Wasn't it just a couple of years ago that the American Family Association was boycotting Ford for marketing in gay-centric publications? Fast forward to today and see just how much things have changed. Last month, Chevrolet sponsored an event in Los Angeles called Gay Day at the Movies to promote the release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Michael Bay's latest opus, of course, features a bunch of General Motors vehicles, not the least of which is the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro that plays the leading role of Bumblebee.

A video was produced to promote Gay Day at the Movies featuring a pair of "Bumblebee Boys" in Camaro-branded briefs washing the Bowtie brand's pony car revival. The cheeky (pardon the pun) video is clearly targeted at the gay community and uses beefcake car washers to that effect in a not-so-subtle way.

Will Chevy or GM see a backlash from being associated with this video? Who knows, but the video isn't exactly being shown in primetime on NBC. For the moment, it lives solely on YouTube with a gajillion other vids – and one would have to actively search to find it.

Follow the jump to watch the video for yourself, and please remember to be respectful in the comments.

UPDATE: The video has been removed from YouTube by the user. We're searching to find it again on the interwebs.



[Source: USA Today via Huffington Post]

Despite having fewer model variations on the market, pent up demand for the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro appears to have been enough to send the bad Bowtie past Ford's redone Mustang in June. Sales figures for the month are beginning to trickle in today, and General Motors says it shifted 9,320 Camaro units last month, as compared to the Blue Oval's 7,632 Mustangs.

Whether Chevrolet's victory will be sustainable over the long haul remains to be seen, but as The General has a backlog of 10,000 sold orders to fill (equating to less than a seven day supply), the streak is likely to continue for at least the next few months. Presently, GM offers just two main Camaro models, the V6 RS and the V8-powered SS, while the Ford Mustang has more bodystyles and trims than you can shake a stick at (arguably making the Camaro's achievement seemingly that much more impressive).

Sales of the third leg of 2009's pony car table, the Dodge Challenger, trail far behind, with just 1,369 units cleared last month.

As the industry heads into the dog days of summer, it looks like America's renewed pony car war is just heating up. Who will take the crown for the whole year? Sit tight, muscle fans.



Photos Copyright ©2009 Alex Nunez / Weblogs, Inc.


Photos Copyright ©2008 Drew Phillips / Weblogs, Inc.

Normally the twisting of an ignition key doesn't constitute news here at Autoblog, but this is one of the few exceptions. Back in January, Hennessey Performance announced the HPE700, a concoction born from the combination of an LS9 supercharged V8 from a ZR1 and a 2010 Camaro. The Texas-based company only recently shoe-horned the engine into the engine bay. A video camera was on when it was finally time to start the newly created monster, and the sound is nothing short of amazing. The result of open headers plus what appears to be a fairly aggressive cam makes for a sound that has the hairs on the backs of our necks standing on end. Have a listen for yourself by watching the video after the jump. Thanks for the tip, Brian!



[Source: YouTube]

The idea behind building a stunning performance car like the new Chevy Camaro is as much about selling the car itself as it is about casting a bright light on the rest of the automaker's range. The muscle car in the window may bring you into the dealership, but you're more likely to walk out with something more practical. Say, a Cruze, for example.

That's what happened with one customer in China, where the price of an imported Camaro is, according to one report at least, the equivalent of a whopping $200,000. Having apparently geeked out like the rest of us at Michael Bay's blockbuster hit Transformers, the customer looks to have fallen in love with Bumblebee like that little punk Shia LeBeouf with Megan Fox (who really should be with a certain blogger whose name starts with an "N" and ends with an "oah"), but...where were we? Oh yeah, the Chinese fan gave his Chevy Cruze the full Bumblebee treatment, which looks to have involved a bit more than just plastering on some racing stripes. Check it out in the gallery below.



[Source: China Car Times I Images: Club.Sohu.com]

The car above is the pace car for this year's Indianapolis 500, a special edition 2010 Camaro. If you want to see it in action, then you'll need to watch the race -- Chevrolet says it won't be making a pace car replica for people who don't drive on the oval. Chevy copied and sold the four previous iterations of Camaro Indy 500 pace cars thousands of times.

This time, though, a spokesman said, "In order to keep special editions special, we can't go to that well too often." Which means someone decided that a rare trip to the well would be better served by producing a Bumblebee Camaro than an Indy pace car edition, even though the original Camaro Indy 500 pace car editions still attract collectors 42 years after the fact...




[Source: Inside Line]

Consumer Reports has never compared the predicted reliability of a Ferrari versus a Lamborghini. Rather, these guys and gals are famous for testing the vehicles we actually buy: econoboxes, mid-size sedans, CUVs and the like. They're the NPR of the auto reviewing world, except they're really not. We know the people at CR's automotive department, and they're true car fans. That fact is on display in this video, which previews the mag's upcoming triple comparo of the Ford Mustang GT, Chevy Camaro SS and Dodge Challenger R/T. While CR usually buys all of the vehicles that get reviewed in its pages, the team is still shopping for a Mustang and Camaro and so had to borrow examples for this video. We hope they gave the owners some money for new tires, because most of that rubber went up in smoke during filming. Follow the jump to watch the CR crew kick off their loafers and get crazy.

[Source: Consumer Reports]

Pontiac is on its way out just as the new 2010 Chevy Camaro has arrived. Had this been a decade or two earlier, the Camaro would most certainly be accompanied by an equally sick Pontiac version, namely the Trans-Am. But even before it was decided to put the final nail in Pontiac's coffin, General Motors had no intention of developing a new Trans-Am based off the Camaro. Well, someone should, and someone did. Enter ASC, otherwise known as American Specialty Cars, the sub-contractor responsible for building many of the convertibles you see on the road today like the Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder and Toyota Camry Solara Convertible. ASC also has experience building whole specialty cars for manufacturers, having been the building force behind such machines as the Chevy SSR, GMC Syclone/Typhoon and even the unforgettable Buick GNX.

Now, according to DUB, ASC will take your 2010 Camaro and transform it into a modern-day Trans-Am. We don't have too many details except for these few renderings, but the Pontiac-ification of the Camaro looks great from the front and we dig the duck tail spoiler. The air inlets behind the doors are a little much and for all we know are non-functional, but the overall treatment evokes Pontiac's past in much the same way that Chevy's new muscle car draws inspiration from past Camaros without copying them outright. We've got a request in to ASC for more information, so we'll wait and see if the Trans-Cam is the real deal.



[Source: DUB]

Lingenfelter Performance Engineering of Decatur, IN have long been known as creators of the ultimate modern GM street machines. We fully expected their engineers to be lying in wait for the 2010 Camaro, and they haven't let us down. Lingenfelter has released details for its engine packages, starting with a supercharged version putting out 550 horsepower and topping out with an intercooled, twin-turbo 7.0L LS7 packing 800 horsepower. They have also teased a Camaro body kit with drawings that show off a new front fascia and splitter, grille bar insert, hood with air extractors, rear spoiler, taillight panel, and rear fascia extension that can house quad exhaust tips. Pricing isn't available quite yet, but full details on the Lingenfelter engine packages and body kit can be found after the jump.



[Source: Lingenfelter via Camaro5.com]

Last week in (yet another) celebration of the arrival of the 2010 Camaro, a parade of some 40 Inferno Orange Metallic Camaros rumbled from Victory Park in Dallas to Sundance Square in Ft. Worth with a police motorcade. It was Chevrolet's first large-scale Camaro event, and hopefully it means that now we can get on to seeing them on the streets, instead of just talking about them being on the streets.

You can check out some short-n-shaky video clips of the event after the jump, including some footage of a vintage Eighties Garland Police Camaro, as well as the gallery of photos below. Thanks for the tip, Jason!



[Sources: Camaro5; Youtube]

At this point, we haven't seen much more than renderings of aftermarket Camaros, but the list of tuners who will be coming out with their own version of Chevrolet's new muscle car is quickly growing. Scottsdale-based Fesler-Moss is that latest on that list, having announced a fairly extensive catalog of upgrades for the 2010 Camaro. So who is Fesler-Moss? Chris Fesler is the man behind Fesler Built, manufacturer of unique muscle cars and customs, and Jon Moss is the former director of GM's specialty vehicles division. Needless to say, combined, the two men ought to have the credentials and the resources to come up with some pretty cool stuff.

Visually, the Fesler-Moss Camaro gets a hidden-headlamp front end, a reworked rear end, billet spears reminiscent of the 1969 model year, and a molded-in rear spoiler. The best parts, however, are the performance upgrades. Fesler-Moss will drop in an LS7, LS9 or any LSX V8 crate engine, supercharge the existing LS3, upgrade the suspension or brakes, and even convert the transmission to a paddle shift. Hit the jump for a full list of available upgrades, and choose your favorite color combination in the gallery below. Thanks for the tip, JLee!



[Source:Fesler-Moss]