Nine years after its introduction, Chevrolet has announced its sixth-generation Camaro will be retiring at the end of 2024, with a final collector’s edition set to farewell the nameplate.
Chevrolet says that its motorsports division will continue to compete around the globe, including in the Australian Supercars Championship which features the Camaro ZL1 Supercar, as well as the NASCAR, IMSA, SRO and NHRA race series. Jim Campbell, Chevrolet’s US VP for performance and motorsport, said:
“Chevrolet’s products and our relationship with our customers benefit from motorsports. Our plan is to continue to compete and win at the highest levels of auto racing.”
While the Camaro’s short-term future in the Supercars Championship remains certain, CEO Shane Howard has signalled his uncertainty post-2025. In a Supercars release, Howard said:
“While today’s General Motors (GM) news out of the U.S will have an impact on our racing product, we respect and acknowledge that change is sometimes inevitable. We will continue our strong partnership with GM into the future…
“For fans, the Camaro will continue to proudly represent Chevrolet Racing in the Repco Supercars Championship until at least the end of 2025.”
The company is yet to reveal any information on the farewell Collectors’ Edition send-off for the Camaro, but says it will be launched well ahead of its official retirement in January, 2024.
The package will be offered on 2024 Camaro RS and SS variants, as well as “a limited number” of flagship ZL1s, each of which is said to pay homage to the first-gen Camaro of the 1960s and its original project codename: Panther.
Short of confirming a seventh-generation Camaro, Chevrolet’s global VP, Scott Bell, said that “while we are not announcing an immediate successor today, rest assured, this is not the end of Camaro’s story”.
This means that Chevrolet is not throwing in the towel on the Camaro, though it’s likely we may see a departure from the traditional front-mounted V8 and rear-wheel drive combination. Even the debut of a plug-in hybrid powertrain as we’ve seen on the Corvette E-Ray could be on the cards.
