Do you all remember the 1998 article with the car that was 1/2 Camaro and 1/2 Firebird??

https://www.camaroz28.com/99fbody/index.html

Did anyone ever figure out what exactly that was?

 

i preferred cam am

haha, just kidding

 

I wonder if this was some joke from GM.

 

Some things should just be left alone...that's one of them.

I love how well the door and front fender line up!?

 

Nothing more then a test mule. WHY on earth would someone think this would of been a production piece?

 

i think it was to show how rediculous it was to produce the same EXACT car with the only difference being the wheels, skin and differente color guages. wow, camaro and firebird are SO different.

The only reason it was produced for the 4th gen is because "there's always been a firebird with a camaro." WTF? ok lets take a Camaro, spend x amount of money to pull another skin over it that looks almost the same and sell it under a different name. BRILLIANT! I really don't care about the Firebird. BUT if there were a Firebird it would have to be significantly different from the Camaro in SOME major way. Having one just because it's always been around the other is no good reason.

 

I happen to be glad they did that . I love my Trans Am and prefer it to a Camaro . Same preference goes to Camaro guys . It was nice to have the choice and they both did have quite distinguished personalities even though their mechanically the same car , regardless of your sarcasm .

That car was nothing more than what the article said it was . Alot of automakers used cobbled together cars for testing purposes . Dont look anything beyond that simple fact of life

Does anyone remember waaaaaay back before the 4th gens came out , GM had a third gen 89-90 Camaro RS with a 4th gen base firebird nose and winshield grafted on as a test mule and it had the 80-81(?) 2nd gen TA turbine wheels . It was hideous to look at

 

exactly
i think making the firebird the way they did was a good plan
it got people to buy the car who wouldn't have thought about it otherwise (as in, camaro is too bland, i don't want one....but hey! we got a trans am over here )

 

Please elaborate?

 

I know what it is! It's a Trans Am with an ugly front end!

 

for the first gen they had different engines tho the styling was REALLY similar, no? second gens engines, suspentions. third gen same as second. What's the difference for 4th other than appearance? nothing. kinda like the situation with the Solctice and Sky today. but at least their styling is vastly different in the sence that one's curvy and sexy while the other is edgy and means business. with th 4th gens they were both curvy and had the same exact theme going. the difference in 4th gens was one is clean while the other is over the top tacky. guess which one's which...

and 90 Z28SS, I know that car was a mule. I was being sarcastic toward the original question, like you said.

I think it's rediculouse for GM to be spending all this money to develop, certify and tool up for 6 different vehicles that serve the same purpose with the only difference being the badge they wear. The TrailBlazer clones anyone? I mean of course if you offer people a choice they'll take advantage of it. But I am certain that if there was only the TB offered there would be more TB sales as a result. SOME sales would be lost, but it's hard to say that those sales offset the amount of time, money and effort put into actually OFFERING the choices in TB clones to make all that worth while. The sad thing is they're ALL the same. OK, the Isuzu has a better warrenty pakage (which is a joke and an insult to Chevrolet customers) but that's IT.

 

pfft.

 

I guess you'd be happy if GM just changed its name to Chevrolet and quit making more than one of anything

Shucks, if it ain't no Chevy, it ain't no good...

 

where did you see me say that?? my point is, if each division is going to have a version of a car based on the same platform, AT LEAST make them distinct enough so that when you see one going down the street you don't have to squint at the badge to tell the difference. A good example of distinction is the Malibu/MAXX and the G6 or the ION/Cobalt. Yes they share parts. Yes they share platforms. Yes they are unique cars. A BAD example is the TB clones and the new minivans. That's all I'm saying.

 

I've seen one other besides that specific one. They are basically test mules as stated. You run out of parts for one, slap on some parts from the other. Thats how the body came to be like that
I'm sure some humor/curiosity took over near the end on them though

-Shannon