When Chevrolet revealed that they would be bringing a special ‘concept’ Camaro to SEMA 2018, and subsequently released pictures of the bright neon yellowish-green car, plenty of people wondered why it looked subtly different but much better than the recently facelifted Camaro, and so soon after the updated front end was announced.
That updated front end was the source of mixed reactions from fans and critics alike when it first appeared, but the doubt would slowly evaporate under the hope that the car would look better in person. In photographs, at least, the redesigned nose looked like a stylistic downgrade from the one prior.
With rumours floating that Chevy is walking back that contentious ‘new’ look, it seems the automaker’s top brass have also come around to the public’s collective opinion, and the SS Shock concept car being the first to bear this new face at a very high exposure event like SEMA can’t be a matter of chance.
That said, there’s only a handful of very minor changes here that do amount to a design that’s substantially more faithful to the classic Camaro cues. The relocation of the Chevrolet ‘bow tie’ badge, for example, was not met well by fans, and that has promptly been corrected here.
Other than that, the SS Shock also features a grille splitter that’s now body coloured, a more pronounced front lip and side skirts, and a new design of alloys - and we’ve already mentioned that striking colour; like a V8 high visibility jacket on wheels.
Perhaps it was a good thing that Chevrolet and HSV have chosen to bring the pre-facelift guise of the Camaro SS for right-hand drive conversion, and if this modification of the 2019 model will come into effect, there will be no evidence of the oddball front end design to future buyers in Australia. Then again, the fact that these early units of the 2019 facelift would become rare, they might be worth more than their prettier siblings down the road.
