It's finally here - well, almost. After what seemed like an endless wait, Chevrolet pulled the wraps off the production version of the Camaro this afternoon. But if you don't have enough money in the piggy bank, don't worry. The automaker won't start taking orders for quite some months, it turns out.

The first version in what's expected to be a growing family of cars won't go into production until February 16, 2009 - as a '10 model - and it's unlikely anyone will be taking delivery until well into the following month.

But that's not likely to stop all of us on the blogs from wagging our digital tongues, trading opinions about what General Motors designers have done with the jaw-droppingly beautiful show car that proved the hit of the 2006 Detroit Auto Show.

At first glance, you might be tempted to say, "not much." The production version stays just about as true as anything we've seen to the intent of the original concept vehicle, even though GM's global design director acknowledged in a post-reveal chat that "every surface, every dimension has been changed slightly."



Look closer and you'll notice the taller roof, the larger mirrors, and, as Welburn noted, alls sorts of subtle tweaks. Why risk changing a winning formula? Because no matter how good you get it in concept form, there are always compromises needed to put a design into production. Like headroom. Taking the show Camaro for a drive - as I did, in mid-2006 - was an exercise in contortion, considering my 6'2" frame. No longer. You might not even notice, but for me, the new car is surprisingly roomy, with a backseat that is barely, maybe, almost functional, as well.

Inside, the package maintains the sporty look of the original, with an instrument cluster than commands attention. The slick metal door panels are gone, but Welburn insists they were "theatrical makeup" that would have looked over the top on the production car.

What matters is that all the right curves and angles have been maintained: the short overhangs, the rear fender kick-out, and the large grille, with its deeply inset headlamps. That was a particularly challenging task, Welburn acknowledged, considering the issue of aerodynamics. "It took a lot of work to manage airflow around the front end," he explained, "to maintain the (big) grille and the (sunken) headlight design."

Yet the effort appears to have been worth it. When the V-6 RS, the first version of the Camaro, hits market, Chevy expects it to deliver a hefty 300 horsepower - yet achieve at least 26 mpg. (And in a separate conversation, Chevrolet General Manager Ed Peper confided that by the time the federal mileage numbers are certified, that's likely to go up to a combined 27 mpg, no mean feat for that much power and weight.)

The V-8 version of the RS will start rolling, in February, as well, and the performance-tuned SS will come soon afterward. Beyond that? Expect Chevy to take on Ford model-by-model.



Now, some folks might be asking about the logic of all this. After all, we're in an energy crisis, and even though gas has dipped a bit from record $4-plus levels, there's little doubt that there's been a paradigm shift in market demand. But analyst Jim Hall contends there will always be a market for models that "make you feel good."

Hall expects there will remain a sizable number of buyers looking for performance, despite the price tag. And many of those will be trading down from vehicles that make the Camaro look as efficient as a Prius. And for those who want the looks but might sacrifice the feel of raw power, the V-6 will be a perfect fit, Hall forecasts, adding that over time, that smaller engine will likely account for about 80 percent of Camaro sales.

For his part, Chevy's Peper says there have been 600,000 "hand-raisers" so far, folks who have been lining up on the automaker's Web site and in showrooms asking for the latest news on the Camaro. While that doesn't always translate into direct sales, it's certainly a good sign.

There's little doubt that with the reborn Camaro, General Motors has delivered a solid hit - at least when it comes to looks. We'll have to wait till we drive it, of course, to see if the automaker has truly knocked the ball out of the park.

Finally, after what has seemed like an endless wait, the reborn Chevrolet Camaro is making its full debut later today.

I won't repeat the news that TCC's other blogger mentioned in his weekend update. But I will tell you that I'll be on hand for the big reveal of the production '09 Camaro, late this afternoon, and will have news from the event (rather than PR handouts) to report when I get back to this computer.

Stay tuned!

With all the news coming out of yesterday's big General Motors news conference, at least one significant topic managed to slip under the radar. And it leaves us wondering whether the increasingly downsized giant of an automaker will be walking away from its long-standing involvement in motorsports.

GM has traditionally been one of the most aggressive players in the global racing world, participating in series ranging from the NASCAR good ol' boy circuit to the sophisticated world of Le Mans endurance racing. But consider a comment made to employees by CEO Rick Wagoner:

"We will implement significant reductions in promotional and event budgets, motor sports activities and back-office expenses," said the CEO.

Considering GM is looking for ways to slash a hefty $10 billion in expenses by the end of 2009, it's not surprising that it might target the healthy motorsports budget. The latest turnaround plan has the automaker questioning just about every line item. For example, if GM traditionally exhibits 20 cars at its booth at the annual SEMA Show (the yearly gathering of the Specialty Equipment Marketers Association), might it be just as effective to bring 10 or even 5, asked Troy Clarke, president of GM's North American operations.

There's more than just budget cutting at work, however. Even if the automaker could dump as much money as it has in marketing and motorsports, Clarke said it would no longer be business as usual.

Consider two of GM's biggest success stories of this past year, the Chevrolet Malibu and Cadillac CTS. The automaker trimmed back on TV and other, traditional ad venues, using Internet, viral, and other marketing efforts that, Clarke explained, show "how we plan to go to market in the future."

And so, when it comes to racing, running an otherwise identical "race car of the future" with Chevy decals around Talladega just might not make as much sense anymore as it did in years past.

Few expect GM to drive away from racing entirely, but we could see a sharp cutback. And it could be echoed in reduced support for other sports sponsorships, such as Major League Baseball and professional golf, where Tiger Woods has become more recognizable as a symbol for Buick than the brand's own cars.

If you'd like to get a look at the future - at General Motor's future, anyway - stop into your nearest Saturn showroom.

There you'll see several models that were developed in a close cooperation between GM's U.S. brand and its flagship European subsidiary, Opel. While the recently updated Vue shows significant changes made for American buyers, the compact Saturn Astra is, for all intents and purposes, the same car you'll see roaming the streets of Paris and blasting down the Autobahn in Germany.

What's under way is "a pretty radical shift," says the General's vice chairman and "car czar," Bob Lutz. Going forward, he adds, we American motorists are going to see a "more European lineup than ever before in our history."

There are several reasons why this is happening, and the makeover will show up in several different ways.

The why is simple. For several years, to give him credit, Lutz has warned that if gas hit $4 a gallon, we'd see consumers radically shift their buying patterns. And as his colleague, GM president Fritz Henderson, said on Tuesday, the changes we're seeing now are very likely permanent.

If you thought the build-up of the light truck market, starting in the late 1980s, was fast, you ain't seen nuthin'. Full-size pickup and SUV sales have absolutely collapsed. Dealers in much of the country are just about giving those vehicles away. (Great news, as a friend of mine declared, if you absolutely have to have one.) Suddenly, passenger cars - especially some of the smallest and most fuel-efficient - are hot, along with the latest generation of car-based crossovers.

Sure, if fuel prices go back down - indeed, even if they stabilize, and consumers get used to paying four bucks - trucks will bounce back, but as Henderson said, the recovery will be nowhere near what we saw as recently as 2006, when light trucks grabbed half the market.

Since American motorists traditionally bought trucks and larger cars, it was much harder for GM, and its domestic brethren, to consolidate global product development. Now, however, it makes a lot of sense. And if you can design an Astra for the U.S. and Europe in one fell swoop, you've saved yourself anywhere up to $1 billion in product development costs.

Now, don't assume what you'll see at a Chevy showroom, never mind Saturn, Buick, or Pontiac, will always be the same here as over there in Europe. Even if high gas prices force Americans to downsize, our tastes are different. We're less into station wagons and hatchbacks. But GM is getting a lot better at coming up with a few sheetmetal variations that otherwise share the same components under the skin.

Another difference: Europeans don't traditionally link size and price. So instead of buying a $30,000 SUV, they'll pay that for a smaller, but functional crossover or wagon. Indeed, in Switzerland, the average transaction price for a new automobile is a whopping $42,000.

So you may see a Chevy sharing much of its basics with an Opel, but the American version might lack a lot of what in Europe is basic, standard equipment.

Is Chrysler getting charged up about electric vehicles? That's the word going around in Detroit this week, as the automakers confirms published reports that it is working up a line of extended-range EVs, often referred to as plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles, or PHEVs.

Chrysler has taken its share of lumps from environmentalists for being slow to market with greener technology, and in the current environment of $4-a-gallon gas, buyers haven't been too pleased, either. The automaker's first hybrids, including a version of the big Dodge Durango SUV, will just hit market later this year. Meanwhile, the automaker will market a high-mileage diesel version of its Jeep Grand Cherokee, which was developed with its former partner, the German automaker Daimler AG.

To take things further, the automaker created a new unit last autumn, dubbed ENVI, to help it push into alternative propulsion systems. And one of its highest priorities is to develop a line of PHEVs, spokesman Nick Capa has confirmed, and possibly other forms of electric propulsion.

Specific details haven't been released. "It's too early to get down and dirty with this technology," cautioned Chrysler spokesman Nick Capa. But he pointed to three concept vehicles the automaker unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show last January, which can provide a few hints.

The little Dodge Zeo has a pure electric drive system, with an oversize battery pack to extend range. The ecoVoyager mates fuel cell and range-extender technology, while the Jeep Renegade's plug-in drive is backed up by a clean diesel.

It appears Chrysler's push into extended-range and related technology is driven, at least in part, by the overwhelming response to General Motors' own extended-range EV, the Chevrolet Volt. GM promises that sedan will get at least 40 miles on a single charge, more than enough for the typical daily commute. For longer drives, Volt's compact internal combustion engine will kick in, allowing it effectively unlimited range.

What's unclear is which technical path Chrysler will take. Conventional gasoline-electric models, such as the Durange Hybrid - or Toyota's best-selling Prius - are so-called parallel hybrids. That means their wheels can be directly driven by either the vehicle's gasoline engine or its electric motors - or both. Volt, however, is a series hybrid. The production version's wheels will only be driven by electric motors. When the battery runs down, the internal combustion engine will act as a generator, sending current to either the vehicle's battery or its motors.

How broad a range of plug-ins Chrysler plans has not been revealed, but given the shift in the American market, the automaker is clearly under pressure to expand a green lineup likely to include more conventional hybrids, next-generation clean diesels - and plug-in technology.

As to timing, Capa said it's unclear when ENVI will bring these new products to market, though, "We feel pretty confident...with three to five years."