Migrating Bowtie: Chevy's New NASCAR Camaro SS Is Yet More Evidence of Second Thoughts

When Chevrolet rolled into last month’s SEMA show with a vivid, one-off Camaro SS show car, our attention was drawn to its new “concept” face. It seemed like the bowtie brand had read Matthew Guy’s mind, swathing the grille’s horizontal crossbar in body color and moving the Chevy emblem to its rightful, slimming place between the headlamps. Before this change, the refreshed-for-2019 SS looked a little homely next to its Camaro 1LE and RS brethren.

Who knows, we thought, maybe it’s not too late to fix a mistake. Our hopes remained guarded, however. Then came Chevy’s eCOPO Camaro electric dragster concept, also premiering at SEMA, which appeared with the same facial quirk. Now, we have the brand’s new NASCAR offering and, lo and behold, the front end is, again, just as we’d like it.

On Friday, Chevrolet unveiled preliminary renderings of the Camaro SS coupe bound for the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2019, showing the same colored crossbar and transplanted bowtie. Three vehicles in half a month certainly makes a trend.

Just to put this in visual sequence, here’s the stock 2019 Camaro SS (top), contrasted with the 2019 Camaro 1LE (bottom):

It’s not unlike Jerry’s girlfriend in the “Two Face” episode. Okay, now here’s October’s SEMA show car:

Oooooh, that’s better. Keep in mind that the main goal of the show car was, apparently, to display its new shade of paint. Continuing on, here’s last week’s eCOPO Camaro, which dispenses with a V8 engine in favor of a 700-plus horsepower electric motor that seems to herald a green crate offering:

Lookin’ sharp, fella. Now, here’s the NASCAR Camaro again:

In support of the Xfinity Series 2019 Chevrolet Camaro SS, Chevrolet Vice President of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports Jim Campbell stated, “We always want to align our racing vehicles with what is available in the showroom.” Mmm-hmm, yes, but to quote Big Bird, “One of these things is not like the other.”

Once more, here’s the 2019 Camaro SS appearing at your local dealership:

Chevy talked up the repositioned, flow-through bowtie in its write-up of the 2019 model’s styling and content changes, calling it a “flowtie.” However, in the ensuing months, everything we’ve seen from Chevy shows a walk back from the model’s face. Will it come to pass that GM performs an emergency refresh for Camaro SS buyers? Time will tell.

[Images: General Motors, © 2018 Chris Tonn/TTAC]