Sometimes it takes about a New York minute for a car company to figure out that a concept vehicle taps into the automotive zeitgeist and needs to be built as soon as possible.
Such a situation exists with the Chevrolet SSR (Super Sport Roadster), which apparently was well on the way to production before the public even got a whiff of it.
It seems that senior management at General Motors eyeballed the SSR when it was just a suggestion for a possible concept and immediately realized it was one of the most exciting products to come along in years, combining as it does the function and utility of a pickup truck with the open-air pizzazz of a sporty roadster.
So it is that the SSR is now well on the way to real-world status, with a production date of maybe sometime in 2002 or certainly in 2003. More than that, it looks like it will look like what it looks like now, with a couple of evolutionary changes to get inside the regulatory fences.
What it will run like is more of an open question. The concept version now making the auto show rounds is powered by a 6-litre V8, but even if that engine makes it into the production car it probably wouldn't allow enough sales volume to make a business case likely. So look for two engines in the real world car -- a sensible 6-cylinder and a hot V8.
In many ways, the SSR is indeed a modern version of the El Camino pickup/sedan that Chevrolet launched in the 1960s, but there's one aspect of the new model that's a considerable departure