My new 2007 Camaro design for a contest on C&G
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From: Dallas, Texas
My new 2007 Camaro design for a contest on C&G
my 2007 Camaro design hand drawn front 3/4
rear 3/4 painted in psp
rear 3/4 painted, front 3/4 painted, side drawn
interior (dash)
versions of the exterior without all the lines (for people who didn't like them)
my finished compilation for the contest
This is my Camaro design for a contest on Cheers and Gears. I drew it and based it on the structure of the 2003 Aston Martin V8 Vantage concept and a concept I drew a few months ago. I included Corvette elements like a much more narrow and wider C6 grill with more narrow C6 headlights to comply with brand image. If a car produced by a manufacturer lacks continuity, it usually does not do that well. You need to be able to tell the car is a Chevy without seeing the logo and you need to be able to tell it is a Camaro without having to be told it is. Notice the lack of a Chevy bowtie, the 2005 Corvette also lacks a bowtie and everybody and their dog knows what manufacturer makes Corvettes.
Anyway, I colored it in paint shop pro, but only the blue really. My computer crashed and is still in disrepair right now, so I had to print it out and finish it with markers, highlighters, and a pencil. I then scanned it in and here we are.
I haven't done the interior or rear 3/4 view yet, but the car is slightly shorter in length than the 4th gen car with less overhang in front and back to please those who hate overhang. It is based on two or three of the favorite Camaro designs ('69, a little 70s, and '93) in conjunction with the C6. The front end is primarily C6, the sides '93, and the rear is a little bit '69. Overall however, there is a little 2nd gen influence, but not much.
Let me know what you think, and please look closely, only a fool would say it looks exactly like the '93-'97 Camaros. It shares more appearance trends with that style, but that is because that was an extremely popular design with most current and future Camaro fans. I didn't include very much heritage in the front view because the many people who had 60s Camaros back in the day are getting too old for sports cars and upgrading their tastes. This is meant to appeal to a wide target market.
EDIT: added the links from other pages to my first post. I'd also like to explain my design here.
Why does the car look similar to the 2005 Corvette or 4th gen Camaro?
Well, when you design a car that already has a name and past, you want to make the car have brand identity. You try to make it look similar enough to the previous versions of it and what the company currently makes so the car has this brand identity. That's why this car looks close to nothing like a 1st gen Camaro. The fourth gen looked very little like a 3rd gen which may be why it failed. There is a gigantic fanbase devoted to the 4th gen, but the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gen fans had very little to grasp in the 4th gen since the proportions were changed so much. My design has a combination of 3rd and 4th gen proportions with the addition of several Corvette items such as the Corvette wheelbase.
People who design their 5th gen Camaros and base them on the 1st gen don't follow the rules of successful car design. I think there is a quote that fits this, "Never get off a winner and never get on a loser." There is very very very little that the 2002 Camaro shares in appearance with a '67 Camaro. When you design the 5th gen based on the 1st gen, you alienate the people who love the 4th gens who are in reality, at least 60 to 70% of your target market and who would probably purchase a 5th gen Camaro. You may gain 1st gen fans, but you have just basically pissed off your entire fanbase that loved the 4th gens. When you design like this, you are only setting yourself up for failure, just look at several past cars like the Mercury Cougar, Dodge Charger, Ford T-bird and etc. They all failed (some failed several times) because they didn't remember their past. I'm not a big pre-90's car fan, but I'll try to go into more detail with at least the Cougar.
The Cougar started out in the late 60's or early 70's as this badass muscle car with one of the best sounding engines of them all. As time progressed into the 1980s it turned into this ugly 2 door sedan that looked like it was only fit for grannies. Once it hit the 1990's it was turned into what looked like a pretty awesome Mitsubishi Eclispe style car but the engine was crap and so was the handling so the entire car was a fraud. Sort of like a big muscle man who can only bench 50 pounds. It was a failure because, as far as I know, the only thing those generations of Cougar have in common is maybe the logo on the front and the name. Just look at the success of the Corvette. The Corvettes practically morph into each other (let's ignore the early 1st gens) and that is the root of their success.
Anyway you need to be able to tell it is a Chevy, and you need to be able to tell it is a Camaro without having to read a logo. In another aspect, you are limited in what u can do with 4 wheels and a body, so you design based on what you think is successful and also contemporary with modern styling. The 2005 Corvette is a success, so why not capture some of that attention with some design features like my design. Now I not only have Camaro and Firebird fans looking at the design and liking what they see, but I also have a percent of the Corvette market saying "You know, this car looks a little like the Corvette I want, but it has 2 more seats. Maybe the wife would let me buy one since it is more practical."
However, it is essential that you include enough heritage from past models or people won't be able to identify with the car. Meaning they might not buy it because it doesn't fit their tastes. If it doesn't look similar to the Camaros in the past, then you may lose a person's interest that you had in the beginning. That is why my design has a lot of 4th gen influence. Personally, I'm not ready for the Camaro to not have a snake-like front end. I want it looking fierce, not flat. That is my biggest issue with the 5th gen GM may be making; I don't think I could bring myself to buy one if it did not have the front end I love so much, that stares at me when I go into the garage, and that I identify so much with my personal essence of Camaro. You may be laughing at this, but if a car doesn't trigger an emotional response then who the heck is going to buy it? If GM's 5th gen is completely different up front, I'd probably end up chasing a C6 or Jaguar XK8 instead of Camaro just to try to get that nice feeling from looking at that sleek front end. I don't have such an attachment with the rear end of the 4th gen, and not many other people do either. Do a google search for Camaro and see how many people take a pic of the back of their 4th gen (who haven't just changed the exhaust). Now compare it with the 2nd gens and partially the 3rd gens. There is an obvious emotional attachment for the rear of the 2nd and 3rd gens so I tried to capture some of that in my design.
I barely have any attachment at all for the interior, I just want it to look modern and cool, not old and "it's been done before and a hundred times over." I want paddle shifters like friggin hell in the next Camaro. I'm of the Playstation generation, as I may have already said in this topic, and I would love to have them. Clutches and stick shifters should definitely be standard for the old school crowd, but for those of us wanting a little Ferrari life in our Camaros, paddle shifters should be available. Downshift on the left (L2), upshift on the right (R2), that's the only way to do it. The paddles need to be on the steering column and need to be at the 10 and 2 o'clock positions. There are some crappy steering wheel shifters on current non-Ferrari cars I've heard about, apparently they have thumb shifters (in about the same place my button shifters are on the steering wheel) with arrows on them; press up on the button for upshift, press down for downshift (I hate that). I'd imagine you'd need to look down at the wheel, take your hand off the wheel, and hit it with your thumb to shift. That's impossible if you are racing and just a little unsafe if you aren't boulevard cruising. But besides that, the car just really needs 4 bucket seats, some nice optional equipment like GPS, and some innovative style.
Okay, that is the end of my rant/explanation
.
rear 3/4 painted in psp
rear 3/4 painted, front 3/4 painted, side drawn
interior (dash)
versions of the exterior without all the lines (for people who didn't like them)
my finished compilation for the contest
This is my Camaro design for a contest on Cheers and Gears. I drew it and based it on the structure of the 2003 Aston Martin V8 Vantage concept and a concept I drew a few months ago. I included Corvette elements like a much more narrow and wider C6 grill with more narrow C6 headlights to comply with brand image. If a car produced by a manufacturer lacks continuity, it usually does not do that well. You need to be able to tell the car is a Chevy without seeing the logo and you need to be able to tell it is a Camaro without having to be told it is. Notice the lack of a Chevy bowtie, the 2005 Corvette also lacks a bowtie and everybody and their dog knows what manufacturer makes Corvettes.
Anyway, I colored it in paint shop pro, but only the blue really. My computer crashed and is still in disrepair right now, so I had to print it out and finish it with markers, highlighters, and a pencil. I then scanned it in and here we are.
I haven't done the interior or rear 3/4 view yet, but the car is slightly shorter in length than the 4th gen car with less overhang in front and back to please those who hate overhang. It is based on two or three of the favorite Camaro designs ('69, a little 70s, and '93) in conjunction with the C6. The front end is primarily C6, the sides '93, and the rear is a little bit '69. Overall however, there is a little 2nd gen influence, but not much.
Let me know what you think, and please look closely, only a fool would say it looks exactly like the '93-'97 Camaros. It shares more appearance trends with that style, but that is because that was an extremely popular design with most current and future Camaro fans. I didn't include very much heritage in the front view because the many people who had 60s Camaros back in the day are getting too old for sports cars and upgrading their tastes. This is meant to appeal to a wide target market.
EDIT: added the links from other pages to my first post. I'd also like to explain my design here.
Why does the car look similar to the 2005 Corvette or 4th gen Camaro?
Well, when you design a car that already has a name and past, you want to make the car have brand identity. You try to make it look similar enough to the previous versions of it and what the company currently makes so the car has this brand identity. That's why this car looks close to nothing like a 1st gen Camaro. The fourth gen looked very little like a 3rd gen which may be why it failed. There is a gigantic fanbase devoted to the 4th gen, but the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gen fans had very little to grasp in the 4th gen since the proportions were changed so much. My design has a combination of 3rd and 4th gen proportions with the addition of several Corvette items such as the Corvette wheelbase.
People who design their 5th gen Camaros and base them on the 1st gen don't follow the rules of successful car design. I think there is a quote that fits this, "Never get off a winner and never get on a loser." There is very very very little that the 2002 Camaro shares in appearance with a '67 Camaro. When you design the 5th gen based on the 1st gen, you alienate the people who love the 4th gens who are in reality, at least 60 to 70% of your target market and who would probably purchase a 5th gen Camaro. You may gain 1st gen fans, but you have just basically pissed off your entire fanbase that loved the 4th gens. When you design like this, you are only setting yourself up for failure, just look at several past cars like the Mercury Cougar, Dodge Charger, Ford T-bird and etc. They all failed (some failed several times) because they didn't remember their past. I'm not a big pre-90's car fan, but I'll try to go into more detail with at least the Cougar.
The Cougar started out in the late 60's or early 70's as this badass muscle car with one of the best sounding engines of them all. As time progressed into the 1980s it turned into this ugly 2 door sedan that looked like it was only fit for grannies. Once it hit the 1990's it was turned into what looked like a pretty awesome Mitsubishi Eclispe style car but the engine was crap and so was the handling so the entire car was a fraud. Sort of like a big muscle man who can only bench 50 pounds. It was a failure because, as far as I know, the only thing those generations of Cougar have in common is maybe the logo on the front and the name. Just look at the success of the Corvette. The Corvettes practically morph into each other (let's ignore the early 1st gens) and that is the root of their success.
Anyway you need to be able to tell it is a Chevy, and you need to be able to tell it is a Camaro without having to read a logo. In another aspect, you are limited in what u can do with 4 wheels and a body, so you design based on what you think is successful and also contemporary with modern styling. The 2005 Corvette is a success, so why not capture some of that attention with some design features like my design. Now I not only have Camaro and Firebird fans looking at the design and liking what they see, but I also have a percent of the Corvette market saying "You know, this car looks a little like the Corvette I want, but it has 2 more seats. Maybe the wife would let me buy one since it is more practical."
However, it is essential that you include enough heritage from past models or people won't be able to identify with the car. Meaning they might not buy it because it doesn't fit their tastes. If it doesn't look similar to the Camaros in the past, then you may lose a person's interest that you had in the beginning. That is why my design has a lot of 4th gen influence. Personally, I'm not ready for the Camaro to not have a snake-like front end. I want it looking fierce, not flat. That is my biggest issue with the 5th gen GM may be making; I don't think I could bring myself to buy one if it did not have the front end I love so much, that stares at me when I go into the garage, and that I identify so much with my personal essence of Camaro. You may be laughing at this, but if a car doesn't trigger an emotional response then who the heck is going to buy it? If GM's 5th gen is completely different up front, I'd probably end up chasing a C6 or Jaguar XK8 instead of Camaro just to try to get that nice feeling from looking at that sleek front end. I don't have such an attachment with the rear end of the 4th gen, and not many other people do either. Do a google search for Camaro and see how many people take a pic of the back of their 4th gen (who haven't just changed the exhaust). Now compare it with the 2nd gens and partially the 3rd gens. There is an obvious emotional attachment for the rear of the 2nd and 3rd gens so I tried to capture some of that in my design.
I barely have any attachment at all for the interior, I just want it to look modern and cool, not old and "it's been done before and a hundred times over." I want paddle shifters like friggin hell in the next Camaro. I'm of the Playstation generation, as I may have already said in this topic, and I would love to have them. Clutches and stick shifters should definitely be standard for the old school crowd, but for those of us wanting a little Ferrari life in our Camaros, paddle shifters should be available. Downshift on the left (L2), upshift on the right (R2), that's the only way to do it. The paddles need to be on the steering column and need to be at the 10 and 2 o'clock positions. There are some crappy steering wheel shifters on current non-Ferrari cars I've heard about, apparently they have thumb shifters (in about the same place my button shifters are on the steering wheel) with arrows on them; press up on the button for upshift, press down for downshift (I hate that). I'd imagine you'd need to look down at the wheel, take your hand off the wheel, and hit it with your thumb to shift. That's impossible if you are racing and just a little unsafe if you aren't boulevard cruising. But besides that, the car just really needs 4 bucket seats, some nice optional equipment like GPS, and some innovative style.
Okay, that is the end of my rant/explanation
.
Last edited by Brangeta; Jan 4, 2005 at 11:23 PM.
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,428
Re: My new 2007 Camaro design for a contest on C&G
its looks too much like an intrepid. also, make it a little more exagerated. maybe a hood with vents or something.
Last edited by number77; Dec 26, 2004 at 08:20 PM.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 2,915
From: Sacramento
Re: My new 2007 Camaro design for a contest on C&G
To me the round shape of the leading edge of the bump in the hood is incongruous with the rest of the car. I'd just as soon see a flat hood instead of one with scoop/vent type elements that are strictly cosmetic. Also the black detailing on the headlight covers needs to be toned down or eliminated. Still, I like the LT1 4th gen resemblance much better than the drawings I've seen that tend to use 1st gen styling elements.
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Posts: 676
From: Calgary
Re: My new 2007 Camaro design for a contest on C&G
I think he did a pretty darn good job! Especially considering some of the "concepts" I've seen over the last while.
EDIT: oh yeah, good job and good luck with the contest!
EDIT: oh yeah, good job and good luck with the contest!
Thread Starter
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Joined: May 2002
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From: Dallas, Texas
Re: My new 2007 Camaro design for a contest on C&G
I don't have time right now to do different specs for the car, but I would say the one above is in between Z28 and base V6. The headlight black parts could be black as an option and body color as standard (like the Corvette). The hood would be a standard Z28 hood. I had a version at one point with no C6 style lump, but it looked too plain for me, I tried drawing in the '93 to '97 fake vents on the hood, but the angles gave me trouble. But maybe that would be the optional hood for Z28 and standard hood for V6. I also had a version with SS hood, but I didn't want to introduce an old design for a new contest. The SS hood could either be like the C6-ZO6 hood, or like 4th gens, not sure, I had it like the 4th gens. If it were like the ZO6, the lump would have to stay. Ummmm also, this drawing is in between Z28 and base because I would like to reinstate the black sidemirrors, door handles, and roof for the Z28 since I love that so much on my car. I just didn't because I'm not particularly thinking of this car as if it were being produced, I'm just making an attractive design to my eyes.
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From: Jersey Shore
Re: My new 2007 Camaro design for a contest on C&G
Yeah, a lot of 4th gen in it, but I think the thing that made me dislike the 4th gens design is that it was a BOAT. Wide wide J-Lo like rear, and the Concorde headlights arent too plesant.
A Corvette-like nose with more of a Cobalt/GTO greenhouse. Id like to see a little bit more agressive lines.
A Corvette-like nose with more of a Cobalt/GTO greenhouse. Id like to see a little bit more agressive lines.
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From: Dallas, Texas
Re: My new 2007 Camaro design for a contest on C&G
finished the rear end (forgot the door handles though) Here's the rear 3/4. Got my computer back up and running so I was able to color it completely in psp instead of having to do any of it by hand like on the front 3/4.
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Posts: 96
From: Jefferson City Missouri
Re: My new 2007 Camaro design for a contest on C&G
pretty cool. the front looks good. a little too low slung for my taste, but not bad. the back looks awesome except for the spoiler. IMO it would look way better w/o it.
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From: Dallas, Texas
Re: My new 2007 Camaro design for a contest on C&G
Glad ya'll like it!
Hey, if you don't like the spoiler, you could order it off (if this were a real camaro) sort of like an optional "spoiler delete". I really wish I (1) had time to do all the different specs (base/z28/ss) and (2) that I had thought it out better. The design is sort of in between Z28 and base coupe in my mind.
I had a difficult time designing the rear bumper area, is it good? I kept getting a Nissan 300ZX feeling from it until I brought the top half back a little bit.
Hey, if you don't like the spoiler, you could order it off (if this were a real camaro) sort of like an optional "spoiler delete". I really wish I (1) had time to do all the different specs (base/z28/ss) and (2) that I had thought it out better. The design is sort of in between Z28 and base coupe in my mind.
I had a difficult time designing the rear bumper area, is it good? I kept getting a Nissan 300ZX feeling from it until I brought the top half back a little bit.
