We’ve seen a lot of pretty interesting marketing efforts from car brands over the years. While some have bordered on the weird, others are just too fun to ignore.
A Chevrolet dealer in Mexico has come up with a pretty creative and amusing way to get people inside their dealership. They’ve commissioned somebody – probably one of their employees – to dress up as Bumblebee from the hit movie Transformers.
But that’s not all. The man dressed up as our favourite Autobot doesn’t just talk up amused customers about his new gig but he can actually transform into a pint-sized version of the 2010 Camaro. It sounds crazy to read it so we suggest you go see the video for yourself. It’s definitely worthy of a good laugh.
One of the first companies offering the American pony car to the European market was the German based Geiger Cars back in June, and while Chevrolet is currently only producing the 2010 Camaro in two different output levels, Geiger is offering them in three. General Motors makes a very fuel efficient 3.6 Liter V6 that makes 308 HP and will get as much as 29 MPH on the highway while still cranking out almost 275 lb-ft of torque. The high end SS Camaro is being offered with a rather impressive 432 HP 6.2 Liter LS3 V8, the same unit found in the Chevrolet Corvette C6, that makes a ground pounding 420 lb-ft of torque.
However Geiger is offering the 21st century pony car with the addition of a supercharger under the hood that increases the V8 powered Camaro’s output up to a roaring 568 HP and 589 lb-ft of torque. Allowing the newfound compressed air to escape from the piston pumper are a set of high flowing sport catalytic converters that feed into a stainless steel Geiger manufactured high performance sport tuned exhaust. Charged with clamping duties and getting almost 600 lb-ft of torque to the ground is a specialy designed twin plate sport clutch. Even with the Geiger Camaro’s shorter rear end the blown American muscle car can still reach a top speed of 195 MPH, quite a feat for any American production car.
Since power is nothing without control, Geiger has also found time to fit the Camaro SS wit a fully adjustable coil over suspension as well as a set of sport tuned anti-roll bars to keep all four wheels flat on the pavement and the Camaro tracking in a straight line when it gets close to that top speed. It takes a lot of braking power to bring a couple thousand pounds from early 200 MPH to a dead stop, so that is why Geiger fitted a paor of six piston brake callipers up front over a set of grooved 380 mm disks and a pair of four piston stoppers out back with some more grooved dinner plates measuring 355 mm in diameter. Housing all of that very important stopping technology are a set of 22 inch rims wrapped in a set of 265/30 tires up front and some 295/25 rubber donuts out back. All we want to know is where can we sign up.
While the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro has enjoyed an impressive showing in the U.S. market, that shouldn’t come as a surprise to a lot of us because, well, the Camaro has always been one of Chevrolet’s strongest cars among American car owners.
It turns out, the US isn’t the only place where the Camaro is considered king. The iconic American muscle/sports car has already sold out in Japan despite the car not being on sale yet. Confused?
As it turns out, GMAP has already received over 120 orders for the Camaro, more than the quota GM originally pegged for the Land of the Rising Sun. While it’s misleading to assume that the Camaro has been flying off the shelves in the Japan – there are, after all, only 120 units that’s going to be sold in Japan. – it should warm the hearts of the folks from GM to see that the Camaro has fetched quite a following in Japan.
We have recently received a 2010 Chevrolet Camaro RS into the Top Speed test fleet, although this isn’t the 426 HP hire breathing SS model, the RS package adds true muscle car styling to the green pony car. That is because like the high horsepower model, this V6 powered Camaro is capable of getting as much as 29 MPG on the highway, not bad considering that the direct injected gasoline engine is still able to put out 300 HP. We are not disappointed having the entry level mill, because after all this is still an all new 2010 Camaro.
Back when we spoke with the car’s lead Exterior Designer Luciano Nakamura, he assured us that this is not a retro 1969 Camaro, but instead a 21st century muscle car inspired by the classic bow tie wearing pony car. However the inside is quite a different story, everything from the flat rimmed steering wheel to the four pack of accessory gauges the Camaro has a 1960s Americana feel. The seats are wrapped in an attractive two tone leather scheme and a uniform stitching ties everything that is upholstered together. There is also an AM/FM/XM radio with in dash CD player and USB input inside of the center console for all of your MP3 player needs.
What sets the RS apart from regular six cylinder Camaros are a set of these staggered monolithic 20 inch five spoke rims that come on the V8 powered car complete with the sticky Pirelli P ZERO tires measuring as wide as 275 mm in the back. Up front the RS is identifiable by the halo ring HID headlamps that also come standard on the SS. Aside from the special RS badges the only other thing that differentiates this well equipped $31,530 Camaro from the base model is the aggressive spoiler that sits on top of the rear boot lid.
It was a sad day for modern muscle car fans when General Motors cancelled their F-body production. There would be no more new Camaros and no more new Firebirds for quite some time, gone was an affordable ticket to 350 HP and truly earth shattering performance. In an attempt to make good the General brought over a rebadged Holden and tried to sell it as the GreaT One. If it hadn’t been for a bit too much weight and the rising prices in go juice, the modern day GTO might have had a chance. Now it is time for the 2010 model year to start making appearances in the street and thankfully the Camaro has been reborn to take on a restyled retro Mustang and true muscle car from Dodge. Sadly Pontiac did not survive 2009 and with its demise the hopes of being able to buy a new Firebird are gone with it.
So what do you do if you don’t like the hand that General Motors has dealt, look into a Trans Am conversion kit and turn a brand new Chevrolet Camaro into the brand new Pontiac Firebird you have always wanted. This particular kit from the radical designer Kevin Morgan who’s screaming chicken, Smokey and the Bandit interpretation is a bit wilder than the last one of these automobile changing body kits. This model was first revealed as a concept, but the Pheonix T/A Camaro Concept will be represented by a road ready production version later on this year.
The Trans Am conversion package will include a ride height lowering Kit, 20 inch wheels, shaker hood scoop, vented fenders, a new rear fascia, rear spoiler and the all important Trans Am graphic package.
When the Japanese automaker Nissan announced their super car’s single lap record for a production car around the Nurburgring there were quite a few people that weren’t too thrilled to hear it, manufacturers and tuners alike. One of the most unlikely candidates to take on Godzilla’s challenge is the Chevrolet Camaro, but if the boys at East Texas Muscle Cars have anything to say about a certain turbocharged 2010 V6 that just might do the trick.
The car will be initially be prepared as a concept for the 2009 SEMA aftermarket extravaganza before making the trek to the Nordshleif. The 300 HP 29 MPH V6 will be beefed up with a built motor, starting off with a forged crank shaft, a set of high strength rods and pistons as well as a modified remote mount Squire Turbo Systems kit that should boost the GM V6 into the neighborhood of 500 HP. The 2010 Camaro will also be upgraded with a Baer big brake kit, lightweight iForged wheels measuring 20 inches in diameter a set of Pedders coil-overs to round out the ride.
The car will make its world debut at the 2009 SEMA Show and we will keep you posted about the car running a 7:26 around the ’Ring when it happens.
Despite having already garnered a string of publicity for what seems like months now - including a stint as Bumblebee in the summer blockbuster Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro was the subject of some unexpected bad news when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration – or NHSTA – gave the Camaro a lower-than-expected four out of five stars rating for its front impact test.
While the Camaro did score a perfect five stars on its side impact test, the four-star rating comes as a bit of a blow for the American sports car, especially when you consider that its two main rivals, the Ford Mustang and the Dodge Challenger, scored five out of five on their tests.
To the uninitiated, this rating system seems to be just a case of one brand having more stars than the other, but to those who care deeply about car safety, it’s a pretty significant discrepancy. According to the NHTSA, a car receives the full five stars means if it has a 10-percent or less chance of serious injury in the event an accident occurs, whereas a four-star rating means that there’s an 11- to 20-percent chance of serious injury in the same situation.
It seems that every time the Ford Mustang and the Dodge Challenger are muttered under the same sentence, the Chevrolet Camaro is not too far behind inside of consumer’s minds.
Well, those eager to see another round of racing among these three US sports cars are going to have to catch the KONI Sports Car Challenge race series. With the Mustang and Challenger already in the series, the Momentum Race Group, a Dallas-based racing team, wasted little signing up, and the two cars the team will be using for the competition are no less than two 2010 Chevrolet Camaros.
The 2010 Camaro’s entry to the series – which, incidentally was prepped up by Riley Technologies – adds another level of intrigue to the racing series, considering that it’s two greatest adversaries – the Challenger and the Mustang – already have teams using their models.
It only makes sense that because the all new Chevrolet Camaro was designed primarily in the rear wheel drive loving country of Australia, that it is only fit for the first production looking example of a drop top Camaro be spotted in the outback.
General Motors will offer the convertible pony car in the same three trims as the fixed roof coupe version: LS, LT and SS. The LS and LT models will be offered with Chevrolet’s advanced, 300 HP 3.6 Liter direct-injected V-6 engine with variable valve timing that gets as much as 29 MPG on the highway that can be combined with the owner’s choice of a six speed manual or automatic transmission, while the top of the line SS model will come with a 6.2 Liter LS3 V8 that comes equipped with fuel saving technologies like Active Fuel Management for automatic equipped combinations and a stretched six speed manual transmission.
No matter which power train combination that you choose, an open air Camaro experience is sure to be an unforgettable affair. General Motors has announced that despite the previous setbacks with suppliers, the Chevrolet Camaro Convertible will be ready for the 2011 model year.
Despite being a huge sales success, General Motors is having a bit of trouble developing a drop top and have hit a few unseen snags with the the new convertible Camaro. So when times get tough, turn to the professionals, in this case we’re talking about the guys from California’s Newport Convertible Engineering, who have already developed a working model of the soft-top version of the new muscle car.
From the looks of things, the convertible engineers added quite a bit of reinforcement to the A pillar, perhaps even a stronger windshield frame to deal with the added weight and loss of structural rigidity from cutting the top off.
Even if it is still under development, NCE is already taking orders for the drop top 21st century muscle car. So if you like having fun in the sun with the wind in your face behind the wheel of a V8 pony car then this could be just what you are looking for.
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