Camaro ZL1 revealed in Chicago

The 2012 Camaro ZL1. Photo credit auto123.com. 

As you may know, my stance on the muscle cars of today is that they simply can't compare to the muscle cars of the past, at least from a coolness perspective. Even so, I am perfectly willing to give credit where credit is due and in this case Chevrolet may deserve some praise.

Even though they have recently decided to be finicky about whether or not their employees are allowed to call them chevy or not, they have also managed to find some time while dealing with such trivial matters to build the new Camaro ZL1.

Muscle car atrophy

'67 Mustang. This was the definition of a muscle car. Photo credit photobucket.com

As James May, one of the famous Top Gear Presenters once said, “The recipe for making [muscle cars] is very simple. Massive engine, crude, simple suspension, very low price and finally some orange paint.”

By this formula, building good, solid muscle cars should be a breeze. Car makers don’t have to worry about putting new technologies like satellite navigation, or G-force readers in a muscle car because muscle cars are supposed to be simple. 

In fact all a muscle car really has to do is make a lot of noise, and go quickly in a straight line.

So what happened?

Convertible Camaro coming soon

The new Chevy Camaro convertible. Set to be released in 2011.
Photo credit autoblog.com.

According to their website, Chevy will officially announce the Camaro convertible on November 17 at the Los Angeles International Auto Show.