2010 Camaro SS
April 19, 2009 by Anthony Crawford
“If bootlegging was still a thriving business the 2010 Camaro SS would be the company car of choice for those good ole boys”
Having attended school (that’s what they call University in the US) in Alabama in the mid-80s, I acquired a deep appreciation of American muscle cars, particularly the early SS Camaro, a favourite of those ‘good ole boys’ in the Deep South.
While the Chevy Corvette was pure aspiration, the Camaro and Firebird, were within reach of the working class, or those few lucky students with well to do parents.
But the SS Camaro was special for me, it looked like what a proper American muscle car should look like, but with a little more style and exclusivity than the rest of the hard charging V8 fleet.
It’s a real pity that the moonshine running business had all but dried up by the 60s, as the factory tuned Camaro might have been a favourite of those bootleggers from North Carolina.
These guys had a serious need for speed, when night after night they raced at dangerous speeds, sometimes with no lights, in an attempt to avoid the sheriff or various state troopers.
The delivery car had to be fast and the driver needed to be skilled, but the cars were also modified to the hilt, in the quest for greater performance and handling.
Bootlegging ran highly worked engines usually with superchargers for that instant acceleration, while the extra weight of the sour mash whisky haul would require two sets of shocks.
Had these boys been able to get hold of the latest 2010 Camaro SS, I doubt whether they would have needed to add as many modifications as was required in the good ole days.
With an old school 6.2-litre pushrod V8, which is really a de-tuned version of the Corvette LS3 engine, the SS Camaro delivers a thumping 570Nm of torque at 4,600rpm.
Shifts are via a Tremec TR6060 six-speed manual transmission, which is understandably capable of leaving a substantial amount of rubber on the tamac from the 20-inch Pirelli P-Zero tyres.
The SS has been rightfully equipped with launch control, which is built into the “Competitive Driving Mode”. I suggest you leave this function for closed road activity, unless you want to risk the car being impounded in whatever state you might reside.
This beast will rocket from 0-100km/h in a rapid 4.7 seconds, and expect to run 13 seconds flat, at the drag strip.
While the auto SS is good for 294kW (400bhp), the manual equipped car gets 310kW (422bhp).
The US can thank General Motors Holden of Australia, for much of the development work on the car, as the Camaro is a shortened version of the Pontiac G8, with the same MacPherson strut front suspension and multilink rear set-up.
But its reasonably heavy at 1,770 kg and the steering is said to be a touch light.
Little if any criticism though, can be leveled at the 356mm Brembo brakes up front, which apparently get the job done in no uncertain terms.
The Camaro lead designer Sang Yup Lee has captured the best of the classic 1968 Camaro SS in a thoroughly contemporary package, leaving no one in doubt as to the identity of this hero nameplate.
Well-done mate!
Print it: 
First post lol
Seriously though, this is one seriously sexy looking vehical
Makes me want to grow a mullet and get intimate with my sister!
LOL!!!
They nailed the design, looks fantastic. Heaps of road presence, id love to see one on the road down here
bring it down under!!!
Awesome car! Real awesome!
I never knew lurvin till I married me cousin. I lurve to drive that up the holler on copperhead road. It could easy carry a hundred pounds of yeast and some copper line.
Saw a yellow one on the road in Melbourne today, looked pretty sweet, better than the 370z I saw as well.
According to the feature article about the Camaro [in the current issue of Motor magazine]
GMs lead designer Sang Yup Lee designed the concept car and whilst he remained true to the “spirit” of the Original Camaro.. However; the concept car was built on a one off mock-up chassis.. not only that but there were some features etc that weren’t able to make it into production [which is common with most concept cars]
So when GM made the decision to make the Camaro they looked for a suitable platform that the Camaro could be built on – as it turned out they chose the Aussie Designed Zeta platform. They then decided to get Holden Designer Peter Hughes and his team to work in unison with Sang Yup Lee.
Former GM CEO [and unashamed Holden fan] Bob Lutz said it made sense to get Holden involved in such an iconic car like the Camaro given what an awwesome car the [Commodore] G8 is both in terms of quality looks and performance
The boys at Holden made a few changes which even some of the Designers in Detroit admit are better than what was on the concept [show car].
Holden built a number of Camaro Protoytypes on modified Zeta platforms then sent them off to Canada to help set up the assembly line and teach workers how to put it together
So despite the fact that the idea was conceived in the USA virtually all the R&D work was done here in Australia.
I hate to think what the car would have looked like or how it would have performed if it was left to the US based designers with their rulers etc
The Camaro is undoubtedly a beautiful car.. but [believe it or not] I think I would rather have a Dodge Challenger.
I mean given that the Camaro is such a classic iconic car why don’t they offer it with the supercharged LS-9 out of the ZR-1 Corvette?
Unfortunately though I don’t think either of them will make their way to Australia [not with factory backing anyway]
it’s been for a while since public debut.
I guess this car styling is already dated.
It’s typical GM car.
They just made car with mix of nostalgic/old fashion design plus old tech.
Nothing special and stay niche product position.
We all know it won’t be successful.
Unless it transforms human like robot…or speaks to use.
Saw a yello Camaro today as i was heading back to melbourne from Lorn. It was going the oposite direction, I want one badly.
are they bringing it here?
Unfortunately; At this stage GM say there are no iimmediate plans to send the Camaro Down Under – despite the fact that the majority of the design; reasearch and development work etc was done in Australia by Holden not to mention that its built on the same platform as and shares a number of components with the VE Commodore.
GM said that before they export the Camaro they want to make sure that the 15-20;000 advanced orders they have as well as the usual post release orders have been fulfilled.
However; they are going to send 100 Right Hand Drive Camaros to the UK.
The ’70s HEMI’s always were miles ahead of the GM product. Most of the GM were all show no go.
Now if only the Holden-GM numbnuts can stop making cars out of cast iron and lead. 1770 kg wtf? Shave off about 300 kg and it would go around corners. My 1500 kg Toyota Chaser with 200 rwkw out drags a current SS Commodore, it’s amazing what lighter weight can do, not that anyone at GM will ever figure that out.
Sad it hasn’t got a diesel or diesel electric option.
As is just another Lutz klutz trading on nostalgia…then again Harley Davidson have been doing this for ages and it sells to the non-neurons.
the reason it weighs so much is that it’s based on the VE… that’s why it’s 1,770kg
the Challenger is even heavier because it’s based on the 300c/Charger platforms which are ex. W210 E-class Mercedes
only the Mustang comes in at 1,550kg because it’s not ‘based’ on anything
in many tests the Mustang eithers comes #1 or very close to number #1 even though it has a live axle and only 5 speeds and the weakest engine
next year the Mustang gets a new 5.0 motor and a 6 spd. and the duratech v6
will be interesting but I question the coverage for cars that will never be available here
The ss model has a recall already.what a joke.