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Autocar reports that GM will import 100 left hand drive Camaros to the UK. All UK Camaros will come with GM’s 500bhp 422bhp 6.2 liter V8 and will list at 35k pounds sterling ($50k). But will anyone short of the Hamster (get it? He’s short!) actually buy one?
Wait, the UK is getting 500hp while the US is getting 420hp? Or did I miss a change to the Camaro lineup?
EDIT: 422hp, that’s better.
The Brits can already buy a “Camaro”, with the same engine, at the same price, and with the steering wheel on the on the correct side for their little island (RHD):
http://www.vauxhall.com/vaux/vehicle/vehicleBrandAction.do?method=viewBrand&brandCode=9M
So, probably not.
Also, TopGear informing the British public that the Camaro has a solid rear axle, semi-elliptical “buggy” springs and a carburetor will not help.
Wait, the UK is getting 500hp while the US is getting 420hp? Or did I miss a change to the Camaro lineup?
I think it’s a typo that no one has caught yet. The Autocar article linked to says: “All UK-bound Chevrolet Camaros will get the 500bhp 6.2-litre V8 Corvette engine.” The Corvette doesn’t offer a 6.2L engine anywhere that has that output. There is the Z06’s 505hp LS7, but that’s a 7.0L engine.
Most likely – a number of both collectors and footballers will buy them.
500bhp… I’d buy an LS7 Camaro!
Who cars what TopGear thinks. Interesting how that dipshit criticized the US for designing a car around an Oz platform; what exactly do they design in the British Car Industry?
Right. Nothing.
At least we have buffalo to herd still.
GS650G
At least we have buffalo to herd still.
Don’t forget, your buffalo has brucellosis. Enjoy them while you can….
P.S. That “dipshit” praised the Cadillac CTS-V and the Chevrolet Corvette. But like you say, he’s a “dipshit” so we shouldn’t take what he says seriously, eh….?
P.P.S. Everyone seems to have missed a classic GM mistake! Can anyone spot it….? (Answer available on request).
Hammond will have to grow a mullet if he buys one. It is compulsory.
–chuck
They’ll sell 100 Camaros in the UK… to US expatriates or stationed military. At least 1 will go to Hammond.
But yes, Clarkson IS being a dipshit here.
“Don’t forget, your buffalo has brucellosis.”
Our buffalo are gay?
KatiePuckrik: Ooh, I like mistakes! Let’s hear it!
The classic GM mistake is this:
According to the article GM bringing the car over as the CHEVROLET Camaro.
Now, in Europe, Chevrolet is branded as maker of cheaper, oriental cars (i.e the Aveo, The Lacetti, etc).
So, in true GM style, what else could fit this line up of cheap, knockabout cars?
A Rear Wheel Drive Sports car!
GM branding mistakes 101….
Yes they’ll sell a few unless the economy has left Brits too poor to buy them. Even in the working class town I visit regularly I’ve seen a Mustang, a Corvette, and a Chrylser 300 (trying to squeeze into a grocery store parking spot, LOL).
I am often told by my auto-market colleagues there that “America sells” and that Brits love American auto brands, including Chevrolet.
KatiePuckrik:
I though you were going to say bringing over LHD instead of RHD; that’s the classic GM mistake, at least in Japan.
Yes Chevy is the default Daewoo distributor of Europe, but the only Brits that are going to buy a LHD Camaro are Brits that are really into classic American muscle cars. They are going to want their Camaro to say Chevrolet on it, not Vauxhall.
Everyone else can buy a VXR8.
Have serious doubt about your statement about Brits loving American cars. Most Brits probably consider American cars as technologically slightly behind the Indians (before they bought Jag) but you always will have a sub group who’s mental faculties are not completely lined up, see for example Alfa Romeo buyers.
charly:
Most Brits will never drive a car in their lifetimes, so they cannnot be expected to accurately gauge cars.
With a pathological liar educating Britain about cars there is bound to be some misunderstanding. Clarkson is always going to have a chip on his shoulder because the US defeated the Nazi’s, forever preventing him from considering himself German.
By the way, Vauxhall and Ford are American, but sometimes it works better logistically to use the local labor.
And for all Clarkson’s blather about independent suspensions I would bet that about 90% of the cars that are currently on the road in Britain, and Europe overall, have not-quite-independent twist-beam rear suspensions.
There was a market niche of European consumers that liked classic American cars for their ostentatiousness, but that might be dying down with the recession.
I love Top Gear partly because of the way it stirs people up – especially on this forum. I am an Aussie so should I take offense at his remarks? Sure – if I took them seriously. The man is witty and funny. Don’t go looking for “The Truth About Cars” in Top Gear.
“Most Brits will never drive a car in their lifetimes, so they cannnot be expected to accurately gauge cars.”
Ayup! Dem furriners barely nose bout’ dem aeroplanes. Ain’t those folks got Roman plumbin’ instead of dem John Crapper models?
“With a pathological liar educating Britain about cars there is bound to be some misunderstanding.”
Are you talking about Gordon Brown?
“Clarkson is always going to have a chip on his shoulder because the US defeated the Nazi’s, forever preventing him from considering himself German.”
Yes, a Jew who always wanted to consider himself German and rooted for the Nazis in the war. Next thing you know, he’ll be wearing a nun’s uniform during mass.
“By the way, Vauxhall and Ford are American, but sometimes it works better logistically to use the local labor.”
Owned by American companies, yes. Designed and engineered by Americans? Nein!
“And for all Clarkson’s blather about independent suspensions I would bet that about 90% of the cars that are currently on the road in Britain, and Europe overall, have not-quite-independent twist-beam rear suspensions.”
No, you’re confusing Rovers with cars.
“There was a market niche of European consumers that liked classic American cars for their ostentatiousness, but that might be dying down with the recession.”
No, they’re literally dying out. The next generation Cadillac BLS will actually be called the ‘Cadillac Coffin’. It will come in a trombone case red interior and will go from 0 to 60 with the help of a World War I cannon.
Steven Lang:
Someone with whatever accent you are impersonating probably would think that the British are sophisticated; the rest of the world knows that Britain has increasingly poorly performing school children, is run rampant with chavs and has trouble employing unskilled workers.
Americans should thank Britain for knocking the US off the top of the “countries whose tourists other countries hate” list.
I don’t know what Clarkson’s religious ethnicity is; he is effectively atheist, which I give him credit for. However, he does have a notorious German obsession, possibly only because that country actually makes cars.
I’m sure defunct-now-Chinese Rover used twist-beam rear suspensions, but so do many of the other cheap European hatches. Nothing wrong with that, it’s a cheap, reliable setup, but Clarkson’s out of touch with reality mocking non-independent suspensions when most Europeans don’t have a car with an independent suspension.
The BLS is not a classic American car, it is a FWD Saab. The cars I refer to are 300Cs, Mustangs, Corvettes, etc. There was a niche of Europeans buying them as a middle finger in the air to gas taxes and greens, and also simply as something unique, but, as I said, the recession is probably making even that niche buy more conservative cars.
I love that quote from Clarkson:
“We need some sophistication. Let’s call the Australians.”
What’s up with GM and their power ratings these days? i read somewhere that the 6.2 V8 powering the CTS-V delivers 609hp (556 net). 609 might sound nice in adverts, but in reality the people that care to buy these cars do know the difference and care about how many ponies will be galloping when the rubber meets the road.
so i guess it’s the same thing with the UKamaro, 500Hp are actually 422net.
i guess people should carry magnifying lenses when they read GM product ads. to read the fine print, if there is any….
Some time after the fact, but maybe a useful datapoint-
My two-houses-down neighbour bought one – don’t ask me where the money came from. It’s now been sitting in his driveway for the past year amidst an ever-widening puddle of oil.
probably not a reflection on the quality of the car in question – said neighbour has been banned from keeping animals since he didn’t realise that if you chained up four bull-terriers in your back yard you should at least throw them some food now and then.