AMT 1/25 2010 Chevy Camaro SS/RS Coupe Build Review

By Ken Kitchen, Front Range Auto Modelers (FRAM)

Review

The Pony Car era began in 1964 with the introduction of the Ford Mustang. Millions were sold before the Camaro, Chevy's response, hit the showrooms as a '67 model. The market grew with new Pony Cars from Pontiac, Dodge, Plymouth and even AMC. However, throughout it all, the Pony Car wars were primarily a Chevy vs Ford thing, with the Camaro outselling the Mustang many of those years. But by 2000 Camaro sales had slowed to a near crawl and GM decided to let the Camaro die. The last of the fourth-generation cars rolled off the assembly line in 2002.

Ford didn't follow Chevy's lead. Instead they continued to produce the Mustang and introduced a new retro-styled, fifth generation Mustang as a 2005 model. Sales exploded and quickly got GM's attention. In 2006 a prototype Camaro began touring Auto Shows to gauge interest--a production version was approved a few months later . It took a while, but the Camaro finally returned to production in 2010 and quickly overcame Mustang sales, once again.

Strangely enough, just before I received this review sample, I had the opportunity to rent a new Camaro. I owned a Fox-body Mustang a few years ago and drive a C5 today, so I think I know what the competition is like.

Frankly, I was pretty impressed with the new Camaro. The car I rented was an RS, which is the V6 car that "only" has 300+ horsepower. In my opinion, it is a well-built car that handles great, is quick and gets decent gas mileage. And this kit is a pretty accurate rendition of the real thing.

On January 9, 2006 at the Detroit Auto Show, Chevrolet introduced the Camaro concept car that would become the template for a new iteration of America’s iconic personal car. AMT was right there with a kit of the concept. This kit represents the version that went into production and appears to be an all new tool rather than an updated concept model. The kit is molded in white, clear, plated wheels, vinyl tires & seats and water slide decals. Since Chevrolet put the Camaro back into production they are everywhere. The new muscle car age is upon us.

The kit is molded in white styrene. There are 6 parts trees molded in white, plus one chrome tree (wheels only) and clear glass. The decals come with 2 different color stripes (black and white), gauge decals and body markings. At first I thought it a little strange but the kit comes with 6 copies of the instruction sheet. I then realized that each sheet was in a separate language. This actually simplifies the sheet since you only have one language on the sheet you chose. Nice touch.

This is a simplified kit with a one piece chassis plate. It does have an open hood but there is no engine detail. The interior is fully implemented including a separate headliner. This is a nice touch. This kit will easily build up into a very convincing shelf model. With the open hood this kit would also be a good starting point for that new COPO version that Chevy just announced. If the way the body is molded is any indication it would appear that we can expect a full detail kit in the future.

Conclusion

AMT/Round 2 has another winner here. The kit goes together easily and produces a very accurate rendition of the full size car. The only thing that was a little on the difficult side was putting the tires on the wheels? The fit is very snug. If you buy the kit for a younger modeler, they will need help with that part of the installation.

This kit is highly recommended!

My sincere thanks to Round2 Models for this review sample