The race gets more challenging this year as the $30,000 Camaro convertible joins the Bowtie lineup next spring and faces a new Boss Mustang.
With a sales growth rate in 2010 of three times that of the Ford Mustang, the Chevy Camaro took the annual sales leadership for the first time since 1991.
It’s just the latest example of how a resurgent General Motors is a growing challenge to Ford Motor as GM’s recovery continues.
Camaro finished the year at 81,299 sales, up 32%. Mustang sales tallied 73,716, up 11%.
Part of the reason is that a reorganized General Motors Company is no longer splitting pony car sales between Pontiac Firebird and Chevy Camaro models.
The race gets more challenging this year as the $30,000 Camaro convertible joins the Bowtie lineup next spring as Chevrolet celebrates its 100th anniversary followed by other derivatives, including a reborn Z28 performance version.
The standard Camaro convertible will have the 312-horsepower 3.6-liter V6 and the SS model will get the 6.2-liter V8 rated at 426 horsepower.
The 2012 Boss Mustang is rated at 440 horsepower.
I admit there is an element of absurdity about the whole horsepower race here and elsewhere, since electronic chassis and traction control systems at automakers curb maximum engine output under many conditions to maintain stability. To paraphrase an Ole Blue Eyes song (that’s Sinatra – kids) – what’s the point if you can’t do it sideways?
About Ken Zino
Ken Zino, publisher (kzhw@aol.com), is a versatile auto industry participant with global experience spanning decades in print and broadcast journalism, as well as social media. He has automobile testing, marketing, public relations and communications experience. He is past president of The International Motor Press Assn, the Detroit Press Club, founding member and first President of the Automotive Press Assn. He is a member of APA, IMPA and the Midwest Automotive Press Assn.
Zino is at home on test tracks, knows his way around U.S. Congressional hearing rooms, auto company headquarters, plant floors, as well as industry research and development labs where the real mobility work is done. He can quote from court decisions, refer to instrumented road tests, analyze financial results, and profile executive personalities and corporate cultures.
He also brings an historical perspective while citing their contemporary relevance of the work of legendary auto writers such as Ken Purdy, Jim Dunne or Jerry Flint, or writers such as Red Smith, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson – all to bring perspective to a chaotic automotive universe.
Above all, decades after he first drove a car, Zino still revels in the sound of the exhaust as the throttle is blipped and the driver’s rush that occurs when the entry, apex and exit points of a turn are smoothly and swiftly crossed. It’s the beginning of a perfect lap.
AutoInformed has an editorial philosophy that loves transportation machines of all kinds while promoting critical thinking about the future use of cars and trucks.
Zino builds AutoInformed from his background in automotive journalism starting at Hearst Publishing in New York City on Motor and MotorTech Magazines and car testing where he reviewed hundreds of vehicles in his decade-long stint as the Detroit Bureau Chief of Road & Track magazine. Zino has also worked in Europe, and Asia – now the largest automotive market in the world with China at its center.
