Chief designer of new Camaro brings one back home
Tom Peters visited his hometown, and brought his prized Camaro with him.
Tom Peters came home last week, and he brought a couple of his latest works of art with him. He also brought his son, so he could show him the places he used to live in the Minneapolis suburb of Deephaven, with the family moving to nearby Chaska when he was 13.
“We used to play hockey on Lake Minnetonka, and I’ve been telling my son about it,” said Peters. “He’s playing now in the Detroit area, but he’s never played outdoors.”
When Peters was in school, and maybe his mind would wander into daydreams, he would draw things. He saved one of them and reproduced it, and I was flattered that he gave me a print. It is a drawing of a hot-rod, one of those high-up vehicles that used to be the favorite style of hot-rod magazine cartoonists, and it was of a modified 1969 Chevrolet Camaro.
The significance of that is that the pieces of art Peters brought home to put on display in Minneapolis were a pair of 2010 Camaros, one dark red and the other dark blue — vehicles whose design was the responsibility of Peters. There is no doubt about the connection Peters enforced with the concept car, and, more important, to the classic vintage 1996 model.
Both of the new cars had 3.6-liter V6 engines and were RS models that drove smoothly in a brief whirl up the freeway and back to the Guthrie Theater. The big Corvette 6-liter V8 has been popular with first buyers, but after the muscle-car surge, Chevrolet anticipates the potent and high-tech V6 will become the dominant choice in the car.
Peters, who earlier worked on everything from Corvettes to Cadillacs to Hummer design, was in command of a battery of four designers, and they had a specific charge.
“Once we built the concept car,” Peters said. “Rick Wagoner and Bob Lutz demanded that when we built the production car, it had to follow the design cues of the concept car.”
The concept car, of course, followed the key design cues of the (drumroll, please ) 1969 Camaro.
“The Camaro changed completely for 1970 and later, but the 1969 was the purest form of the American statement made by the Camaro. My favorite part of the new car is the way the front end houses the headlights.”
One of the things I like best about Peters is that he assigns some human traits to the cars he loves. I’ve always done the same, because I think life is too short, and you should have a relationship with your car, because then it will treat you better and you will love it more.
“Without question, the headlights are tghe eyes, and the grille is a snarling mouth,” Peters said. “I know what the heritage of the Camaro was, but a couple of our designers didn’t. One was from Korea and the other from Russia, originally. I kept stressing that the key new elements had to have some hints of the ’69, even though this would be like building a jet aircraft — high performance, and purpose built.
“The car makes people smile. I don’t care if it’s here, in Canada, or in South America, people love the new Camaro. There are some people who don’t care or know about what Camaro means, and we want this car to appeal to them, too. But I know when you put the name ‘Camaro’ on it, it means something.”
In 25 years with General Motors, Peters said he always has been free to show creativity and to express that creativity with some passion.
While also working on the current C6 Corvette, Peters oversaw the design of the Corvette Sting Ray concept car. He went back to the sleek “C2” Corvette Sting Rays of 1963-67, and focused in on the 1963 model. “When I was in the third grade,” he recalled, “a friend’s dad had two ’63 Split-window coupes at the same time.”
While Peters might have looked forward to trying to make a high school team as a defenseman, before he got to that age his dad changed jobs and the family moved from Chaska to Baton Rouge, La. Instantly, Peters had to change his youthful thought processes from outdoor hockey and down jackets to Cajun music and boiled crawfish. But his love of car design never varied, and he attended Southwest Louisiana and Louisiana Tech before going to work for General Motors.
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He had no idea what the future could hold, but when his superiors liked his designs, he advanced to some of the most compelling cars GM has built.
“In the Transformers movie, they wanted a concept car like the old Sting Ray,” Peters said. “So we referenced the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray in building the C6, and the Concept Corvette Indy. It was a mid-engine car, and we worked on it with Lotus in England, and in Turin, Italy.”
The Camaro took a long time to go from concept to production, because GM wanted to gauge the response at auto shows before officially giving the OK to the production of the car. At that, the Camaro project got Peters acquainted with another corner of the world — Australia.
“Holden, our branch in Australia that built the GTO and the G8, was responsible for much of the engineering of the Camaro,” Peters said. “The Camaro is on a shortened and modified platform used in the G8. So I went to Australia at least once a month through the whole process.
“Those people at Holden are impressive. They are GM people, but they are very proud of their accomplishments. They influenced the drivetrain, and the engineering coordination with the platform.”
There are some differences driving in Australia. Peters said he had to get accustomed to seeing dead kangaroos by the side of the roads, having been struck by cars. With Pontiac being the victim of GM’s economic cutbacks, Holden’s influence on GM’s U.S. cars may be less-emphasized. But every Camaro remains a tribute to the global influence that stretches from Tom Peters to Holden in Australia.
“I think everything came together very well on the car,” said Peters. “From a design standpoint, things had to be exciting back in 1969, and they proved that if you keep it simple, and powerful, you can get longevity in cars just as you can in music, architecture, or painting. I think the 2010 Camaro will have timelessness too, with a distinct character and personality.”
Peters still had time to show his son around his old neighborhoods. He may have to come back in January to show him the realities of outdoor hockey, but he undoubtedly will have an appreciation for cars with character. Even if he never saw a 1969 Camaro, now, thanks to his dad, he’s got a new Camaro with personality, character, and style.
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About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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