it's so easy for people so say "my money is here just waiting for the Z28 or Convertible". Well let's face it, Z284ever, if they did build the Z28 that they have in mind you would say it isn't the kind of Z28 that you want anyway and you wouldn't buy it.

As part of prioritizing where they put their available resourses at this time, GM has to look at return on investment. For the quantities and price that the convertible sells at, what kind of return on investment would they get? How would it compare to investing in another product instead? Same for the Z28... right now every car that GM puts out has to have a very strong business case. MOST of the Z28s or Convertibles sold would be up-sells on the existing hardtop, not new sales walking in the door.

 

Okay, I gotcha now.

 

Ummm... is there really any news here other than supplier issues for the convertible top?

 

Hey thanks for the business lesson, but I get the position GM is in.

And yes, if you are saying that my idea of a Z/28 is not a 4200 lbs, nose heavy, supercharged, Camaro GT500 -- then you are correct. And I've said exactly that to Bob Lutz, Gene Stefanyshyn, John Hienricy and a bunch of other people.

 

I think they should make the Z28 cheaper to make. Why not make it a true Z28 maybe a little more power and a whole lot of weight taken out. Maybe better brakes and lighter wheels? Keep it simple. But do things that make it a much more of a track day car.

 

Have GM get up to speed on the direct injection LS3 and stick it in there and call it the Z28 and add some handling equipment.

 

The LS3 will never be direct injection. It will be replaced by something with direct injection, and that new engine will have a different name.

 

The convertible is bad news and I hope that Camaro sales will be brisk enough to support a case to get it done.

We've had the Z28 battle for a long time. IMO if it was going to be a GT500 type Camaro then I'd rather have GM save the money and use it where it's better needed as that's not the true Z/28 formula and I don't see the need for it. The SS is more than adequate enough for it's flagship Camaro roll in it's current state. In these days of CAFE and Gov't loans I don't see how a 550+ HP limited edition Camaro comes off as a good use of funds under a left of center Congress and Administration.
Politics aside the Camaro doesn't need top HP bragging rights it needs sales for survival and so does GM.
The GT500 price is getting close to that of a C6 coupe so it's not like Chevy doesn't have a very good answer for it. I know what I'd rather have.

 

Man....this is

 

Thats a bummer!!! Hopefully they don't delay the convertible for too long. If I were to eventually buy one that is what I'd get. But I'm a long ways from that.

 

I could care less about a convertible since I think it ruins the lines of EVERY car when the top is up. The Z/28 would be interesting to see though.

 

That really blows chunks!

Well..........maybe next model year, we'll see a "Z/28" appearance package.

 

Some pics of the vert surfaced a whole back, and it held the hard top lines very well. Better than most convertibles.

 

Just doing a little math. They say to do the Z28 would cost 50 million. If they sold 5000 Z28's a year that would be $10,000 a car, added to the cost of a Camaro.

 

But by now, you know that was wishful thinking. There's no way you build a car with that much power, IRS, meeting current safety standards, at that price point, at 3500 pounds.

The articles out yesterday are all positive. They all mention the weight, but it doesn't seem to be the killer you thought it would be. 13 flat 1/4s at 111mph, while getting 16/24 EPA. Sure, it could be a hundred or two pounds lighter, but that seems like whining about paying taxes on the million dollar lottery you just won.

I was really happy to see that the tested cars all came in under 3900 pounds -- even the automatics. So many times a car that is listed at 3850 on the spec sheet ends up over 4000 when a test car is put on the scales. I hope that the production models are just as light as these pre-production examples. In this case, the autos actually came in under the 3900+ on the spec sheet (don't know how that happened -- maybe not a full tank of gas, last minute spec change?).

The 2010 auto tested by MT came in at 3846 pounds. My 2002 w/o T-tops is about 3510. Since the Camaro skipped a generation, the net gain is about 10% in two generations, which is pretty much what happened to most of the rest of the market (with a couple of notable exceptions).