Over the last 27 months, the C8 family of Corvettes has become a secluded beacon of enthusiasm on Chevy showroom floors and in the recently renamed “Performance” tab on the company’s webpage. This Corvette loneliness is the culmination of a decade-long purge of passion products at Chevrolet and General Motors at large.
Since the 2017 model year, The General’s go-fast, smile-inducing offerings were cut from a full stable – three ‘Vettes, two V8 Camaros, the SS Sedan, and two Cadillac V cars – to a two-horse corral featuring only ‘Vettes (of which there’s admittedly now 6 variants) and, with the final order cycle for the CT4 upon us, a lone Caddy in the CT5-V Blackwing. Almost more significantly than the number of models on sale are their respective sales prices. Entry into the LT V8 club cost just $36,905 in 2017. While 2027 pricing hasn’t been revealed yet, it definitely isn’t going down from a 2026 basement floor that was already dangerously close to double at $72,495.
Well, friends, the pendulum may finally be swinging back in favor of both cost and variety as a new report from Automotive News claims that performance reinforcements are officially inbound. In October, we learned that while the Cadillac CT4’s days were numbered, a next-gen CT5 was imminent on an updated version of the current car’s renowned Alpha II platform and with internal-combustion powerplants. As huge as that news was after a seemingly endless parade of official talking points about “GM’s all-electric future,” and the Crest’s current BMW-slayers being the end of the road for joyful V-series motoring, the real bombshell came when an employee let slip that the new CT5 would be sharing the line at the Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant with “at least one additional passenger car for North America.”
Now, thanks to AN and its anonymous source within a major GM supplier, we think we know what shape those additional North American passenger cars will take. Yes, that’s “cars,” as in multiple vehicles sharing the architecture of the upcoming second-gen CT5. While their life cycles overlapped, the current CT4 and CT5 shared the same Michigan line with the sixth-gen Camaro, and it looks like that relationship, sans CT4, is set to be rekindled as soon as Fall 2027.
No further details were let off the leash, but with the debut of an all-new lineage of V8s, it stands to reason that some variation of the 6.7L LS6 would find its way under the hood of the Camaro SS. The precursor to the CT5, the CTS, kicked off Cadillac’s Ultimate Driving Revolution with the C5 Z06’s 5.7L LS6. That’s another bridge we’d like to see rebuilt, with the LS6 taking over for the turbo-six in the workaday CT5-V. We’re left to speculate on the top-dog ZL1/Blackwing models, but that’s half of the fun, and we expect the next performance LS reveal to feature a supercharger (will they re-hash “LS7,” or jump straight to the top-tier “LS9” for the sake of cohesion with induction methods?), but there’s always the possibility of twin-turbos joining the fold instead after that technology’s rousing success in the C8 ZR1/ZR1X. Either way, both cars should get the manual transmission that GM refuses to fit to the C8, and we’ll be crossing our fingers for the canceled flat-plane Z/28 project to also finally see the light of day – the possibilities, and our excitement, are limitless!
Finally, there’s the matter of the CT4’s vacated spot on the roster. The report says that, against all odds, and what we’ve come to expect every year since 1987, the final planned Alpha RWD sled will belong to none other than Buick. Is GM smartly cashing in on the massive resurgence in interest from Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy-winning album and bringing back the Grand National and GNX? If so, will it keep the baby Blackwing’s twin-turbo V6 and stay true to its roots as the only GM performance car that won’t have people clamoring for a V8, or will Buick’s first sedan since 2020 get in on the LS6 party, too?
Chalk this up to the kind of news that leaves you with more questions than you went in with, but with production slated for less than 20 months from now, we should have the first few pieces of the puzzle before the end of the year. Until then, stay tuned, we’ll have our heads to the ground and as great as these developments are, let’s just hope GM doesn’t fumble this exciting next chance, particularly in regards to the Camaro – some comments out of the C-Suite since the previous version’s demise still have us very nervous.
Source:
Automotive News
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If the Camaro does return I hope it’s not as some electric piece of crap or even worse a 4 dr SUV! If it’s not a V8 coupe and convertible, they may as well not even bother! Changing the Charger & Challenger from Hemi’s to EV’s just about bankrupted Stellantis and got their CEO fired. The Mustang EV sales and resale value are now also going down the tubes. Neither of these represent what those two Marques were meant to be and why people buy them.
GM executives have missed the boat since 2020, when they put their hands up and for all intents and purposes gave sedan sales to every European and Aisan car manufacturer. Full EV line up? Give us a break and get rid of Barra and the rest of the crew that decided that Americans don’t want sedans. Funny, the rest of the world seems to be selling them here.
Somehow they need to bring back the Trans Am!!!
Camaro was for the average joe. If they do bring it back, make it affordable unlike the Corvette where the average joe has to mortgage his kids inheritance.
So the question is, what platform is it being built on? Alpha 2+? VSS-R? CT6 is currently the only car built on the latter–and isn’t even availble USDM.
This does bode well for the stick-shift die-hards. If GM drops a 7th Gen in 2028, when the C9 drops in 2029 and manual isn’t an option at all–there’s no justification for shedding tears.
GM’s attempt once again to bring back the sedan. If you want horsepower, buy the Corvette base model. If GM is trying to compete with the European and Japan sedans – forget it. Has anyone seen the photos on Instagram? The new Camaro looks like an Impala. No thanks.
IF GM confirms the return of the Camaro in my opinion it will be due to the need for Chevrolet to have a car to race in NASCAR and the NHRA. Corvette doesn’t belong in either type of series (other than as a pace car) and Cadillac does not either as they have no direct commercial competitors in either series.
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