Camaro History

[!!!TED!!!]

About 20 years ago, GM decided to "shelve" the GM80 program. This program was to spawn a front wheel drive, plastic body, V6 Camaro and Firebird.

Its a significant turning point in Camaro History. Who knows what would have happened if they went ahead with their plans.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_..._v94/ai_4345775

[zhawk]

Thank God that decision was made. It kept The F-Bodies from having an equivalent of the Mustang II.

[Spike]

That could have given them a leg up on cars like the Eclipse...

[Satty]

Couldn't have been worse than some of the mullet cruisers called Camaro we're had over the years.

[thedriver]

does anyone have any better pictures of the beast than this?

My Webpage

[zhawk]

Couldn't have been worse than some of the mullet cruisers called Camaro we're had over the years.

171036[/snapback]

I'm not sure what you have against the later Camaros and why you insist on continuing calling them mullet cruisers. I've had 4 3rd gens and 2 4th gens and 0 mullets. Sure people with mullets owned them but I've seen the same with other affordable muscle.

There have been some low points, (the Iron Duke in a Camaro springs to mind) but all 4 generations have produced some very nice examples.

Anyway, I am glad the F-Bodies never went FWD. It would have been a huge letdown and destroyed the Camaro and Firebird heritage. Look at the baggage the name Nova was saddled with after the 80s.

[SuperSport623]

the mustang went through the same thing... in the 80s a FWD v6 model was developed, and when news of this leakedout, the uproar led ford to change the name of the project to the Probe and continue the mustang as RWD V8

[zhawk]

And Probe was such a bad name, in my opinion. I couldn't buy a car with that name. Too many bad jokes come to mind.

[toesuf94]

yeah, what gives with the Mullet car moniker? I had two third gens and never had hair longer than an inch - and they were the most fun, most reliable and one of the better cars that I had up until my 2004 Corvette - and I still lust after a teal 1992 Z28 Convertible...it is one of my top ten must haves.

And I agree, the iron duke 4 banger was a dreadful period in the Camaro history - but you never felt bad yanking one and dropping in a 350!!!

[Sixty8panther]

Thank God that decision was made. It kept The F-Bodies from having an equivalent of the Mustang II.

171011[/snapback]

The Mustang II was one hell of a turd but even that was still

RWD... as ugly as they are a quick budget hot rod can be

made if you drop in a healthy V8 in it, one hell of a sleeper.

As far as Satty he's hated 3rd gen. Camaros ever since he

was sodimized in a 1988 RS 305 TBi T-Top by a pedophile in

a mullet wig disguise.

This means that there are no longer any new-product plans for the Pontiac assembly plant, which is scheduled to be phased out of the production of G-body cars before the end of this decade. The G-cars are GM's older-style, rear-drive intermediate models, like the Buick Regal and Olds Cutlass Supreme.

Almost two decades later it still hurts to hear this.

Edited July 25, 2006 by Sixty8panther

[hyperv6]

This story is not 100% accurate. The plan was to build the GM 80 at the Pontiac MI Fiero plant.

They over sold the Fiero the first two years to secure a plant to build the car at and then would make the space frame plastic bodied F body at the same plant.

Once they killed this car it doomed the Fiero as it was in a high capacity plant but only building the expected 30,000+ cars in 1988.

Pontiac had a 1990 Fiero ready but lost the car in Feb of 88 when pressure from many with in GM some from the Vette program worked to kill the car. They were affraid of lost sales to a 220 HP Fiero GTP that would have been around $20 K when the Vette was just over $30K.

The reason the GM 80 died is Ford saved the Mustang plain and simple and those working at GM on the car did not want it in the first place. They had FWD forced on them.

The whole GM 80/ Fiero deal is a great example of what all was wrong at GM back in the early 80's

Edited July 28, 2006 by hyperv6

[hyperv6]

This is the 1990 Fiero that was killed, note GM still has this car.

The styling on the 1990 Fiero was lifted for the 4th GM F bodies. It was adapted and made larger for the front engine car.

Also the GM 80 came back in the early 1990's as a GTO show car thas not shown much.

The Firebird 4th gen nose was on it and it was AWD like was being tested on some of GM's cars at that time. It really never had a chance of making production and is now a mostly forgotten show car not seen in 15 years.

[Sixty8panther]

Hmmm... I did not know a few of those details and have

never seen those white "Pontiac Probe" pre-production

mules. It looks like we really dodged a bullet that time.