Happy Birthday Camaro!
That's right, today is the one year birthday of the official production run of the current Gen Camaro. Yessir, the Gen 5 Camaro is one year old. It has been a fantastic year for a fantastic car too! With over 100,000 Camaros produced this year, the numbers surrounding this car are fantastic! I'm not just talking the performance numbers either (even though that 420 HP is pretty damn impressive). This year has seen the Camaro win multiple awards, including Car and Driver's, MotorTrends, and MotorWeeks year end awards for Sports Coupe, as well as some of those same awards for best over-all car. The Camaro has also been deemed the best new car, and is in the final 3 spots for World Designer Car of the Year award. Beyond those numbers, Camaro sales have been largely responsible for the change of fortunes over at Chevy, while Camaro has also been deemed time and time again as the modern-day muscle car champion. So, with a year like that behind us, I am excited to see what the year ahead offers! Here's to the 5th Generation Camaro, and to it's first birthday! May it have many more great birthdays ahead!
2010 Camaro now in Top 3 for World Car Design of the Year
Recently, I updated that the 5th Generation Camaro had been put on the short list for World Car Design of the Year. The award finale is coming up on April 1st, and the Camaro looks like a very strong contender for the win. The list of 4 had been:
Chevrolet Camaro
Citroën C3 Picasso
Kia Soul
Toyota Prius
World Car finalist Prius has been eliminated, which almost seems laughably obvious now based upon the recent news of runaway Priuses bombarding CNN, Fox, and every other news source around and inbetween. The Kia Soul is a nice little car, especially considering the price tag, but it is nowhere near the same class of car as the Chevrolet Camaro. The C3 Picasso is a little trickier to judge though, as I've never seen one in person here in America. Of course, the images I've seen of it, do not inspire much desire or awe:
In fact, it looks like a car Scion has been making for years now. Based upon the competition, I truly think it would be a travesty if the Camaro lost this prestigious award. Seriously, if you want fantastic design, just look at this:
That's a masterpiece right there, and a clearly deserving winner. Here we go Camaro, let's try and add this award to the shelf!
Camaro Sales Numbers for the Month of February
Well, for the 9th month in a row, the Camaro has outsold the Mustang (and continually by a large margin). The model year for the Camaro ends this month too (March 16th), so we'll soon get to see its total year sales numbers. Lets hope these numbers continue strong for some time to come.
Delivery (sales) Stats:
Camaro February 2010 Deliveries (actual sales): 6,482
Total January 2010 - February 2010 Deliveries: 11,853
Mustang sold 5,115 units in February 2010.
Formula D Drift Competition Camaro
Most of the time, when I think of a Camaro, I think of pure HP transferring itself to wide tires and rocketing a machine forward in a straight line. The Gen 5 Camaro has shown already that it is a lot more than a drag rocket, and now its going to a place Camaros don't typically go. Sideways. Hankook has developed and is entering a 600+hp Camaro in to the Formula D Drift Competition Series now. Debuted at SEMA in 2009, we weren't really certain what the Hankook Camaro could really do, until this video came out. Looks pretty great tearing up that track (and its tires).
Camaro Named MotorWeek’s Best Sport Coupe
MotorWeek's annual list of yearly Driver's Choice Awards came out this year, and that just meant more honors for the Chevy Camaro. Continuing its dominance amongst the automobile loving community, the Camaro just won MotorWeek's award for Best Sport Coupe as chosen by their readers. MotorWeek had this to say about the Camaro:
"Our choice for Best Sport Coupe is the Chevrolet Camaro. This modernized throwbackmuscle car is, above all else, an extreme head-turner. Designers combined the retro styling of Camaro's heyday with design cues that intimate the future of sports cars. Now add to that two very healthy powertrains -including a roaring 426-horsepower V8 – and excellent overall handling. Plus an authentically classic interior. With base pricing in the low 20s, the new Camaro is a prize like no other."
Now, I simply can not disagree with that little snippet. Who could? More awards for the Camaro, and definitely more yet to come!
Gen6 Camaro to get new platform?
According to a recent MotorTrend report we're beginning now to get some information about what the 6th Generation Camaro will be like (seems a little premature, no?). Apparently GM is developing a new RWD platform that will take place of the SIGMA platform on the Cadillac CTS and be the base by which the 6th Gen Camaro is also built. This platform will be the ALPHA platform. This seems a little odd of a move, but I'm alright with it personally, to announce this right now before the second year of the Camaro has hit dealerships. So, this platform will be hitting dealers in 2014, and the Camaro is scheduled (tentatively) for 2015 right now. Other changes discussed here: The 6th Gen Camaro is expected to be lightened by a good bit from the 5th Gen; Also, apparently the engine in the Camaro will not be a naturally-aspirated, but instead either a turbo or super-charged V6. It seems the goal is to continue increasing Camaro performance while also increasing its EPA gas consumption rating to guarantee it will continually be able to beat whatever Mustang Ford throws at it. All very interesting stuff, but, having just bought my Camaro not too long along, too soon for my liking to hear about!
2011 Camaro Launch Date
Production for the 2011 Camaro begins on June 7th. Final retail order entry is set for April 10th on the 2011 Camaro as well. What all of these means for you, the Camaro lover and owner, is that while there's no news on any changes being made for 2011 yet, they will have to be announced by April 10th or so, most likely no later than the 15th. As those days approach, we should be getting more and more news on what, if any, changes are being made for the 2011 model year. Keeping fingers crossed for something new and exciting over here, hope you are also!
