Here’s How Italdesign’s New Concept Car Could Become The Dakar-Style Camaro Tribute You Didn’t Know You Needed

In design school, they often tell you specifically not to say someone’s concept looks like a specific object; if you do, then that’s all the rest of the class will visualize, and it can’t be unseen. Naturally, we were jerks and did just that, and everyone in the whole design studio would be calling some poor student’s prototype a “McRib” or a “Simon game,” since the class’s polluted imaginations couldn’t conjure anything else.

I mention this because I recently discovered an Italdesign creation called the Quintessenza. The press release on the site makes bold claims for this concept, claiming that it “embodies both the dynamic power of a GT and the versatility of a pickup truck, creating a unique blend of design and function”.

I took one look at this thing and thought, “Whoa, they just created a modern Paris-Dakar style Camaro.” Now it’s all I can see.

I’m virtually certain that the designers in Italy at a studio that’s now owned by VW didn’t have a design brief for a vehicle made for driving to a Judas Priest concert parking lot in 1986, but I’ll show you what they didn’t see. Honestly, it isn’t a bad thing.

Born To Be A BRAT

To be fair, I have to hand it to Ital for making a concept that seems surprisingly unhinged, a mode that seems to be sadly lacking today outside the doors of the Tokyo Show. The Quintessenza looks like a two-door sports coupe with a hatchback, which I can assume that it basically is.

But there’s a twist that you might not see coming: The rear hatch can lift off, and the back seats turn around to create this “GT Pickup”:

This bizarre combination is something the Ital designers might have thought to be revolutionary, assuming they had never seen an El Camino.

Admittedly, the Italdesign creation is more of a true “sports coupe utility” than something based on a station wagon like GM’s ute. Actually, with those seats, it looks like one of the designers in Turin saw an image of a Subaru BRAT/Brumby online. At least it looks that way in the open format.

I’m not quite sure where the hatch is supposed to go when it’s off the car. Maybe it’s a bit like another car this resembles in spirit, the ultra-cool “modular” second-generation Nissan Pulsar NX that also required you to not stray too far from home with the rear bodywork removed.

The Quintessenza concept started life as an EV with rather typical inboard-mounted motors, but was later changed to an innovative design featuring a motor built into each 24-inch wheel with a sum total of an ungodly 1000 horsepower in this sort of off-road sports vehicle in the same vein as something like a Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato or Porsche Dakar.

It’s a rather cool concept, and maybe you also see some Camaro in the overall look:

Wait, though: which Camaro am I referring to? Well, if you’re a GenXer like me, there are a couple of GM F-Car body styles that are our favorites, yet GM seems unlikely to ever recognize them with a tribute. It’s high time that we revisit them.

He Lives On My Block And He Drives An IROC

Most of us Autopians were pretty excited when we heard that the Camaro was going to be returning to the Chevrolet lineup after a nearly decade-long hiatus in 2010. With the proliferation of SUVs, we all sort of thought we’d never see the likes of Chevy’s pony car ever again. However, with the S197 Mustang’s launch in 2005, it seemed like GM couldn’t let Ford have all of the nostalgic fun. Still, in some ways, the revival was a bit of a disappointment.

While the 2010 Fifth Generation Camaro was certainly exciting, I think that a lot of us GenXers were hoping for something different. For the “reborn” Camaro, GM chose to make a tribute to the First Generation 1967-69 model; a nice car, but as a me-too Mustang, it’s easily my least favorite of Chevy’s sports coupes. This revival just seemed like more Boomer baiting with a car released before most of us were born.

No, we remember the Second Generation Z28 driven in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, or stopping in our tracks in the junior high parking lot at the sight of a brand-new Third Generation IROC. Or, when we had our licenses but no money, we ogled over a red Fourth Generation on the lot at the local Chevy store.

These were sleek, aggressive cut-rate Corvettes with fastback body styles a world apart from the notchbacked First Generation tributes to Lee Iacocca’s baby. Third- and fourth-generation Camaros are the ones fondly remembered by those who had The Unforgettable Fire on cassette or an OK Computer compact disc.

Of course, it’s painfully unlikely that Chevy would ever reboot a Camaro today, much less a Third- or Fourth-Generation car. That is, unless it was launched as an off-roader crossover. Just the thought of that makes me cringe and imagine something like an “Eclipse Cross,” yet for whatever reason, the image of the Quintessenza had me possibly changing my mind. Time to fire up Photoshop.

I Wish I Was The Full Moon Shining Off A Camaro’s Hood

Italdesign’s concept is indeed a bit of an odd bird with its contrasting-colored fenders and blacked-out tail, sort of like a sports coupe got up in the morning and tried getting dressed as an off-road but quit halfway through to go get coffee.

To create the “Camaro Cross,” I’ve painted those fenders body color and added a “B” pillar more like that of the Third Generation Camaro. Up front, the nose has more of the appearance of the Fourth Generation Chevy sport coupe, though it would have exposed lights as on the earlier versions of that body style. The nose is also just a bit longer with additional dash-to-axle dimension.

Here’s an animation between the Ital original and the Camaro Cross:

From the rear, the Quintessenza has a large dark colored mass continuing all the way across the back, and of course, no rear glass at all:

For the Camaro tribute, the back would get blacked-out taillights closely mimicking the Third Generation Camaro, and you can see that I’ve added a glass hatchback to replace the Ital Design car’s typical-for-today blind-to-the-rear steel fastback. Windows are good, people.

Again, let’s see the animation:

Somehow, a raised-up mock “Camaro” doesn’t seem that bad looking. It certainly appears cleaner and more cohesive than the original Italdesign car to my eyes. I don’t see the rear hatch lifting off or the inclusion of the BRAT seats, but who knows? Maybe the Camaro Cross could offer an El BRAT version?

Mechanically? I have no idea what this revived Camaro would feature under the skin, but I’d certainly like to see a V8 up front powering the rear wheels and possibly an electric motor (or motors) powering the front wheels. A console-area-mounted fuel tank like a Fiero would be backed up by batteries under the rear cargo floor. Maybe GM could even develop in-wheel motors like the Italdesign concept. You’d then have a hybrid with traction assist for snow or even to help launch the thing for neck-snapping acceleration, or even just keeping gas mileage high by helping with getting you moving from a standstill. Yeah, I know that Volkswagen owns Italdesign and probably has dibs on the idea, but General Motors could screw up such an idea just as well (but not as expensively as when they’d fail on a Vee Dub product).

Maybe air suspension could be an option to raise the thing or, better yet, lower it to the ground as an option. You know how the Fiero was brought to life as a “commuter car” as a ruse to get it produced, and then it transmogrified into a sports machine? An adjustable ride height might be a great way for Chevy to slip this thing by the “crossover SUVs only” executives and get it closer to the kind of Camaro revival we really want to see.

Maybe That Dash Should Talk, Too

The interior of the Ital Quintessenza has the typical stark appearance that’s being adopted by more and more cars today, and it’s a minimalist look that’s really quite appealing.

Nah, I’m just kidding! I hate it, and I’m tired of this crap and have been ever since the lower-level Tesla Models came out. I bet the creatives have some long-winded diatribe about “lower distractions” and “driver focus.” Come on, that looks like a mockup waiting for an interior to be installed. Show some imagination and excitement, you knuckleheads! The cheap-looking airport shuttle bus seats and that stupid smartphone sitting above the steering column? You can do better.

You want fun? I’ve converted this Italdesign concept into a Chevy since Pontiac is long gone, but there’s no reason that this Camaro can’t pour one out for its deceased Firebird brother. Let’s be honest: what is the ultimate dashboard any GenXer would want in their GM F-Body? Of course, you want to look out over the same instrument panel as The Hoff playing a man that does not exist.

Oh, shut up; you know you’ve always wanted this. Notice I’ve kept the central warning lights as on the television show car, and the headlamp buttons are now where the TURBO BOOST was. The center console holds a flush shifter similar for the automatic similar to that on something like a Vector W8.

Yes, those flat screens could show absolutely anything you desire, so naturally a full-on “Knight Rider” mode would be one of the display options.

Yes, it’s stupid, but if you tell me you don’t want it, I know you’re lying. Look, we’ve waited over forty years to make the dash out of the Knight Industries 2000 a reality. We have the technology now, and we aren’t getting any younger. Seriously, if GM ever did build something like this, I’m sure it would list for $70,000 or so; you’re damn right I want some over-the-top pizazz inside for my money. Screw your minimalism.

Go Lil’ Camaro Go

Having violated that cardinal rule from design class many years ago, I really should apologize to Italdesign. Now it’s impossible to look at their Quintessenza concept and not see one of the last of the original run of Chevy’s beloved sports coupes. Still, is that a bad thing? Those of us born after 1965 have waited a long time for a tribute to the Camaros that our generation knew and loved, not the notchbacked ones that were often just rusted-out hulks by the time we got our licenses.

Also, doing this exercise has me believing that maybe a rally-style Camaro might not be a bad thing. Certainly, if that’s the only way we can get GM to consider bringing back our favorite Chevy Pony Car, I’ll take it.