The fire that burns in our soul.
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Aug 1999
Posts: 2,610
From: Cincinnati, OH
The fire that burns in our soul.
An obsession drives everyone. Even the least exciting human to graze on the planet earth has some secrete love affair that they feel burning inside them every waking moment of their life. It’s a feeling impossible to shake or bury inside so deep as to forget the drive, the need, the desire. The object creates a burning hole in the stomach, the mere presence of the object makes any cold day warm, any bleak sky blue, and any sad soul happy.
The Chevrolet Camaro is that feeling.
Why do people join clubs of thousands of other obsessed people that gather weekly, monthly, bimonthly, or yearly to give praise to such a car?
Why do people spend thousands on aftermarket pars from a car that comes with 325 horsepower standard?
Why do people wake up in the morning five minutes early to check Internet message board to find the latest word on a possible new generation of cars?
Why do people spend thousands to fix up cars worth less than half of what is invested into them?
Because the Camaro spirit grabs the soul and wont let go.
Fathers pass on stories about their first generation cars to their children.
Children learn to work on cars from helping their father restore a classic.
High school students pull into the parking lot before anyone else to catch the best space and put their car on display for the day.
College take as many pictures of their car as their family to remind them of how good the car makes them feel.
It’s a spirit that’s full of fire and will never be extinguished.
In an age of disposable retro based new cars and radical designs that seem to be the latest craze, why is it that one car still attracts such a following as to allow people from every generation and every social status to become one and just share a love for an object? Because young or old, rich or poor, male or female, that fire can burn inside anyone. From that moment the love affair began to the day of passing, the fire always burns. A label cannot be placed on it, it cannot be captured in pictures, it cannot be captured on paper. It can be put on hold, but it always comes back. The sight of a particular model that has a special significance can make the heart skip a beat, cause the loss of breath, and create a smile that resides on the face for the rest of the day.
There are only two cars in existence that create this emotion, the General Motors fbody car and the Ford Mustang. While the Mustang continues to thrive and push new limits, the fbody remains dead and forgotten inside the walls of the vast General Motors empire. Enthusiasts are told to keep faith in the car while being offered no evidence that their letters, emails, and phone calls mean anything. While Bill Ford, Jr goes on national television ads and proclaims the Mustang the crown jewel of the Ford family, General Motors executives shove radical crossover vehicles down the throats of the faithful.
The only problem is the faithful are not digesting those vehicles. The faithful continue to wake up every morning and read the latest fbody news. The faithful go to work in their used fbodies from all generations, grinning every time the starter turns over the engine and creates the sound of rushing air and fuel into the cylinders. The ever so slight lope of the camshaft echoing though the exhaust while producing enough horsepower to fuel three separate cars. The faithful know every squeak, rattle, and problem with their car and still long to find that open road that just calls out to the soul of the driver to push their vehicles to the limit.
General Motors will never be able to offer another car that will fill the void created by the demise of the fbody. Temporary stopgaps fill Internet postings, but the lingering question always remains, when will a new Camaro be produced? Time will not make this question fade away, it will only amplify the intensity of the question. Every platform General Motors creates automatically brings the question back into the light. Will it fit on this new platform? If the body is stretched, will it look like a Camaro? Will it hold an eight-cylinder engine?
Unfortunately no answers are offered. Speculation runs rampant. Someone from General Motors mentions an unnamed rear wheel drive car and the rumors explode about a new fbody. Even if no information is given about a car other than when it will be shown, the faithful pray for a new Camaro, although always disappointed by the outcome.
The fbody will never die. It may cease to be produced, but the name, the car, will live on forever. In thirty years fbodies will still call out to people who are fifty years old today. It’ll call out loudly to people who are twenty right now. It will call out to people who are not born right now.
That is the spirit the Camaro lights and one can only hope that fire is lit under a new General Motors.
The Chevrolet Camaro is that feeling.
Why do people join clubs of thousands of other obsessed people that gather weekly, monthly, bimonthly, or yearly to give praise to such a car?
Why do people spend thousands on aftermarket pars from a car that comes with 325 horsepower standard?
Why do people wake up in the morning five minutes early to check Internet message board to find the latest word on a possible new generation of cars?
Why do people spend thousands to fix up cars worth less than half of what is invested into them?
Because the Camaro spirit grabs the soul and wont let go.
Fathers pass on stories about their first generation cars to their children.
Children learn to work on cars from helping their father restore a classic.
High school students pull into the parking lot before anyone else to catch the best space and put their car on display for the day.
College take as many pictures of their car as their family to remind them of how good the car makes them feel.
It’s a spirit that’s full of fire and will never be extinguished.
In an age of disposable retro based new cars and radical designs that seem to be the latest craze, why is it that one car still attracts such a following as to allow people from every generation and every social status to become one and just share a love for an object? Because young or old, rich or poor, male or female, that fire can burn inside anyone. From that moment the love affair began to the day of passing, the fire always burns. A label cannot be placed on it, it cannot be captured in pictures, it cannot be captured on paper. It can be put on hold, but it always comes back. The sight of a particular model that has a special significance can make the heart skip a beat, cause the loss of breath, and create a smile that resides on the face for the rest of the day.
There are only two cars in existence that create this emotion, the General Motors fbody car and the Ford Mustang. While the Mustang continues to thrive and push new limits, the fbody remains dead and forgotten inside the walls of the vast General Motors empire. Enthusiasts are told to keep faith in the car while being offered no evidence that their letters, emails, and phone calls mean anything. While Bill Ford, Jr goes on national television ads and proclaims the Mustang the crown jewel of the Ford family, General Motors executives shove radical crossover vehicles down the throats of the faithful.
The only problem is the faithful are not digesting those vehicles. The faithful continue to wake up every morning and read the latest fbody news. The faithful go to work in their used fbodies from all generations, grinning every time the starter turns over the engine and creates the sound of rushing air and fuel into the cylinders. The ever so slight lope of the camshaft echoing though the exhaust while producing enough horsepower to fuel three separate cars. The faithful know every squeak, rattle, and problem with their car and still long to find that open road that just calls out to the soul of the driver to push their vehicles to the limit.
General Motors will never be able to offer another car that will fill the void created by the demise of the fbody. Temporary stopgaps fill Internet postings, but the lingering question always remains, when will a new Camaro be produced? Time will not make this question fade away, it will only amplify the intensity of the question. Every platform General Motors creates automatically brings the question back into the light. Will it fit on this new platform? If the body is stretched, will it look like a Camaro? Will it hold an eight-cylinder engine?
Unfortunately no answers are offered. Speculation runs rampant. Someone from General Motors mentions an unnamed rear wheel drive car and the rumors explode about a new fbody. Even if no information is given about a car other than when it will be shown, the faithful pray for a new Camaro, although always disappointed by the outcome.
The fbody will never die. It may cease to be produced, but the name, the car, will live on forever. In thirty years fbodies will still call out to people who are fifty years old today. It’ll call out loudly to people who are twenty right now. It will call out to people who are not born right now.
That is the spirit the Camaro lights and one can only hope that fire is lit under a new General Motors.
Prominent Member
Joined: Dec 1999
Posts: 2,282
Re: The fire that burns in our soul.
Very, very well done!!
Only one comment though.....
Read the thread about the Gag Order and you'll see why I'm convinced that the reason we don't hear anything from GM is because they CAN'T say anything or lest they face the wrath of the Labor Relations Board, CAW, UAW and the local officials in St. Therese...
I'm also convinced (due to some recent developments) that the Camaro is indeed on a track to return.....when, who knows, but I am more positive now than a few months ago.
Again, well done....
Only one comment though.....
Originally posted by Chuck!
There are only two cars in existence that create this emotion, the General Motors fbody car and the Ford Mustang. While the Mustang continues to thrive and push new limits, the fbody remains dead and forgotten inside the walls of the vast General Motors empire. ........ Enthusiasts are told to keep faith in the car while being offered no evidence that their letters, emails, and phone calls mean anything. While Bill Ford, Jr goes on national television ads and proclaims the Mustang the crown jewel of the Ford family, General Motors executives shove radical crossover vehicles down the throats of the faithful.
There are only two cars in existence that create this emotion, the General Motors fbody car and the Ford Mustang. While the Mustang continues to thrive and push new limits, the fbody remains dead and forgotten inside the walls of the vast General Motors empire. ........ Enthusiasts are told to keep faith in the car while being offered no evidence that their letters, emails, and phone calls mean anything. While Bill Ford, Jr goes on national television ads and proclaims the Mustang the crown jewel of the Ford family, General Motors executives shove radical crossover vehicles down the throats of the faithful.
I'm also convinced (due to some recent developments) that the Camaro is indeed on a track to return.....when, who knows, but I am more positive now than a few months ago.
Again, well done....
Registered User
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 172
Passion is what drives us.....
It's this passion that has been missing from General Motors for quite some time.
I only hope that we will soon be heading in the right direction.
The F-Body was more than just a car.....And it needs to come back soon.
It's this passion that has been missing from General Motors for quite some time.
I only hope that we will soon be heading in the right direction.
The F-Body was more than just a car.....And it needs to come back soon.
Registered User
Joined: Jan 2000
Posts: 45
From: DALE CITY, VA. USA
Great job Chuck, well done indeed. Why GM could let this beautifull car flounder, with such a recognized and respected nameplate as the Camaro and Trans/Am, GM was ahead of the game. Now their is very little to none in the GM lineup to draw youthfull buyers. I only hope they get with the program and quick before the light goes out, forever.
Registered User
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 102
From: Baltimore, MD, USA
Wow. Although I have to say, there are other cars out there that make me feel like this. Embrace our fellow automotive brethren, cars such as the 'Cuda, Charger, Corvette, these all give me that same giddy feeling as the Camaro, and way more than the mustang.
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Aug 1999
Posts: 2,610
From: Cincinnati, OH
But they dont give my generation that feel. I dont have any recollection of Cudas burnin up Woodward ave (lord knows I wish I did, heh I was born in the wrong decade!). We've only grown up around the Mustang and the Fbody like our dads. The vette, too, but Im not really able to afford one. Thats the only reason I put the Mustang and the Camaro in that class.
Thanks for the good words everyone. I just kinda wrote it on a whim after reading a line from All Corvettes are Red. I should probably go back and fix the typos
Thanks for the good words everyone. I just kinda wrote it on a whim after reading a line from All Corvettes are Red. I should probably go back and fix the typos
Wow that was beautiful. We should have that etched in a plaque and sold in the merchandise section. I'm printing it up and putting it in my college notebook right now.
Registered User
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 66
From: Orlando, Florida USA
Very well said Chuck.
I just turned 54 and have had that fire in me ever since I drove my friend's brand new 1969 Z28. It still burns in me when I get out of work, walk up to my 98 Z28, fire her up, hear the rumble and go screamin down the road with my hair on fire. Chuck is exactly right, the fire doesn't go away, it stays with you regardless of how old you get.
A little advice to you younger guys if you don't mind. Try to hang on to your f-body. Pamper it and take good care of it, pay it off and tuck it away somewhere. Buy a beater if you have to, but save the Camaro. I wish I would have done that long ago, especially with a 1st genner. I plan on keeping at least one of my current Camaros until the day I die. One of them will be mine for life. I know what Chuck is talking about in regards to GM killing the legend. I for one happen to believe the Camaro is dead. If it's ever brought back, I doubt if it will be anything like what we have now. I hope and pray that GM proves me wrong, but I'm not going to take that chance. It's up to us to preserve them now.
I just turned 54 and have had that fire in me ever since I drove my friend's brand new 1969 Z28. It still burns in me when I get out of work, walk up to my 98 Z28, fire her up, hear the rumble and go screamin down the road with my hair on fire. Chuck is exactly right, the fire doesn't go away, it stays with you regardless of how old you get.
A little advice to you younger guys if you don't mind. Try to hang on to your f-body. Pamper it and take good care of it, pay it off and tuck it away somewhere. Buy a beater if you have to, but save the Camaro. I wish I would have done that long ago, especially with a 1st genner. I plan on keeping at least one of my current Camaros until the day I die. One of them will be mine for life. I know what Chuck is talking about in regards to GM killing the legend. I for one happen to believe the Camaro is dead. If it's ever brought back, I doubt if it will be anything like what we have now. I hope and pray that GM proves me wrong, but I'm not going to take that chance. It's up to us to preserve them now.