DETROIT -- Product chief Robert Lutz thinks General Motors can sell more than 100,000 units of the Chevrolet Camaro -- and says that's the number required for GM to build a production version of the concept unveiled at the Detroit auto show.

GM is doing "intense work" on engineering for a production version and analyzing the business case, Lutz, GM's vice chairman and global vice president of product development, said in an interview with Automotive News.

He added: "Is it an approved program? No."

In January, Lutz said he expected a decision on building the sporty coupe within six months. GM executives have strongly hinted they will build the Camaro.

Lutz says GM wouldn't consider building the car unless it could sell more than 100,000 a year. He says the Camaro, a car he describes as "a little bit off to the side" of mainstream segments, would draw new customers and promote GM's product quality.

The Camaro would be aimed at the Ford Mustang, which sold 160,975 units in the United States last year. In the peak years of muscle-car coupes, the Camaro sold 200,000-plus units.

The Camaro would be part of GM's coming lineup of midpriced to premium-priced cars on a new rear-drive architecture developed by Holden. North American production of those vehicles is expected in 2008 or 2009.

Shortly after the Chevrolet Camaro concept hit the Detroit show floor to rave reviews, there was little doubt GM would eventually build the car. According to a newspaper report, the official announcement is now finally only days away.

The Detroit Free Press has reported that GM CEO Rick Wagoner will announce later this week at a conference in Traverse City, MI, that the Camaro concept will be built.

The Camaro concept is built the company’s Zeta rear-drive platform, which goes into production this summer in Australia.

This platform, with independent suspension all around (technically, the Camaro’s parts came from a Cadillac CTS) and robust parts for large and high-performance cars, was shelved for a while to save costs as GM struggled to bring its bottom line under control, but it is ready to go now.

With hardware in hand, the next phase of making a real-world Camaro happen has to do with finalizing a production design, developing a specification list that will generate the requisite sales numbers, setting up to stamp out body parts from sheetmetal. Vice chairman Bob Lutz says the magic number is 100,000 units, and others say that means a range of affordable pony cars.

The report goes on to say that the car will be built as early as 2008 and that a V6 will join two V8s as the powertrain offerings.

GM’s Chevrolet division can’t sit idle as the retro Ford Mustang gobbles up sales, so it’s frantically readying its own muscle car with vintage styling cues.
BY JARED GALL
August 2006


We knew it all along, but now the news has leaked from within General Motors: Chevrolet’s answer to the original pony-car salvo is being reloaded and aimed at production as early as 2008, the Detroit Free Press has reported. The official announcement is expected to come from GM Chairman Rick Wagoner this Thursday in Traverse City, Michigan.

Sources report the car will be built on GM’s revived Zeta platform, originally intended for a series of full-size rear-wheel-drive cars but shelved last year after being deemed too expensive. Power for the resurrected Camaro will come from a base V-6 and two V-8’s, hopefully one of which will be bear the letters LS and a whole number greater than 6; Chevy’s current top production engine is the 505-hp LS7 found in the Corvette Z06.

No word yet on where the car might be built—indeed, official word that it is being built at all is still a few days away — but speculation is that GM’s plants in Oshawa, Ontario or Wilmington, Delaware, are strong possibilities.