Huge Turnout for Camaro's Oshawa Homecoming

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You plan and hope, but never really know how family gatherings are going to turn out… Sometimes it’s all good, sometimes nobody shows up, sometimes somebody throws soup.

Photo: Mike Goetz/Auto123.com

GM’s family gathering for Camaro, held recently at the Oshawa (Ontario) plant where the current-generation model is built, proved to be better than anyone could have expected — record-breaking in fact. Close to 600 Camaros were strategically parked in the plant’s big parking lot to break a Guinness record for the “largest car mosaic”.

New 2011 Camaros, built in the plant across the street, were put in place to form a gigantic Chevrolet bowtie. Camaro owners of current and previous-generation models were then invited to place their cars around the bowtie to form a huge frame. And then someone took a picture from a crane.

How did so many Camaro owners happen to show up? In addition to the record attempt, they had two other great reasons to hang out with their cars in Oshawa for the June 9-to-11 weekend.

“In order to thank Canada and America for loaning us money, to keep us in business, GM decided to open all of our plants to the public,” says Scott Settlemire, GM’s manager for Special Vehicles and Special Events. “As soon as we found out about this, we talked to Dan Hermer, the [Camaro] plant manager, and thought about opening the plant in conjunction with the Ontario Camaro Club’s Nationals. It worked out perfectly.”

The Nationals are the Ontario Camaro Club’s big annual blowout party, which includes social get-togethers, vendor shows, best-in-show competitions and cruises. The club usually holds the event in Niagara Falls, Ontario. “When GM invited us to come back here this year, we said of course,” remarked club president Dale Oldham. “Why would you not want to be involved here? It’s a dream come true”.

While the majority of the Camaros on the premises this weekend were from the Ontario club, the homecoming festivities were open to anyone. Cars came from as far away as Louisiana.

“It’s a great time to be a Camaro person,” says Oldham. Oldham had two Camaros at the show, both limited edition pace cars; a 1969 Indianapolis Pace Car, and a 1997 Brickyard 400 Pace Car. He also owns a 2010 Pace Car and has a deposit down for a 2011 one.

“I have a really soft spot for the pace cars,” admits Oldham, though he didn't have to…



In addition to opening the plant for the weekend, GM also brought in some special Camaros, such as Bumblebee of Transformers II, and the recently introduced 2012 Camaro 45th-Anniversary Model. The over-achieving 2012 Camaro ZL1 also made its Canadian debut during the weekend’s festivities.

2012 Chevrolet Camaro 45th Anniversary Special Edition (Photo: General Motors)

“This is a way to celebrate the rebirth of a Canadian and American legend,” noted GM’s Scott Settlemire. “It also demonstrates to the men and women in the factory that we’re building more than just an automobile, we’re building dreams. Everybody wins. No downside… Well, maybe if you’re a Mustang owner”.

Camaro plant tour a big hit
You can’t have a homecoming without a home. Camaro’s diggs is bigger than most —over 9 million square feet. With annual production of about 280,000 units, and 4,500 employees, the Oshawa Assembly Plant is one of the largest vehicle plants in the world.

Camaro production started in March 2009, on a new “flex line”. Also produced on this line is the Buick Regal.

Over on the older “consolidated” line, the plant still builds the Chevrolet Impala, though GM announced that the next-generation Impala would be built in Detroit. Taking Impala’s slot at Oshawa should be the 2012 Cadillac XTS, though that has yet to be confirmed.

Last summer, the plant also began building the Chevrolet Equinox. Equinox and the Pontiac Terrain are both built at GM’s plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, but the paint and assembly operations there are tapped, and can’t keep up with current demand. So some Equinox bodies are shipped to Oshawa, and then painted and completed there.

But Camaro is definitely the favoured son. On Friday morning of the homecoming weekend, literally hundreds of people were lined up to see Camaros being built. I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t see such interest to view Equinox production.

The tour was restricted to Camaro’s Trim and Chassis lines, where most of the plant’s employees work. The stamping, body and paint shops are probably more dramatic, filled as there are with huge stamping machines, noise, sparks, and robots.

Once inside, your first impression of the facility is its hugeness. It goes on as far as the eye can see.

The plant is clean, well ventilated, and seems generally like a happy workplace. I'm sure the line workers and tour guides were prepped to be on their best, and most congenial nature for this weekend’s open house, but still… Most of the workers returned eye contact, and nodded. I always feel for line workers on tours — I wouldn’t want readers gawking at me while I do my work thing, like type on this computer.

During my tour, the most popular spot for picture taking was the station where the drivetrain is married to the chassis. Each drivetrain glides in on a robotic pallet, from another line, from another part of the plant, gets into place under the chassis, then elegantly rises into place.

Photo: Mike Goetz/Auto123.com

An interesting aspect of the production, to me at least, was how the doors are taken off, right after the vehicle is painted. The doors come into the plant on their own half-mile conveyer system, from the far-away paint shop. The doors then get built up and eventually catch up to the rest of the car. Apparently this is an easier way to finish the doors, and results in considerably less body damage to both doors and bodies.

About every 10th vehicle on the line was a Buick Regal. The rest were all Camaros, both coupes and convertibles. On our tour day, the combined Camaro/Regal production line rate was 50 vehicles an hour.