Any seasoned racer worth his salt will tell you rules are written to be broken or should I say tested. Half the challenge of racing is figuring out what the other team is doing. In the days of Trans-Am and Can-Am series the rule book was still in the process of being written and as the following story tells us some times it was written by whoever’s check book was the biggest. None the less, it’s clear to see some things never change. As long as there is good old competitive racing someone is going to be looking for that advantage many times being kept behind closed doors.
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When Bob Lutz says “make it so”, it happens. So when Big Bob told the media guys to show off the pre production test mule for the upcoming Camaro, the guys went to work over at GM’s Fast Lane blog. One would guess that Bob sees the importance of showing the car off themselves rather than waiting for the spy photos to get in on the action. I know that I’ve been keeping my eyes on the roads around the Oshawa plant for signs of the car, to no avail so far.

While at SEMA a few friends from Planet Paint steered me to an unveiling that did not receive much coverage but was plenty cool. If you love visiting, watching or buying at the Barrett-Jackson auction and if you were a fan of the great Dale Earnhardt Sr. boy do you have a treat in store.

Richard Childress was on hand to announce that his company, Richard Childress Racing, would be building a limited number of 1969 Camaro’s with black-and-silver paint schemes dubbed Series 3. The first one out of the shop will be powered by one of Ironhead’s actual championship engines and auctioned off to some wealthy collector of Earnhardt memorabilia at the big 2008 Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale.
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Another summer has come and almost gone, so I thought it might be fun to have a look back and see what we were talking about last summer.

Just like this summer, there were car shows. The big one of course was our visit to Autofest at GM Canada headquarters in Oshawa.

Paul Tracy was doing his best Francophone wrestler impression.

Jim Toumaris visited the Woodward Ave Dream Cruise and hooked us up with some great pictures.

Speaking of GM, it was announced that the new Camaro is going to be built in Oshawa.

Those racer types were pretty erratic last August, with Jacques Villeneuve spouting off again and the Unser boys Dads behaving like rednecks.

For 2007, Woodward was last weekend and Autofest is coming up and hopefully we’ll have some images from both.

It looks like Ontario is set to become the muscle car capital of North America. Following The General’s decision to build the next generation Camaro in Oshawa, Chrysler has announced that it’s new machine will be built at it’s Brampton plant. When production begins in the summer of 2008, that will bring the total models built in Brampton to 7. It’s a good time to be an autoworker in Ontario these days.

For someone who spends a good chunk of time reading automotive stuff, I missed the fact that Chrysler is about to lay off 2000 people at Brampton. Perhaps not such a good time to work for Chrysler, even with exciting products coming down the pipe.

Chrysler press release after the break
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For the first time ever, a Honda CRV has been built on American soil. The first of 60 nighthawk black CRV’s rolled off the East Liberty Ohio line just after 7 pm yesterday. Perhaps the most significant point in this story is it’s relevance to life here in Durham Region. The East Liberty line is a flexible facility which produces the Civic Sedan, Element and now the CRV on the same line. Why is this significant here? Because the new Camaro will be built on a similar flexible line here in Oshawa. Honda has proven that the flex production concept is not only feasible, but can build superior quality vehicles.

More pics and the press release after the break

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We took so many pics at AutoFest that I think we’ll post them by make. It only seems fitting that we should start with some of The General’s own. Fortunately there was tons of quality local iron to offset the missing Camaro. That said, it seemed like every Chevelle in Southern Ontario was there. I never really liked the car and it still doesn’t turn my crank, so you won’t find many pics of them but don’t worry, there’s lots more mullety goodness after the break!

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Every year, on the second last week in August, GM Canada plays host to AutoFest. Being one of Ontario’s largest outdoor car shows, we thought there might be a pretty good chance to see the new Camaro. Of course, the car was in Oshawa this week for the announcement that the car will be built here so we pretty much expected it would be there. It only makes sense, especially considering the number of times the car has been pictured rolling in to local cruise nights across the States.

The Camaro pulled a no show. Maybe they were afraid to bring it out on an overcast day in case it gets wet. Call this one a missed opportunity.

Mother nature threatened rain all day and that may have accounted for the fairly sparse crowd, but the parking lots were filled with all sorts of cars. Mostly American stuff, with lots of rods and more Chevelles than you ever need to see. Overall, the quality of the cars on display was quite high, with the odd competition show car here and there for good measure. There were Rat Rods, Dune Buggies, olde cars and new. Even a giant old 4×4 that was close to monster truck size.

Tomorrow, I’ll get around to posting some of the 181 pics I took today.

Spend a few days away from The Garage and the local news goes wild with automotive stuff. First, some kid crashes into BMW Canada’s lobby and then GM awards production of the new Camaro to the number 2 plant in Oshawa, just 10 minutes from The Garage.

For many years, this plant has had the highest quality ratings of any plant on GM’s roster. Not only a source of local pride, this history of quality surely influenced the decision to build the car in Oshawa. The early retirement of some 2500 employees may have saved the jobs of another 2700 workers who will now be working on the Camaro and other projects. Those other projects may come quickly, due to a 740 million reno that will allow flex production program that will allow multiple models to be built at the same time. As a casual observer who lives in the area, methinks this plan has been in the works for some time, as the expansion and building at the south Oshawa facility has been moving forward at a furious pace.
Is it a coincidence that GM chose to announce this on the eve of the annual Autofest car show at GM of Canada? I somehow doubt it. We are racing this weekend, so the schedule will be tight, but i’m hoping to drop by Autofest to grab a few pics of the Camaro as I’m pretty sure it will be on display.

Source The Star

Vacations can be wonderful, but there’s always a bit of a mess to clean up when you get back. I thought it might be fun to post some of the cooler things that seem to have happened while I was gone. In no particular order, here are a few:

Nick Mason, drummer of Pink Floyd traded his 250 GTO for an A1GP car for a day. I bet that created a bit of a pucker.

Jalopnik tells us that GM has finally announced that it will build the new Camaro. It’s about time they follow Ford & DC on this. I can smell a new Trans Am.

Our thoughts go out to Christiano Da Matta who is currently in critical condition in hospital following hitting a deer in his Champ car during testing at Elkhart Lake. Wildlife and race cars just don’t mix.

Brock Yates may revive the Cannonball Run!

And finally, how about some phone sex when your Honda breaks down?