Part II - The Long, Dark Tunnel As time passed since production has ceased,
it seemed that there was a collective hush in the community as far
as morale and hope.
Beginning with a murmur and increasing in volume as time went on,
the idea to bring over the Holden
achieved great attention. Many considered this the best
possible solution since the Holden Monaro was such a success down
under. It was powerful and had a front mounted engine with rear-wheel-drive.
Most agreed that would make a great replacement and the best
way to continue the Camaro/Firebird into a new generation of performance.
For the first time, an echo was heard back from very far away,
and rumors started to flow in regards to GM bringing the Holden-based
car into the states, but not as a Camaro or a Firebird but as a resurrected
GTO.
However, morale was still low. One of the largest all-Camaro
shows (Camaro
Superfest 2004 in Michigan) was down on attendance by nearly 100
cars. The F-Body Bash in Bowling Green, KY was also very disappointing
in its attendance.
Other vehicle manufacturers continued to push ahead in the performance
vehicle segment, with Ford leading
the headlines with an all new and very well received Mustang. It
was impossible not to to notice that once-hopeful topics in the 5th
Generation and Future Vehicles Discussion forum regarding an f-car
comeback were gradually replaced with topic regarding future Ford
and Daimler-Chrysler products. Many announced their purchases
of Ford products, proving that the threats of not buying GM had actual
merit.
What caused this to happen? Has the lack of a production f-car
been hard enough on enthusiasts to the point where they were really
giving up? GM has not remained exactly silent on this matter,
but also not exactly been forthcoming.
A close friend of CamaroZ28.Com has repeated hundreds of times to
"have faith", but without GM actually giving concrete proof,
some find it quite hard to have any faith, even though careers would
be lost if anything was revealed.
