Save the date: 2016 Chevrolet Camaro reveal

THE next Chevrolet Camaro will be shown for the first time at an international event on May 16.

Holden has confirmed it will have a V8-powered, rear-wheel-drive dedicated sports car in its future line-up, and we want it to be this: the sixth-generation Camaro. The Camaro is the car we desperately want for Australia, as home-grown performance models from Holden and HSV are wrapped up with the end of local production as a direct competitor to the new Ford Mustang that lands here in right-hand drive from December, priced at $45K.

While the new C7 Corvette is king, the Camaro will use Corvette’s brilliant Gen V 6.2-litre V8 to take on Mustang in a value-for-money muscle car showdown, bringing it within reach of more bent-eight loyalists as it won’t carry a supercar price.

That new Gen V engine moves the game on from the unit currently making headlines for HSV, and should offer similar power outputs to the current ’Vette’s 338kW. That means the new Camaro tentially has more power than the 303kW Ford Mustang V8 to give bow-tie fans an on-paper victory even before they’ve clapped eye on the new two-door hero.

The new sixth-generation version of the rear-drive muscle car will ditch the Australian-developed Zeta platform for a new, highly sophisticated Alpha platform. Among the key benefits is an increase in not only rigidity, but weight loss to the tune of 130kg. That means a 1560kg starting point for a V6-powered Camaro, or 1643kg for a V8 powered version.

Like Mustang, there will be a convertible version of the Camaro. The current Camaro, which shares the VE-VF Commodore’s Zeta platform, has sold almost half a million units since it arrived in North American showrooms in 2010.