Thanks to Transformers and the revival of pony cars, the Chevy Camaro is one of the most popular cars in General Motors’ fleet. Anyone who likes driving down open highways in muscle cars might be wondering when will a convertible Camaro be out.

Thanks to the troubles GM is in, there might be a longer wait before the convertible will come out. The project has already been pushed back twice and the latest news says that it has been pushed back for a third time.

The production run was scheduled to commence before the years ends by December this year so that it will be made available by 2010. However, GM’s bankruptcy filing and the horrible financial climate pushed the launch date to May of next year.

Now, GM pushes it further, with productions set to start by the first quarter of 2011 just in time for a launch in the second quarter. That’s a long delay for those who had been anticipating the car. At least the project’s still alive.

Despite GM’s wobbly future and reputation for building not so great cars, Camaro fans will always be Camaro fans. And what a treat it would be to see one built from scratch. Fortunately for Rick Hendrick, top dog of Hendrick Motorsports, he was the lucky man who got the first ever 2010 Chevrolet Camaro to roll out of Chevy’s Oshawa assembly line.

Thank the YouTube gods again for this clip showing his Camaro being built.

General Motors has said that a new high-performance Chevrolet Camaro Z28 is in the works, with the planning and design stages already done. However, it is still uncertain whether the car will roll off the assembly lines as a production car given the company’s current financial troubles and the general detraction of consumers from gas-guzzling, environment-unfriendly high-performance sports cars.

The new Z28 would have had a 6.2-liter LSA supercharged V8 engine taken from the Cadillac CTS-V. The engine will be mated to a six-speed manual or an equivalent automatic transmission system. With this setup, the car produces 556 horsepower, with a 0-60 time of below four seconds.

Car enthusiasts have been clamoring for a new high-performance Camaro release that would utilize the latest technology that GM has managed to put into production. Especially given the following of those Camaro concepts in recent years, it’s no surprise that enthusiasts and hardcore followers come up with sweet renderings like the one from the Camaro5 forums.

It’s unlikely that we will get to see a new Z28 anytime soon, given the economic climate and the premium on green fuel-efficient cars.

Source: Motor Authority

Hennessey Performance Engineering, a Texas-based company that specializes in high-performance sports and muscle cars, has come out with their own customized Camaro, called the Limited Edition 2010 HPE700 Camaro.

HPE provided power boosts to the standard supercharged V8 from GM, allowing the HPE700 to go 705 horsepower at 717 lb.-ft. of torque. It also takes styling cues from the Corvette ZR1 plus an option to upgrade the brakes to the ZR1’s 15-inch carbons. This adds to the upgraded suspension and lightweight wheels. It also features a rear lip spoiler, front splitter, and side rockers made from carbon fiber.

HPE President and CEO John Hennessey encapsulates what the HPE700 is all about: “The HPE700 Camaro allows our customers to combine supercar power and performance with classic American muscle car looks in a modern, daily-drive usable sportscar with a backseat and a trunk!”

The Camaro has always been a favorite for tuning and customization, and this latest variant from HPE looks to be on par with the best of them. It’s also exclusive—the first batch of the HPE700 open for auction only for the 2009 Barrett-Jackson auction registered bidders.

Source: Lethistorylive

The SEMA Show, the annual Las Vegas performance car extravaganza, is always a hotbed for unique customized car models. The 2008 show saw the unveiling of the Chevrolet Camaro Black – a dark, high-performance Camaro modded using a host of GM performance parts.

Most notable among the Camaro Black’s features are: classy five-spoke wheels, unique front splitter, side skirts, and sinister red rings on the headlights. All these are overlaid on the matte black exterior finish. The windows and tail light lenses are also tinted. No doubt about it, the Camaro Black looks very daunting and classy. No details were disclosed regarding engine specs and other components ‘neath the hood, but expect at least a 300-horsepower V6.

This is clearly GM taking advantage of the SEMA exposure to hype up the Camaro further, as well as to show off its performance parts. Along with other modified models (the SS and the one-of-a-kind Dale Earnhardt, Jr. custom were also shown at the SEMA show), Chevy feeds public interest until the car rolls off the assembly lines and to dealerships in Spring of 2009.

Source: Left Lane

If you’d want to help GM stave off bankruptcy, then you might want to buy one of these new 2010 Chevrolet Camaros which you can order starting today. And all you have to shell out is $22,995 for the V6-powered LS and $30,995 for the V8-powred SS. Both already include the $750 destination charge.

GM will start building these cars in their Oshawa, Ontario plant by mid-February of next year and they’ll be delivering them to their lucky owners shortly afterwards. The battle of the pony car is sure to escalate then.

The LS model comes with the 3.6L V6 that dishes out 300 jp and 273 lb.-ft. of torque. It’s mated to a six-speed automatic gearbox. For the badder SS model, power comes from the 6.2L LS3 v8 that generates 422 hp and 408 lb.-ft. if you opt for the manual version. The automatic version sacrifices 22 hp and 13 lb-ft in the power ratings.

As standard, you’d also get 4.5-link independent rear suspensions, four-wheel disc brakes, traction control, a range of wheels ranging from 18- to 20-inch wheels.

The official images of the freshly revived 2010 Chevrolet Camaro have been released earlier but Inside Line has got some interesting tidbits of information regarding the pony car resurrection.

First off, those interested in buying the Camaro V6 or the Camaro SS (pictured) can start ordering by next month. Well, that’s the beauty behind this. While production will only start by February of next year and deliveries will only begin by March, they could might as well start making money (and sales projections) through deposits on pre-orders.

Reviewing the details on the Camaro. The V6 will be powered by a 3.6L engine that produces 300 horses and gets 26 mpg. The Camaro SS gets the LS3 6.2L V8 that churns out 422 hp and 408 lb-ft of torque.

As for the price, you can drive off with the SS if you have around $30,000 while the V6 will start in the low $20,000s. More definite details on the pricing probably by next month as pre-ordering starts.

Whenever an American muscle car revival makes it way into the market, I just can’t help hearing Born in the USA in my head (or was it just that it was played when the USA men’s basketball team won in the Olympics). Sad to say that even if the newer cars try to revive the heyday of the muscle car, it seems that the ones lack the panache of the old, easily overshadowed by European and Japanese makes.

And here we have the first good images of the new Chevrolet Camaro SS. Not that they’re officially released. We have to thank Kevin Kolvenback for these. He happened to stumble upon the model shoot in Nevada. I have to admit these are great shots. Great enough to create that “This might just be a majestic car” impression.

Now let’s consider Richard Hammond’s question. “What if the Camaro turned out to be a great car?” The SS or Super Sport trim line is powered by the LS3 6.2L V8 churning out 422 hp and 408 lb-ft of torque. The engine is mated to a six-speed transmission that channels all the power to the rear-wheels.

Seems good? Maybe. We have yet to see performance figures of the car. And this is supposed to be the most awaited American muscle car in decades.

Source: World Car Fans

Trying to look unfazed by their company’s shaky financials, GM just unveiled the new 2010 Chevy Camaro. Set for availability in 2009, the new Camaro hopes to that car that would strike the balance between form and substance. And in today’s world of gallon-pinching, the Camaro’s return of 26 mpg makes it practical as well.

The Camaro uses GM’s rear-wheel drive architecture and would feature three variants sporting two different engines – a 3.6L V6 and a 6.2L V8. The V6 dishes out 300 hp while the V8 packs 422 horses. These engines are mixed and matched to six-speed trannies designed to give optimum performance and fuel efficiency.

All variants feature four-wheel disc brakes with ABS and are equipped with GM’s StabilTrak electronic stability control. The car also offers rear parking assist, remote starting, Bluetooth connectivity, airbags for safety, and an XM satellite radio.

I’d like to see how the new Camaro would fare in the market. The features and the performance figures seem to make this a practical choice for those gunning for a sports car that wouldn’t break the bank. Still, it makes me curious whether GM’s image as a faltering company will have an effect to public reception.

Source: Chevrolet

Green. Green. Green. I have no problems going green. In fact, since I’m a firm believer of Al Gore’s manbearpig, I am all for it (though I still have to save up some money before I could drive around smug in a hybrid). One stigma that hybrids need to overcome is the performance part. While many manufacturers have come a long way into making performance hybrids, I guess if everyone pushes for their own zippy hybrids then it would be an industry standard.

While everyone’s trying to do just that, GM isn’t really focusing on those details but they’re just complying with new rules that require fuel efficiency rates must be improved by 40% in 2020. So turning the Camaro to a hybrid is in by no means a way to make zippy hybrids, it’s just that they should be able to turnaround their whole fleet. I wonder why since they’ve got their own breakthroughs in fuel cells anyway.

Imagine that: a muscle car hybrid. And doing that would be a bit costly. That means that they’d be revamping the platforms and the new powerful gas-guzzling engines (the new V8) will be put on hold.

So for now, GM will be totally rethinking their plans on their developments for the Camaro. Though I still think that they’d be able to do that. They be content squeezing out all the juice they can get from a V6. Toyota has already done a performance hybrid with the FT-HS so why can’t they. Let’s see how the two top dogs would duke it out.

Source: World Car Fans