Perhaps more than any other mainstream American car with decades of history, Chevrolet's Camaro has been a chameleon, dramatically shapeshifting from one generation to the next. Since 1967, it's gone through five distinct iterations, and each one has looked very different to the model that came before it.
Until now.
According to General Motors executives, the Camaro faithful so fell in love with the retro-futuristic 2010-15 model that they told the company to not change a thing about its appearance. Instead, they just asked Chevy to improve its performance, interior and refinement. Thus, despite being all-new underneath the skin, the sixth generation looks an awful lot like its predecessor (a design that was itself a somewhat cartoonish homage to the original 1967-69 Camaro).
This might be a risky move over the long haul, or it could be a brilliant strategy. Not only have performance car sales been red hot, the aging fifth-generation Camaro has more than managed to hold its own at dealers in the face of fresher rivals.
All of this means that the 2016 Camaro wears essentially the same aggressive coupe proportions as before, including a pointed nose with inset grille and recessed headlamps, the same Hot-Wheels-esque oversized alloys, the same high door sills capped by a turret-slim greenhouse and the same short rear deck. Exactly none of the bodywork actually carries over -- the whole design has been subtly but thoroughly modernized, most notably through available LED illumination and sharper sheetmetal sinews. If anything, this new Camaro is even more pugnacious looking than last year's car.
One thing you might not notice right away is that the 2016 model is actually slightly smaller than its antecedent. It's shorter by 2.3 inches, but it still reads much the same because it also sits lower. All of which is to say that the new Camaro still looks great, although once again, it comes across as casting a pretty long shadow for something with such a small cockpit.
Those same greenhouse proportions -- right down to the sliver-like side mirrors and big, fat C-pillars -- means that outward visibility is frankly terrible. Again. Apparently GM investigated taller glass and mirrors, but that compromised the styling. Existing Camaro owners who were surveyed remained adamant that GM not change the car's proportions. The solution? More technology -- blind-spot assist, something that wasn't available on the outgoing model.
Given how GM declined to dramatically renovate the Camaro's appearance, you might assume the same goes for what's underneath. That'd be a mistake, however. Not only is this a whole new animal underneath the skin and inside its much-improved cabin, the new Camaro drives decidedly differently, too.
Remember the iconic massive gray suit that David Byrne of the Talking Heads used to wear back in the '80s? His wiry body positively swam inside that oversized, square-shouldered getup. After firing this new Camaro down some windings road with real conviction, getting back into a 2015 model feels a lot like slipping on the art-rock frontman's outfit.
I made a point of piloting the fifth-generation Camaro over the very same southeast Michigan forested roads before I drove various examples of the new model, and the old car felt significantly bigger and comparatively disconnected. It's not just the couple of inches that've been shaved off the car's bodywork, nor the hundreds of pounds saved thanks in part to the 2016 Camaro's much lighter chassis. It's not even just that the aforementioned new Alpha modular platform is stiffer, though rigidity is indeed up by 28 percent. And it's not just the reduced unsprung mass thanks to lighter wheels and suspension bits, or the more precise electric power steering. It's all these things as a composite -- it's the total package.
Given how GM declined to dramatically renovate the Camaro's appearance, you might assume the same goes for what's underneath. That'd be a mistake, however. Not only is this a whole new animal underneath the skin and inside its much-improved cabin, the new Camaro drives decidedly differently, too.
Remember the iconic massive gray suit that David Byrne of the Talking Heads used to wear back in the '80s? His wiry body positively swam inside that oversized, square-shouldered getup. After firing this new Camaro down some windings road with real conviction, getting back into a 2015 model feels a lot like slipping on the art-rock frontman's outfit.
I made a point of piloting the fifth-generation Camaro over the very same southeast Michigan forested roads before I drove various examples of the new model, and the old car felt significantly bigger and comparatively disconnected. It's not just the couple of inches that've been shaved off the car's bodywork, nor the hundreds of pounds saved thanks in part to the 2016 Camaro's much lighter chassis. It's not even just that the aforementioned new Alpha modular platform is stiffer, though rigidity is indeed up by 28 percent. And it's not just the reduced unsprung mass thanks to lighter wheels and suspension bits, or the more precise electric power steering. It's all these things as a composite -- it's the total package.