The history of the Chevrolet Camaro is littered with bold styling options and even bolder colors. "Bold" doesn't always equal "good," but there have been a lot of both since the 1967 introduction of Chevrolet's original pony car. At SEMA this year, we saw more custom Camaros than we thought possible, a few of them done up by General Motors itself. The General even promised that we'd see some of those Camaro option packs on the regular production models in the future. One special Camaro that really caught our eye was the Synergy, mainly because of its eye-popping green paint.
Today, Chevy has made good on its promise to offer those SEMA-special touches to the masses by officially announcing the release of the Camaro Synergy Special Edition. We have no idea why GM's announcement wasn't part of media days at the Detroit Auto Show, but regardless, the Synergy will be available from February to May with a starting price of $26,790. It's based on the 1LT, with its 304-horsepower, 3.6-liter, direct-injection V6. You can get it with the six-speed stick or an automatic, but the bespoke, specially-stitched shift knob will assuredly feel better when shifting for yourself.
The Synergy Green exterior color will be unique to this limited run and comes with Cyber Grey Rally Stripes, a rear spoiler, 19-inch painted wheels, Synergy Green instrument panel, door inserts and stitching. Synergy buyers will also pocket the Camaro Convenience and Connectivity Package, which add Bluetooth, USB port and remote vehicle start on slushbox models. By our estimation, that's a lot of content and a lot of green for not a lot of green.
Having trouble deciding which of America's three latest muscle cars is right for you? Well, at least you're not alone. We ourselves at the Autoblog HQ have had lengthy debates on the merits and drawbacks of each model, and the expected ongoing series of improvements to the Camaro, Challenger and Mustang are sure to drive a wedge between GM Gearheads, Ford Fanatics and Mopar Maniacs until the end of time.
Or, as seen above, you could go a slightly different route and combine all three ponies into one model, which we've taken the liberty of christening has been christened (Whoops! We're apparently not as clever as we thought, someone beat us to the name.) the Challarostang. A Vulcan Mind Meld between the front fascia and hood of a Challenger, the bodysides of a Camaro and the hind end of a Mustang, it actually doesn't look nearly as crazy as you might imagine. In fact, we kinda dig it.
According to Robert D, the Challarostang's modeler, the automotive ménage à trois seen here took four months to complete. Next question, which drivetrain do you choose? Click here for a description of the build process from the modeler himself.
It seems as though it's just about impossible to keep an embargo in place these days. A Canadian outlet just spilled the beans on a couple of GM reveals set for Detroit next month. They say they were invited to a sneak preview Wednesday evening and although they couldn't take pics, they felt free to tell us about the whole array of models. Some have been loosely-guarded secrets, but a couple are unknowns, so we'll quote CanadianDriver on those until we get confirmation from GM.
Apparently, The General will have a slew of new model introductions in the D next month, including the much-anticipated Camaro Convertible, the new, upsized Aveo, a substantially-revised Malibu, production versions of the Spark and Orlando, and two models we hadn't heard about until now: A GMC version of the Orlando dubbed the Granite, and a "sport version of the Buick Regal" that should get "many of its performance parts from the 325-hp Opel Insignia OPC." Hot dog, the Regal GS is apparently more than a wet dream. Bring on the Stage 1 and GNX.
The Regal was just introduced in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago, so the announcement of a performance model so soon thereafter seems a little strange -- not that we're complaining, mind you. The Granite is described as an "urban utility vehicle" and will be the smallest model in GMC's history. A Denali edition can only be around the corner. We'll get you more details as they are released and we'll be sure to have the whole field covered when the Big Top opens at Cobo in January.
The Indianapolis 500 is still more than five months away, but General Motors is getting a jump on the 2010 season with the unveiling of the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS Pace Car.
Shown today at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the tangerine Camaro is a rolling homage to the original pony pace car that rolled onto the track in 1967, complete with Inferno Orange Metallic paint, White Diamond rally stripes and a color-matched instrument panel. While the auto-box equipped, 400-hp 6.2-liter V8 apparently remains unchanged, the rest of the modifications are primarily cosmetic, including the Indy 500 logos adorning the doors, front fenders and seat headrests, along with an all-new front grille that's slated to be available as a Camaro accessory in the future. The only safety equipment is the strobe light system mounted inside the rear window, negating the need for a traditional roof-top light bar.
On Wednesday night, Chevrolet held a media preview in Motown to discuss and show off some of what will be coming up at the Detroit Auto Show next month. Unfortunately, we were not allowed take any photos or video at the event, although General Motors officials did say we could write about anything that was discussed.
The presentation kicked off with an introduction to new Chevrolet general manager Jim Campbell who just assumed his role a week ago. Campbell and Mike Simcoe, director of exterior design, then spent the next half-hour showing off the same batch of new Chevrolets that we were shown in the GM design dome last August. All of these cars including the forthcoming Orlando MPV, Cruze, Camaro convertible, Volt and the all-new 2012 Malibu are promised to be in U.S. Chevrolet showrooms within the next 24 months. The Orlando remains pretty true to the 2008 concept, with the only real changes being to the details of the light clusters – just don't look for it at the Detroit show.
Anchoring the entr- level end of the Bowtie's lineup will be the Spark and Aveo. Campbell reaffirmed that the Spark will be coming to the U.S. in 2011, putting to rest – at least for the moment – rumors that the program had been canceled. The bigger news is the next Aveo which will get its first public viewing at next month's show.
Many of us Autobloggers went to colleges that cultivated rabid alumni, but having seen this 2010 Chevrolet Camaro, our graduates were amateurs. In fact, we didn't realize you could love college, or its title-winning basketball team, so much. But a CarDomain forum member called "QuMongous" loves him some University of North Carolina Tarheels, and put his car in the game to prove it. Argyle pinstripes, his school's logo on the door, a hand-painted mascot on the rear quarters, and massive blue Dubs with UNC center caps have made this muscle car a tailgating hero. And wait until you see the back window.
There's really nothing wrong with the first-generation Chevy Camaro, except perhaps for the fact that rows upon rows of them can be seen at every single car show in America. In fact, so ubiquitous is the 1969 model that there are a couple of aftermarket companies willing to build you a brand new example from the ground up utilizing just about zero OEM bits or pieces.
This being the case, it's hardly surprising that this is the model year The General chose to mimic with its new fifth-gen Camaro for 2010. But what would happen if you could somehow jump to-and-fro through the timespace continuum in your Mr. Fusion-equipped DeLorean time machine and transport yourself back to '69 with visions of the 2010 model in your head?
Answering that question-that-nobody-asked is the 1969 Danz Camaro SS concept car, which you can see in the high-res image gallery below. Words cannot describe the initial reaction we had when opening this sucker up in our browsers for the first time, so we'll just say that we hope its creator kept the original pieces in the garage when it comes time to sell.
Ever look for something high and low only to find it hiding in plain sight? That's how we'd sum up the latest announcement from General Motors. The company has announced that the new Buick Regal – based on 2009's European Car of the Year, the Opel Insignia – will enter production at the beginning of 2011 at its assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario. There it will join the existing assembly line for the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain crossovers and the Chevy Camaro.
The kicker? General Motors subtly slipped in the announcement that the Camaro Convertible will begin production there as well around the same time. The drop-top pony car was first mooted with the concept unveiled at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show, and GM has been hemming and hawing about its production prospects ever since. Well, apparently they've made up their minds, and told all of us about it in the most understated way they could think of.
It's a sign of the times that most buyers of the new Camaro would go for the V6 and not the V8. At $31,595, the eight-cylinder SS model naturally sells for more than the $23,530 base V6 model. To compound the issue the V6 model costs the auto giant nearly as much to build as the V8 version.
So why would GM want buyers to go for the V6? The smaller engine would help the General keep its Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) rate on the good side of earth-friendly. But according to Edmunds, customers have been voting with their feet. Their right feet, as it would happen, heavy as they are.
Of more than 47,000 Camaros sold from April through October, Edmunds estimates that about two-thirds have been V8 SS models – a trend we can get on board with.
We've seen plenty of car-related videos of our time, and we've posted on quite a few of them on Autoblog. The clips are usually informative, offer a sneak peak of a future product, or they're just plain funny, but one thing we've never done is showcase a reader's demo reel, until today. Why? Because after the jump is one of the sweetest home-grown car videos in the history of geeks playing with CGI software.
The video features a Chevrolet Camaro, a Ford Shelby Mustang, a Jeep Grand Cherokee and – wait for it – a Vaz 2107. The supposed theme of the video is that some spiked orb thing ascends down from above, shooting pure, Spider Man 3-like evil upon the four unsuspecting vehicles. Once the vehicles become infected with this black plague, they get all bad and dark and stuff. Then a Black Hawk flies into the picture just for the added cool and hangs out with the souped up, shiny black cars. It's all kind of Mad Hatter if you ask us, but it's also completely freaking cool. Hollywood production quality cool. Music and sound effects are outstanding as well. Nicely done, Pantural, whoever you are.
