HAZ-Matt

Yeah Genesis is a decent little car. I would be more interested in the turbo 4 than the V6 in that car. If I really wanted V6 and RWD I would probably be too tempted to go with Mustang.

HAZ-Matt

Yeah. That is why Camaro has been selling so poorly.

In fact you almost got near the truth there. Styling is king. Not power, nor weight. Not even handling. The amount of people that want "pure performance" is a drop in the bucket.

Z28Wilson

I do. There are many other people who do as well. Why has the Corvette had it all these years if the live axle is lighter and just as effective? I'm not a live axle "hater", don't get me wrong.

The rest of your post is filled with ragtag assumptions and stereotypes. Look, I think the 5th Gen is too big and too heavy as well, AND I love the 3rd Gen (owned 1) and 4th Gen (have owned 2). But let's not pretend that those cars/structures are the formula for a successful Camaro in 2012. We need today's Camaro to not be a rattletrap for one. I know a stiffer structure can be accomplished without hundreds of extra pounds and it's what we'll get in the 6th Gen. Crash test ratings are important as well, unless you don't mind even higher insurance premiums and a marketing win for your competitors. NO manufacturer is going to willingly sacrifice top notch safety in their vehicles for some weight loss on the whims of some enthusiasts.

But people are still going to want the 8 speaker infotainment systems, a convertible model, power everything, bigger, thicker, more comfortable seats, etc. What would be nice is if either Chevy or Ford had the guts to build a lighter car and not package protect it for 700 HP supercharged engines. Think of how much structure could be shaved based on that.

HAZ-Matt

LSX wasn't really making way more power than the DOHC 32valve engines. It was of course making more than the SOHC.

Sure I agree that marketing of many companies was able to convince people that DOHC was newer and superior to pushrods, but the reality is that it makes more sense to go that way if you want more than 2 valves per cylinder. And you do want more than 2 valves per cylinder if you want to flow air more efficiently.

To be frank, GM did the best they could with the platforms that they had. They couldn't design some new miracle lightweight platform for Camaro. Or rather, they could but it wouldn't make any economic sense for them to do so.

I don't know why there is some sort of assumption that the manufacturers are going to create some powerful "enthusiast" car that is cheap. At least any with the performance advantage over mainstream cars that some are clamoring for. All the fast, light, powerful vehicles are nearly universally expensive. And cheap, light enthusiast vehicles don't make all that much power. There isn't any money in engineering a 3000 lb, $20k car with 400+HP. Not when the vast majority of people that make up actual sales are happy with the performance they can get in midsize sedans, and the relative few that want a sporty coupe care more about looks than running the quarter in the 12s.

Z28Wilson

Exactly. I don't think there was a single engineer on the Camaro project that was happy with its weight. But it's all they really had to work with. Now that Alpha is coming, there is hope that this weight trend will reverse course (dramatically or not).

In the end, you might as well modify that old engineer's creedo - Powerful. Light. Cheap. Pick two.

Koz

So...the Mustang is gonna get the Evos styling huh?

bossco

Not wholesale, but there will be elements of the Evos in the next Mustang, or so the WSG and other people are saying, Ford (understandably so) is being cagey at this point.

I wonder how many months off a reveal is? From the A pillar forward I like the Evos, from there back I don't think it has what a Mustang needs.

If Ford is shrinking the car IMO the greenhouse is probably going to be like the SN95/New Edge cars or a 3 series BMW - I really don't see how they will be able to maintain the semi fastback profile and decent headroom without going to a bubble roof or eliminating the backseats altogether.

I know sports car purists don't give a damn about the usable space in the current car, but its a useful selling feature to Ford guys that use their Mustangs on a day to day basis ( ie; dad taxicab).