The
History Of
Camaro
Chevrolet General Manager E.M. "Pete" Estes
setting off the Camaro explosion, September 21, 1966.
1963 airbrush rendering for Project XP-836,
which became the Camaro June 1962 clay model of the XP-836
When Ford introduced the Mustang in 1964 there was no immediate.. reaction from General Motors, but by August of '64,.. just four months after the Mustang's introduction, ..GM realized the appeal.. of a four seat sports car. ..Ironically, the Mustang was created in response to the Chevrolet Corvair Monza! ..
..GM had.. actually begun preliminary work on such a car as early.. as 1958, according to Pontiac Designer Bob Porter. "I remember a four-passenger, sporty type car.. of the general size and weight class of the Mustang ..being worked on in an advanced studio. In the ..early '60s, similar cars were developed from time.. to time. Everyone wanted to do one, but ..at the time there was really no corporate.. interest." ..
..When the Mustang ..sold 100,000 units in the first six months, and almost ..half a million the first year, GM took an interest... The responsibility for GM's Mustang fighter ..was given to the GM Design Center's ..Chevrolet Studio under the direction of Henry.. C. Haga. Interior design was directed by George.. Angersbach, who had been heavily.. involved in the design ..of the Corvette, Corvair, and the Chevy II, which.. became the Nova in 1968... It has long been a misconception that the.. '67 Camaro was designed.. from Chevy II components when ..actually it was the other way around... The Chevy II was to be all new for.. '68 and it shared many parts ..with the '67 Camaro, but this did lead to ..compromises in the design, most.. notably the cowl height and hood ..length.
..One.. unique feature was the decision to use a front subframe.. isolated with rubber 'biscuits" in combination.. with the unit body construction of the rest of the car, a technique ..that had been used on several European..cars, including many Mercedes-Benz models. This combined.. the best of both worlds-a larger.. interior and more luggage space than was possible with.. a traditional frame and at the same time ..a quieter, smoother ride than a full uni-body car ..delivered.
..The designers ..did mock-ups of
many..
different models, including ..a two-seat roadster, a fastback, ..and a station
wagon. GM was..
trying to keep the cost as low as.. possible, however, to compete with.. the Mustang, and
decided to..stick
with just two models, a ..coupe and a convertible...
..The Camaro.. was to be offered
with a wide ..variety
of powerplants,.. ranging from a 230 cubic inch ..six cylinder to a
327 V8... In
addition, a new engine displacement ..was created just for.. the Camaro, a 350
cubic inch V8 rated.. at 295 horsepower. ..
..As the.. launch date
neared, the car still had ..no name. It had been called.. various names by
GM and the press, including Nova, Panther, Chaparral, ..and Wildcat (later
used by Buick.) It is rumored that Chevy also considered ..using the letters
"GM" in the name, and came up with ..G-Mini, which
evolved into GeMini, and finally Gemini... General Motors Headquarters supposedly killed
that name,..
because they didn't want the letters "GM" ..used in case the
car was a..failure.
This pre-release car bears "Chaparral" name.
..Finally, ..the car was introduced to the press as the Camaro, ..considered to be a good name because.. nobody knew what it meant. Chevrolet produced an ..old French dictionary showing that the word meant .."friend"or "companion", but Ford found an alternate meaning in an ..old Spanish dictionary-"a small, ..shrimp-like creature."The automotive press had a good.. laugh over that, and an even bigger.. one when one journalist found yet another meaning-"loose bowels." It ..didn't take long for the laughter to.. stop after the introduction of the stunning 1967 ..Camaro!