Gene Stefanyshyn (the last name rhymes with definition) remembers all too well "the call."
It was June, 2005, and on the phone was Bob Lutz, then General Motors' vice-chairman for product development — the big product boss, in other words. Lutz had a simple question: "Can you do a Camaro?"
Stefanyshyn, who grew up in Oshawa the son of Ukrainian parents who immigrated to Canada looking for a better life, could barely contain himself.
"My eyes got this big," he says. After all, his very own first car was the 1975 Camaro he bought brand new at the insistence of his father. Stefanyshyn paid for it with money he earned working the assembly line full-time while finishing high school in Oshawa, Ont. "That car got me through engineering school," he says.
Stefanyshyn not only got his engineering degree, but also one in management and now he's in charge of developing GM's global rear-wheel cars. He looks after not just the Camaro and the Pontiac G8 and the Holden Commodore in Australia, but also the iconic Chevrolet Corvette.
But it was the Camaro assignment that has resonated most in a career spanning more than two decades.
"When Bob called, I said, 'Yeah, I think we can work on that,'" he says, wryly.
So do the math on this product development. The call came in June, 2005. By that fall, Stefanyshyn's team had whipped up design data and had begun working on the concept car that made its debut in January, 2006, at the Detroit auto show. Now the finished product is rolling off an assembly line in Oshawa and heading into dealer showrooms.
That's an all-new model in three years and nine months, from initial exploratory phone call to real car, one with perhaps the best-executed design in GM history, two engine choices, two transmissions, two suspension tunings and the full range of digital doodads that will allow you to play your iPod, sync your Bluetooth cellphone and even play digital audio files.
Let me tell you, the optional nine-speaker Boston Acoustic sound system can make your ears bleed and the USB port will let you plug in your flash drive with its million songs or so. Heck, there is even wireless streaming for all you early adopters.
"This car was designed in Detroit, engineered in Australia and the U.S., globally validated (to meet regulatory standards in dozens of markets) and assembled in Canada," Stefanyshyn says. "It's a global car."
The V-8? The hottest available setup is the SS manual. That gets you the Tremec TR6060 six-speed manual as your gearbox and the LS3 6.2-litre V-8 borrowed from the base Corvette. (The six-speed automatic has paddle shifters and the sport mode in the automatic gives you clean shifts, too.) This big-dawg version, however, has 426 horsepower and the sport-tuned suspension, too, while the auto box is tamer at 400 hp.
In the SS, if you decouple the standard anti-skid control by holding down the button for five seconds, this is the Camaro that is by far the most tire-smoking fun.
"A serious car," says Stefanyshyn, riding shotgun as we ride through the hills east of San Diego, carving winding roads yet not being punished in the process by a hard, unforgiving chassis. "It handles tremendously, but it rides very, very well. We think we've struck a balance here."
He's not lying. But this new 2010 Camaro is not just for baby boomers anxious to relive their lost youth and real or imagined triumphs and adventures. Yes, you can do that, but Chevrolet types are also hoping that the V-6 will hold some appeal for twenty- and thirtysomethings who are looking for more than a funky little Smart two-seater (70 horsepower) or a Mini Cooper (118 horsepower).
