One of my sons owned a ‘69 Camaro and after leaving for the Navy, I had the pleasure of building it while he was gone. Rod, who writes with me on Muscle Car Forum helped coordinate the project and we ended up with a pretty nifty 402 big block that was a very nice set up.
Unfortunately though, like a lot of others before us, we did end up selling the car, I don’t think Ryan’s forgiven me to this date, but none-the-less it’s gone. Ryan did in fact buy a 97 Camaro but it never had the pizzazz of the 69 and as the world knows, Camaro started down a slippery slope in the following years ultimately going the way of the Edsel.
Now dyed in the wool bow-tie guys and gals have long been waiting for any glimmer of hope for a new F-body and it may now be on the horizon. Although GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz says that for the moment, Camaro is "not an approved program." That said I wouldn’t expect the automaker to vacillate for long. Tom Peters, the director of design for rear-drive performance vehicles, says the decision has to be made relatively soon. He’s been quoted as saying "Probably this year. If we want to get it out when it's still relevant, we have to do it fast."
GM Bob Lutz wanted to do an absolute retro 69 Camaro which was by far the most popular year ever, so he handed the project off to designer Bob Boniface who went to work on the project. When the project appeared to stall, Tom Peters, lead on the Corvette team was called in to, for lack of a better term, modernize the prototype for the 21st century.
Peters recalls Lutz saying “I wanted the guys to design the meanest street-fighting dog you can get.” Taking it to heart, the Camaro's sharp creases and flared wheel wells hint of raw power, yet the brute elements of the concept pony car are softened by its sensuous curves.
Some design elements from the C6 are fairly obvious in the fenders and deck lid, but there are many more lifted from the original 69 apparent in the wheel wells, grille and the “chopped” roofline. That said, Peters does not want this car to be called retro because he wants to “take the Camaro into the future.”
I’m sure many of you remember when concept cars were little more than a flight of imagination with no hope of ever making it to production. Today, however, many prototypes are thinly-disguised production vehicles that the manufacturer doesn’t mind people knowing about to, stoke the fire, so to speak.
Lead project designer Steve Kim knew that production of the car wasn’t among the goals but despite that he indicates that production is not that far from a reality.
The General wants a base-model Camaro for somewhere in the low-to-mid-$20,000 range, and that could be problematic as according to Lutz, it would mean selling at least 100,000 Camaros annually. Ford saw Mustang sales surge to over 160,000 last year, and many believe if GM will stay true to the prototype that millions of fans have fallen in love with, there is hope.
What do you think? Let us know if you feel the Camaro will in fact make it to production, and if it does, how will it stack up against the Charger or any other muscle car out there past or present. Email Bill and Rod
