DRIVING: that's what it's ALL ABOUT! A blog and website for automotive driving enthusiasts, featuring my interests as I see them: news and opinion about manufacturers of interest, significant enthusiast cars, and driving them hard and well.
The folks at Camaro5.com have pulled off a second scoop in the same day: images of a pre-production Camaro going down the asssembly line at GM's Oshawa assembly plant. No, the Camaro is not going into pre-production phase: that doesn't happen until the end of the year. And there won't be any production cars built (for-sale) until February. Instead, these very early cars save money since they don't have to be built by hand, they test assemblies received from contractors, they ensure the car will go together properly when the time comes, and they allow engineers to make (very) minor changes if they should be needed. Above all, they help ensure that Job#1 will be RIGHT.
And while I'm not on the market for a new Camaro, as a Driving Enthusiast and car nut I'm always interested in seeing how things go together. In this case, two things stand out right away: the inherent strength of the structure, including the front strut attachment and reinforcement (look at each side of the strut tower), and the flat rear framerail which cannot accept a solid axle. And that's GOOD with me - I wouldn't want a stone-age low-brow rear suspension. And I'm offended that our country is so far behind the rest of the world that anybody could find such an out-dated suspension acceptable.
You can imagine that a large number of people will be viewing these imagess on Camaro5.com tonight: the security staff at the assembly plant where these were taken (somebody will be fired), GM's legal team (wondering is they can staunch the leak), Ford's engineering team (seeing the new and highly adaptable platform 9 months in advance is a major win - just as they are starting design on their own next-gen rear wheel drive platform), and other competitors. This is invaluable proprietary information in one of the largest industries on Earth. Call it industrial sabatage, because that is exactly what whomever took these images has committed.
Score 1: GM. As is too often the case, GM has engineered one big step better.
General Motors product development engineers have been busy finalizing details of the upcoming 5th-gen Camaro, and the Camaro5.com forum has an inside story on the focus group that was held by GM in their product development center last weekend. Several lucky very fortunate forum members were invited to attend and were treated to a unique - but confidential - show.
"Maximum" Bob Lutz even did a fly-by in his personal jet plane!
What is a focus group? It's a formal meeting (usually with a non-disclosure agreement in place) held by a vendor to brings together groups of existing and/or potential owners to show them future products and to methodically solicit reaction/feedback to specific items. In this example, the attendees were asked a long list of questions pertaining to specific parts. One exampel was about the feel of certain controls (sound, click, travel, tactile sensation, etc). At this late point with pilot production coming up in December, only minor changes can be made - for example the feel of the wiper controls could be changed, but it's very unlikely (given the cost of major last minute changes and the fact that production agreements are probably already in place and pre-production samples are being used) that the wiper stalk itself could be changed or relocated.
Follow these links to the discussion threads on the Camaro5.com forum:
One thing that has become clear from the focus group attendees is that a phenomenal GM DOHC V-6 engine will be standard. As with the Mustang, the V-6 will account for the majority of sales and "getting it right" is absolutely crucial to sales success. Apparently, GM has gotten it right: attendees were allowed to drive a V-6 Camaro and came back very impressed.
And if you can believe internet chatter about the 2010 Mustang (a simple restyling on the same platform), Ford will stick with ye olde 4 liter SOHC V-6 engine, an engine whose basic architecture dates back to the early sixties! The current Mustang is IMHO a lousy drive in V-6 form... and it's hard to believe that Ford could get at least 260 HP out of this old truck engine to effectively compete with the Camaro. Even Chryslers 3.5 liter SOHC V-6, an engine that will be replaced in approx. 2 years with a clean-sheet design, makes 250 HP in the 2009 Challenger. It's not that Ford can't produce a competitive engine... but their future direct-injected naturally-aspirated 3.5 or 3.7 liter DOHC V-6 engine will be limited Lincoln for the time being.
One of the many public criticisms of SVT was that it didn't advertise it's products. That's not exactly true... although finding advertisements is very tough. Here's what's been billed as an unaired SVT Contour commerical. I don't believe it was actually intended as a television commercial - for one thing it's way too long. And I have all all of this video in a collection of SVT training videos for dealer sales personnel that I have in my library. So in my opinion it was created as part of dealer training material.
I'm a fan of the SVT Contour and Focus and have extensively driven both of them. An SVT Contour would have made a nice successor to my line of SHOs, and it's stealthy appearance would have worked well for my driving style. The transmission wasn't great (although it was a lightyear ahead of the manual in the old SHOs), body roll was a bit much, but suspension compliace and "livability" were very nicely set up for an enthusiast sedan. A pity that Ford has nothing in the way of enthusiast sedans in the US these days... with the death of SVT as a separate & distinct organization we may not see that kind of suspension tuning philosophy here again.
The SVT Contours and Focis (Focuses?) were great accomplishments, although most of the engineering work and budget were courtesy of Ford of Europe, who was and still is committed to their own "ST" packages. In the end, neither of the North American variants received the continuous improvement they should have had and both fell quickly by the wayside competitively. As we all have seen many times, this is all too typical of Ford of North America.
Reference: my site's Ford section, with extensive pics of the SVT 2.5l DOHC V-6 and the cancelled SVT Cougar, as well as other unique SVT, SHO, and SVO information.
