The british opinion

[MerF]

Another article based on the much-talked about California media test drive of the convertible...some things I hadn't heard before in this article though, so I thought I'd share it....I took the liberty to go ahead and quote the intersting points.

LINK

But at least the models we will get will be right-hand drive. Of course no-one at Chevrolet will admit that, but the evidence is all there. The car will definitely come to the UK; it's built on the Holden Commodore platform - Vauxhall's new VXR8 to us Brits - and of course Australia is a right-hand-drive market.

I would like to see a RHD Camaro, just because it would be hilarious to see.

It'll use Cadillac STS rear suspension and a mixture of CTS and STS components at the front, but let's not hold that against it. Smith believes in the Commodore chassis, claiming his engineers have got a fine-handling basis for their new car.

I hadn't heard that the suspension was based on the Cadillacs. Maybe that's old to some, but it was new to me.

....At least they are on this car. Smith tells me they're having problems replicating the look [of the interior gauges] in something that can be mass produced.

Hmmm...maybe the interior that some love and some hate will look nothing like the concept afterall?

One thing that will leap straight from concept to production model is the exhaust note....

This makes me verrrrrry happy.

[acscamarochick06]

Glad to hear the news about the exhaust and the interior gauges... Exhaust is awesome, Interior gauges not so much IMO...

[1bad67camaro]

Good find

[acscamarochick06]

One thing that will leap straight from concept to production model is the exhaust note. Smith says they took a lot of trouble choosing the correct noise. And it wasn't time wasted. A bass bellow is sufficiently purposeful to make me wonder if the engineers have been a little cavalier concerning increasingly oppressive noise restrictions. Smith grins and tells me it's definitely legal.

Now that is something I DEFINITELY like to hear!!! :eek:

[willisit]

What's so hilarious about a RHD model? Without it, it won't sell here (at all). I bloody hope it turns up in RHD!

[AFSNightrod]

It's all good news. As long as they don't have a bland Chevy interior. Just give us something unique and like the concept, something I will instantly recognize as Camaro.

[MerF]

Originally Posted by willisit

What's so hilarious about a RHD model? Without it, it won't sell here (at all). I bloody hope it turns up in RHD!

No I didn't mean anything by it! I hope they do as well! It's just different for a yank to think about the cars as RHD, even though I've been to several RHD countries, it still looks funny to me.

[EllwynX]

Originally Posted by MerF

No I didn't mean anything by it! I hope they do as well! It's just different for a yank to think about the cars as RHD, even though I've been to several RHD countries, it still looks funny to me.

It looks funny to me, yes, but it seems 'wrong' to me for another reason as well.

MOST of the population of this planet is right handed. In a RHD car you do everything with the left (Radio, AC, Shift, etc). So RHD is less 'natural' as well as strange looking to those of us in the US.

[MerF]

I have always wondered to myself why some countried adapted RHD? The automobile was concieved here, right? At the very least mass produced vehicles were...so who and why was it ever decided to go and put things in the cabin backwards in the first place?

Of course the same argument can be made as to why we in the US use our silly measurement system (lbs, miles, gallons, etc..) when metric makes so much more sense and the rest of the world already uses it....lol

[TAG UR IT]

I'd love to have a RHD here in the states. Could you imagine all the looks you'd get?!? On top of that, someone tries to steal your car and you are the only one who knows how to drive it with everything flip flopped?! Hell yeah! That'd be great!

[ChevyNut]

in a rhd are the clutch brake and gas pettels revearsed from how they are in lhd cars?

[AFSNightrod]

No they are the same. There are a few guys running around Hampton Roads with RHD J-spec Civics. Definitely looks wierd. Same thing when I went to the Cayman Islands. I was going to rent a Harley to ride down there, but decided against it with all the traffic being backwards. It would take some getting used to. I did see an Evo V that was all hooked up along with a Mitsubishi FTO. Both were LHD though. There was a mix down there.

[EllwynX]

Originally Posted by MerF

Of course the same argument can be made as to why we in the US use our silly measurement system (lbs, miles, gallons, etc..) when metric makes so much more sense and the rest of the world already uses it....lol

This is a sentiment I've never quite understood. Why would it need to be changed?

Metric is just a different system, not better. So if in 30 years someone comes up with _another_ system of measurement we should change to that as well?

I, for one, don't think the US will ever change the measuremet system. Nor do I want them to change something just for the sake of 'following the crowd'.

[AFSNightrod]

Actually the U.S. does a lot of things in metric. Ever buy a big bottle of soda? Also many bolts and fittings for lots of things are in metric. The metric system really is easier when you do the math. Everything in the metric system is a multiple of 10. 10 millimeters is a centimeter and so on. In the army we do land navigation in meters and kilometers, and our distances for rifle qualification are in meters as well. It's just that we are more used to the imperial measurement system, so we stick with that for common things like speed and weight.