POWER TO PERFORM; The 2010 Camaro SS is a blast-now, if only it could ignite a corporate recovery.(NEWS)

Byline: J. P. VETTRAINO

The driver slyly turned off the traction electronics, loaded revs at the stop sign and dumped the clutch as he started a left turn. Skillfully, smoothly, with a single stroke of countersteer and then correction, he arced the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS neatly into the proper lane, back tires churning, axles bouncing on a pitted roadway. It was smooth enough that the passenger thought, for an instant, that the traction control might actually be engaged.

It wasn't the sort of thing big-horsepower Camaros are expected to do. It was a display of balance and manageabilityfrom the car, not the driver almost unimaginable in the context of an earlier-generation, 2002 Camaro SS, much less the "69 Camaro that inspired this car's look. Production of Camaros has started again for the first time in eight years, and the 2010 stands tall in a cluster of Detroit pony cars that is better than ever by every objective measure.

For the first time in 35 years, you can buy a Camaro, a V8-powered, Chrysler-built Dodge Challenger or a Ford Mustangor all three. As this new era of American muscle blooms, the U.S. automakers wither near all-time lows. The Detroit Three's sales for 2009 are off nearly 50 percent from a dismal 2008. Probability suggests that despite government bailouts, at least one of the three will be insolventor defunctbefore any of the new crop of pony cars gets a facelift.

The latest Detroit face-off is so much more than a muscle-car showdown, but for enthusiasts, this new pony-car cluster can't be anything else. In the showdown sense, at least, the 2010 Camaro SS is a pearl of contemporary design, despite its retro inspirations, and is an impressive melding of up-to-date technology, convenience and pure-beast appealmore so than some cars that cost a whole lot more.

In 1974, the last time any of us could buy a Camaro, a Challenger or a Mustang, the Chevy Impala was the best-selling car in the United States. Peter Gregg won his second-straight Trans-Am road-racing championship at the wheel of a Porsche 911. That year wasn't good, either, for Detroit. Today's global headlines about weak automobile demand typically shout, "Worst Car Sales Since 1974!

That year, the Challenger got a larger, 360-cid V8, but new emissions-control systems choked output to 245 hp, and midway through "74, production ceased. AMC ended the Javelin build as well. The then-all-new, Pinto-based Mustang II featured innovations such as rack-and-pinion steering and an NVH-reducing subframe for the engine, but it came standard with an anemic 2.3-liter four-cylinder and didn't even offer a V8. A lightly facelifted Camaro got fatter and nearly seven inches longer, thanks to new federal bumper requirements. Camaro sales increased, partly as a result of the Mustang's lack of a V8 option, but they were barely half of the Mustang's 285,000.