Photo: Chevrolet
As you're well aware by now, the Camaro is living on borrowed time. Gen 6 production will come to a screeching halt in January 2024 after a very short 2024 model year. Chevrolet has recently confirmed a swansong edition for its long-running pony car in the form of a styling package for the RS, SS, and ZL1 trim levels, yet some peeps look forward to a 2025 Camaro.
Not the first year of production for the seventh-generation Camaro, but a last hurrah of the sixth. Car & Driver understands that General Motors won't discontinue the 'Maro without a proper bang, that being a track-focused coupe based on the ZL1 1LE. The cited publication refers to a revival of the Z/28, which is wishful thinking because GM pulled research & development money from the Gen 6 a few years ago.
Speaking of which, MotorTrend also reported on a sixth-generation Camaro Z/28 back in June 2021. But as opposed to Car & Driver, the rivaling publication clearly stated that General Motors canceled the project. Be that as it may, both publications agree that a flat-plane crankshaft V8 engine would have powered the Z/28.
That's a bit of a logical fallacy, mind you, because General Motors doesn't have any flat-plane crankshaft V8 other than the LT6 in the Corvette Z06. The high-revving engine was developed specifically for midship applications, not a front-engine platform like the Alpha around which the sixth-gen Camaro is built.
The LT6 was also developed specifically for a Tremec-supplied transaxle with a dual-clutch setup, not a torque-converter automatic like the Camaro's eight- and ten-speed transmissions. If Chevrolet really wanted to make a sixth-gen Camaro Z/28, it should have rolled it out when the S550 Mustang Shelby GT350 was in production (from model year 2015 through 2020).
Why is the sixth-generation Camaro going the way of the dodo in January 2024? There is no way of sugarcoating the pony car's abysmal sales in the United States, where Camaro deliveries totaled 24,652 units in 2022 and 7,780 units in the first quarter of 2023.
Chevy fan or not, it's a shame to see the Camaro going out with a whimper. It still is one of the best-handling affordable sports cars out there, even in four-cylinder guise. The Camaro is one of three internal combustion-engined passenger cars that Chevrolet sells in this day and age stateside, the other two being the Malibu sedan and Corvette.
The Camaro nameplate won't be retired after Gen 6 ends production, though. Scott Bell, the vice president at Chevrolet, made it clear that a successor is under development. He didn't mention any powertrain details or the body style. According to hearsay, the Camaro may be reimagined in the form of an electric sedan.
Sacrilege? Not even slightly, not when Ford has the audacity of selling an Escape-based electric crossover as the Mustang Mach-E. If a Camaro e-sedan is profane to you, wait until Chevrolet rolls out an SUV-bodied Corvette. Now that's going to be truly sacrilegious.
Speaking of which, MotorTrend also reported on a sixth-generation Camaro Z/28 back in June 2021. But as opposed to Car & Driver, the rivaling publication clearly stated that General Motors canceled the project. Be that as it may, both publications agree that a flat-plane crankshaft V8 engine would have powered the Z/28.
That's a bit of a logical fallacy, mind you, because General Motors doesn't have any flat-plane crankshaft V8 other than the LT6 in the Corvette Z06. The high-revving engine was developed specifically for midship applications, not a front-engine platform like the Alpha around which the sixth-gen Camaro is built.
The LT6 was also developed specifically for a Tremec-supplied transaxle with a dual-clutch setup, not a torque-converter automatic like the Camaro's eight- and ten-speed transmissions. If Chevrolet really wanted to make a sixth-gen Camaro Z/28, it should have rolled it out when the S550 Mustang Shelby GT350 was in production (from model year 2015 through 2020).
Why is the sixth-generation Camaro going the way of the dodo in January 2024? There is no way of sugarcoating the pony car's abysmal sales in the United States, where Camaro deliveries totaled 24,652 units in 2022 and 7,780 units in the first quarter of 2023.
Chevy fan or not, it's a shame to see the Camaro going out with a whimper. It still is one of the best-handling affordable sports cars out there, even in four-cylinder guise. The Camaro is one of three internal combustion-engined passenger cars that Chevrolet sells in this day and age stateside, the other two being the Malibu sedan and Corvette.
The Camaro nameplate won't be retired after Gen 6 ends production, though. Scott Bell, the vice president at Chevrolet, made it clear that a successor is under development. He didn't mention any powertrain details or the body style. According to hearsay, the Camaro may be reimagined in the form of an electric sedan.
Sacrilege? Not even slightly, not when Ford has the audacity of selling an Escape-based electric crossover as the Mustang Mach-E. If a Camaro e-sedan is profane to you, wait until Chevrolet rolls out an SUV-bodied Corvette. Now that's going to be truly sacrilegious.
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