This month's column comes at an interesting time: the March 2006 GMHTP will already be at the printer when, GM willing, a sexy new Camaro concept car is unveiled at the 2006 Detroit auto show to the joy of performance vehicle enthusiasts everywhere--and hopefully, a production version will follow a couple years later. That means that you all will have laid your beady eyes on this concept exactly one month before you read this.
However, within the last couple of weeks, someone leaked several photos of a concept mockup assumed to be an in-process version of the new Camaro (sitting in front of GM's design center, no less) one month before the NAIAS. Although we have copies of these pictures, we're honoring GM's current (as of mid-December) request to not publish them. Of course, chances are they'd be obsolete by the time this issue hits newsstands, anyway.
Instead, since this is the first sighting of a half-designed vehicle (we call this a rough draft in the magazine business), we'll offer up our opinion on its looks--even though the finished product may not be anything close to this sketch. Call it a concept mid-term.
First off: for the most part, this model has very attractive body lines--even without seeing it in person--and that's great news as a digital image or a paper printout hardly does a design project justice. It evokes a very strong '69 Camaro heritage design, especially in the nose, hood, and rear quarter areas. Yet, just like the production 2005 Mustang, classic lines have merged with a futuristic, aggressive look. This is especially evident in the nose/front fascia area: the designers penned a modern grille and headlight arrangement--with just a hint of First-Gen Camaro to bring on nostalgia. The same can be said for the roofline--there's a lot of First-Gen there but the rear quarters have replaced the old rounded lines with a bit more angle. A broader, more modern cowl hood adds extra muscle to the front end.
Styling around the door is strong as well; a narrower, deeper version of the coves on millennium-up Stangs, and more attractive, to boot. A near head-on look at it accentuates the beefy rear rubber, too.
Perhaps one of the most extreme aspects of this rendering is the rear end. This styling is right on the edge to where some people would love it, and others would hate it. From our perspective it looks C4 Corvette, retro and import-wannabe-Speed Racer all at once. It doesn't seem to be tied together at all, and the look is completely unsettling, especially around the bumper area. GM has produced a few attractive products with mold-braking looks as of late--think Trailblazer SS and CTS-V--with homely rear ends. Let's not allow the Camaro to be the hat trick.
Unfortunately, many of the same concept vehicle attributes that really wow 'em at the car shows have a snowball's chance in hell of making it to production. If the mondo chrome rims, the kidney-beating ride height, or the pedestrian-skewering side mirrors make it to the Detroit show, great. Just don't look for them in a production version.
But perhaps the most interesting aspect of this pre-release sketch is how GM insiders are claiming that the actual concept will NOT be a "retro" design. Considering the financial shape of domestic automakers, and the unbridled success of the 2005 Mustang, GM must be very confident in its designers penning a modern "home run" design that can be mildly modified for a successful production car.
As far as this early sketch goes, we'd give it a grade of "B." There's brilliance and repugnance here, but it already has the potential to leave the Fourth-Gen styling in the dust. We've always said that GM has world-class powertrains just aching for a sexy home--will our hopes be realized come January?