the beginning of the chevrolet camaro
TRANSCRIPT
The Beginning of the Chevrolet Camaro
July 19, 2010
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Battle of the Best
• For over forty years Camaro and Mustang have been battling it out for first place in America’s heart.
• The Mustang arrived first, staking out the pony car high ground in 1964 and remained the only one of its kind during the two and a half years it took General Motors to respond.
• Since that time, Camaros and Mustangs have faced off in showrooms, at stoplights, on magazine covers and most dramatically on racetracks all across the country.
• Each has a large, passionate and loyal following. The story of how the battle lines came to be drawn, however, is almost as intriguing as the cars themselves.
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Who’s Their Daddy?
• Lee Iacocca is universally recognized as the father of the Mustang
• The Chevy Camaro’s parentage is much more difficult to define.
• Credit might rightfully be given to Alfred
P. Sloan. – President and finally Chairman of the Board of
GM in 1937– Sloan was a visionary automotive pioneer who
created the concept of annual styling changes and a lowest to highest pricing structure for each of GM’s brands.
– The idea was to provide a low, entry level price point and keep car buyers coming back to GM
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And They’re Off
• By the early 1950s Sloan’s concepts were very successful– General Motors surpassed Ford Motor Company as the largest
car company in the United States
• Introduced in 1958– Chevy’s full-size flagship Impala out-sold both the Ford Galaxy
500 and Plymouth Fury by wide margins well into the mid 1960s.
• Introduced in 1960– To keep the brand fresh and inviting, the Euro-styled, rear-engine
Corvair family sedan was introduced, followed by a sporty Monza model in 1963.
• To face-off against Ford’s highly successful Falcon and Fairlane tandem.– The compact Chevy II was launched in 1962 and size Chevelle
was introduced in 1964
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The Wheels Keep Spinning
• In the mid-1960s, both sales and spirits at GM’s Chevrolet Motor Division were at an all-time high.
• Combined annual car and truck deliveries were approaching 2.8 million units.
• Dinah Shore Chevy Show – On NBC, Dinah Shore closed each weekly episode of
the hour-long show with a warm farewell kiss and a musical reminder to “See the USA is your Chevrolet.”
• And at the GM Technical Center in Warren, Michigan– opened by President Eisenhower in May of 1956, – engineers and designers were already working on a new
1968 Chevy II/Super Nova model with dimensions and proportions remarkably similar to the Ford Mustang’s.
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Wrong Turn
• It’s a well known fact that GM didn’t approve production of what would eventually become the Camaro until six months after the Mustang was released.
• In 1962 Chevrolet design chief Irvin W. Rybicki and GM design boss Bill Mitchell approached Chevrolet General Manager Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen with the idea for a personal, four seat sports car– Knudsen quickly and confidently vetoed the idea. He was sure that Chevy’s
existing models, would be more than a match for any new small car from Ford. – Knudsen would, incidentally, later be named president of Ford Motor Company in
February 1968, temporarily stalling the ambition of a then up-and-coming vice president named Lee Iacocca.
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Wrong Turn
• Mustang shocked the automotive world with record-breaking sales– 26,000 units on its first day and
100,000 in the first four months
• Knudsen knew he had made a mistake. – Chevy quickly swallowed its pride and
green-lighted the development of a conventional front-engine, rear drive sports car.
– Engineers and designers were given a simple mandate: Make it longer, lower, wider, faster and better than Mustang in every way.
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Pedal to the Metal
• To most quickly and economically bring the new Mustang killer to market, the engineering team pulled ahead development of the 1968 Chevy II/Super Nova platform– featured a unibody structure from the windshield
and firewall back. – A unique feature, was a rubber-isolated front sub-
frame.• Isolated sub-frames had been used before but
only in a few European designs, most notably some Mercedes-Benz models.
• One advantage was that it allowed a larger interior with more luggage space.
• Another advantage was that it provided a smoother, quieter ride.
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Pedal to the Metal
• It would accommodate a wide variety of performance suspensions and power plants.
• Other off-the-shelf mechanical components included:– four drum-type brakes, – standard manual steering
• Chevy’s rugged:– 230 cubic inch,– 140-horsepower – straight six engine mated to a three-
speed manual transmission.
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The Design Team
•The design team that produced the Corvette, Corvair,
and Nova were given the challenge of producing
Chevy’s answer to the Mustang.
• Preliminary design drawings included:
– two-seat roadster
– a fastback
– and even a station wagon.
•In the end, Chevy management insisted on a four-seat
sport coupe, also available as a convertible.
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The Finish Line in Sight
•The final design:
– long hood and a short deck, A wide satin silver grille
with inset headlights and parking lamps, a low roof,
large wheel cut-outs and a bold horizontal crease
midway on the sides gave it a surprisingly fluid, road-
ready appearance.
•Two trim packages were also created:
– an appearance-oriented Rally Sport
– and a performance-oriented Super Sport.
– An RS/SS combination could also be ordered.
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The Finish Line in Sight
• The RS package included:– a blacked-out grille with hidden headlights, revised
parking and tail lights, upgraded interior trim and RS badging
• The SS package included:– a modified 350 cid V8 engine, simulated air-intakes on
the hood, special bumble bee striping and a blacked-out grill
• When the RS/SS package was ordered the RS badging took precedence.
• All the parts and pieces were quickly coming together. However, as the launch date neared, Chevy’s Mustang killer still didn’t have a name. How it came to be called the Camaro is still another story.
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About
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• We deliver autos nationwide– Speedy truck delivery– Economical and green rail options
• We make it easy to ship cars!– Easy-to-use, no hassle, online– One call, we do it all 1-866-207-3360
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