Cars have gotten to the next level. If you peruse the vehicle market, especially for the 2022 model year, it is astonishing to take a step back and consider how advanced vehicles have gotten in every single respect. From architecture and engineering to safety and entertainment technology, vehicles are better than ever. There was a time when to have a vehicle was a novel concept, but now to own a vehicle is essentially a given, and we so often take for granted all of the astonishing technology our vehicles offer. Think about Chevy’s very first vehicle, the Series C Classic Six. Originally produced in 1911, this vehicle looked its time with its wagon-like body, round headlamps, and tented roof. The Series C Classic Six also offered the performance capabilities of its time with 40 horsepower and a top speed of 65 miles per hour. While these performance specs may have been astonishing then, they are unacceptable by today’s standards. Chevy knows this quite well and is continuing to astonish today with the 2022 Chevy Camaro.
We see a lot of Chevy’s on the road, whether it is a Suburban, Malibu, or Equinox, but we don’t often see Chevy’s excellent sports vehicles on the road. This makes sense, seeing as vehicles of this magnitude are probably not practical for the majority of drivers, but some are enjoying some of the finest driving an automotive has ever offered to date. While we often associate large performance specs with vehicles that are physically larger, such as SUVs or pickups trucks, Chevy proves through its fantastic engineering that this is not so. The Chevrolet Silverado is a vehicle that pushes the performance specs gauge to its limits, but even at that, the 2022 Camaro has the Silverado beat. With a lead of 230 horsepower and 190 lb-ft of torque, the 2022 Camaro comes in at a total of 650 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque (with the ZL1 1LE package). These numbers should blow our minds.
Imagine telling that to the founders of Chevrolet in 1911 when they first produced the Series C Classic Six, which could reach no more than 40 horsepower. The 2022 Camaro exceeds that number by 590 horsepower! All right, all right, you get the idea. But I think that this nicely showcases a key point of Chevrolet’s work over the years––they are a brand dedicated to progress in vehicle production. I’d like to do a little examination of the Chevrolet brand and its dedication to progress by examining some key elements of the company’s history. I’ll try not to move as fast as the 2022 Camaro, but I don’t want to keep you here all day, so I won’t move quite as slowly as the Series C Classic Six either.
The Founder
An interesting point to explore is the fact that Chevrolet’s co-founder and namesake, Louis Chevrolet, was a racer. Think about it. Where an engineer may be interested in producing vehicles that help to optimize day-to-day life through production capabilities, a racer will likely be interested in maximizing performance qualities for the racetrack. And quickly too! Why would you want to delay in finding and inventing the newest automotive performance technologies when you could use them for the benefit of your own craft.
This is not mere surmising; the Series C Classic Six was revolutionary in that it utilized features usually found on high-end and expensive vehicles, such as an electric starter and headlamps, in an affordable vehicle. With a price of $2,150, the Series C Classic Six was accessible to the average buyer, though that still was certainly a pretty penny in 1911. If only those numbers remained today. But, hey, $2,150 only got you 40 horsepower; the 2022 Camaro has a starting MSRP of $25,000–a number which, by the way, is pretty extraordinary for its grade–but you’re getting performance numbers which exceed by hundreds. I would imagine that if Louis Chevrolet could see the fruits of his company in the 2022 Camaro, he would probably be speechless.
The Dedication
Since we are talking so much about the 2022 Camaro, a point I’d like to highlight is that the Camaro was introduced in 1967 with a model that, in the words of the company, “brought great design and affordable performance to younger customers,” thus continuing the company’s dedication to innovation paired with affordability. The Camaro is approaching sixty years on the market. If you consider the number of vehicles across all automotive brands that have been discontinued in a fraction of that time, sixty years is quite an achievement.
In this long-lasting nameplate is the exemplification of the fact that Chevy’s innovation does not exist in abandoning the old and ushering in the new, but in refining the old to make it new…while ushering in the new, too. It is impressive how many Chevy vehicles have been mainstays of the brand for decades and how these vehicles continue to advance and progress to adapt to the newest technology on the market. Chevy is not afraid to give these vehicles radical makeovers, sometimes to the point of completely reimagining them, but the company always builds upon the good that has already been done in its previous models. So, let’s keep our eyes out for what may be up next for the Camaro.
The Future of the Camaro
As the innovative brand that it is, Chevrolet is a leader in the automotive industry. This leadership was exemplified when Chevy produced the Volt, which, at the time, was the world’s first mass-produced electric vehicle with extended range (up to 379 miles!). As we can observe day-by-day, electric vehicles are increasing in popularity and in production, and Chevy wants to be at the heart of that. As such, it looks as though the future of the Camaro will exist in the electric vehicle market, likely beginning in 2024. Little is known yet as to whether or not the vehicle will carry on the Camaro’s name or whether a new vehicle will take the Camaro’s long-lasted place in the lineup. But, the vehicle is sure to be one of the sportiest electric vehicles on the market, and with a brand as dedicated to progress as Chevrolet, you’ll want to be behind the wheel of this vehicle.
The Big Picture
Chevrolet is now 110 years old. That’s an impressive life for any business, but anyone who knows the company’s products knows why they have lasted this long and why they continue to pile up an impressive stack of awards and accolades. Thanks to its founder’s forward-driven mission, its dedication, and its leadership, the company continues to be a true innovator of automotive production. When it comes to the 2022 Camaro, the vehicle performs unlike any other vehicle and offers a much more affordable way of obtaining such performance features than its sibling, the Corvette. Because of the unknown surrounding the upcoming Chevrolet Camaro EV, I would encourage those looking to purchase a traditional Camaro to jump on the 2022 model. Regardless of what comes next with the new EV model, Chevy’s forward-driven mission will continue to refine the foundation that has been laid with the Camaro into excellent vehicles for years to come.
