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By Bill Visnic

DETROIT - Funny thing about spending time at the Detroit Auto Show the day following the "official" media days: some of the displays changed a little.

Including the heavily sinister - and definitely non-eco-looking - Chevrolet Camaro "Black" concept, an unhumble homage to muscle car-ness that debuted at last fall's Specialty Equipment Marketers Association in the days just before "bailout" and "bankruptcy" forced out horsepower and torque in the industry's headlines - and Detroit reluctantly assumed a more contrite demeanor.

The Camaro Black and a couple more politically volatile Camaros that hunkered prominently on Tuesday in the reconfigured General Motors Corp. display definitely were not occupying said space during the Detroit auto show's two days reserved for media - when too many uncontrolled cameras and caption writers could have been pointed towards those menacing hoods and whale-size wheels.

Which makes us wonder if GM would have altered its plan to roll out the Camaros if the company had more advance notice that Bob Corker, the Tennessee Senator who so famously berated the Big Three CEOs during their D.C. bailout visit, was winging in for a stroll around the show floor.

Luckily for Detroit, Corker evidently was too mobbed by foaming-mouthed reporters to spot the gas slurpers that symbolize the can't-forget-the-Sixties business mindset so many believe is largely responsible for bringing Detroit to the brink.

Then again, the gaudy enclave of Challengers and Vipers pole-dancing at the Chrysler display apparently also failed to injure the Tennessee Senator's sensibilities, seeming to indicate Corker is more concerned about ensuring United Auto Workers laborers end up drawing down the same kind of wages he pays his pool boy than he is in meaningfully analyzing the Big Three's product portfolio.

Photo by Bill Visnic

The menacing Camaro Black concept car - the antithesis of what legislators insist Detroit should be building - wisely didn't break cover at the Detroit auto show until the majority of press cameras were gone.

EDIT: Story pulled from Edmunds, link removed from post.