Designers’ Choice: Industry Pros Pick Their Favorite Camaro

Huge curb appeal has always been part of theChevrolet Camaro's successful formula, but which design rises above the rest? We asked famous automotive designers for their picks -- keep reading to learn about their favorites.

Read more about the Camaro as it celebrates its 50th anniversary:

• Missed Opportunities: Six Camaros That Never Saw The Light of Day
• Chevrolet Camaro Highs and Lows: The Best and Worst in 50 Years of Track Testing
• Chevrolet Camaro Performance Through The Years

Bob Bonifacegrew up around Camaros but started his career working on the Dodge Intrepid, Jeep Liberty, and Chrysler 300C. Then he moved to GM and reopened Bill Mitchell's top-secret Studio X, where he led the team that designed the fifth-gen Camaro.

"My first car was a Camaro," he says. "From the very beginning, Camaros have always had a wonderful combination of beauty, aggression, and practicality. Even my Sandstone Brown malaise-era '75 adhered to the formula. But for me the first generation, 1969 in particular, is still the icon. The proportions, stance, surface language, and graphic signature are as bold and unique today as they were when new. There was a pragmatism to the design that distinguished it from traditional sports cars. "

Kemal Curićgrew up in Germany, where he started out at Ford in 2004. In the years since, he's contributed to the designs of the 2011 Focus and (perhaps more pertinently) the current S550 generation Mustang—a design that earned him the title Mustang Design Manager in January 2013.

"I personally like the first-generation Camaro build from 1966-1969," he says. "It's got a great stance and down the road presence with his fearless face. It also feels light and agile with a right amount of muscle. The 1966-'69 Camaro's body side has great proportions. The lower body side treatment is showcasing the wheels and is just on point for an American muscle car from that period."

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Tom Galespent his career at Chrysler and is credited with such seminal designs as the LH cars, the Dodge Stealth, Dodge Viper, and Plymouth Prowler. He currently serves as Motor Trend's design expert at our annual Car of the Year programs.

"I always liked the first generation 1967 thru 1969, which had great proportion, clean surfaces, and the late-'60s powertrain excitement," he says. "However, the '70 model was a terrific departure while still maintaining Camaro identity. The hemmed roofline was an early departure from conventional roof rail construction and marked the beginning of flusher side glass. The surfaces and proportion are cleaner and leaner compared to the preceding model, and the design was enhanced by longer doors and eliminating the quarter glass. The fender and headlamp forms, along with the grille and split bumpers, were masterful in the '70 through '73 models. In succeeding years the graphics and proportions became increasingly taxed with bumper and impact regulation. "

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Dick Nesbittstarted his design career in the Lincoln-Mercury studios at Ford, eventually contributing to the Mustang II, the Sperlich/Iacocca "garageable van," and the Lincoln Mark V.

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"Purely for design, it's the '70-1/2-'73 Rally Sport," he says. "The 1967-1973 Camaros were all exceptionally beautiful cars representing the best and most enthusiastic efforts of the finest team of automotive designers in the world, the legendary General Motors Design Staff. Good as they were, the early Camaros were built to an affordable cost standard, though they could be optioned to provide very impressive performance levels. After massive government regulations over the years since, it seemed as though the era of great and beautiful performance cars was dead and over, but the new gen-six Camaro has emerged as the ultimate expression of the Camaro ideal and would have been unimaginable to the General Motors marketing staff, designers, and engineers of the 1960s and 1970s."

John Manoogian IIbegan his professional career as a designer/clay sculptor for Ford, eventually joining GM Design, where his resume includes the 1996 and 2004 Grand Prix; the recent Buick Lucerne, Chevrolet Impala, Cadillac DTS; the 2008 Cadillac CTS; and the 2006 and 2009 USA Presidential Limousines. These days he's an adjunct professor at Detroit's College for Creative Studies.

"The '70-1/2 has the cleanest, purest design," he says. "Proportions and stance were great, with clean form vocabulary. It was not trying to be a Mustang like the first-gen Camaros—nothing superfluous, nothing silly. Bill Mitchell at his finest."

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WhichChevroletCamaro generation is your favorite design?Tell us below, and don't forget to revisit why the 2016 Camaro was the 2016Motor TrendCar of the Year and if you're a fan of the first-gen car, check out this exclusive story on a 1969 Camaro Z/28 Trans-Am race car.