New Chevrolet Camaro is a Commodore coupe of sorts

Chevy's Camaro has finally been revealed. Although its skin is all-American, it shares many of its components with the humble Holden Commodore.

The Aussie Camaro
With Holden being responsible for the design of GM's affordable rear-wheel drive "architecture" — the bits beneath the external skin that underpin the car — the latest Camaro is, essentially, a Commodore coupe with an all-American body.

No alarm and no surprises
Being Commodore based, it's little surprise to learn that the two engines offered in the Camaro are a 3.6-litre V6 and 6.2-litre V8. The V8 operates as a four-cylinder engine under light loads, such as highway cruising. This feature, known as Active Fuel Management in GM-speak, has yet to make an appearance on Australian Commodores.

Generated by computers
GM has yet to release official pics of the Camaro's interior — these computer generated images are the closest the company has come to doing so.

2009
Despite being engineered here, the Camaro will be built in North America. Sales begin in the US in early 2009.

Missing in action
A convertible version of the Camaro concept car was made, so it follows that there will be a convertible version of the real thing in the not too distant future.

Concept car interior
Thankfully the production interior looks only slightly less radical than the concept car's.

Largely unscathed
Not too much of the Camaro's design got changed in its evolution from concept car to production model.

Bumblebee
Most people will recognise the new Camaro from last year's Transformers movie where it was Bumblebee's automotive persona. Fans of the original cartoon show were disappointed with Bumblebee's switch from a VW Beetle though.