Lutz: No Camaro Z28

The newly re-appointed GM vice chairman Bob Lutz keeps on giving us a taste of what GM will or will not produce over the following years. After yesterday he said that the Pontiac G8 may live on as a Chevrolet, this time he is the bearer of bad news for those waiting to get their hands on a Camaro Z28: ain't gonna happen...Yet.

Rumored to be GM's reply to Ford's Mustang GT500, the Z28 was expected to use the LSA powerplant found on the Cadillac CTS-V. The reasons behind the scrapping of the pony are, obviously, money and the futility of a new gas-guzzler.

Still, Lutz promises not all is lost and GM will not give up plans to build performance cars. “Any fears that the days of high-performance General Motors cars may be numbered or totally over can be allayed,” Lutz told automobilemag.com. “There is no pressure at all to get off the high-performance thing.”

What will the thing be?

“I think the V6 Camaro is probably a very good model for the future of the high-performance car in America. The Solstice coupe with the 2.0-liter
turbo engine is another good expression of the future of the high-performance car, which is smaller, lighter, more fuel-efficient, and probably with lower displacement, but with a turbocharger." he told the source.

As for the G8, Lutz said yesterday it is "too good to waste". He also said GM is considering producing the Cadillac CTS-V Coupe. "When we went through design and looked at the future product, the procession stopped at the model of the Cadillac CTS-V Coupe. I think that some of these guys are personally going to buy CTS-V Coupes."