Chevy Camaro

The fifth-generation Camaro returned for 2010 with five trims, a 426-horsepower SS, and a 550-horsepower LS7 concept car that eventually became a 69-unit COPO production run. It paced the Indy 500 three years running and became the dominant Chevrolet on NASCAR grids by 2013. Read on for the full breakdown of engines, trims, and racing pedigree behind the Camaro’s comeback.

GM killed the Camaro in 2002 and spent eight years listening to owners ask for it back. When the fifth generation finally landed for 2010, it didn’t just bring the nameplate back — it brought a 550-horsepower concept car, three Indy 500 pace car appearances, and a NASCAR grid full of them. The question wasn’t whether the Camaro was back. It was how far Chevrolet was willing to push it.

Five Trims, One Very Different Base Engine

The 2010 Camaro launched with five distinct trim options for retail buyers. The base engine was a 3.6-liter V6 making 304 horsepower at 6,400 rpm and 273 lb-ft of torque at 5,200 rpm — genuinely strong numbers for a base engine, reflecting how much V6 performance had advanced since the Camaro’s late-1990s discontinuation.

⚑ Featured Gear

Start Car Conversations →

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

The SS and Its Two Very Different Engines

Order the SS with a six-speed manual and you got GM’s LS3 6.2-liter V8, rated at 426 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque. Choose the six-speed automatic instead, and Chevrolet swapped in a distinct variant called the L99, producing 400 horsepower and 410 lb-ft — a genuinely different engine, not just a detuned version of the manual’s LS3, built specifically to work with the automatic’s Active Fuel Management system that shuts down four cylinders at highway cruising speed to save fuel.

Brembo Brakes and Launch Control, Standard on SS

Every SS came standard with four-piston Brembo calipers, and manual-transmission SS models added launch control as standard equipment — genuinely track-oriented hardware for a car most buyers used as a daily driver. Every 2010 Camaro, regardless of trim, included six standard airbags, fully independent four-wheel suspension, variable-rate power steering, four-wheel disc brakes, and GM’s StabiliTrak stability and traction control system.

The RS Package, For Buyers Who Wanted the Look

Available on LT or SS trims, the RS appearance package added HID headlights with signature halo rings, unique tail lights, a rear spoiler, sport wheels, and additional stripe color choices — letting buyers dial in the Camaro’s retro-modern styling cues without necessarily stepping up to the SS’s performance hardware.

A 550-Horsepower Concept Called the LS7

Alongside the production car, Chevrolet showed off the Camaro LS7 concept — a genuinely retro-styled show car powered by a 7.0-liter LS7 V8 making 550 horsepower, mated to a Tremec six-speed manual with a Hurst short-throw shift kit. Painted Victory Red with black matte accents and sitting on 20-inch wheels, it borrowed cam and exhaust components straight from GM’s COPO racing parts catalog.

The COPO Camaro Makes It to Production

That LS7 concept eventually became reality: for 2012, Chevrolet built a genuinely limited run of just 69 COPO Camaros, most of which went straight into NHRA Super Stock class drag racing rather than to street buyers — a direct production descendant of the earlier show car.

Pace Car Duty and a NASCAR Grid Full of Camaros

The fifth-generation Camaro paced the Indianapolis 500 in 2009, 2010, and 2011, and also led fields at Daytona, Watkins Glen, Charlotte Motor Speedway, and Mosport in Canada, plus annual IMSA GT Series pace duty. By 2013, it had become the Chevrolet of choice across nearly every GM-backed NASCAR team — a level of racing adoption the Camaro hadn’t seen since its first-generation heyday.

How the Fifth-Gen Camaro Stacked Up Against the Mustang

Ford’s Mustang had the field to itself during the Camaro’s 2002-2010 hiatus, and the fifth generation’s return set up a genuine sales rivalry again, with both companies trading design cues and horsepower figures across trims through the following decade — a rivalry that hadn’t existed in any meaningful way since the original pony car wars of the late 1960s.

The Concept Car That Previewed a Decade of Camaro Special Editions

The LS7 concept’s influence went beyond just the COPO production run — its retro-inspired styling cues and aggressive stance became a template Chevrolet returned to repeatedly across the fifth generation’s run, from the Z/28 to various anniversary editions, each one drawing some visual or mechanical DNA back to that original 550-horsepower show car.

The Interior Tech That Came Standard by 2010

By the standards of a muscle car revival built around a 1969-inspired shape, the 2010 Camaro’s interior was surprisingly modern, offering available features like a heads-up display, dual-zone climate control, and a Boston Acoustics premium audio system — amenities that would have been unthinkable on the original first-generation Camaro but that buyers now expected even in a car built around nostalgia.

How the Convertible Expanded the Lineup

Chevrolet added a factory convertible variant shortly after the coupe’s launch, letting buyers choose between the same V6 and V8 powertrain options in an open-top body style, a configuration the Camaro hadn’t officially offered since the fourth generation ended production in 2002.

Why the 2010 Launch Mattered Beyond Just Sales Figures

The Camaro’s return wasn’t just a nostalgia play for GM — it reestablished a genuine three-way pony car rivalry with the Mustang and, within a few years, the reborn Dodge Challenger, giving American performance car buyers more genuine choice in the segment than they’d had at any point since the original muscle car era wound down in the early 1970s. That renewed competition pushed all three manufacturers to keep raising horsepower figures and adding increasingly track-focused special editions throughout the 2010s, a dynamic that benefited enthusiasts regardless of which badge they preferred. Enthusiast forums and buyer’s guides from the era consistently point to the fifth-generation SS as the value pick of the three-way rivalry, since its V8 output and Brembo brake package undercut comparably equipped Mustang GTs and Challenger R/Ts of the same model years — a major reason well-kept fifth-generation SS models remain in strong demand among enthusiasts shopping the used market today. That combination of performance, value, and genuine motorsport pedigree is exactly why the fifth-generation Camaro is now considered one of the most significant modern muscle car revivals, alongside the reborn Challenger and the Mustang it spent years chasing on both the sales charts and the drag strip, a rivalry that shows no sign of settling even among today’s collector market buyers.

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Republished by Blog Post Promoter