GM looks for most powerful Camaro to overtake Mustang

New York

THERE'S nothing like a good old Detroit bragging contest. General Motors Co's (GM) bread-and-butter Chevrolet brand took the wraps off its new Camaro, revealing a performance version that tops the Ford Mustang's by 20 horsepower.

GM is boasting that the high-performance SS version of the sixth-generation Camaro, revealed on Saturday at Belle Isle on the Detroit River, is the most powerful pony car it has ever built, with a 455-horsepower V-8, compared with 435 for the Mustang GT. And with regular unleaded petrol averaging less than US$2.70 a gallon - almost a dollar less than a year earlier - muscle cars seem back in vogue.