The Chevrolet Camaro began life as a pony car in 1966, shifting up to a muscle car in 1970. The name was for four generations of cars from 1966 through to 2002, and was picked up again for a 5th generation from 2010 on.

At its inception, the Camaro was produced to compete with one car, the Ford Mustang. When asked by journalists what the word Camaro meant, General Motors’ General Manager, Pete Estes, initially said that the name “suggests the comradeship of good friends as a personal car should be to its owner" and that "to us, the name means just what we think the car will do... Go!". A little later on, sales executives unleashed a stronger message to journalists, saying instead that a Camaro was “a small, vicious animal that eats Mustangs”.

The first generation Chevy Camaro was based on the General Motors F-Body platform, and shared its platform and some components with its contemporary from another GM division, the Pontiac Firebird. It was a rear-wheel drive car, available as a 2-door coupé or convertible, with 2+2 seating. Engine choices were an inline 6 250 cu inch (4.1 L) engine, or, in V8, the 302 cu in (4.9 L), 307 cu in (5.0 L), 327 cu in (5.4 L), 350 cu in (5.7 L), or 396 cu in (6.5 L) engines. Car show attendees first saw the Camaro in September 1966, and it was in dealerships across the United States on 29 September, 1966.

There were three different models of Camaro - the RS, SS, and Z28. Sales for the years 1967 to 1969 were 221,306, 235,147 and 243,085 respectively. In 1969 there was a special edition Camaro, with a 427 V8 engine, the aluminum big-block ZL-1. These came about through an order of 201 by car dealer Don Yenko, and are more commonly known as the Camaro Yenko, or sometime the COPO 9560 and COPO 9561 (those two being the Chevrolet order numbers for these cars).

For the 1970 model, the Camaro was restyled, and while still based on the F-Body platform, the car was made longer and wider. These characteristics, on the 2nd generation Camaro, continued through to the 1982 model. The chassis and suspension were improved from the 1st gen, and as a result these models handled better, and were more comfortable for driver and passengers in areas such as ride and road noise. By 1974 the major competitors to the Camaro, the Plymouth Barracuda and Dodge Challenger had been discontinued, and the Camaro saw a lift in sales.

The Camaro continued to sell well, right through to its last version of its second generation, in 1981. After 35 years of production, the Camaro name ceased to be used - for a time - in 2002.

The name resurfaced in 2010, on the back of a concept car shown at the 2006 North American International Auto Show. For this the designers cast their eye back to the original Camaro, successfully, as the car was awarded World Car Design of the Year at the 2010 World Car of the Year Awards.

The Camaro has also lately had its moment in the pop culture spotlight, with a 1976 Camaro featuring as the character Bumblebee in the 'Transformers' series of films.