Just when hot rodders need hope the most, Chevy pulls the plugs on our dreamcar.      

Maybe it sounds disingenuous to complain about the loss of the 2010 Camaro Z/28 just as the bread-and-butter Camaro SS (with 426 hp) hits the street, but let’s face it, the Z/28 has been our wet dream ever since we heard rumors about it.  And just what exactly is “it”?

The 6.2L LS9 from the Corvette ZR-1 makes 605hp from just a tad over 10 psi of boost. This was hijacked by GM Performance Division soon after for use in the Cadillac CTS-V sedan, which goes on sale later this year. In the Caddy, boost was detuned to just over 7 psi (for 556 hp), and repackaged for the CTS’s engine bay—which is very similar in dimension to the Camaro. It was a no-brainer to use it for the top Camaro Z/28, along with a more stout drivetrain.

The engineers at GM Performance Division had just wrapped up all the engineering, validation, and supply partners for the 556hp Z/28 at the exact moment in time when the world was watching—with a microscope—the very demeaning tongue lashing Congress delivered to Detroit’s Big Three.

With the focus now on corporate responsibility and fuel economy, the Camaro Z/28—and pretty much every other product that GM Performance Division was working on—could be perceived by the public as out of touch, and “business as usual.” Not good for a company that was asking 14 billion in Federal loans.

So in a sense, Congress and the American people killed the Z/28, and GMPD. Our remaining hope is that at the very least, GM Performance Parts is allowed to release some of the driveline and suspension parts developed for the Z/28, so that we can hot rod the Camaro SS.