After a successful Debut Year of selling over 200,000 Camaro's in 1967, 1968 would be a year of Refinement and Evolutionary change. Chevrolet picked the French word "Camaro" for good reason. The companies name, "Chevrolet", was also French and "Camaro" meant "comrade", friend", "buddy" or "pal". Seemed fitting for a car that was received so well. Chevrolet tried to keep external changes to a minimum (after all, why mess with a good thing?) but, the "wind wings" (smokers ashtray) had to go. Astro Ventilation and Fresh Air Outlets under the dash were added....while the Feds mandated Side Marker Lights on all models. The VIN Plate would be moved from the door jamb to the top of the dash. Rectangular Turn Signals replaced the Round Ones and, the famous "Houndstooth" Cloth Upholstery was introduced for the very first time. Interior colors would be reduced from eight to 6, while you could still choose between "Standard" or "Deluxe" Interiors. Camaro's would also get rectangular mirror's instead of round ones. Rally Wheel caps would go to the "Top Hat Turbine" Style instead of Flat caps. Chevrolet would finally deal with "axle hop" by instituting Staggered Shocks on the rear of all Camaro's. While the Performance Motor Models also got Multi-Leaf Springs. Camaro was linked in advertising for the first time to Chevrolet's Performance Image. One campaign touted the Camaro directly with the Corvette by stating ".... Closest Thing to a Corvette yet". They also nicknamed the car "The Hugger", for the very first time (not a 1969 exclusive), claiming.... "It hugs the road with the best of them". Mark Donahue won 8 S.C.C.A. Races back to back in 1968 and finished the year by winning The Manufacturers Title in the Trans Am Series. He also took the Continental Divide Race in Seattle (followed closely by an AMX). The Camaro's Second Home was on the dragstrip where it won B/Stock class driven by Ben Wenzel. Ben won the Nationals and pocketed an amazing $4,000 for his trouble. One can quickly see, after 235,151 units sold why this First Generation Camaro is still America's Number One, Most Popular Collector car.

Nice little history lesson for a Saturday morning... :thumbsup:

Nice little history lesson for a Saturday morning... :thumbsup:

FoSho!!

the first name for the camaro, in the earlier stages of development, was to be "panther."

doesnt quite have the same ring to it, does it?

dave

so what does chevrolet mean in french?

http://www.britannica.com/bcom/images/ebol04_art_ea.gif (http://www.britannica.com/memberlogin)http://www.britannica.com/bcom/images/dot.gifhttp://www.britannica.com/bcom/images/ebol04_art_grey_bullet.gifhttp://www.britannica.com/bcom/images/dot.gifhttp://www.britannica.com/bcom/images/ebol04_art_ca.gif (http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9023912#cite)
Louis Chevrolet
born Dec. 25, 1878, La Chaux de Fonds, Neuchâtel, Switz.
died June 6, 1941, Detroit



automobile designer and racer whose name is borne by the Chevrolet Division of General Motors Corporation, an enterprise from which he derived little profit and of which he was a minor employee in the last years of his life.

He emigrated to the United States from France in 1900. Five years later, in his first automobile…

Taken from: www.holisticpage.com

As the launch date neared, the car still had no name. It had been called various names by GM and the press, including Nova, Panther, Chaparral, and Wildcat (later used by Buick.) It is rumored that Chevy also considered using the letters "GM" in the name, and came up with G-Mini, which evolved into GeMini, and finally Gemini. General Motors Headquarters supposedly killed that name, because they didn't want the letters "GM" used in case the car was a failure. This pre-release car bears "Chaparral" name.

Finally, the car was introduced to the press as the Camaro, considered to be a good name because nobody knew what it meant. Chevrolet produced an old French dictionary showing that the word meant "friend" or "companion", but Ford found an alternate meaning in an old Spanish dictionary-"a small, shrimp-like creature."The automotive press had a good laugh over that, and an even bigger one when one journalist found yet another meaning-"loose bowels." It didn't take long for the laughter to stop after the introduction of the stunning 1967 Camaro!

Isnt the Nova name actually an anagram? At least from what Ive always heard/read:

Nova Omega Ventura Apollo, based on the popular space programs during that era.

May be completely wrong on that

I have read somewhere that a particular (well known) car model absolutely bombed in the asian market because what the name translated into there was, well, unsavory. Cant remember which one it was, maybe someone here knows something about it.

dave

Isnt the Nova name actually an anagram? At least from what Ive always heard/read:

Nova Omega Ventura Apollo, based on the popular space programs during that era.

May be completely wrong on that

I have read somewhere that a particular (well known) car model absolutely bombed in the asian market because what the name translated into there was, well, unsavory. Cant remember which one it was, maybe someone here knows something about it.

dave

http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp

NOVA's never sold well south of the border since nova in spanish means
"no go" Next spanish lesson starts tomorrow.

The Panther name amost made it and emblems were made for the car only to be changed to Camaro at the last minute.

NOVA's never sold well south of the border since nova in spanish means
"no go" Next spanish lesson starts tomorrow.

You didn't read the snopes link did you? :D