AUTOS: Hendrick Gets First Camaros

Automotive Industry

AUTOS: Hendrick Gets First Camaros

Rick Hendrick picks up 2010 Chevrolet Camaro VIN 0001 on the first day of Camaro production at Oshawa, Ontario...

Tom Jensen | Posted March 16, 2009 Oshawa (CAN)

Pictured here last month in Oshawa, Ontario, Rick Hendrick checked out VIN 0001 on a 2010 Chevrolet Camaro which he was presented with today during a ceremony at the General Motors Heritage Center in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo: Tom Jensen for SPEEDtv.com)

NASCAR team owner and longtime Chevrolet dealer Rick Hendrick delivered a simple, but impassioned message to the workers of the Oshawa, Ontario, General Motors assembly plant Monday: “You build ‘em and we’ll sell ‘em.”

Hendrick was in Oshawa Monday to kick off the first official day of production for the all-new 2010 Camaro, a model absent from the Chevy lineup since being discontinued in 2002. Escorted by a group of about 15 of his top dealers who flew up with him from Charlotte, N.C., Hendrick officially drove the first production Camaro — VIN 0001 — off the Oshawa line to the cheers of several hundred plant workers.

The Camaro, which is available in six- and eight-cylinder models, is one of the most eagerly anticipated new-car launches in automotive history. General Motors, which has been struggling to survive the drastic downturn in automotive sales, already has presold 14,000 of the new Camaros, essentially site unseen, or at least not test driven.

The first two of those 14,000 went to Hendrick, who has been a Chevy dealer for 33 years. He paid $350,000 — all of which was donated to the American Heart Association — for the right to buy VIN 0001 during the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event at Scottsdale, Ariz., in January. Chevrolet also agreed to sell him VIN 0002.

VIN 0001 was a loaded Camaro RS/SS, black with the optional inferno orange leather interior, sunroof and 6-speed manual transmission. VIN 0002 was also an RS/SS, this one silver ice metallic with black leather interior. All SS Camaros come standard with a V-8 engine, with the manual transmission model pumping out a cool 430 horsepower, which was enough to get Hendrick’s attention.

“There’s only one problem,” Hendrick told the workers on hand for the launch. “I can’t drive ‘em home.”

He then went on to talk about how significant the car was for both GM and his dealerships. “I want to tell you loud and clear that these products that you are building today are the best I’ve ever seen in the 33 years I’ve been a dealer. … We needed the rebirth of the Camaro.”

Check out 2010 Camaro Photos

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Tom Jensen

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