GMI Exclusive: Camaro Monza Caught!

[JoeT]

GMI Exclusive: Camaro Monza Caught!

This scoop spy pic of a short Camaro testing at GM Holden’s Lang Lang facility outside of Melbourne broke on overseas auto blogs and sites this weekend and now we have the scoop story from an unnamed insider to go with it broken by the LEHMANN organization 30 March 2008.

Known internally as the Camaro Monza this is the Turbo Ecotec 4 cylinder powered Camaro referenced recently by Bob Lutz. To follow the Camaro V6 and V8 launch by 18 months the Camaro Monza comes in two packages. The base 260hp Turbo Ecotec and the Camaro Monza GT, which has a strengthened version of the same engine that incorporates timed over-boost and recovery electronic programming. This allows 310hp over-boost for up to half a minute before detuning back to 260hp and a seven minute recovery period after which the over-boost can be used again.

The recovery time is proportional, so if only 15 seconds of over boost were used or only half the extra powered were used for the 30 seconds then only 3.5 minutes recovery would be needed. The recovery time is needed to dissipate the high and potentially damaging thermal loads produced by the over-boost, which also explains the test vehicle having extra engine compartment venting behind the front wheels.

But the real news comes concerning weight. The parts bin has been raided from Volt to Alpha to Zeta Cadillac’s. Things like lightweight windscreen wipers to mp3 sound systems with only in-headrest small speakers. And the modularity of Zeta has allowed the attachment of a lighter rear end designed originally as an entry-level live rear axle for the Alpha platform. But this is not your father’s live axle F-body set-up.

According to the source the axle case is alloy and has novel in-board brakes either side of the differential and uses plastic leaf spring technology, as developed for Corvette, giving low unsprung weight at the smaller very lightweight wheels and tires. It is claimed this makes it as responsive as IRS over rough roads, yet it tracks straighter from launch over the quarter mile.

Even more hi-tech plastic is used with the rear frameless hatch being scratch resistant acrylic with a thin outer glass laminate and a body color plastic tailpiece. And the large doors are also made of body color impregnated plastic, with the side quarter windows also acrylic. But such use of color plastic body parts limits colors to solids, meaning no metallic colors for the Camaro Monza, at least not with the current technology. At the front some alloy Zeta suspension components developed for Cadillac have also been incorporated (Note: some sport models of the V8 Camaro may also use these light doors and suspension components).

The good news of all this is that the base Camaro Monza comes in under 3400 lb and the GT, which among a few other things ditches the rear seat for a flat load area and uses racing style seats, comes in under 3,300 lb. This gives the base Camaro Monza a decent 13 pounds weight per hp and the GT under 11 pounds per hp, which betters the Pontiac Solstice GXP Roadster.

Apparently Bob Lutz was so upset by CAFÉ that he launched the program immediately to raid this future tech from other programs just to show that GM can still make compliant performance vehicles even with one hand tied behind their back by federal regulators. We look forward to driving these explosive turbo fours.


GMI obtained the Interview with Mr. Lutz HERE!

Spy Pic: Illustrated and written by MonaroSS, Edited by JoeT. Special thanks to MonaroSS for putting this together and making the chop!

[PRO_USA1776]

Sounds Great! As long as it isn't an april fools joke! (which I think it is)

[SRX7697]

whoa, a shorten camaro.

sounds good though

[Hurricane]

Awesome!!! Less weight is fantastic!!!

[paul8488]

Hmm... too stubby for me. I'd rather see a kappa-built Monza-type vehicle. Might look okay in person, but in photos it has odd proportions.

[skylark68]

inboard brakes? overboost?

This smells like april fools.

[tgagneguam]

Originally Posted by skylark68

inboard brakes? overboost?

This smells like april fools.

I think we have a winner...

[member12]

Originally Posted by skylark68

inboard brakes? overboost?

This smells like april fools.

My thoughts exactly.


It sure sounds cool though.

[ZHDesign57]

Sounds great. Don't know about this covered up tape area on the fenders though, I don't want to see a vent there...and where did the lines behind the door go?
and is it just me but does this Camaro still look more like the concept where as the convertible photos look production-esque...? I almost want to call April fools on this too,...but some part of me feels this may be for real...

if so...awesome...bring it.

[Kamshaaft]

You're always on the ball Joe!

[377Z]

Yay!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Monza

[jkennedy293]

If it is still around tomorrow, I'll believe it.

[nikivee]

I would have picked a better April fools joke, like Coupe 60 gets go ahead for 2012 production.

[paul8488]

Originally Posted by ZHDesign57

and is it just me but does this Camaro still look more like the concept where as the convertible photos look production-esque...?

The more I think about it the more I like the idea of a vehicle like this, though I'm still not sure if it will look right or not. Instead of simply lightening an existing Camaro a little bit they seem to have gone to the extreme to make a significantly lighter car. Ths is the only real way that a 4-cylinder Camaro should be done. I'm not really sure that GM needs to be spending THIS much time and energy on pony cars when there are other vehicles that need replacement, but it IS encouraging and depending on how it looks it could be a cool little car.

[A.J.]

It's believable. I mean, CAFE is going to be the doom of the performance auto industry, so this move seems logical.

I'm still thinking that this is an April Fools' joke after what happened last year...(click)