The seats are the best ever offered in an F-body, both for comfort and control (this goes for the base car's seats as well). Even after a day of driving, we were ready to go another eight hours. The steering is a little light for our tastes, but amazingly accurate. Bend the SS into a corner and it just takes a set and goes. We were not able to get the SS on a road course and thus are not equipped to comment on its behavior at the limit, but on the winding roads of rural Michigan, it was rock solid and confidence inspiring.
Two interior complaints: The pedal placement is not conducive to heel-and-toe downshifting and the steering wheel would have been better left in a concept car. It's way too big and fat in all the wrong places--like at the proper 9-and-3 positions. You have to move your hands to 10-and-2 just to hold it without getting hand cramps. These are two glaring errors for a "21st century sports car," as GM calls it.
As for the V-6, well, no more will owners of non-V-8 Camaros be stigmatized. This is a world-class engine, a silky smooth, state-of-the-art mill that offers the power of a small V-8 with the fuel economy of a frugal six (29 mpg EPA highway). The direct-injection 3.6-liter engine is optional in the Cadillac CTS, yet standard here. Chevy is predicting 0-60 sprints in 6.1 seconds and we'd be surprised if we couldn't better that. When you put the spurs to it, the six-speed automatic delivers crisp downshifts and holds the gear right to redline.
If you are so inclined you can order either the 3.6 or the 6.2 V-8 with tap shifts. Just pull the gear selector all the way down and hit the buttons located on the back of the steering wheel--right side for upshifting, left side for down. Oddly, there are faux paddles behind the wheel that you'd think were for shifting. They are just to let you know where the tap shift buttons are and which is up and which is down.
Like the SS, the base car feels like it were carved from billet. The interior materials are first rate. If you were blindfolded and didn't know any better, the ride would suggest you were in a much more expensive car. It swallows up bumps, potholes, and uneven pavement like no F-car ever had the right to. At just under $23,000 (base price), Chevy is going to steal a ton of V-6 Mustang sales from Ford.
Seven years was a long way to go between new Camaros, but boy was it worth the wait.
--By Jim Campisano
One-on-One With Camaro Designer Tom Peters
Q- What was your goal in designing the new Camaro?
A- I wanted to make sure that it came across as a Camaro, but a new take on it and that looked different than anything else. I wanted it to appeal to the traditional enthusiasts as well as attract new customers. I applied the same formula on the Camaro as I did the Corvette, and if you look at where it was with the fender shape and front end-I mean they all look cool, but we wanted it to be more iconic (like the '69 Camaro). We wanted it to look like a Camaro, but in a whole new way.
Q- After the Mustang, some have criticized the Challenger as a design-sellout (just a re-creation of the past), however the Camaro manages to create something fresh while capturing the heritage of the car.
A- The concept came together very quickly and we didn't have time to over-analyze things, and make it too emotional. But we wanted to make sure the car had personality. A lot time went into it, but we didn't have time to second-guess ourselves. And I felt very proud to be involved in that after growing up loving Camaros.
Q- Can you give us some of the back-story on the design of the Camaro?
A- It only had one run in the design studio before Ed Welburn, VP of Design, brought his '69 Camaro into the studio [for design cues], and said we need a car running in six months. We started in July and by Christmas we had a clay model. We had four designers (including myself) plus the clay workers. Everything happened so fast. We got a static model or "pusher," which had no guts inside it, and sprayed it red-you can't go wrong with a red Camaro. I remember clapping when the engine started in the first one (running model). That's when we knew.
Q- The Camaro has several large wheel options. Did you design it with a particular wheel diameter in mind?
A- Absolutely, that's part of the fundamentals of automotive design. But when it comes to production, you have to make evaluations based on performance. [And several different wheel options became available.] That's what's great about the Zeta platform, there is such a wide range of personality to come through.