot Wheels Camaro Concept. The Hot Wheels concept was inspired by the “Custom Camaro,” the 1:64-scale toy which was part of the original, 16 Hot Wheels cars released in 1968. The Custom Camaro was famed for it’s  dazzling “Spectraflame”  finish.

The project was a collaborative effort between the General Motors Design studio in Michigan and Mattel’s Hot Wheels Design studio in Southern California. Each sketched its own ideas of life-size, Hot Wheels Camaros, compared notes then refined their visions until the concept hit the right note for both groups.
 

“The Camaro has been a mainstay in the Hot Wheels lineup since 1968,” said Phil Zak, GM Design Director. “Several generations of car enthusiasts grew up playing with Hot Wheels Camaros, while dreaming of driving the real thing, so this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make that dream a reality.”

“The Hot Wheels and Camaro brands have been paired together since their inception,” said Felix Holst, Vice President of Design for Mattel’s Hot Wheels Division. “The Camaro was the first Hot Wheels car produced as part of the brand’s historic, ‘Sweet 16’, The Spectraflame paint and redline tires of those first Hot Wheels cars have been the dreams of boys and girls for generations and it was thrilling to inject these elements into a Camaro for real.”

The cooperative project created a car which is instantly identifiable as a Camaro with classic, Hot Wheels styling cues–flat-black graphics, red-line wheels and, of course, the dazzling metallic-green finish. Besides all the eye candy, the Hot Wheels Concept has performance and sound to match which comes from a powertrain combination of an all-aluminum, 426-hp LS3 V-8, a six-speed manual transmission and a Chevrolet Accessories, low-restriction exhaust.

The original 16 Hot Wheels cars debuted with metallic, Spectraflame paint jobs. The Camaro Hot Wheels Concept features a brilliant, chrome-style finish created in a similar manner: a tinted top coat over a shiny base. For the original Hot Wheels Camaro, the die-cast metal bodies were polished then a green metallic lacquer was applied. With the Camaro Hot Wheels Concept, the process was vastly more complicated.

“We are always looking for innovative ideas and processes that push the boundaries of design, including paint finishes, and the Hot Wheels concept definitely stretched our team to the limit,” said Zak. “They had to, essentially, invent a new way to paint a car.”

The Hot Wheels Concept’s reflective finish was created using Gold Touch Inc.’s “Cosmichrome” product, starting with the application of a primer coat on an immaculately prepared surface. The primer was, then, sprayed with a liquid-metal solution to create the mirror-smooth, silver-chrome base coat. Finally, the green tint was applied in several layers until the just-right color effect was achieved. 

“It may sound pretty straightforward, but until we did it, no one had ever tried using this process to paint a whole car,” said Zak. “The bodywork and paint team experimented with several processes before spraying the first body panel. There were so many variables that contributed to getting the finish perfect, from the drying time to the air pressure of the spray gun–none of which was known before this project–and the team absolutely nailed it perfectly.”

Mattel, Inc. will offer a Collector’s Edition 1:64-scale model based on the full-size Camaro Hot Wheels Concept. Purchase information is available at www.hotwheelscollectors.com, as well as the Hot Wheels and Chevrolet Camaro Facebook pages.
 

Today, examples of the Spectraflame Custom Camaro in excellent condition can sell for $150 or more. Only 15 white enamel versions are known to exist and none are in their original packages. “The value of a White Enamel Custom Camaro is upwards of $3,000,” Feliz Holst told the Camaro Homepage. “But if one still existed in the package, the value could be tens of thousands of dollars.”

 
Synergy Still More
 

Image: GM Communications

Back in the fourth- and third-generation days, Chevrolet offered a Camaro with a road racing option aimed at getting people to race Camaros in SCCA Showroom stock competition and other “street stock” road race and autocross environments. It became a successful program which paid-off with a number of race wins. The RPO was coded “1LE” and when you checked the 1LE box, you got the most powerful engine available, a specific racing suspension, roll-up windows, no air, manual-adjusting seats, base interior and no   radio. 1LE option returns to the Camaro, at this point as a concept intended to carve up road courses. It borrows production components from both the Camaro SS and the Camaro ZL1 to deliver a competition-ready package. “The Camaro 1LE concept is all about the track,” said All Oppenheiser, Camaro Chief Engineer. “It’s an all-out, race car package that pays tribute to that special option from the past.”

Red Zone Concept
 

A design statement achieved with current and future accessories is the inspiration for the Camaro Red Zone Concept. It uses the Camaro convertible’s unique style to demonstrate what’s possible with a carefully-selected collection of accessories and it debuts a new, heritage-inspired stripe graphic which will soon be available on production Camaros. The result is Red Zone, a tasteful combination that blends contemporary style with a classic flair.

“This is a Camaro for those who want great looks and a performance personality,” said Lead Designer, Adam Barry. “It’s a simple, yet dramatic statement which is uniquely Camaro.”
 

Camaro ZL1 Carbon Concept
 

Welcome to the dark side of the Camaro ZL1.

The “Carbon” incorporates all the technology and performance of the 2012 ZL1 but with an added layer of carbon fiber which adds a decidedly sinister-looking element of form to a car that’s all about function. Included on this concept is the new Ashen Gray exterior, available on all 2012 Camaros.

“This concept’s dramatic appearance matches the extreme performance capabilities of the Camaro ZL1,” said Tony Roma, Program Engineering Manager for the Camaro ZL1. “And even if its styling doesn’t intimidate you, its performance on the track will.”
 

COPO Concept
 

The “COPO Camaro” could be back at Chevrolet. This new COPO car was displayed at SEMA as a concept for a factory race car which conforms to National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Drag Racing rules. 

“The COPO Camaro is a proof-of-concept for what a Camaro Stock Eliminator entry might look like,” Jim Campbell, GM U.S. Vice President of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports, told the Camaro Homepage. “And it is a clear indication that Chevrolet intends to homologate the Camaro for sportsman classes in drag racing.”

Set the Wayback Machine for the late-1960’s. Back then, “COPO” was an acronym for “Central Office Production Order”, a procedure within Chevrolet’s vehicle special-order program. Normally a mechanism to offer large fleet buyers special vehicle configurations not available through normal dealer channels, the COPO program was manipulated by a few performance-minded dealers to order vehicles with larger engines than were available in regular-production models. Usually, these delaers’ intents were to either go racing in Super Stock or Stock class drag racing, provide them to racers they sponsored or sell them to anyone, racer or not, willing to pay a premium price for a unique performance car.

In 1969, by pushing Chevrolet’s Central Office Production Order special-order program to its limit, several resourceful dealers–two well-known examples were Fred Gibb Chevrolet and Don Yenko Chevrolet–were able to get 427-cubic-inch, big-block engines installed in a few hundred Camaros, when the largest engine available as a regular production option was a only a 375-hp 396.
 

The supercharged 327 during testing at GM Powertrain. The engine uses the LSX cast iron race engine block, heads from the LS7 and a Whipple screw-type supercharger. Image: GM Performance Parts.

Two versions of the 427 Camaro were wrangled out of the factory: COPO 9560, which had the Corvette’s 560-hp ZL-1, a factory race engine with an aluminum block and heads, and COPO 9561 which came with a more-affordable, 425-hp, iron block/iron head, L-72 out of the Impala SS427. Sixty-nine COPO 9560 cars were built with 50 ordered by Fred Gibb Chevrolet and 19 by other dealers. An unknown number COPO 9561s were built, but 198 of them were sold by Don Yenko Chevrolet.           The COPO Camaros opened up the NHRA rulebook to some exciting combinations for Camaro and kept Chevrolet at the top of that ultra-competitive form of motorsports. In fact, not only were they competitive in NHRA Super Stock and Stock Eliminator when new, but, after more than 40 years, 1969 COPO Camaros currently hold NHRA National Records in Super Stock/C Automatic, A/Stock and B/Stock Automatic.

If a fifth-generation COPO Camaro became available, while inspired by that successful program of the late-’60s, it would not have a vehicle identification number and would be sold for off-road use, only. The concept can accommodate two engines, a 427–the same sized engine as the original COPO Camaros of 1969–and a supercharged 327, along with three different transmissions popular with drag racers. Among the concept’s many, race-only features are a solid-rear-axle conversion required by the NHRA and a full roll cage.
 

The interior is all business, with most sound deadening, the rear seats and power accessories deleted. Instead, there is a roll cage, a pair of racing bucket seats, a safety harness for the driver, a competition floor shifter and Chevrolet Performance gauges by Auto Meter.

The COPO Camaro concept’s chassis is set-up for two distinct engine packages, each built to conform to guidelines for a specific NHRA class. Listed below a specifications for each engine and their intended classes.

The concept vehicle shown here is powered by a prototype version of a supercharged 327 built with a GM Performance Parts LSX cast iron block and LS-7 cylinder heads. The other engine configuration is a four-barrel-carburated derivative of the production Corvette Z06’s LS7 engine. Drag racing enthusiasts interested in more information can go to www.gmperformanceparts.com to sign up for COPO Camaro concept updates.

The version of the COPO Camaro displayed at the 2011 SEMA Show was fitted with the supercharged 327. GM Communications/Isaac Brekken.

Camaro: Not Just Hot, but The Hottest...Again.

Considering the variety of cars in exhibiters’ booths at SEMA, that the fifth-generation Camaro won its second “SEMA Hottest Car Award” in two years is quite an endorsement of Chevy’s iconic Sports Coupe

“As the visionaries and innovators of the industry, our show exhibitors determine the winners of the SEMA Hottest Car Award based on the vehicles they showcase in their booths,” SEMA President, Chris Kersting tells the Camaro Homepage. “With each booth vehicle representing one vote, the most prominent car is the winner. The Hottest Car Award celebrates these outstanding vehicles which emerge annually at the show.”

The Hottest Car Award honors vehicles which specialty-equipment manufacturers believe are the best platforms for accessorization and which showcase the Show’s coolest products. “There is no shortage of options for new car buyers,” added Kersting, “For automotive enthusiasts, the ability to accessorize a vehicle often impacts a new car purchase decision. The Hottest Car Award can guide consumers to the most accessory-friendly vehicles on the market.”

While SEMA tells us its members' products are available for every make and model vehicle, for the last two years, exhibitors have invested more into the Camaro than any other car. “More than any other venue, the cars exhibitors and attendees bring to SEMA embody the passion and excitement of car enthusiasts everywhere,” said John Fitzpatrick, Chevrolet Performance Cars Marketing Manager. “Based on the sheer number of Camaros displayed on the show floor and parked in the outdoor display lots, most people would think Camaro is hottest car of the show. That Show exhibiters voted as such simply confirms what Chevrolet fans already know."