Chris Holmes Online

Sitting at the orthodontist’s office Tuesday I saw a new Road & Track magazine laying on the coffee table. I’m not normally the type that reads magazines in waiting rooms, let alone Road and Track. My automobile IQ hovers just above dangerous – I know about enough to get myself killed changing the oil. But the car on the cover was like a snowman in the desert. I couldn’t help but be drawn to it.

Normally car magazines have to string Big Boobed Babes all over the cars to catch your attention, but not so with Chevy’s new Camaro. Road & Track just let the car sit there on the cover unadorned, and it was more attractive than a dozen of Hefner’s Hookers.

The car is a concept version for Chevy’s new Camaro, tentatively schedule for production release in 2008 or 2009.

I’ve been a big fan of Camaros since I first got behind the wheel, which in Idaho in the early ’80s was as early as age 14. I always wanted a 1984 Camaro and for months and months I searched high and low for a good used one. None ever materialized. It wasn’t until after my senior year that my dad finally co-signed on a loan for my first real vehicle: a brand new Toyota pickup. Not exactly a muscle car, but probably the right choice for me at the time.

Still, there’s always been a part of me that wanted to pull up to the high school parking lot in a fabulous looking Chevy Camaro.

But the car got old and Chevy finally did away with it. It was outdated, there’s no doubt about that. Then Ford came along and revived the Mustang with a brand new design (one that I actually like – and I have traditionally hated the Mustang). Apparently the Mustang revival was enough to get Chevy to believe the Camero could make a comback too.

But not just any Camaro. A bad one would be a waste of time. So they got some engineers together who have an obvious passion for the Camaro, and what you see on this blog is the result.

That is by far the best looking Amerian muscle car I’ve ever seen. I mean, check out that grille. Doesn’t that remind you of the Predator? Arnold would definately be back for this car…

Tom Peters, apparently one of the designers of the car, said:

“My charge to the design team was for them to do the meanest, scrappiest, street-fighting dog they could sketch…

Boy, did they ever.

According to the article in Road & Track the inspiration for the car came from the ’69 Camaro. My wife owned one of those when she was a teenager and her cousin currently is in possession of it and I can certainly see the similiarities.

The car makes me want to rush out and buy one – today. I started staring at my two-year-old daughter and wondering if she could fall through a wormhole and turn 16 by 2009. Then I’ll have a valid excuse to go buy one.

I used to think no American made muscle car could ever surpass my love for Ferraris. Well, I was wrong. This car is that cool.