Good news for gear heads. The muscle car era is coming back. At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, General Motors (GM) showed off a concept of the Chevrolet Camaro -- the muscle car it killed off in 2002 -- that sources say could go into production in about three years.
Should GM get the car to market, it will have plenty of competition. Chrysler Group (DCX) already sells the V-8 powered Dodge Charger and likely will have its Dodge Challenger muscle car on the road by 2008. Ford (F) already has a hit with its latest Mustang, whose 320-horsepower engine (in some models) and retro looks sold 160,000 copies last year. Indeed, there's a move back to the so-called American pony cars that were hot sellers in the '60s and '70s, when boulevard-burning muscle ruled the roads.
So who'll buy all of these cars? "Probably a bunch of guys who think they're younger than they are," quipped GM Chairman and CEO G. Richard Wagoner Jr.
NOT SO RETRO. GM has chosen a different recipe for the Camaro than Chrysler did for the Challenger, which bears a striking resemblance to its 1970 ancestor -- or Ford did for the Mustang. While the new Camaro's profile was inspired by the 1969 version, the crisp lines in the sheet metal are more modern than in the other retro-styled cars, according to Ronald Pniewski, GM's vice-president for global portfolio planning. "It's a fresh interpretation," he says.
For the interior, GM's product designers debated whether they should go strongly retro, says Dave Rand, executive design director, but opted not to. "We wanted to bring the car up to date," Rand says.
GM may not be able to match the success Ford has had with the Mustang, which never left the market and has enough loyal buyers to keep selling in high numbers. But the Camaro could do a lot to rebuild the Chevrolet brand.
BRAND REVIVAL? Chevy has a good name in trucks, but in recent years its cars have been seen as appliances. "Who knows what the market will be, but it can only help the Chevy brand," says Peter DeLorenzo, publisher of Autoextremist.com, an industry Web site that has long criticized the Big Three for drifting away from their performance-car roots.
All three companies need to return to those roots, says Trevor Creed, Chrysler's senior vice-president for design. They have heritage that their Japanese competitors don't have. "That's why you build these cars," Creed says.
Though GM won't 'fess up to plans to build the car, it has a rear-wheel drive platform that it can use. GM's Australian Holden division is working on such a platform. Part of GM's turnaround plan includes using hardware engineered by its far-flung global operation for many markets, says Jonathan Lauckner, GM's vice-president for global program management.
APPEALING TO NEW FANS. GM hopes the car won't appeal solely to aging baby boomers going through a midlife crisis. Hopefully, Pniewski says, GM can get younger buyers to latch on to the muscle car craze. "There are too many kids in rice burners," he adds, meaning cars like souped-up Honda Civics and Subaru WRXs.
GM's return to muscle could work. It's bound to garner a lot of interest, and it's another sign that GM's product-development works is starting to turn out some cool rides. Plus, there are still Camaro loyalists who mourned the car's recent passing.
The big problem: GM needs the car now, not three years in the future. Its brands are struggling for acceptance in the marketplace, and Ford and Dodge already have their muscle cars on the road.
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