When I was growing up in a small town in
Massachusetts, there were no sports cars.
Nobody had seen a Ferrari. Occasionally a
Corvette might come through town, but it
was the type of thing where we’d hang around
the local McDonald’s or Dairy Queen until
about 11pm. Then you’d get home and somebody
would call you and say, “Oh you should have
stayed another 15 minutes, a Corvette went
by!” And you’d be like, “Nnooo! I missed it!”
Because you didn’t see those type of cars.
At that time in our town the workers would
drive a Galaxie, the middle manager would
drive the Ford Galaxie 500, and the boss would
drive the Ford Galaxie 500 XL. And that was
sort of the range of cars that you had. Almost
everybody had a four-door or a station wagon.
If a guy had a two-door he was probably a bachelor.
You’d see an occasional MG, maybe a few oddball
English sports cars but for the most part that was it.
That all changed when the Ford Mustang came
out on April 17 1964. That was a real American
version of a sports car. It was followed by the
Chevy Camaro and the Pontiac Firebird. These
had such an impact because they were reasonably
practical cars that middle-class people could buy.
At the time, and this shows you how provincial
Boston was, there was a bestselling book called
Sex and the Single Girl by Helen Gurley Brown.
And Mustang had an ad — they were trying to
sell six-cylinder Mustangs to secretaries — and
the ad was “Six and the Single Girl”. The Boston
newspapers wouldn’t publish it because they
thought it was too racy.
These were the high-performance cars of my
youth because a Ferrari or a Lamborghini were
cars you’d see only in magazines. But you could
come close to the performance with the Camaro
or the Mustang. There’s a whole range of cars that
have a connection with people of my generation;
they raced them, they made love in them, they
got married in them.
The Camaro was always a little bit more
sophisticated than the Mustang. The Mustang
came out first so the Camaro had to be a little
better. They had the IROC and Z28 versions,
plus the Camaro had the Corvette thing to play
on a little bit. It was like the little brother to the
Corvette so consequently you could get a Camaro
with a Corvette engine in it.
With these cars out, you had to decide which
camp you belonged to. It was along the lines of
mods and rockers; there were Mustang guys
and there were Chevy guys, and when you
pulled into the local Dairy Queen or the drive-in
burger place, the Ford guys were on one side
and the Chevy guys on the other. Occasionally a
Camaro guy would have sex with a Mustang girl
and it was Romeo and Juliet again!
Now, with the state of the American car market,
I think just the fact that you’re an American car
guy is good enough. I was a Ford guy but I like
GM because it’s made more of a commitment to
performance. There are a lot more engineers in
the company now, a lot more car guys. In the early
days, 20 years ago, the financial part was sound
but the product was shaky. Now the product is
extremely sound, but the financial part is shaky.
Which, being a car guy, is better for me. I see
interesting engines, interesting performance options.
I’ve seen Cadillac turn itself around from the frumpy
era when the average Cadillac buyer was 62, to the
young guys who like the Escalade and the rappers
who like all the bling-bling stuff. They’ve also come
out with the new six-speed CTV. And of course there
is the new Camaro concept, which I’m driving today
for the first time.
Muscle cars are back in, it seems. Ford has made
the Mustang again and Dodge has built a new Challenger.
Things repeat themselves. I think it’s a demographic.
Guys in my age group remember those cars, couldn’t
afford them when they were new, and now suddenly, hey!
What makes it work for the car companies is that
they are selling us the dream cars of your youth.
I’m lucky. I’ve got a 1970 Hemi Challenger and it’s got a
big 426 engine and it gets, like, 9mpg. It makes a lot of
noise but it’s not that fast. A hot hatch will blow it off.
It looks good but then so does putting socks down your
pants: fine until you have to perform. Now, though, you
can buy a Hemi that is much faster than the original was.
This is what American car companies do best.
It’s not just old guys who like muscle cars.
I think if you’re a 20-year-old guy these
machines are original. I mean, does the new
Camaro look like the original? New and old —
there are little cues. Like the way Prince William
looks like Princess Diana; you can see the resemblance.
It’s about the same size but I can’t think of anything
that’s really retro about it.
The ideal shape for a car, aerodynamically, is a jelly
bean. Like the Prius. The Prius is the ideal shape for
a car but it doesn’t appeal to the eye. Cars in the 1960s, aesthetically, had an eye appeal that people liked. It’s
like redesigning a woman: we’re going to put the
buttocks here and the breasts over here. Well it’s
very nice but I kind of like the original.
It works for me.
I think the Camaro looks extremely masculine. It
looks modern instead of rounded; it’s a bit more
creased than sharp-edged. I don’t really think it’s
retro at all. What you’re looking at there is the design
element of computers v forming something by hand.
When you form something by hand, there tends to
be a more rounded shape to it. You see very few
creases and sharp edges on cars that were designed
in the 1950s, because they were moulded by hand.
When this Camaro goes into production, which I
am sure it will, I don’t think they’ll change it a whole
lot. I think the roof will probably be a little bit higher,
I think the sides and the tail and front end will stay
the same. I think they’ll probably just make the
windscreen area a bit higher.
This concept version does not drive properly so
it is hard to say how it performs and handles.
It sounds good. It has a proper V8; it has a nice
rumble to it. Cars should make you smile. When
you’re a middle-aged guy and you’re sitting in a
Camaro and you see teenage girls give you the
thumbs up, well there’s your price-breaker right
there. Sold.
It is designed for performance. It has independent
suspension, it’s got a six-speed and antilock brakes.
There is no hint that this will be anything but a
performance machine.
I think it will be very successful. I think they’d
do 120,000 units in the first year. What GM
needs to do is build cars that people want. This
is a classic example of that. I see even the Z06
Corvette getting grudging respect from Europeans.
The key to American products has always been
value for the dollar.
When I was a teenager, people would come
from England and we’d go out in my dad’s giant
Galaxie, with 345bhp and a 428 7 litre V8, and
the English kids would go, “How much did this
car cost? The same as an MG?” They couldn’t
believe how much car you got for your money.
So I think if you can get Corvette performance
at a Camaro price, people will flock to it.
It’s sort of the American dream: if you save
your money and you work hard, you can get one
of these. A Ferrari or Lamborghini — those are
always going to be out of reach. I think that’s
the key with the Mustang, the Camaro or any
of the cars. Right now the barrier would be $30,000
— once you get over that, if you really want it badly
you might spring for $33,000 but that’s the ball
park the car makers need to aim for.
If I still lived in my home town, this would be
the car I would want. It’s a bit like the Cayman.
It’s for the guy who can’t quite make it to the 911.
That’s what this is: I think the Camaro is the
Cayman to the Corvette. You can justify it to the
wife — look honey, there’s two seats in the back.
The kids can sit back there. But what clinches it
is that it’s a car that people will lust after.
I might get one. I’ve got the Z06 Corvette already.
I don’t need four seats. In fact I don’t need the extra
seat on the Corvette. It is usually only me in it. But
logic is not always a factor when you want a muscle car.
