At the end of production of the Chevy Camaro: a retrospective in pictures

At the end of last week it became official: Chevrolet will produce the very last copies of its iconic sports coupe Camaro in January 2024. The Americans draw the line under the series after a nine-year production period of the sixth incarnation of the Camaro – after almost 60 years of production. In 1966, the first car with this name rolled off the assembly line.

According to Chevrolet, the approaching production stop should not mean the end of the Camaro model name. When and in what form a successor will be presented is left open … and immediately everyone in the comment columns and forums on the Internet is rumored that an electric SUV will simply have a Camaro badge on it – like the Ford Mustang Mach – E We’ll see. But for now a look back in pictures!

Strictly speaking, the Camaro was a latecomer. Ford had introduced the Mustang in 1964 and it has enjoyed tremendous sales success ever since. Naturally, arch-rival GM had to follow suit.

In many ways, Chevrolet was ahead of Ford until the mid-1960s: in the high-end full-size car segment, Chevrolet had a higher quality and, above all, more powerful product than its Ford counterparts in the high-end full-size car segment. Chevrolet also built the Corvette as the only American car multinational to build a sports car worthy of the name. But the Mustang proved to be so successful that a separate class of cars soon emerged – the cars named after it pony cars: four-seater sporty coupes at an affordable base price, but with a wide range of car customization options, as well as youth-oriented marketing and advertising.

They went to work at Chevrolet. Like Ford, which built its Mustang on the chassis and running gear of its mid-size Falcon sedan, the Chevrolet Nova was the inspiration for the Camaro. But the body design had it all. Elegant and sporty at the same time – and with the iconic muscle car hip of the rear: a design language that is still understood and used today.

The first Chevrolet Camaro was launched in September 1966. The base engine was a 3.8-liter six-cylinder in-line engine with 140 hp. The Options list was long and included four different small block V8s and two big blocks. The top model had the 375 hp 6.5 liter L78 big block.

For 1970 there was a major redesign of the body for the first time. The car was slightly more spacious from then on, but – at least in the Rallye, Super Sport and Z/28 versions – no less powerful.

While the basic silhouette remained the same, for 1974 the Camaro’s nose and rear had to be redesigned due to new federal bumper regulations. Compared to the redesign of the long-time competitor Mustang, the Camaro retained its muscular and elegant appearance. What was noticeable were the performance limitations due to the emission specifications in response to the oil crisis. Yet there were still the sporty RS and Z/28 lines, sometimes with a stylish seventies color scheme:

Everything was new about the 1982 Camaro: one-piece body, redesigned suspension—and for the first time, the Camaro was a hatchback.

And while the engines were still underpowered compared to the monsters of the late ’60s, the Camaro became a cult object of the then-emerging hair metal youth culture of the Reagan years. Long overlooked, 1980s Camaros have now become coveted collectibles.

With the all-new 5.7-liter V8 LT1 with 275 horsepower and a six-speed manual transmission, the new fourth-generation Camaro Z28 became another performer. “A 1,500-pound car covering the quarter mile in 14 seconds and circling the skidpad at 0.92g is an amazing achievement,” said Patrick Bedard of Car and driver in a comparison test, which the new Z28 won.

And then, in 2002, it was said that production of the Camaro would be discontinued. And then, as now, people mourned the demise of an automotive icon. But after a break of a few years, there was news:

Following the trend of the time, retro design was adopted in 2010, with many design elements hinting at the first Camaro series of the 1960s.

This time the car was based on an Australian Holden Monaro chassis with independent suspension, and the base V6 already produced 304 hp. The Super Sport was available with a 6.2-liter V8 LS with 426 hp.

While the visual redesign seems rather unremarkable, the 2016 sixth-generation Camaro was built on a completely different, significantly lighter platform that resulted in more dynamic, better handling. As the top-of-the-line models continued to improve, an entry-level four-cylinder engine was introduced for the first time, producing 275 turbocharged hp – the same as the 1993 Z/28 LT1 V-8.

And now it should be fun. Yet an icon like the Camaro does not go without a final cheer. In the summer of 2023 there will be a final version with a Collector’s Edition package. The teaser is already here: