All over the
web in the middle of the week of 21 April is this recent
footage of a prototype 2010 Camaro Coupe being tested at
the Nurburgring in Germany. The car is undisguised, as
have been all Camaros seen in public since GM decided in
'07 to dispense with keeping the car's appearance a
secret.
Nurburgring's
"Nordschleife", or "Northern Loop" is a 13-mile test
facility in Germany, notable for its length, dizzying
number of turns, significant elevation change and that,
at times, is open for public use, is popular with car
companies world-wide for development and testing of the
ride and handling of future, high-performance models. GM
has been testing performance cars (notably the Cadillac
CTS-V, Corvette Z06, the coming 2009 Corvette ZR1 along
with the fifh-gen Camaro) there since early this decade.
It is likely,
considering the huge wheel/tire package and the Brembo
brakes, the car in this video is a prototype of the
Camaro SS model. We'll guess it's got a 425-hp LS3 and a
Tremec six-speed manual trans. Edmunds' audio on the
tape implies that the headlamps and tail lamps are not
production-intent. To us, the tail lamps seem ok, but
the headlights are kind of dorky-looking. Other than
that, we like what we see. As for how the car sounds, it
seems kind of quiet. But, hey...we're hardcore and we
like the exhaust loud. With the introduction of this car
still about a year off, GM still has time to change
those things.