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Back the pony
This is the new Camaro. GM thinks it might help muscle the company out of its doldrums. We think it'd be silly not to try
On September 1, 2001, ultimate car guy Bob Lutz got his groove back. After a brief and ignominious sidelining following Daimler's acquisition of Chrysler, the silver-haired ex-Marine fighter pilot returned to active duty that day, capping a heralded civilian career spent in smaller auto makers' boardrooms with an appointment to General Motors' highly-paid executive team.
The joy was short-lived. History records that the infamous attack on New York's Twin Towers - 10 days after Lutz inked his deal - set in motion a cascade of unfortunate world events that accelerated the foul-weather parade of economic horribles already gathering for the battered American automobile industry.
Though hardly dampening expectations for the great man, they made a tough job even tougher. Fast forward. General Motors' outspoken vice chairman of product development and chairman of North American operations has been on the case almost half-a-decade and, by most available measures, the corporation is doing worse than ever.
Don't blame Lutz, though, one man was never going to right the General's craft overnight and now that the hopeful punters and gaseous wordsmiths have realised as much, the question has shifted from 'who' is going to get it done in North America, to 'what' is going to get it done?
'The Camaro won't save GM single-handedly, but more than anything yet, it looks like part of the solution'
Which is, one suspects, the way that Lutz, a product-is-brand man of the first order, would have had it all along. Perhaps this is why Lutz has emerged as one of the more bullish advocates within General Motors for a reborn Chevrolet Camaro, a movement lately catalysed by the Camaro concept that showed up to mostly wow the public at this year's Detroit show.
An aggressive-looking, four-place coupe with just a touch of retro - in contrast to the attractive, but slavishly retro Challenger concept shown by Dodge at the same show - the Camaro won't save GM single-handedly, but more than anything yet, it looks like part of the solution.
It also looked to most observers like something that ought to be built. Leaving Americans from Alabama to Alaska and most places in between, to ask: Will they build it? If so, when? And if they do, will it look this good? And finally, and most importantly, will it go?
Well, let's deal with the short answers before we continue... Probably. In 2008 as a 2009 model. Almost. Indubitably. Lutz has said that a successful business case for producing the Camaro involves selling at least 100,000 units a year. A final decision is at least five months away, but the indicators are encouraging as meeting the sales target should be no stretch at all.
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