2011 Chevrolet Camaro SS Convertible Review

by Martha Hindes

When Chevy's Camaro first re-blasted along America's roadways a couple of years ago, it made even blasé teenage boys weak in the knees. Women in parking lots gave the thumbs up – especially at the sight of another woman driving it. Grown men nearly wept at the return of a long-lost love that had been unceremoniously yanked from their fantasy cache by earlier practicality.

It was eye candy, lure and awe all wrapped into one. Come 2011, what could improve on that kind of inner thunder?

How about a little drum roll here please, a kind of boom-chick-a-boom-boom, as the husky Camaro sheds some unneeded covering and as the expression goes, lets it all hang out.

That kind of unveiling probably wasn't in Chevrolet's post intro planning. After all, its bankrupt parent General Motors had endured the worst kind of knuckle-rapping an auto maker can be subjected to, and on its emergence Camaro was the kind of delicious treat that sometimes can't be justified. Yeah, we know. You put your foot on the accelerator and POW! Just listen to the sound of petrol surging through the deliciously decadent 3.6-liter, 312 HP V-6 engine exploring some teenish city or 29-rated highway miles of roadway on a precious gallon of gas.  Add the premium guzzling current 6.2-liter, 426 horsepower V8-powered SS to the pack and (at 16-mpg city) it's downright evil. But oh so much fun. (We can picture the Camaro, like a hunked up and slightly decadent Ashton Kutcher, thumbing its nose at the electric Volt and other properly pious statements of green groveling.) Full review.