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When you look down on the new Camaro from a balcony, you see the lines of the 1963 fastback split-window Corvette. This is as planned by its young designer, Sang Yup Lee, who came to the U.S. from Korea as a boy and grew up in the California car culture. There are subtle twin-cockpit humps on the hood, that can be glimpsed at the top of the steeply raked 67-degree windshield, helping to produce a 0.37 Cd in the LS and LT, and 0.35 in the SS. But the long hood with its v-shaped shark nose and black wide mesh grille (with simple headlights intended to be reminiscent of a '69 Camaro) is what catches your eye, makes you sigh, and triggers your longing. That too is by careful design. Starting with the architecture of the impressive Pontiac G8, the rear wheels were moved forward six inches, the fronts forward 3 inches, the windshield back 3 inches, and for a final touch lowering the front suspension. (Balance and handling? Check.) All models use an aluminum hood with a 2.5-inch power dome intended to look like cowl induction but actually having no function other than appearance. The SS has an additional wide and thin black simulated intake on the nose, the easiest way to tell whether it's a V8 or V6. Otherwise, the V6 can pretty much pass, a bonus for $23k. Styling gills located just forward of the rear wheels add another nice touch. Even though the power dome, hood intake, cooling gills are not fuctional, they all work as styling enhancements, and don't come across as phony. The new Camaro captures the look of the original '67, while not being seduced into retro clunkiness, virtually, and beautifully, there's no chrome. The 2010 Camaro is 5.7 inches longer and 3 inches wider than the '67 Camaro. The new one is 2.8 inches taller than the vintage model, that height coming largely from big tires. (All have the same outside diameter, whether with 18-, 19-, 20- or 21-inch wheels.) The shapely strong hips stand out almost as much as the long hood, an edgy element the designer is most proud of, because they took so much work. He said it took 113 tries to get the one-piece sheetmetal right, from the doors and pinched beltline rearward. It was worth it. The rigid B-pillar is blacked-out, thus creating a clean outline for the side glass, blending into a handsome hardtop roofline. The short rear deck climbs upward and looks hot, showing off the car's great butt. The twin taillights look like blinking red sunglasses in each corner. The rear spoiler is a small lip that could be integrated more smoothly. Ten exterior colors are available, including a Corvette yellow that promises that the car will gather many thumbs-up, like our test model did.
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