American Apocalypse Beginning Beginnings Nova
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The introduction of the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro and 2011 Camaro Convertible reignites a volcanic war that has specified the American automotive landscape for much of the past century. For over forty years Camaro and Mustang have been battling it out for initial place in America’s heart. The Mustang arrived first, staking out the pony car high ground in 1964 and remained the only one of it is kind for the duration of 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 all over the country. Each has a large, ardent and truehearted following. The story of how the battle lines came to be drawn, however, is closely as intriguing as the cars themselves. While 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 at long last Chairman of the Board of GM in 1937, Sloan was a visionary automotive pioneer who produced the conception of annual styling changes and a lowest to most eminent pricing structure for each of GM’s brands, which at the time included Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac. The idea was to provide a low, entry level price point and keep car buyers coming back to GM over time as they became wealthier. By the early 1950s Sloan’s conceptions were so successful, General Motors surpassed Ford Motor Company as the biggest car company in the United States, keeping over 60-percent of the market and with Chevrolet Motor Division eclipsed most high volume segments. Introduced in 1958, Chevy’s full-size flagship Impala out-sold both the Ford Galaxie 500 and Plymouth Fury by wide boundary line well into the mid 1960s. To keep the brand fresh and inviting, the Euro-styled, rear-engine Corvair family sedan was introduced in 1960, followed by a sporty Monza model in 1963. The compact Chevy II was launched in 1962 and size Chevelle was introduced in 1964, to face-off versus Ford’s highly successful Falcon and Fairlane tandem. 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. On NBC, Dinah Shore closed each weekly episode of the hour-long Dinah Shore Chevy 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 in an outstanding manner similar to the Ford Mustang’s. It’s a well known fact that GM didn’t approve production of what would finally become the Camaro until six months after the Mustang was released. It’s likewise a fact that back in 1962, when Chevrolet design chief Irvin W. Rybicki and GM design boss Bill Mitchell neared Chevrolet General Manager Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen with the idea for a personal, four seat sports car, Knudsen speedily and confidently vetoed the idea. He was sure that Chevy’s existent models, peculiarly the Corvair, would be more than a match for any new little 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. However, when Mustang shocked the automotive world with record-breaking sales of 26,000 units on it is primary day and 100,000 in the original four months, Knudsen knew he had made a mistake. Chevy speedily swallowed it is pride and green-lighted the development of a established front-engine, rear drive sports car. Engineers and designers were given a simple mandate: Make it longer, lower, wider, rapidly and without delay and better than Mustang in each way. To most quickly and economically fetch the new Mustang killer to market, the engineering team pulled in front development of the 1968 Chevy II/Super Nova platform which featured a unibody structure from the windshield and firewall back. A distinctive feature, however, was a rubber-isolated front sub-frame. Isolated sub-frames had been employed before but only in a few European designs, most notably some Mercedes-Benz models. One vantage was that it permitted a larger interior with more luggage space. Another vantage was that it provided a smoother, quieter ride. The most important, however, is that it would accommodate a wide assortment of performance suspensions and power plants. Other off-the-shelf mechanical elements included four drum-type brakes, standard manual steering and Chevy’s rugged 230 cubic inch, 140-horsepower straight six engine mated to a three-speed manual transmission. The design team that invented the Corvette, Corvair, and Nova were given the challenge of constructing Chevy’s answer to the Mustang. Preliminary design drawings and mock-ups included a two-seat roadster, a fastback and even a station wagon. But in the end, Chevy management insisted on a four-seat sport coupe, also available as a convertible. The final design had a long hood and a short deck, but didn’t other than as supposed or expected replicate Mustang’s boxy styling. A wide satin silver grille with inset headlights and parking lamps, a low roof, big wheel cut-outs and a bold horizontal crease midway on the sides gave it a astoundingly fluid, road-ready appearance. To galore GM insiders, it looked to an outstanding degree like a more muscular evolution of the Corvair. Two trim packages were also created: an appearance-oriented Rally Sport and a performance-oriented Super Sport. An RS/SS combining could also be ordered. The RS package included a blacked-out grille with concealed 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, particular bumble bee striping and a blacked-out grill. When the RS/SS package was ordered the RS badging took precedence. All the constituents and pieces were speedily 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. |
Entertaining but just a bit too silly…
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