1967 Chevrolet Camaro SS 350 - Archived Instrumented Test - Car and Driver (blog)
Chevrolet sent us a French-English dictionary which defined "camaro" as a little-known colloquialism meaning "comrade" or "pal. " The word was so little-known that none of our French friends had ever heard of it. Sounds Spanish, they said, so we tried a Spanish-English dictionary. "Camaro" is defined as a gratuity, a shrimp or something very much like something else. Chevrolet seemed to sleep for two years while Ford racked up Mustang-sales by the millions. Now the Camaro is here, and whether it's gratuity, shrimp, pal, comrade or very much like the Mustang, Chevrolet must have decided it was better late than never. The mystery is why it took Chevrolet so long to launch a car in the animal name market. While Ford's Falcon and Plymouth's Valiant burned up the sensible-transportation market, Chevrolet fiddled with the Chevy II. By the time the Chevy II was ready, Chevrolet had inadvertently created a whole new market—the enthusiasts were accepting... Chevrolet failed to capitalize on this, and Ford again stole the thunder—this time with the sporty Mustang. As a sporty car, the Corvair was a cul de sac. Chevrolet took great pains to make it the best-handling sedan in America only to discover that potential buyers were more interested in looks and power. Source: www.caranddriver.com
