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Motown loves old-school muscle cars with big V8 engines, fat tires and rear-wheel drive. We're not sure why - maybe its all those Baby Boomers with disposable income trying to relive their youth - but Detroit keeps trying to build the perfect car for 1968.
Dodge has the Challenger. Ford's got the Mustang Bullitt. And Chevrolet's going back to the future with the Camaro. But at least General Motors realizes that the dinosaurs went extinct and is looking to bring one of its moldy oldies into the 21st century.
The Camaro may soon have a gas-electric hybrid powertrain.
According to The Car Connection, even as GM swings an axe through its design department, killing rear-wheel drive projects and a new V8 engine to meet rising fuel economy standards, it remains dedicated to the Camaro.
GM is gearing up to build the Camaro in Canada. The company had hoped to maximize the return on its investment in tooling and manufacturing by using the Camaro chassis as the basis for several other rear-drivers, but must rethink that strategy.
Still, GM wants the car to be competitive with the Challenger and the Mustang, which has pretty much owned the American muscle car market for at least a decade. GM says a V6 could be the standard engine, allowing GM to give the Camaro a competitive price, and the V8 a premium option. A turbocharged engine is another consideration.
But buried at the end of the Car Connection piece is the most intriguing development - GM is believed to have assigned a team of engineers to explore adapting its two-mode hybrid drivetrain to the Camaro.
It makes sense. GM has clearly shown it believes the best place for hybrid drivetrains is big vehicles with mediocre fuel economy - hence the Yukon and Escalade hybrids - and the company plans to roll out one new hybrid every three months for the next four years.
We're trying to get ahold of GM to find out more about its plans for the Camaro and hope to have an update soon.
