It may seem surprising to many the simple origins of the venerable “muscle car” line of the ’60s, the “Chevrolet Camaro.” The Camaro began life as little more than fairly standard Chevy II cars thrown together.
It was the lesson of the Ford Mustang: to make a car relatively inexpensive and easy to build, using “off-the-shelf” products already found in Chevrolet and General Motors production runs: that of a “volume” family car. Product planning and production considerations led to an available target: Chevrolet’s “Mustang fighter” was to be closely related to the Chevy II automobile product line. Interestingly, the Chevy II was not originally a bestseller, compared to the Ford Mustang’s sister product, the Ford Falcon. However, after a major restyling and re-engineering in 1968, this was not the case.
The development and launch of the Camaro product was not the work of a single person, but rather a forerunner of what would become: the chain of command spanned through various levels and departments. On the other hand, the initial product launched as the Camaro shared the problems of the design committee: too many people involved and a great limitation on styling, since the basis of the car was the first essential nature of the product: sharing car components with others. Chevrolet and General Motors products. What the Camaro designers ultimately produced, as the first generation, was called the “F” car. In the mid-’60s, GM’s emphasis on styling was what became known as “flow”—soft, round lines that just “flowed.”
However, there were a number of advanced and design engineering decisions that set the Camaro apart even then. First, a critical engineering decision was made early on: to use a front subframe in combination with the “unit” construction of the Camaro automobile product. Eventually too, this was considered to be of such merit that the practice was also introduced on the 1969 Chevy Nova. Having this setup was a rather unique approach in that the subframe was isolated from the car body by either rubber inserts or what Chevy engineers came to know as “crackers.” This technique had previously been perfected on more expensive European unit-body cars, including various Mercedes-Benz models and the larger GM Europe Opals. However, the Camaro was the first application of engineering for a low-priced American car.
Why was this development so important for the vehicle? First of all, it can be said that the compromise was very effective. Unit construction techniques allowed more space for passengers and luggage than compared to a car body designed for a separate complete chassis. The relatively exotic, for its time, rubber mounts gave a much smoother and quieter ride than cars and models that had subframes mounted directly to the main body shells. An example of this type of automotive engineering and production practice was the Chrysler products of the early 1960s.
Another interesting engineering “trick” used on the Camaro project was the use of what GM called “shakers”, i.e. harmonic dampers located at each end on Camaro convertibles. Its purpose was to control torsional vibration, which GM product testers encountered and detected in early working prototype prototypes.
While most of the Camaro product development was well chosen, there were some pitfalls and problems, which had to occur when the basic demand was for the use of off-the-shelf parts and products developed for and intended for other GM automotive products. . Chief among these was the choice of single-leaf rear suspension, borrowed from Chevy II and Old Toronado products. What turned out to be with big V-8 engines was considerable “shaft wander” under hard acceleration.
Along with these problems was the insistence of the sales department for smaller 14-inch wheels to “lower the car down.” One might expect the real-world result of Camaro owner car driving and vacationing to be what became known as “rear bottoming under heavy loads.”
Still, for a product that began life as little more than a series of cobbled together “volume family cars”—the Chevy II—the platform had potential. The Camaro provided a solid, well thought out and designed platform on which “The Camaro” evolved and developed. The classic “Muscle Car” from the 1960’s lives on in the hearts and memories of many, many “car guys” and aficionados.