One of Dan Neil's Best Colums, the new Camaro

[Zeke]

Here's the start of it:
" Despite some published reports, the 2010 Camaro SS is not really what you'd call a sports car, unless you tend to shave with a chain saw or sign your name with a piece of burning timber or make scrambled eggs by dropping a piano on a chicken. The consonant quality of this car, from the moment you turn the key to the moment you gratefully leave it in the chiropractor's parking lot, is a wanton and cheerful disregard for finesse and delicacy.

This is exactly right.

You have to understand, after four decades in the market, the Camaro nameplate stands for something: 40-ounce beers, mullet hairdos, barbed-wire tattoos, that trick where you put cigarettes out on your tongue. If you ever stole cable TV from your neighbor, own more than two stuffed deer heads or have ever confused your girlfriend's birth-control pills for Skittles, you might be a Camaro prospect.

Oh, please, don't even start with accusations of cultural stereotyping. I'm from North Carolina. A telephone pole with a Camaro wrapped around it might as well be the state tree."

And just a bit more:
"that would not honor the Camaro's rightful heritage as the Molly Hatchet of sport coupes. And so the company went the other direction: a big lummox of a car powered by thudding 6.2-liter pushrod V8, an engine that is to acceleration what dynamite is to fishing"

For the full read, go here.

[m21sniper]

Just another hater IMO.

[onewhippedpuppy]

I didn't sense that. It's a muscle car, it's not supposed to be subtle. It was humorous and sarcastic, any Camaro owner that can't take a joke (probably most) will be offended.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

I didn't sense that. It's a muscle car, it's not supposed to be subtle. It was humorous and sarcastic, any Camaro owner that can't take a joke (probably most) will be offended.

Right On. Besides, Neil dresses down every car in some way and many times does it with self effacing humor. He's driven a lot of iron and some all CF and AL. He has also paid dues driving and writing about cars that register better as economy rental cars or city fleet cars.

[kstar]

That is some funny stuff.

[speeder]

3900 lbs.??

Jesus, what a POS.

[Zeke]

Damn, I misspelled columns.

Originally Posted by speeder

3900 lbs.??

Jesus, what a POS.

More like PIG. I don't know how these can be that heavy, but he did say it was a Holden/Ponitac.

[gprsh924]

Why can't modern cars be lighter. At 3900lbs, my Xterra is lighter than the Camaro.

[tchanson]

Originally Posted by milt

Right On. Besides, Neil dresses down every car in some way and many times does it with self effacing humor. He's driven a lot of iron and some all CF and AL. He has also paid dues driving and writing about cars that register better as economy rental cars or city fleet cars.

+1.

"Oh, please, don't even start with accusations of cultural stereotyping. I'm from North Carolina. A telephone pole with a Camaro wrapped around it might as well be the state tree"."


Plus, Dan's the first and only automotive writer to win a Pulitzer Prize, which resulted in some amusingly bunched panties.








Tim

[Brillo]

Originally Posted by gprsh924

Why can't modern cars be lighter.

Five hundred air bags and other miscellaneous "safety" stuff that all but drives the car these days.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by Brillo

Five hundred air bags and other miscellaneous "safety" stuff that all but drives the car these days.

My 996 weighs in at about 3k lbs. and I thought it was a fat pig. Plenty of airbags in it, too.

[HardDrive]

That is some seriously funny schnit.

I'm from North Carolina. A telephone pole with a Camaro wrapped around it might as well be the state tree.

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!

[911pcars]

Some Pre-Neil reviews of the Camaro courtesy of PP:

Camaro is King!!!
New Camaro on the streets

Hey. Neil "borrowed" some material.

Great writer though.

Sherwood

[Schumi]

Originally Posted by speeder

My 996 weighs in at about 3k lbs. and I thought it was a fat pig. Plenty of airbags in it, too.

And 996's are build like tanks.


I will never buy a car that claims to be a sportscar but weighs more than 3200 lbs.