What is a Camaro?

To: Matmail:

A Mustang is a horse, a Javelin is a spear, a Corvette is a warship. What the heck is a Camaro?

-- Joe in E-mailville

I haven't a clue what Camaro means, but Chevrolet thinks it means something like "nice guy." In French, they claim. Hogwash, say we. Anyone who can identify the obscure French dialect in which you could call somebody a camaro and not get punched in the face, give us a call. When Chevy built the Camaro to compete with the Mustang, they planned to call it the Panther. But bigger corporate fatheads prevailed, noting that all other Chevy products began with a "C," and they weren't about to change now. After developing a huge list of C-words from dictionaries and other sources, they picked Camaro. They liked the sound. And it means "nice guy" in French.... (No, it doesn't.)