sunsetz28

iTrader: (1)

I knew it came from a French word, but I didn't know the other meanings.

LawmanSS

iTrader: (19)

As much as I'd like to see a new Chevelle...there's always the risk that they'll ruin the moniker by introducing a pussified version of it like they've already done with the Nova, Malibu (and to some extent, the Impala)!

69_Velle_SS_396

lawman, when u really think about it, the malibu is the chevelle. u remember the old chevelle malibus back in the day... i dont even think that any car made nowadays that resurrects an old musclecar name deserves it, and GM needs 2 get their head outta their *** in the respect.

z28Nemesis

I was watching some episodes of American Muscle Car on Hulu and in the episode they attributed to "SS" reported that Chevrolet named the Camaro after a French word, meaning "Friend, or Comrade" in their words. Now, the French word for Friend is "Ami" but.. the French word for "Comrade" is "Camarade."

StuntmanMike

iTrader: (2)

Well the Corvette is actually a kind of warship. It's smaller than a frigate going back to the sailing ship days, and they used them in WWII for convoy escorts and they actually still make that class of ship.

IIRC the story of how the Chevy Corvette got it's name was the guy tasked with naming it was at a loss, and just started flipping through the dictionary. He stumbled acrros "corvette" and liked it.

88Fbody6L

iTrader: (5)

Interesting read. I learned something new!

LooseMoose

iTrader: (3)

Someone once told me a camaro was a tool trainers used to break wild horses (like mustangs). I liked his definition so much I never questioned it

fastcar

Woaaaa.
Way to dig up the past. Check out the date on this thread guys!

dr_whigham

iTrader: (49)

Not only that, but I think we have a candidate for "Oldest Quoted Post"

9-21-03 = 3-26-11

Marcoz/28

I heard something similar. That camaro was one or two letters off of a different word that meant a life threatening disease that was found in wild horses. Also that gm knew that but in those days didnt want to state it because everyone was a lot nicer then they were today haha

chon79

iTrader: (24)

^**** EP marcoz

The Rare Breed

iTrader: (2)

i goggled where it came from and i read they got camaro from a small animal like a shrimp that can kill a horse

black_phoenix

iTrader: (27)

as far as russian goes, "camaro" has no affiliation with the language... correct me if im wrong

blakez28

iTrader: (6)

"when a member of the automotive press asked, "what is a Camaro?" a Chevrolet product manager quickly answered by saying, "a small, vicious animal that eats Mustangs".

that was their comback after ford tried to say that Camaro meant a small shrimp like animal. even though the mustang rocked that adorable 281 of theirs for years

Robdor4

I'm a P.E. who was born in '67, had a '70 Camaro in H.S.> wanted to know the answer to this question, so I talked to the original engineers. They made up the name and wouldn't tell Chevy (GM) sales guys where it came from, LOL!!

The name came from ancient greek Cheimarrhos χείμαῤῥος from Cheimón χειμών and Rheó ῥέω "overflow" a storm-runlet, winter-torrent, brook "Camaro". The engineers thought the car would "run like a torrent".

The engineer who told me this has passed on, so I don't see any reason to keep the secret any longer.

Doug G

Loose Bowels ????

I do know the Camaro has been known to scare the outta a few LOL

Timmy P

iTrader: (3)

THE NAME
As Late as the Spring of 1966, just a few months before Chevy's Long awaited Mustang Rival was due to debut, it still did not have a name.
"We were in the process of tooling and we nearly completed the car with four different names." relates then- Chevrolet Engineering Director Alex Maier. "We had a whole bunch of names and it was alamost the start of production when we decided to name it Camaro. With the Ford Name being Mustang, I think we had to at least a couple of animal names. Panther was one of them. I think we tooled that. Wildcat was another."
But auto safety advocates were attacking aggressive animal names at the time, "and there was pressure at Chevrolet to use something starting with 'C' Maier continued. "Corvette, Corvair, Chevy II, Chevelle - Almost all of our names did at the time, and that policy had been very successful. Also, even thought it was a sporty car, Chevrolet thought that names should have a good, soft, even femanine sound, not harsh."
Chevrolet employees suggested some 5000 names, none of which seemed suitable, before Assitant General Sales Manager Bob Lund and GM Car and Truck Group Vice President Ed Rollert came up with Camaro. "I wanted to name it Chaparral," says Lund (after the famous Chevy-powered Chaparral Race Cars). "but I wasn't able to do so. I submitted a lot of names and couldn't get any approved. Finally it got to the point where we were desperate. We had to have a name to make the tools.
"One morning Ed Rollert and I got together and went over all the names that had been submitted for consideration. "We had English-French and English-Spanish dictionaries and a copy of Roget's Thesaurus. Finally I found this word "CAMARO", which had kind of a ring, a dramatic sound to it, and I said, "Here's a hell of a name!" I read him the various definitions of it, one of which was very appropriate - friend, warm friend, something of that nature."
Thus Camaro it would be
-Gary Witzenburg
From Camaro, An American Icon, By Gary Witzenburg,
Publications International, LTD. 2009

Timmy P

iTrader: (3)

I Had a customer ask me a while back what it meant and I had to do some searching to find out.

brucebigdaddy

Back in the day, I read somewhere that the word Camaro meant retreat in Italian . Say it ain't so Joe. I owned a 1969 Camaro Z-28 and it was totally awesome. I also owned a Ford Mustang Boss 302 and that was totally awesome as well. They were pretty much equal in terms of performance (Car and Driver did a test between a Z-28 and Boss 302: the results were acceleration and braking were equal, but the Boss was a little better in cornering due to wider tires).

Barron Blake

The word Camaro means (Hey friend) I saw it on how it's made Camaro