It's like a smorgasborg of 'merican muscle spy shots around these parts today — first with the clear-as-day spy shots of the 2009 Corvette ZR1 earlier and now these shots of what Brenda Priddy's claiming is a 2010 Chevrolet Camaro taking some laps around metro Detroit. But wait you say, that doesn't look like a Camaro. True, but that's because it's actually a production mule disguised as its platform-sharing Holden Commodore cousin. And by disguised as the Holden Commodore we mean it's disguised as a Middle Eastern market Chevy Lumina SS. And by disguised we mean...OK, it's just a mess to look at, ain't it? But Brenda (and spy snapper Chris Doane) swears up and down there's a Camaro drivetrain and chassis underneath this hacked four-door shell. She points to the rear doors that are nothing more than camouflage as proof. Also, check out the chassis peaking out the back end. That's totally Bumblebee under there, we can totally see it. Full spy report from Brenda Priddy after the jump.
For the first time ever, we spotted a Camaro "test mule" on this side of the pond!!
Most of the testing and development is taking place in Australia and previously we've only been able to snag a couple of grainy cell-phone pictures of a Holden-badged mule. Perhaps it's to throw us off - but this chopped-up engineering mule is a Holden sibling - Chevrolet's Middle Eastern market Lumina SS. But this is no Lumina ... underneath this hacked 4-door shell is the long-awaited 2009 Camaro (at least the chassis and drivetrain...)
But contrary to its appearance - this Lumina SS has only two "real" doors - the rear doors are simply part of the camouflage! And comparing this mule with the donor-body, this mule has a well-modified (and shorter) wheelbase, as well as a lower roofline.
It's no secret that this soon-to-be-Canadian-built "Heartbeat of America" will start production in February of 2009, with an annual production in the 65-75K range. There will be several powerplants offered, including a 3.6-liter direct injection V6, as well as a "regular" V8 and likely a Z28-type V8 (LS8). Power-wise, the top-of-the-line should put out close to 500-horsepower, and a convertible will follow for the 2010 model year.