European Camaro debut at Goodwood

Chevrolet reveals sixth-gen Camaro, but there's no RHD Mustang rival coming

Chevrolet went all modern with the European Camaro reveal, live streaming it via Periscope. Very swish. It's in fact the first time the car has been out of American in fact, reflecting the importance of both the Festival and the car itself.

Looks good - now if you could just switch it...

It's worth stating from the off then that right-hand drive won't be offered in Europe, but left-hand drive cars will come here. Disappointing for two reasons, the most obvious being that Ford could make the case for a right-hand drive Mustang. There's also the fact the Camaro looks fantastic, at least viewed in portrait through someone's smartphone.

The surfaces are a lot crisper than the fifth-gen car and the whole car less flabby while retaining the visual aggression and Coke bottle silhouette the Camaro is famous for. Chevy claims to have reduced the Camaro kerbweight by 100-200lbs (90-136kg) as well while increasing torsional rigidity.

The fifth-gen car was apparently American's best-selling performance car for five years in a row so this car has a lot to live up to. There are big changes under the bonnet, with the first turbocharged Camaro - a 2.0-litre four-cylinder with 275hp and 295lb ft - being introduced and the Corvette's LT1 V8 topping things off. That's 460hp and 455lb ft, with a six-speed manual and eight-speed auto available.

Smaller, lighter V8 muscle? Yes really!

Both the coupe and cabrio will be offered in Europe, the latter first shown on Wednesday. You can raise or lower the roof at up to 30mph, it promises to be very refined and so on...

But to the V8 coupe. As is the modern Chevrolet method, there's a lot of configurability in a Camaro. Like 24 different ambient lighting effects. The Drive Mode Selector tailors "up to eight vehicle attributes" (throttle response, engine sound, steering weight, damping force, the usual) across Snow/Ice, Tour, Sport and Track settings. It's apparently already lapping Chevy's test tracks faster than the 1LE Handling Pack version of the old car.

There are new displays and materials inside too which look very interesting and, well, just different to the Germans. Let's hope we see a few over here at some point; the Camaro will be on sale from the first quarter of next year. Story to be updated with Goodwood pics as soon as they're available!