*Those guys at Nat Geo took the video down after being on YouTube for almost five years. If another one comes up, featuring either the 5th- or the 6th-gen Camaro, you can bet we’ll feature it!
Looking back over these last six model years, everyone here at GM EFI is proud of the 5th-Gen Camaro; what it’s accomplished, the standards that it had set, and the bar that will inevitably be raised for the next generation. For the first time in a very long time, the Camaro can hold up its head high as the best-selling pony/musclecar on the market, and there aren’t any stigmas or stereotypes attached.
Now that we’re quickly approaching 2016 with a new Camaro just over the horizon, we found it ironic that Nat Geo recently posted this documentary depicting how the 2010 Camaro was built; from start to finish, covering all of the key steps along the way.
Starting from the Stamping Plant, where the Camaro’s body panels are cut and shaped, to Paint, Trim, and Chassis, to the the Final Assembly process where the car is cosmetically and mechanically overviewed, emissions tested, and essentially pressure-washed to check for leaks in any of its numerous seals. As a result, we get a peek of what it’s like to build a car from scratch!
We also get a peek inside the Saint Catherine engine assembly, as a base model Camaro’s V6 engine gets assembled before being shipped to Oshawa. Not only does the engine’s hard parts come together, but each component all the way down to the crankshaft does as well.
While we would have preferred to watch an LS3 come to fruition, it’s just as neat seeing the 304 hp DOHC V6 base engine become the heart of a Camaro, too. However, once back at the vehicle Assembly Plant, an LS3 is depicted.
There are a few flubs with the narration along the way, however, like when the narrator mentions the fact that the V6 is a “musclecar engine that sends 304 hp to the wheels,” and then the camera cuts to a closeup of the front wheels to a Camaro SS. Or when a line worker is clearly loading an LS3 V8 onto an engine cradle, and the narrator depicts it as a V6. You’ll have that, though.
With production of the Camaro being moved from Oshawa in Canada to the Lansing, Michigan assembly plant, you can bet that the next Camaro will be built with the same pride, dedication, and care that the 5th-Gen car was.
Rick Seitz is the owner and founder of GMEFI Magazine, and has a true love and passion for all vehicles. When he isn’t tuning, testing, or competing with the brand’s current crop of project vehicles, he’s busy tinkering and planning the next modifications for his own cars.
