First Drive Review
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Five months have passed since the Camaro concept made its debut. GM has paid attention to the industry's reaction and given the journalist community its first drive of this hot coupe. Have you been wondering what inspired the comeback, or when it might be put into production? If you have, then click on our video icon above to see that and more.
Some of the most important and captivating debuts of the Los Angeles and Detroit auto shows came from beleaguered automaker General Motors. Chevrolet's Camaro, GM's long-awaited response to the successful 2005 Ford Mustang, arrived at the Detroit show in concept form. Officially, the Camaro is only a design exercise to gauge public reaction, but we believe this pony car is on the fast track to production.
After the Camaro went out of production in 2002, Chevy faithful immediately began creating rumors of its eventual return. Just as the success of the original Mustang spawned a cadre of pony-car imitators, sales of the retro-styled Mustang have generated quite a bit of interest in the segment. Detroit was host to two Mustang competitors, the Dodge Challenger and the Camaro.
Unlike the modern Camaro that bowed out in 2002, the concept Camaro is a car that is clearly inspired by the Camaros of the late 1960s. But the retro look is only skin-deep, as the Camaro has a fully independent suspension, a six-speed manual, and a 400-hp, 6.0-liter V-8 with cylinder deactivation-now known as active fuel management in GM-speak. Speculation about a possible platform centers on GM's rear-drive Zeta architecture that was shelved last year after being deemed too expensive.
