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The passenger in the Trans Am convertible passing me on the interstate aimed his video camera at my hot new Camaro for the longest time. Rude. Especially since I had the retractable top down and was eating a 2,500-calorie heart attack with cheese, no pickles. If the video goes viral and my physician sees it, she’s going to give...


View full sizePhoto by James Gaffney/The Times-Picayune

The passenger in the Trans Am convertible passing me on the interstate aimed his video camera at my hot new Camaro for the longest time. Rude. Especially since I had the retractable top down and was eating a 2,500-calorie heart attack with cheese, no pickles. If the video goes viral and my physician sees it, she’s going to give me another one of her finger-wagging “cholesterol talks.” (Note: Always drive with the top up when eating fast food.)



Odd but this is not how I envisioned my first few hours behind the wheel of this American muscle car legend. Somehow I pictured it more like that Golden Earring song:



I’ve been drivin’ all night

my hand’s wet on the wheel

There’s a voice in my head

that drives my heel

And my baby calls

says she needs me here

It’s half past four

and I’m shifting gears ...

— “Radar Love”



‘About time’

Although American muscle car culture began disappearing in earnest back in the 1970s, we still carry a torch for made-in-the-USA asphalt eaters powered by engines that sound like heavy-metal thunder. What else explains the attention my 2011 Camaro 2SS (yes, the one with the 6.2-liter V-8 engine) drew from people all over town? Like the thirtysomething Robert Downey Jr. lookalike in the BMW 6 Series who couldn’t stop admiring my car in the restaurant parking lot.





“It’s about time they released these,” he said.

View full sizePhoto by James Gaffney/The Times-Picayune

Or the guy in an unmarked detective car at the red light who rolled down the passenger window to ask point blank how much my car cost. Low-40s, I told him.



“Not bad,” he said.



It went on like this all week.



Of course, it didn’t hurt that my Camaro tester was painted a head-turning color we who grew up in Southern California in the ’60s remember as “surfer orange,” with a pair of black racing stripes down the hood that make this blacktop beauty one bad looking ride. Or the fact that this “roarmaster” announces itself blocks before it arrives with ferocious growls worthy of a Eurofighter Typhoon. For proof take the Camaro to 5,000 rpms in third gear and then slap-shift it into second — the car rockets like an ICBM, producing a sound like Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen at full chordal blast, the amplified spinal tap of pure testosterone fury.



Hang on to your Pez.



So irretrievably glorious is the thrum of this engine (a six-speed manual that kicks up 400 horses and 420 pound-feet of torque), I never once turned on the radio the entire week. What a waste of the 10-speaker Boston Acoustics stereo system and XM satellite. And trust me, I like Howard Stern as much as the next 14 year old.



Radio’s playin’ some forgotten song

Brenda Lee’s “Coming on Strong”

The road has got me hypnotized

And I’m spinning into a new sunrise ...



Ponycar war

Back in the ’60s the Camaro was Chevy’s answer to the Ford Mustang in what would become known as the ponycar wars. Back then Mustang won the war sales-wise, but for my money, the Camaro was by far the cooler of the two cars, the equivalent of the guitar-slinging, rock-and-roll girl in the neighborhood who figured out the riff to “Rebel Rebel” way before any of us guys.

View full sizePhoto by James Gaffney/The Times-Picayune

In the Midwest and Northeast the Camaro seemed like the car of choice among post-adolescents born to run through darkness on the edge of town — or something equally Springsteen-y and John Mellancamp-ish. Meantime, across the country in Los Angeles, the Camaro convertible was a wildly fun beach car and chick magnet, especially if you wer

Tags: Chevrolet, is-featured

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BORN TO BE WILD: Camaro's 400-hp V-8 is pure heavy metal thunder was originally published by New Orleans Auto Reviews: Chevrolet. Read the full story by clicking here.