Clinics? Nix, says Camaro's daddy


Automotive News / January 30, 2006 - 6:00 am



General Motors' product czar Robert Lutz doesn't want car clinics to dilute the Chevrolet Camaro concept's styling if the vehicle gets the OK for production. "There will be no clinics," he told employees at GM's tech center in Warren, Mich., a few days before the concept car's Jan. 10 unveiling at the Detroit auto show. One source said designers gave a collective sign of relief, since car clinics often have been blamed for watering down the styling of GM's vehicles as they morphed from concepts to production vehicles.

 

Great news! Waste of time and money for this anyway IMO. I'm sure they're getting enough feedback at the auto shows anyway.

Now hopefully we'll get a target production date in the next few months.

 

Thats the best news I have heard I was hoping they did not start messing with what we saw very much and minus the things we know it will not have that was just for the show I will be one happy camper

 

Lutz said long ago he would be getting away from clinics for everything exept "radical" designs, however, going into "GM-speak", we have another bit of information here.

Design clinics take up alot of time, since it tends to send a design back to the designers for changes multiple times. The lack of any clinics mean the car's going to move to market alot quicker than is traditional.

Also, we are getting a preview as to how public Camaro's move to production will be. Bob Lutz almost single handedly revealed each step the Solstice was at during development, even taking the unheard of step of allowiong auto journalists to test drive mules and publish stories about it. Camaro's development is going to be even more public than Solstice's it seems.

BTW: the original "Camaro" concept was sent through at least 1 clinic. The car was the original Chevelle/Camaro (before GM reorganized their programs making a new Camaro possible), and it scored higher than any other GM design in the clinic's history.

 

thats awesome!! Sure scored high with me.
I really cant wait for this car. It looks so damn good, really. The affect of Detroit and what I saw is starting to settle in now, and I really cant wait to get behind the wheel of my very own.

 

This is wonderful news! Thank you for pointing out the fact that not sending to clinic will shorten time to production due to not having to go back to the drawing board. The sooner the better!

 

 

I dunno, to be successful the car needs to appeal to a wide group of buyers looking at the segment. That means people BESIDES traditional camaro enthusiasts. . .

 

1 car an not be everything to everyone. That's what clinics try to accomplish.

 

Pretty sure the Asstek was clinic'ed...

There's no damned surprises as to what the Camaro was, is needs to be....

 

There are clinics for the Camaro. They are called Autoshows.
Inviting 250 enthuisats to see the car first, in front of the world...Id say that was a clinic, one that went very well.
Lets face it, people driving a Camry right now aint gunna be in a Chevy showroom, rubbing against the fenders of Camaro. If you show it to Camry people, they are gunna Camry-ize it. Next thing you know, we have a large Cobalt.

 

So basically he said, "We ARE making Camaro and SOON."

Anyone else get that out of Lutz' comment? lol

 

I wonder though if Camry buyers will change once Toyota brings it to NASCAR in 2007?

 

You HAD to be at the unveiling to understand that isn't an issue.... not by a long shot!


It was. Great point! Clinics can go horribly wrong.

By most accounts, the original Aztek design was actually pretty decent.

That's the idea.

GM is already looking at feedback from these shows and are looking at what to do about those console guages.


You are an expert at GM-speak, now.

 

I liked the console guages, but I can see how they arent "practical"