Hey whats up guys, i was just doin some thinking...wondering what you guys think about this...ok SS comes out as a new Chevelle(or new Monte)or both...then a shortened version of the SS concept with 2 doors as a 5th gen. How much shorter could they make the car without compromising, what i think is everything the camaro needs to make it more friendly for everyone to live with...much more interior room(look and feel as well) is a big key in my opinion. Is this possible? Also, if the Firebird cannot be added to this platform, what about the solstice more aggresively styled and named Firebird(turbo I6?)with a trans am model after a year or two with a Gen IV.....! Well i guess this is all a lot easier said than done, just wanted to get a few opinions from you guys, you're all very informal and seem like really cool people.....you can bring something to an end, but you can't erase 35 years of history!

 

Every change in dimension is comprimising something. I'm not too sure on the dimensions of the Solstice platform. However, basing the Camaro/Firebird on the Solstice platform would make it either noticeably smaller or give it some rather odd proportions. See my post on the third page of the thread titled "Want to get REALLY pissed off?".

 

A separate architecture (the structure under the skin of a car)would still have to be made if it were to come off a Monte Carlo/Chevelle coupe.

A Camaro off this architecture would be slab sided, have a high cowl (wrongly refered to as a 'Firewall') and would have a rather tall and awkward look. By the time you engineer & shorten the cowl, you'd have to engineer a different frontend structure to match it, then crash test it. To lower the roof, and give it tumblehome, you'd also have to reengineer that as well as how it attaches to the side structure & floorpan, and crash test that as well. Reduce the rear overhang? That also means reengineering & crash testing.

This is precisely why even if Cadillac let Camaro use it's CTS as a base for Camaro, it would still be pretty expensive. On the plus side, it could easily be assembled on the same assembly line.

Now, take the Solstice. It already has Camaro-like dimensions other than a chopped wheelbase. It has a low cowl, and has track width that is actually identical to the 4th gen. This means that the entire front structure can be carried over w/o additional reengineering. The tumble home on the car already mirrors the 4th gen, so no additional money has to be done on the body structure. Extending the mid-section to streach out the wheel base is a low cost proposition (made easier because the Buick Bengal will also be lengthen version of this chassis, so no real additional costs).

Pacer X can probally go into even deeper details if you ask him, but in short, unless you want a really ackward looking Camaro, assuming (in fact I think I can almost gaurantee this) that GM will not spend the money for a separate Camaro architecture, the Solstice based sigma chassis is likely going to be the only game in town.

 

As long as the Solstice based sigma chassis lets GM build a proper 5th gen I have now problem with them using it at all.

 

I agree with alot of guion's points here. You just can't reskin a CTS and..... voila....5th gen Camaro!

Cowl height is one issue. The Sigma's particular multi link IRS is not compact enough to allow anything but sedan rear seating....it would need to be revised or completely replaced for a low slung Camaro.

Getting back to the Solstice/Bengal chassis. If a Camaro is based on this...I hope they at least use the Sigma's front SLA suspension module for Camaro. No doubt...the standard chassis will use McPherson struts.

BTW guion, any idea on which Sigma components might be used on this new small RWD platform?

 

Well you're the expert man, i just wanted to know if it was possible...i just see so many similarities between both the Chevelle and Camaro in the SS concept...it would make so much more sense as a Chevelle, i just wanted to know how hard it would be to shrink into a 5th gen...anyone have the dimensions on the Solstice? and how easy would it be to fit a V-8 in there? it just looks so small to me in pictures...well thanks for the information, and keep up the research!

 

A V8 is about the same length as an inline 4. A Pushrod V8 isn't a whole lot wider than a DOHC inline 4 (one of the unique packaging advantages of cam-in-block architecture). If you have a big enough shoehorn, you can often fit a pushrod V8 in the place of an inline 4 (monster miata, anyone?).

I say it'd be an easy fit.

 

My understanding (Pacer X this may be your area of expertise) the front and rear suspension assembly of the "sigma" are modular, and are constructed as a single unit. Therefore, the architechure (body structure) is designed to simply plug these in. That seems to be the idea with Holden's VE, and what GM means by having a standardized RWD chassis.

Not an expert, just know a few people and I have way too much free internet time in the morning.

 

Right now I don't think even GM knows what it is gonan build a 5th gen on for sure...