With all the buzz created lately by everyones e-mails to GM, I began to wonder something else.
I posted my question in the "Camaro Name" thread with no response, and as I mentioned if this is a re-post sorry.
When Kris Horton did his rendition of a 5th gen Camaro Popular Hot Rodding took all the drawings and positive e-mails and presented them to GM in a portfolio at SEMA 2003.
My question, what effect did this have on Camaro's future? Was this a significant factor in bringing back our favorite car?

Thanks

 

The design of the car intended as the next Camaro has been pretty much done since last year, so Kris Horton's design has had zero impact on the car since it was (mostly) done already.

A car design is pretty much finalized 2-3 years before production at the absolute latest. There may be last minute changes to deal with engineering & production issues, but the look and setup of the car is done pretty early. The Mustang that's coming out late this summer had it's design finalized summer before last.

The 2006 Solstice was rammed through GM, yet it debuted at the auto show back in 2002. SSR took a little longer. GM design chief Ed Welburn freely admits his design team is working on 2008 & 2009 vehicles.



Sorry you missed my post a couple of weeks ago. It explained why the Camaro name is on hiatus, and why bringing the name back (the car isn't the issue since it's headed for production) is problematic at best.

The only issue is (and seemingly always was) the name. Someone's belated drawings, no matter how good, didn't have an impact.

 

One of the resident insiders over at cheersandgears.com has been dropping some pretty serious hints that the 5th gen will be heavy on 1st gen cues. My Skunkworks associate,Crispey 2k is trying to interpret the clues with sketches . He has great talent and it is looking pretty good so far,if a bit retro.

http://www.cheersandgears.com/boards...TOPIC_ID=13557

 

That's a pretty cool concept. Maybe a little too 05 stang in direction though.

http://www.strike9.com/file.ashx?pat...s-camaro-2.jpg

It's certainly interesting comparing it to this:
http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/users/3f8f4...S1_gongos.jpg?


Who the heck is this evoc guy?

 

Actually I did catch it, very informative post!! (Glad I got to see it before it got zapped! )
Was the PHR presentation part of the recent wave of enththusiast related badgering that's helping GM to realize the importance of the Camaro name?
I't seems that many factors have come together in favor of bringing the name back.

God, I would LOVE to see what it looks like!

 

Evok has been a reliable source of inside info at C&G for a long time. We try not to ask too many questions about who he is. Nature of the beast,can't bite the hand that feeds.

 

How does everyone feel if they just call it Chevrolet Z28?

 

I don't consider the PHR articles as proposals for a 5th Gen really. I think what the editor and I had in mind was more along the lines of gaining feedback to show how hungry enthusiasts were to see the Camaro make a comeback and to get it in writing. The design itself was how I would like to see the Camaro portrayed and not something I was trying to pitch to GM (I had known about the non-GM concept rule for a long time.) I figured that GM had plans of their own already anyway. I was unaware of the fact that the next generation's design was already locked down. I was under the impression that it was still a bit of a pet project at this point.

I'm kind of hoping that when the Camaro is brought back that some people will say "I wish it could have been more like Kris's concept" but at the same time I hope that it will be so incredible that even I forget about my concept. We'll see.

Kris

 

I get a page not found error on the yahoo link and a blank page on the other. Anybody else? Did anybody save these and if so would you email them to me please.

 

The first one is from a link posted on this thread...

http://www.cheersandgears.com/boards...TOPIC_ID=13557

The second is from a link posted on a thread on this site. Search for Gongos survey. It's a few posts down on the first page.

 

I originally clicked the strike9 link from the CnGs website. I still get the blank page.

 

Yeah, link no work... dang! I knew I should have saved that last night! Anybody else get it?

 

I remember "evok" over at thecarconnection.com when I first got into surfing the internet back in '98. He was one of the insiders that jumped ship when trolls and morons overran their future vehicles site, and let me know where everyone's new home was (C&G).

His information is dead on the money. I know at least 2 cars he's worked on directly which he gave me details on well before they came out, and things turned out precisely as he said. If he says a certain coupe is going to look a certain way and have certain things, his info is bankable. "AH-HA" is another direct insider, and there are at least 4 other people I know that actually work on future vehicles. 1 of them will soon stop posting, and that's going to be a big loss.

BTW: the link isn't working.

 

According to Evok's info... the new car will have heavy 1968 Camaro flavoring... especially the front.

I am confused by this... I thought the word was the car would not be retro-flavored like Mustang.

 

I found this very confusing as well, especially since Red Planet has been beating into our heads the importance of an aerodynamic shape. I seem to remember him saying Kris Horton's Camaro would never be done simply because of the "snow plow" front end...which highly resembles a First Gen....