Challenger, Camaro: Build or bust?

February 22, 2006 - By John LeBlanc

After seeing Dodge’s Challenger concept from the Detroit auto show last month, have you started putting away your pennies in hopes of a production version?

Or what about Chevrolet’s similarly mind-blowing Camaro concept? Bet all you longtime Chevy faithful can’t wait until the real thing is available so you can go kick some Mustang ass, right?

The Challenger seemed to make its way onto every buff mag cover and pre-Detroit show spy shots of the Camaro were hotter than Paris Hilton home movies. You have to think these two concepts have earned their respective companies their weight in modeling clay in free publicity.

But the question still remains: Will these two modern-day pony-car concepts make it into production?

The Challenger seems like a no-brainer. Chrysler’s SRT gang have a history of doing modern performance cars right. So the production Challenger—as a respectful interpretation of the 1970 original two-door coupe, draped over the very modern Chrysler/Mercedes-Benz rear-drive LX platform stuffed with HEMI power—would not only be cool to be seen in, but also a guaranteed blast to drive. And with no Plymouth Barracuda to contend with this time, the Challenger would be a singularly unique car in Chrysler’s lineup.

And what about the Corvette Lite Camaro? More modern street fighter than all-out retro-mobile, the Camaro brings some serious hardware to the fight courtesy of big-brother Corvette. Right now, the next run down Chevy’s performance ladder from said ‘Vette is the Monte Carlo SS. That doesn’t seem right. And doesn’t Ford’s wildly successful Mustang deserve some natural competition?

If you’re a fan of the pony car genre, then it has to be thumbs way up for both of these auto show stars to graduate to showroom studs.

But before you put your entire Star Wars action figure collection on eBay to raise the deposit for your new 2009 Challenger/Camaro, think about this: Recent history is littered with cars that generated a lot of auto show excitement, only to be euthanized after being put through the grinding process of attempting to make them not only production-ready, but also production-profitable. Ford’s Forty-Nine, Jaguar’s R-Coupe, or Chrysler’s ME4-12 quickly come to mind. If you’re a DaimlerChrysler or General Motors bean counter, there’s plenty of evidence that the chance of these two making it to the next step, into production, are slimmer than the return of the Edsel.

Understandable. Because no carmaker wants another Pontiac Aztek, Lincoln Blackwood, Ford Thunderbird, Chevrolet SSR or Plymouth Prowler. Cars that looked good under the glare of the auto show lights, but were production busts.

To make it more than a show car one-off, Dodge’s Challenger concept has a few, er, challenges before you’ll see it on sale.

Like wasn’t it Dodge who argued at the launch of their four-door Charger last year that the coupe market is dead? Also, Daimler Chrysler is currently at full-capacity building as many LX cars (300, Magnum, Charger) at its Brampton, Ontario plant as they can. The Challenger’s fiscal numbers would have to look pretty good for extra manufacturing facilities to be committed to.

The Camaro concept is even less likely to end up in a showroom near you.

At least the Challenger has a platform ready to go. But The General canned a North American version of their new global rear-drive chassis that would have included a Chevrolet Impala, a Buick sedan and the next Pontiac GTO. Unless internally GM have changed their minds on this decision, or they do a Solstice/Sky and kluge something together from borrowed parts, you won’t be driving a new Camaro any time soon.

Looking at it from more than an enthusiast’s perspective, maybe the question isn’t will these two pony-car concepts make it into production, but should they make it into production.

- John LeBlanc, Publisher, www.straight-six.com

© National Post 2006. This article originally appeared in The National Post's Driving.