Not long ago, impending doom surrounded the classic sector of American muscle cars. Today, the segment shines a little brighter – though not necessarily across the real world.
First, Stellantis ordained Dodge to renounce its ICE-powered practice of the Charger and Challenger nameplates. They showcased the Charger Daytona SRT concept as a harbinger of the EV lifestyle to come with nine levels of Banshee EV prowess. Meanwhile, the 2023 Charger and Challenger had seven 'Last Call' special editions to celebrate passing the baton, including the bonkers 1,025-hp (on E85) Challenger SRT Demon 170.
However, in the wake of the slowing EV sales, the rumor mill has caught wind that Stellantis decided to nuance its decision, and only the Hemi V8 engines will be gone from the next generation Charger. Instead, the question remains whether the Challenger will survive, not if the Charger gets the new 3.0-liter Hurricane inline-six SSTs with 420 hp and 540 hp (H/O).
Anyway, Chevrolet soon followed suit in a much lower-key fashion with the Collector's Edition and Grage 56 ZL1 special variants for the Camaro – also revealing they intend to cease production in January 2024 for the sixth generation. Unfortunately, GM hasn't anointed an heir to the throne and only said (in a whispering, soft voice) that this is not the end of the road for the legendary Camaro nameplate. Corroborated with previous rumors that spoke of GM's intention to transform the iconic pony car into something else, the imaginative realm of digital car content creators keeps circling back to an interesting idea – what if the Camaro comes back as a sporty crossover SUV?
The good folks from the Next-Gen Car and TheAutoReport channels on YouTube have even imagined the potential return of the Camaro nameplate as an SUV, so you don't need to sleep on it, hoping that it will arrive in your dreams. Their idea is quite similar – only the resident pixel masters changed a few things here and there with help from AI software, apparently.
As such, the main gist from both the Next-Gen Car and TheAutoReport channels is that Chevrolet could quickly bring back the Camaro moniker for a crossover-coupe SUV with two doors and the allure of a bodybuilder. Well, it's anyone's guess if that will ever happen, but the hosts also talk about the possibility of placing the Camaro SUV under the rumored Corvette SUV both in terms of MSRPs and performance, even if both models would feature electrified powertrains.
So, what do we think – should we hope and pray for GM's corner office head honchos to approve the plan of morphing the once-beloved Camaro pony/muscle car from a traditional two-door coupe into a two-door SUV, or are we too afraid this decision will transform the potential crossover into a veritable mall crawler?
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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