General Motors may be busy charting a future full of subcompacts and electric cars, but that doesn’t mean it’s forgotten how to have fun.

Monday's introduction of the highly anticipated 2010 Chevy Camaro was surrounded by the kind of excitement normally reserved for new iPods and Hollywood blockbusters featuring superheroes and aliens. It’s not coincidence that a concept version of the car had a starring role as Bumblebee in the 2007 cars-to-robots film "Transformers."

• Click here to watch a webcast of the unveiling.

Based on the 2007 Camaro Concept, the car is a modern design, but it harkens back to the Camaros of the late Sixties. Chevy is looking to tap into the retro sentiment that’s proven so successful for the cars it will be competing with in the marketplace, the Ford Mustang and Dodge Challenger. Production begins on Feb. 16, 2009.

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Offered with a choice of either a 296 horsepower 3.6-liter V-6 or a big, honking 416 horsepower 6.2-liter version of the V-8 found in the Chevy Corvette, it isn’t exactly an economy car. That said, the V-8 is able to turn itself into a four-cylinder when you’re just cruising down the highway. Chevy claims it’ll get more than 30 mpg in this mode, though the EPA rating will likely be quite a bit lower than that.

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Fear not, green people: Chevy is considering adding a fuel-sipping turbocharged four-cylinder model to the mix in an effort to be a good citizen, and sell a few more cars. For now, Big Oil can breathe easy, because it’s 1969 all over again.