The debut of Chevy's new nameplate and NASCAR racer has spurred an interesting debate...

This morning I had an impromptu roundtable discussion with some fellow editors, namely Justin Cesler and Scott Parker from sister magazine GM High Tech, and Pete Epple from Circle Track Magazine.

Outside of other topics discussed (including how cool it would be to see Chevy debut a sport ute with the Camaro's front end) the main hot point was the rumors that the new Chevy coming out for both the street and NASCAR will be called the Chevelle. This topic always brings out mixed feelings for everyone, but in this case it shows the real generational gap in relation to the old name plates.

As Cesler put it "Why keep bringing back these old names, so then everyone will inevitably compare the new car to the old, which it has no chance of equaling?"

He pointed out what happend when Pontiac brought back the GTO and the criticsm it received, compared to when the G8 (a car very similar to the GTO outside the number of doors and weight) was released to much enthusiasm and praise. His point, because there was no "old G8" from way back to comapre it to, the G8 didn't have to compete with a bench mark and image that was set decades ago.

His argument has validity, and makes me wonder: if the new Chevy is called Chevelle, will comparisons to the Chevelles of days past hurt the new car's image and acceptance? Even though technologically in every way it would be superior to, say, a '70 Chevelle, would people still make the apples to oranges comparison, and degrade the "new" Chevelle?

What do you think? For now, all we can do is wait and see, once GM lets the cat out of the bag and shows us the new car, and what it will be called...