It's about time they brought back the Camaro! What a mistake to quit production on such a classic car. I am a Mustang fan but am anxious to see the new Camaro return and take it's place among the high horsepower reborn classic's!

http://www.mrpsycho.co.uk/cars_ict/pics/cars/chevrolet/camaro_concept/camaro_con cept_medium.jpg

"Rod - Hey Jack, what's happenin'?
Joe - Oh, I don't know.
Rod - Well, rumor around town says you think you might be heading down to the shore.
Joe - Uh, yeah, I think I'm goin' down to the shore.
Rod - Whatcha gonna do down there?
Joe - Uh, I don't know, play some video games, buy some Def Leppard t-shirts.
Rod - Hey, don't forget to get your Motley Crue t-shirt, y'know, all proceeds go to get their lead singer out of jail.
Joe - Uh huh.
Rod - Hey, you gonna check out the Sandbar while you're there?
Joe - Uh, what's the Sandbar?
Rod - Oh, it's this place that lets sixteen year-old kids drink.
Joe - Oh, cool.
Rod - Y'know who's gonna be there?
Joe - Uh, who?
Rod - My favorite cover band, Crystal Shit.
Joe - Oh.
Rod - Yeah, they do a Doors show, you'd be really impressed, in fact, it goes a little like this:

Love me two times baby
Love me twice today
Love me two times girl
Cause I got AIDS
Love me two times baby, once for tomorrow, once cause I got AIDS

Joe - Wow, Pretty good Jim Morrison impersonation there.
Rod - Yeah, I hope those guys have a good sense of humor and don't take us to court.
Joe - Uh, what's the court?
Rod - Never mind that,
Joe - Oh, you mean like the People's Court?
Rod - Well, that's another story; the important thing here is you gotta ask me how I'm gonna get down to the shore.
Joe - Uh, how you gonna get down to the shore?
Rod - Funny you should ask, I've got a car now.
Joe - Oh wow, how'd you get a car?
Rod - Oh my parents drove it up here from the Bahamas.
Joe - You're kidding!
Rod - I must be, the Bahamas are islands, okay, the important thing now, is that you ask me what kind of car I have.
Joe - Uh, what kinda car do ya' got?
Rod - I've got a BITCHIN CAMARO!

BITCHIN CAMARO, BITCHIN CAMARO
I ran over my neighbors
BITCHIN CAMARAO, BITCHIN CAMARO
Now it's in all the papers.
My folks bought me a BITCHIN CAMARO with no insurance to match;
So if you happen to run me down, please don't leave a scratch.
I ran over some old lady one night at the county fair;
And I didn't get arrested, because my dad's the mayor.
BITCHIN CAMARO, BITCHIN CAMARO
Doughnuts on your lawn
BITCHIN CAMARO, BITCHIN CAMARO
Tony Orlando and Dawn
When I drive past the kids, they all spit and cuss,
Because I've got a BITCHIN CAMARO and they have to ride the bus.
So you'd better get out of my way, when I run through your yard;
Because I've got a BITCHIN CAMARO;
And an Exxon credit card.
BITCHIN CAMARO, BITCHIN CAMARO
Hey, man where ya headed?
BITCHIN CAMARO, BITCHIN CAMARO
I drive on unleaded."

http://www.deadmilkmen.com/

Ah, the classics. :0)

Hey! great minds think alike LS! I posted a link or two to this on YouTube recently...maybe on Eve's car thread. Damn, I love(d) that song.

I miss my Vega.

Me too!

From July 2:

Here's my second Favorite car song in the world (explicit lyrics):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF7u_9yPPuE&mode=related&search=

Merk- You miss my Vega? We never...uh...you know...we like never.....did...uh....oh god how embarrassing.

A new Camaro? Groovy. ...but it's still a friggin' Chevy! Next.

Guys in black t-shirts sitting on the hoods of their Camaros playing air guitar is so 1974.

No, I miss MY Vega. However, I do not miss Tawny Kitaen sitting on the hood, she left butt prints on it.

OK, this caught my attention. My first new car purchase was a '78 Camaro Ralley-Sport. Loved it, but got rid of it for a
Honda when gas prices started to above 1.20 in the early 80's. Of course, 1.20 then is not that that different from 3.00 today.

I had a Vega GT . . . Even went drag racing at pir with it I have photos as proof it was in the mid 70s of course it went thru 3 engines, 2 traannies and a rear axle. Cool and fun but mechanically a pos.

Had a friend that had a V-8 Vega......nice idea but the car was way to light in the ass and smoked the tires too easy and for too long! Then again the lead foot he had was no help either!

Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins had a V8 Vega too.

Chris, Ms. Merk.

I am glad I was not the only fool to buy a Vega )(

Me too.
Only I owned 2.

Oh the shame!!

Well, at least I only paid $200 to my Dad for my first car...

VEGA owner here too!

Had a GT, Alum block that never gave me any trouble amazingly enough. That car felt good, ran good, looked kind of good! (Ok, so I had a green one with black stripes --it was a cheap first car ok?) Really should have painted it red with those off center racing stripes. Yeah baby!

That and some modern tires would have transformed that car.



Wouldn't mind driving one today actually. Bring that general style back, incorporate our nice engines and other goodies and I think you've got an excellent retro vehicle experience.

Sound was good in those cars as well.

Some folks still love them:

http://www.cosworthvega.com/

Some folks still hate them:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10139923/

I thought they were cute and sporty, but then I was fond of the Plymouth Cricket too. I was lucky to grow up with interesting cars. Now, they look, as my brother says, "like a bunch of pills and sneakers."

Pills and sneakers!

That's just a perfect description!

It's what happens when safety and economy are the primary drivers. Even then, one has to wonder...

I'm glad I experienced my first two cars. The Vega name was cool --still think it's cool.

Why not talk about ones favorite cars? What did you drive and really enjoy?

The second one I really liked --and still wish I had, was amazingly a 78' Chevette. Yeah, I know horrible cars. But, if you modify the Chevette, you end up with a great handling car that got gas mileage above 30 MPG in most conditions!

(I averaged 32-35 in that car regularly in the 80's)

The mod was: rear end gear ratio change. On the 4 gear trannie, this put the top speed of the car at about 120 MPH (compared to the almost blowing it up 85 or so with the stock gear set), and most importantly put the high efficiency rpm and throttle opening conditions right at key speeds.

(this particular thing, many car makers still get wrong and I don't know why)

There is a place on most engines, particularly those with carbs, where one is running at a fairly low RPM (high gear) with a high speed for that amount of fuel. Essentially, one just touches the gas, and keeps the vehicle moving nicely under most load conditions. A quick up shift for hills sometimes is necessary, but that's really the only problem.

This condition, along with a CAM that delivers a no-ping high torque engine motion, is very efficient overall. Even fairly old cars will perform very well when it happens.

(this is how I drive my Toyota most times and it will regularly exceed 40 MPG.)

Engine is also very quiet at this point.

Anyway, the Chevette I bought was modified in the rear end, and it completely changed the car. There were two engine models too. One low torque one (which was just horrible) and a higher torque one that had very good low end performance.

In town driving was an excellent experience. Shift once and you are at cruising speed for everything under 35. Another shift was optional for speeds 35 to 45 if you wanted efficiency.

On that 4 speed, shifts were at 25 (very high for first gear), 45 and 65. Very nice for Oregon roads, and the least tiring manual combination I ever drove.

Most cars will shift at those points, but one is near the upper end of the RPM range. On this car, that was a nice shift at somewhere around 3K, often a bit less.

Pushing it meant being able to shift at a little over 30, nearly 50 and finally at almost 80!

Those ratios cut the number of shifts in half, without significantly impacting the overall car performance.

The only loser was heavy load startups, and one just does not put heavy loads on a Chevette, so it's all a wash. The higher speed handling on those cars was actually really great. As shipped though, nobody got to experience it. Bizzare.

(sorry for long one, but I gotta talk about a friends Camaro! too)

We modified his Camaro to hold a V8 engine. Was a 350 or bigger --can't seem to remember...

Anyway, it had a three speed automatic. After the engine and torque converter mods, this car was simply amazing! Shift from the starting gear to the next gear could happen at about 60! The shift from second gear to the running gear could happen at about 100 or so, probably higher, but we never found out.

So, shifting was completely optional in that car for nearly all road conditions! Fuel economy was not good, but man! The performance and handling was off the charts! Not having to shift period gave the driver some serious advantages!

I've had some of the best drives ever in that car, on back country roads with lots of interesting turns, dips and straights! Never felt anything like it since.

When racing with friends, or just out exercising the cars (ahem), that one was at the top always. Nobody else even came close! 0 to 60 was in the 6 second range with no shift period.

I suspect Dark would just love that car. Was a nice metallic blue with gold accents, black interior, plush seats, with the on the floor shift mod, handling kit and air shocks.

Sorry, but American made cars are inferior in and out and out and all the way around. I'll stick to the German engineering myself.

No worries there! Frankly, I agree.

Just relating some great driving experiences, that's all.

Has nothing to do with the better car, and everything with experiencing driving and cars in fun and creative ways.

Those were some of the best experiences, despite having driven better (a lot better) cars later on.

I'm shocked, SHOCKED, that nobody's mentioned Saturday's comic 'Pearls Before Swine':

Pig: What are you reading?

Mouse: The classifieds. I'm looking for a used car. This Chevy Vega looks cheap.

Pig: Oh, those cars are the BEST...you can do whatever you want in them and not worry about a thing.

Mouse: Why do you say that?

Pig: What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

Pig (now all alone and beat up): Maybe I got that wrong.



Bada Bing!