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.
Press release and video after the jump.
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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.
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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.
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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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The American high performance tuning house Hennessey Performance Engineering has launched a new power package that puts a boost under the hood of the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro. The modified pony car is called the HPE550 2SS Camaro, and is the first automobile to feature the tuner’s latest edition chrome Magnuson supercharger.
The HPE550 2SS Camaro features a set high-flow fuel injectors to deliver enough go juice into the combustion chamber to match the additional pressurized air being pumped in by the special edition supercharger, a stainless steel cat-back exhaust to allow as much air as possible to pass through the system and an HPE cold air intake to make sure that enough fresh air is making its way into the LS3. None of these products would work nearly as well as a unit if it weren’t for the HPE dyno tune that comes complete with every HPE550 purchase. Last but not least the 2SS package comes complete with a set of 20 inch wheels that resemble the ZR-1 and a pair of modified valve covers compliment the chrome blower nicely and dress up the engine bay as well.
The HPE550 has also become the world’s quickest 2010 Chevrolet Camaro, completing the standing quarter mile in just 11.76 seconds at 121.2 MPH, although it was wearing a set of drag radials.
Details and video after the jump.
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You could say that you saw this one coming. With the enormous success generated by Transformers in their two movies, it was inevitable that General Motors – the supplier of most of the cars used in the movie – would release a special edition Transformers- vehicle to take advantage of the publicity.
Undoubtedly, the best choice for the crossover is the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro, which was one of the stars in the movie in its robot guise, Bumblebee. And predictably, that’s exactly what General Motors had in mind when it is set to produce a Transormers edition of the Camaro.
Performance-wise, the car isn’t different from any other 2010 Camaro. It’s in the aesthetic department where you’ll see the difference. It comes with the same yellow color and black racing stripes seen in the movie.
It also comes with the Autobot insignia on a number of areas in the car, including the two door panels, the wheel caps, the side sill plates, and embroidered into the center console.
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When it comes to the Chevrolet Camaro, there are plenty of tuning shops out there that are ready to wrench away at the 21st century muscle car in order to apply their own customization program. However there is one group of grease monkeys that stand head and shoulder above the competition, those two are Chris Fessler and Jon Moss. They duo are currently offering three distinct tuning packages for the bowtie wearing pony car.
The first package is called the Fessler-Moss 2010 Camaro Enhancement Package and is priced at $55,000 (including the vehicle) or $15,000 if you were lucky enough to have snatched one up from a dealership. It includes an adjustable suspension, high performance air filter, a set of 22 inch wheels, choice of carbon fiber bezels and black light tail lamps. If it is power that you’re after, Fessler and Moss offer options like swapping in an LS7 or LS9 power plant. If that is not enough, the American tuners will install a supercharger, high flow exhaust system and dyno tune the entire package. In order to compensate for the added straight line performance, they are also offering a brake upgrade and a new set of sway bars to keep the Camaro on the road.
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Despite hearing from some GM insiders that that Chevrolet has their finger on the trigger ready to release a high performance version of the Camaro pony car whenever the economic climate seems just right. Back in June, Top Speed reported that the Z-28 was still being considered as the halo version of the mighty Camaro, aimed at competing directly with other modern American muscle cars like the Dodge Challenger SRT-8 and the Shelby GT500 based on the Ford Mustang.
Despite the return of the ground pounders, General Motor’s new vice-chairman, Bob Lutz, has come out of retirement to announce that the Z-28 Camaro will not go into production. The high output pony car was supposed to be powered by the same supercharged small block chevy motor that is found under the hood of the high performance Cadillac CTS-V. "Any fears that the days of high-performance General Motors cars may be numbered or totally over can be allayed," said Lutz. Instead he focused on the future of fun to drive sports cars.
Mr. Lutz proclaimed that "There is no pressure at all to get off the high-performance thing," and pointed towards Chevrolet’s current offerings for the Camaro, like the 29 MPG, 304 HP six cylinder model. “I think the V6 Camaro is probably a very good model for the future of the high-performance car in America,” Lutz said, adding that “the Solstice coupe with the 2.0-liter turbo engine is another good expression of the future of the high-performance car, which is smaller, lighter, more fuel-efficient, and probably with lower displacement, but with a turbocharger.” This is a sad day for those automotive enthusiasts who believe that there is no replacement for displacement.
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