Two-and-a-half years ago, the 2006 North American International Auto Show in Detroit turned out to be quite festival of retro-design. After all, among the cars displayed there were a new Dodge Challenger, a new Shelby Mustang, and a new Chevrolet Camaro – a line up previously seen over 30 years before.

For much of the next two years, there were hints in the press that Chevrolet’s offering, the re-vamped Chevrolet Camaro SS, would be put into production in the first quarter of this year – 2008 – and put on the market late in the year, as a 2009 model.

Last March, however, everything changed. Chevrolet decided that it would make better business sense if the Camaro was pushed back, and so, instead of an early 2008 introduction and a short life during the year as a 2009 model before switching to a 2010 designation, production would begin in February 2009, and the car would be a 2010 model until the fall of that year, when it would switch to a 2011 designation. All this, of course, is according to Chevrolet’s general manager Ed Peper.

So, what exactly are we waiting for, since being introduced to this car both in Detroit and via last summer’s Transformers movie?

The initial offering of the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS will be a two-door couple, and will only be available for the first nine months of the car’s production. There will be a choice of engines – either a 300+ horsepower, 3.6 liter V-6 or a 400+ horsepower, 6.0-liter V-8 with the majority of the production models being built with the larger, faster engine, to please enthusiasts. The convertible, which will also be a 2010 model, will be available in the fall of 2009.

Despite the retro lines of the new Camaro, which extends to include an interior design that features gauges located at the front of the center console, the two main gauges being over-large, GM has paid attention to criticism of the plan to bring modern muscle cars into the market when fuel is steadily increasing in price, and high-fuel-economy. Both engines will include Active Fuel Management technology, which shuts off three or four cylinders not needed when driving on the highway, and the signs point to fuel economy numbers around 30 miles per gallon when the system is in use. While this is good news, it should come as no surprise that there is no plan to ever create a hybrid version of this car.

Don’t start shopping for car loans just yet, though. While Mr. Peper is predicting that dealers will begin taking orders for the 2010 Camaro SS later this summer, no price has yet been announced, and the car is not officially part of the line-up on Chevy’s webpage. Still, Bob Lutz, GM’s vice chairman is optimistic that sales of the Camaro will be in excess of 100,000 cars a year, and Peper agrees, but adds the caveat that this cannot happen until both the coupe and the convertible are both available.