Is that DEFINATLY what the Challenger and Camaro will look like or will the design change a bit before production?
Its hard to say with absolute certainty, but they're reportedly pretty darn close with the production models. The Challenger prototypes that have been seen around Detroit pretty much could have been swapped right off the turntable, but obviously, it does without some of the "ooh ahh" pieces... LED headlights, gigantic wheels, etc.
Its pretty much the same case for the Camaro AFAIK, as most folks know that it will be close, but not exactly the same. There has yet to be a rolling Camaro-bodied prototype, at least one that was instantly recognizable as one. Most estimates put the panels being a pretty close match, the roof maybe being a hair higher overall, and again the obvious wheel size shrinkage.
TVB
-> I'd still think that the Camaro is overly overrated. Come on guys, the car is not yet on the market still. I've seen both of these concept at the L.A. auto show, and they're dandy enough to be impressed by anyone, but not enough to caught my because these are not production cars as of yet.
-> Are we picking these cars base on their looks or its overall potential? If its the latter we can't really determine anything yet.
Its a combination of both as far as I'm concerned, and I think based on the moderately well-informed press on the progress of these vehicles (and the obvious current production model, to be updated of course) we could make a moderately well-informed decision.
My assumption is that with the Challenger based on the LX chassis and really only so-so advance on the goodness scale, there is only so far that it can be pushed. It
not going to Europe (officially) doesn't help at all either, not to mention the fact that it will be an extremely limited edition model here in the US.
With the Mustang the biggest problem is that Ford doesn't even know what they want to do with it. Going under the assumption that they don't use the Orion chassis right away and only slightly update the D2C currently in use, again, there is only so far it can go. They're supposed to add new engines and transmissions as well, but Ford being Ford, they haven't officially made up their mind.
...For the sake of argument, I'd infer that Ford will move the Mustang to the Orion chassis, make use of the new "Hurricane" V8 platform, and go from there. Furthermore, I'd suspect that style wise, it will look much like the special one that showed up last year, you know, this one:
As for the Camaro, I think the reason why it is winning really is quite simple; GM is doing what they do best. They're using off-the-shelf parts to create a car that looks great, drives great, and best of all is cheap to build and cheaper for the consumer. The VE/Zeta chassis has already been proven in the Commodore/G8/Lumina/VXR8 and Ute, and the new version should work just as well.
My estimation is that the proven pieces of the Camaro (be it the chassis, engine, transmission, etc) all comes down to be enough to make it a clear winner.
