AMT/ERTL 1/25 2006 Chevrolet Camaro Kit First Look

By Stephen Sutton

First Look

General Motors comes out with the Camaro - a retro-styled concept car, two-door coupe with a big LS2 6.0 liter V-8 that harks back to the glory days of Motown. Chevy has produced a new Camaro, a nameplate that was more recently interred. The muscular Camaro concept is pure '69 updated. The interior is very glitzy, and pays homage to the original, even down to the GM seat belt insignia and the twin instrument pods.

The car is 186.2 inches long and rides on a 110.5-inch wheelbase. The wheels are 21s at the front and 22s at the rear, shod with monster 275/30 front and 305/30 rear tires, which should be able to corral the 400 horses from the LS2 6.0-liter V-8 engine powering through a six-speed T-56 manual transmission. The show car has a cobbled together chassis with an all-independent suspension, but if it makes it into production, it will use the so-called Zeta Lite architecture that will be shared with Holden in Australia. The good news for GM is that the architecture--while hardly cutting edge--is far more sophisticated than the live-axle Mustang. $20,000 base model production car could use an inexpensive V-8 (the LS2 would come in a costlier model), so a V-6 version would be offered only to make the car easier to insure. The real car would have smaller wheels, but the overall diameter of the tires wouldn't be much changed.

When I saw this kit available for pre-order at my favorite online hobby shop, I just had to order one. This kit was worth the wait, upon opening the box, every parts tree was separately wrapped and packed tightly with no damaged or loose parts.

The kits come with over 100 pieces molded in light gray styrene. Two clear sprue trees came separately wrapped in plastic. One small clear red parts tree is also provided for taillights. The body comes as a one piece assembly with a couple of minor sink marks on the rear fascia just below the rear deck spoiler, this is hardly noticeable and are the only ones I could find. All the contours and fender to bumper lines are represented very well, only the rear trunk open line below the spoiler will need to be scribed.

The engine represents the V8 LS2 engine very well, the intake and valve covers come in a chrome finish, the concept has these finished in an aluminum colored finish. The valve covers do not have the distinctive Chevrolet stamping.

The drive train and independent suspension look very good, separate dual exhaust rear axel and front spindles are provided here, excellent engineering here. The wheels and tires are outstanding representations of the concept and the tires are molded each separately with no clean-up required before assembly.

The interior matches very well to the photographs published on the net, every detail is molded into the dash instruments, center console with separate bucket seats and door panels, lots of painting opportunities here.

The clear parts provide glass all around with the driver and passenger windows molded separately, clear lenses are provided for the headlights, front turn signals and fog lights. Decals are provided for the instruments, Chevrolet bowtie and scripting, and license plates.

Overall this is an excellent model kit that represents the 2006 Chevy Camaro Concept very well, it is recommended for the moderately skilled modeler. I’m very impressed with the detail throughout proved in the kit. The instructions are very easy to follow with a color call-out chart. AMT has a winner here and I hope to see more concept cars from them in the future. I highly recommend this kit to display on your shelf in anticipation of the 1 to 1 version to be produced in the future.