Chevrolet Bel Air Reviews

A hotrod Camaro is now being developed to go head-to-head with the Ford Mustang GT500, promising a return of the classic Z28 badge in 2012. Chevrolet is finalising testing of the born-again Z28, right down to running it against the GT500, and the car is caught by Carparazzi during the trails. There is predictable camouflage, but not enough to disguise the much- larger air intake in the nose and a pronounced lip spoiler. There are also giant 20-inch alloy wheels and brakes that could have come from the Cadillac CTS-V. The rear end reveals a set of dual pipes on either side of the car and Carparazzi photographers report a thunderous Nascar-style exhaust note. There are also potential mounting points for a rear spoiler. The car will be powered by a supercharged 6.2-litre V8 and the test car is running an automatic gearbox. The final result for the Z28 is likely to be similar to the Transformers Camaro displayed on the American motor show circuit last year, although GM's engineers are having some of their own fun with a Nascar-style number 2 on the side. The Z28 is likely to be revealed at the Detroit Motor Show in January for American sales, headlining a mildly facelifted 2011 Camaro range, in the first half of next year.

Marcos Ambrose improved 22 positions in his latest Sprint Cup start in the USA, finishing 15th after starting 37th at the high-speed Michigan International Speedway. His Toyota Camry faded again at the end of the race, after he ran as high as fifth, as Kevin Harvick won the Nascar round for Chevrolet.Ben Barker is the new leader in the Australian Formula 3 championship after two wins from three starts on the Shannons Nationals program at Morgan Park in Queensland last weekend. At the same event,Matt Kingsley stretched his advantage in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge with his ninth straight win, while James Sera cut Darren Hossack's points lead in the Australian Sports Sedan championship after his rival blew an engine in his Audi and failed to score.The new-look Holden Commodore, the VEII, will hit the track at Phillip Island at the end of September. The body changes on the new model - which are relatively minor - will be reflected in the V8 Supercsr to be raced by the Holden Racing Team, TeamVodafone and Paul Morris Motorsport.A hospital visit has put Jason Crump back on track in the World Speedway Championship. The Australia flat-track racer had a damaged arm repaired three weeks ago and bounced back with second place at his latest event, the Scandinavian Speedway Grand Prix in Sweden.Bruce Garland and Harry Suzuki took a hard-fought second place in the Asia Cross-Country Rally in Thailand after a massive struggle against rivals and the weather.The Isuzu D-Max crew were denied a final shot at victory because of flooding on the course but are still happy with the result as they prepare for the Australian Safari in Western Australia from September 17 and then the Dakar Rally in Argentina and Chile in January, 2011.A lack of support and time has forced the postponement of the CAMS CARnival event planning for the first week of October. The Euchua-Moama based event, intended as a celebration of all areas of motorsport and motoring, will now be run in the second half of 2011.

It's not confirmed by Fishermans Bend, and it's not hitting until the middle of next year at the earliest, but it's definitely Holden's next small car. Actually, it's one of two Holden small cars as the company plans to have a Barina and a Spark to help combat the growing threat from cheap Chinese imports. This Barina, caught by Carparazzi, is actually a Chevrolet Aveo prototype. But, as Holden said at the Detroit Motor Show earlier this year, the Aveo is the Barina. Detroit was the scene for the unveiling of the Aveo RS concept car, a thinly disguised production car, and it's likely the bodywork under the test-car cladding caught by Carparazzi is very similar. The Aveo is testing in the USA which explains why a wild turkey feather is attached to the car's antenna in one of the pictures. The Barina is built on General Motors' latest global mechanical platform, called Gamma II, and there are expected to be both five-door hatch and four-door sedan body styles. A 1.4-litre engine will be the basic powerplant. The Aveo goes into production in the USA at GM's Orion Township factory at the beginning of 2011, which points to Holden production at Daewoo in Korea around the middle of the year for local deliveries in the second half of next year.

His love of colour and painting on vehicles has since taken him to great heights ranging from a multitude of street machines to royal carriages for the Queen. Today he will unveil his latest creation, exclusively revealed here in Carsguide today, a 1969 Chev Camaro that finally achieves his ultimate dream."Ever since I was 17 I've always wanted a candy-apple red car... and now I've got one," he says. But it's not just any red machine. There's 15 coats of paint on it, a silver base topped with a red transparent dye creating an exquisite depth of colour rarely seen on a car. "It looks like a toffee apple," he says.He estimates the custom machine cost $150,000 to build, with the paint job alone taking $50,000 of the money.Webb's Camaro is one of eight never-before seen cars and three custom bikes to be unveiled at the 10th annual MotorEx show at the Sydney Showgrounds at Homebush Bay this morning (Saturday).The 11 inauguration vehicles, the ultimate in custom machine presentation in Australia, headline a show featuring more than 400 cars ranging from the Meguiars superstars (65 custom show cars) to the street elite (custom cars that can be driven on the road) to muscle cars, classics and bikes.Webb is the show organiser, a key judge of the various categories, and the bloke who came up with the whole idea years ago. He says the inauguration cars at this year's show are top shelf."I would think this year will be the best. There's quite a variety of hot rods, street machines and hi-tech tuners."This year's show features many past winners of the various categories, returning for the first time to mark the 10th anniversary. Normally the winners are not allowed to re-enter. For many of the exhibitors and thousands of car fans at the show over this weekend it's all about the cars.But Webb says the paint job is just as vital as the machine. So much so that he says he could make the most humble of cars sexy with the right paint job. When he bought his Camaro three years ago it was halfway through restoration project. But Webb cast all that aside and stripped it back to bare metal to begin his work."It is all about the preparation," he says. He applied four coats of silver, six coats of red and three coats of clear before it was rubbed down and then a final two coats of clear to his Camaro. Underneath the car it's a more practical Satin Galaxy Grey colour as he may drive it after the show.Webb started his career as an apprentice spray painter in Bowral at 17. Since then he has created many masterpieces. "That's been my life, the paint," he says. Back in the 1980s he painted the royal carriage presented to the Queen by Australia to mark the occasion of the Australian Bicentennial in royal claret and black. He is working on a similiar project now.The Camaro is his fifth elite level show car and he still owns three of them. Over the past 35 years he has been involved in painting hundreds of cars. He also helps apprentices and people new to the work by assisting at TAFE. As Australia's top show car judge he travels Australia and overseas to judge at various car shows.This year's MotorEx show is bigger than before, taking up much more room across the Showgrounds. Apart from the rows of chrome and polish there's also the Shannon's classic car and memorabilia auction at the show tomorrow afternoon and a freestyle motocross show.

WILL Power and Ryan Briscoe will start second and eighth in this year's Indianapolis 500. The Team Penkse pair were not able to match   their team-mate Helio Castroneves, who took pole position, and Briscoe actually dropped from fourth in the provisional running by taking a second shot at the top spot.CHAD Reed returned to the top of American motocross with victory in the first round of the outdoor championship following an injury-  plagued season in the supercross series earlier this year. Reed rode his Monster Kawasaki to an easy win at Sacramento in California, leading from start to finish.CHRIS Atkinson has a onfirmed start in the IRC rally series - second only to the world championship - with Proton as part of the deal which sees him chasing the Asia-Pacific championship with the Malaysian maker. His first IRC start is in the Ypres Rally, an all-bitumen event   in Belgium next month, following an engine problem that took him out of contention in Rally Japan last weekend.DAVID Brabham has scored another big win in the ALMS sports car series in the USA, taking victory in a six-hour race at Laguna Seca in California. Brabham shared his Honda racer with Simon Pagenaud and Marino Franchitti and they had to drive from last to first after a   technical penalty.JASON Crump has dropped to fourth in the World Speedway Championship rankings after a mediocre meeting in Prague last weekend. The defending champion was only eighth on the night and admits to feeling "out of form" with his riding.MARCOS Ambrose finished a pacey fifth in the showdown race ahead of the Nascar All-Star race last weekend but is still only 28th in the Sprint Cup standings. He finish was not good enough to win a transfer place in the main event, as only the top two drivers from the showdown were promoted to the All-Star even won by Kurt Busch.AUDI swept the latest round of the German Touring Car championship series at Valencia in Spain, with Mattias Ekstrom winning from Bruno Spengler in a Mercedes. Martin Tomczyk was originally second in an Audi but was excluded when his team made a mistake on tyres.YVAN Muller continues to lead the World Touring Car championship after another win with Chevrolet at Monza in Italy. The Frenchman is confirmed for the Gold Coast 600 international later this year with Andy Priaulx, who is fourth in the WTCC pointscore after Monza, will also jump into a V8 Supercar.

V8 SUPERCARS (After round 3/15)1 Jamie Whincup (Holden)  7712 Mark Winterbottom (Ford)  7143 James Courtney (Ford)  6964 Shane van Gisbergen (Ford)  6305 Lee Holdsworth (Holden)  5736 Craig Lowndes (Holden)  5527 Rick Kelly (Holden)  5308 Paul Dumbrell (Holden)  4899 Michael Caruso (Holden)  46210 Steven Johnson (Ford)  455(Next race, April 16-18, Hamilton, NZ)FORMULA ONE(After Melbourne, round 2/19)1 Fernando Alonso (Spain)  372 Felipe Massa (Brazil)  333 Jenson Button (UK)  314 Lewis Hamilton (UK)  235 Nico Rosberg (Germany)  206 Robert Kubica (???)  187 Sebastian Vettel (Germany)  128 Michael Schumacher (Germany)  99 Tonio Liuzzi (Italy)  810 Mark Webber (Aust)  6(Next race: April 4, Malaysia)NASCAR SPRINT CUP(After race 6 of 36)1 Jimmie Johnson (Chev)  8982 Greg Biffle (Ford)  8843 Matt Kenseth (Ford)  8824 Kevin Harvick (Chev)  8375 Jeff Burton (Chev)  7856 Kurt Bursch (Dodge)  7767 Jeff Gordon (Chev)  7738 Tony Stewart (Chev)  7709 Clint Boyer (Chev)  74710 Dale Earnhardt (Chev)  73929 Marcos Ambrose (Toyota)  543(Next race: April 10, Phoneix)WORLD RALLY(After Mexico, round 2/13)1 S#aacebastien Loeb (Fra) Citro#adien  432 Mikko Hirvonen (Fin) Focus  373 Jari-Matti Latvala (Fin) Focus  254 S#aacebastien Ogier (Fra) Citro#adien  255 Petter Solberg (Nor) Citro#adien  206 Henning Solberg (Nor) Focus  167 Daniel Sordo (Spn) Citro#adien  128 Matthew Wilson (UK) Focus  68 Frederico Villagra (Arg) Focus  610 Mads Ostberg (Nor) Impreza  4(Next rally: April 4, Jordon)WORLD SUPERBIKES(after Portugal, round 2/13)1 Leon Haslam (UK)  852 Max Biaggi (Italy)  693 Carlos Checa (Spain)  604 Michel Fabrizio (Italy)  465 Nori Haga (Japan)  436 Jonathan Rea (UK)  397 Sylvain Guintoli (France)  338 Leon Camier (UK)  329 Troy Corser  (Aus)  2910 James Toseland (UK))  25(Next race, April 11, Valencia)Australian MX(After Horsham, round 1/8)1 PJ Larsen (KTM)  602 Ryan Marmont (KTM)  562 Kirk Gibbs (Yamaha)  564 Cody Mackie (Kawasaki)  555 Michael Phillips (Honda)  436 Luke George (Kawasaki)  407 Daryl King (Yamaha)  388 Luke Styke (Yamaha)  379 Kade Mosig (Suzuki)  3510 Brendan Harrison (Yamaha)  34(Next race, April 18, Canberra)

However, be prepared to dig deep for the privilege of owning the Porsche-killing American supercar.  The ZR1 will cost around $300,000, more than double its North American price.Peter Whiston, who owns the Bundoora-based conversion company Corvette Clinic, plans to use the sleek American musclecar as his own personal transport but if anyone wants one he is prepared to do more. Whiston's company has 30-years experience converting the sportscars. It has a solid business with the C6 Corvette and Whiston believes the supercharged ZR1 could attract a small following. But he makes no apologies for ZR1's high price."There's a lot of local engineering input into the car," he says. Corvette Clinic even sources the leather dashboard material from the same orginal US supplier to Chevrolet. "We love Corvettes, and to be able to have this car - the first right hand drive example in the world - is a real thrill," he says.The company is the only Australian operations with the compliance paperwork to work on the ZR1. "We don't make a big song and dance about what we do, but we really are proud of our work," Whiston says.Although the ZR1 is based on the C6, the small operation faced many challenges to overcome. "The interior and dash is the most obvious and visual area of any conversion, and the ZR1's interior and leather-wrapped dash are unique," Whiston says.Whiston says GM in the US has been on board with the project from the start and even Bob Lutz - former chairman and product tzar - gave the local team the thumbs up. So impressed were GM officials that they say the car could have come straight from the US factory.The 476kW/819Nm supercharged and intercooled 6.2-litre V8 is mated to a six-speed manual gearbox, which pushes the powerhouse to 100km/h in less than 3.4 seconds and on to a top speed of 330km/h. It bristles with state-of-the-art technology, including carbon-fibre mudguards, roof and bonnet to save weight.The high-performance Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes are among the best-performing stoppers fitted to any production car in the world. The suspension has also been tuned to match the huge 19-inch front and 20-inch rear wheels and tyres. The aluminium V8 is hand-assembled using heavy duty, lightweight componentry and is fitted with the latest intercooled Roots-type supercharger. The close-ratio six-speed manual transmission has been upgraded to handle the power and torque.The ZR1 shares its Magnetic Ride Control with other GM products, including the local HSV GTS. Inside the "dual-cockpit"  design features include lightweight, heated, electric leather seats, along with head-up display, navigation system and Bose sound system. Safety equipment includes a full suite of airbags, traction control and active damping system."The Corvette is such an iconic vehicle that there always seems to be a demand for cars and conversions," Whiston says.

WILL Power is the leader of this year's IndyCar World Series after a first-up win at the season opener in Brazil as he begins his full-time career with Penske Racing. The only other Australian in the field, his Penske teammate Ryan Briscoe, was 14th.THE Formula One world championship will grow to 20 races next season when India joins the schedule. This year's title is decided over 19 races, with Korea as the series newcomer.STEVE Owen swept the Fujitsu V8 Supercar races in Adelaide last weekend, but is unlikely to race again for the rest of the season. He is committed to TeamVodafone for the main-game endurance races.COMEBACK racer Andrew Meidecke upset the aces with two wins in the Supercar Masters races in Adelaide to take the championship lead in his Chevrolet Camaro. He is just ahead of Jim Richards with defending champ Gavin Bullas in third.DAVID Sieders is the early leader of this year's V8 Ute racing series after three races in Adelaide last weekend, ahead of Andrew Fisher and Jack Elsegood.STEPHEN Bell is the new Victorian sprintcar champion after a hard-fought victory at Premier Speedway in Warrnambool. John Vogels still leads the Eureka Garages series.WORLD touring car champ Yvan Muller is expected to partner Greg Murphy in the Phillip Island and Bathurst endurance races this year. The Frenchman, who co-drove with Craig Lowndes at Triple Eight, first needs to clear a date clash with his Chevy drive.

That same 1932 Chev truck is still part of the Powe family business is shining again after a decade-long restoration that has seen it returned to its original glory.  "Our grandfather bought the truck new when he used it for transporting goods for the Heinz food company," Stephen Powe, who along with his brothers Darin and Paul have overseen the restoration project, says."Around the same time he had a chook farm out here (at Oakville outside Sydney) and he moved the operation out to that in about 1933. It was just too much travel to be driving into town every day and then doing the carting business."  The old Chevvy was decommissioned as a road vehicle almost 45 years ago but it had not been enjoying a quiet retirement until just on a decade ago when it was driven into a shed and the restoration project begun."When we started the restoration about 10 years ago she was still a runner being used around the farm for this and that," Powe explains. "It was pulled off rego in 1965 because it had cable brakes but we kept using it around the farm, just moving stuff around, right up to when we started restoring her.  I used to belt her around the paddocks carting peat moss when I was about 16 ... she got plenty of use."The original 194 cubic inch (3.2-litre) straight six engine in the truck was the first mass-produced six-cylinder engine from General Motors and featured overhead valves and, from the 1932 production, a balanced forged steel crankshaft.  Up until 1932 the engine was good for 50hp (37kW) but that was boosted to 60hp (45kw) when a 5.2:1 compression ratio was introduced along with a four-speed gearbox.The Powe family, now producing mushrooms and mushroom compost at the original chook farm at Oakville, are looking forward to the old truck's second coming.   "We are not doing it (the restoration) personally but we have a good mob looking after it," Powe says. "She's now got a rebuild of the original wooden tray and is not far off being finished ... there's just a bit of electrical wiring needed to complete the job."The cab, the diff, the engine and the gearbox are all the originals.  We actually had a bit of trouble getting the wood for the tray right and in the end we had to get a carriange builder in because there is a mix of wood and metal.  She still has the full intrumentation  oil pressure, voltmeter ... the only thing she doesn't have is a tacho."

This is the car GM Holden developed, but won't sell you: the Camaro. Work to revive the famous badge was done in Australia by Holden's engineers. Strip away the Detroit muscle and underneath is a Commodore skeleton.When Holden designed the Commodore fundamentals it made them flexible enough to be the starting point for a whole range of large, rear-wheel-drive cars. In the giant that General Motors used to be, there were no end of possibilities.However, GM could see the traffic lights changing ahead and didn't know whether to accelerate or brake. It ended up doing both, but before other projects could get traction, ran out of money. Apart from a few Commodores rebadged as Pontiacs, the Chevrolet Camaro is the sole result.It went on sale stateside a year ago and enthusiasts here were left holding their breath. The Camaro has a special place in Australia's racing history as a two-time winner of the touring car championship in the early 1970s, driven by Bob Jane. Kevin Bartlett twice put the car on pole at Bathurst.Since Holden has no plans to revive the Monaro again, would the US coupe be available in right-hand drive?  On more than one occasion, GM has encouraged the idea. But thanks to the global financial crisis, accountants are calling the tune and the lyrics go: "You say Ca-maa-ro, I say Ca-mair-o . . . let's call the whole thing off.'' For a tiny market such as Australia, the numbers don't add up.So if you want one, the only option for the foreseeable future is to buy a local conversion of a left-hand drive import. Performax International, based on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, claims to be first to complete the task. It has already converted a few cars and is taking orders for more, with a price of $135,000 on a top-of-the-range V8.At the Lakeside Raceway north of Brisbane last week the results were on show. There was time to examine Performax's handiwork and drive a few laps of the track.  The Camaro is GM's pitch to US revheads and competes against the Ford Mustang and Dodge Challenger.Their shapes are all modern versions of the 1960s muscle car classics and the Camaro is one of the more successful, with a low-slung cabin, pronounced haunches and huge 20-inch wheels. The engine will be familiar to HSV owners: GM's 6.2-litre LS3 V8, with 318kW in the six-speed manual Camaro.It delivers a perfect muscle-car soundtrack -- a laid-back rumble that makes acceleration seem effortless. Compared to an HSV, the Camaro V8 has about 130kg less weight to move.It's shorter and wider too, and feels nicely balanced through corners. Racetracks can make the firmest suspensions feel soft, but the chassis benefits from the solid fundamentals of the donor Commodore. It's not as crisp, perhaps, as an HSV GTS but tight and enjoyable. The hardest thing to live with would be the spongy brake pedal.The cabin owes nothing to the Holden sedan and feels half a notch above it for desirability, but no more. Body-coloured trim panels line the doors in a nod to the 1960s while the seats, wheel and gearshift are nicely judged.  The centre console controls are simple and clear, even if the obligatory extra dials are set absurdly low.Best, though, is that the cabin seems neat and seems to have lost nothing in the conversion. Performax claims to have perfection as its goal and even these early cars had a neatness that could have almost rolled off an assembly line.Company co-founder Greg Waters believes the results are a pay-off from investment in new technology that changed the way the company tackles each job. Crucial to the process now is a three-dimensional scanner that inputs all the bits that need flipping into a computer program. Then a three-dimensional printer generates a usable part in plastic. If it works, it's used as a pattern to mould as many as they need.Performax says it's the only conversion company using the system and with 200 finished vehicles a year, it's also the largest. Sports cars such as the Camaro, Corvette and Mustang are the headline acts and Performax imported H2 Hummers when they were popular a few years ago. But its bread and butter are large pick-ups such as the Chevrolet Silverado or GMC Sierra.There's a small but resilient market for these American staples here, as Ford discovered when it brought in its large F-series trucks a few years ago. In a good year, Ford sold about 2000 F250s, but the range was discontinued in 2007.Waters says businesses and recreational users will pay a premium for the extra hauling ability these vehicles offer. "Our target market is older people or businesspeople who are buying Chevy trucks to tow their big caravan or fishing boat,'' he explains.Waters thinks the company will find buyers for about 60 Camaros over the next two years and most of them will be older too, thanks mainly to the price. "Not many young people can write out a $130,000 cheque for a car.'' It's certainly a lot to pay for a model that costs $US34,000 ($38,000) in the US, but Waters and his team are only partly to blame. Regulations require imports to be new, which means they incur US sales taxes. Performax has to buy through a US agent rather than direct from dealers, so there's a commission to pay. Then there's shipping costs of about $4000 a car, the Australian import tariff of 5 per cent, GST and the luxury car tax. It quickly adds up.It also sounds like a tricky operation with a lot of fraught paperwork, and I wonder how it got started. Waters says it began 20 years ago after he and mate Brian Learoyd went backpacking to the US with the aim of buying a car."Brian and myself pooled our resources and bought a Corvette in the States and shipped it home. Our intention was to get it converted,'' he says. When they saw what conversion companies were doing, they decided to have a go themselves. Then they did a couple more cars to recoup the administration costs. Before long it had gone beyond a hobby."Every time we did a conversion, we enjoyed it and made something out of it. So we said, let's get fair dinkum about it and chase the work.''The paperwork is still challenging, Water says. Performax is allowed to convert up to 200 examples of one model each year under two different low-volume import schemes.  The cars are not required to undergo complete testing here as long as the overseas standards are recognised in Australia.Corvettes are the most difficult to convert and the job is getting harder due to the increasing complexity of electronics, Waters says. Although there's never been a car they couldn't do. The 3D printer has allowed the company to expand but it's now thinking about the next step. To help it move more mainstream it has recruited Glenn Soper, formerly with Renault and Bentley, as general manager.Soper says Performax could tackle more models, such as Ford F-series pick-ups, and increase sales by stepping through all the regulatory hoops.  "We're looking at full-volume compliance on particular models, which means we can do as many as we want,'' he says.The workshop is already expanding and Soper says a presence in other states is also on the agenda. "Melbourne is definitely on the cards and Western Australia would be a priority,'' he says.Having well-established rivals in Victoria means it won't be easy, but Soper believes the Performax approach gives it an edge.  And once there are a few Camaros running around our roads, that will be a very visible edge indeed.CHEVROLET CAMAROVehicle: Performance coupeEngine: 6.2-litre V8Outputs: 318kW at 5000rpm and 553Nm at 4500rpmTransmission: Six-speed manual, rear-wheel drivePrice: $135,000 plus on-road costsOn sale: Now