Can you believe that one of the somewhat pretentious European coachbuilders once made a kind of a facelift for the 70s Chevy Camaro/Pontiac Firebird? We also found this hard to believe, yet it happened.
The rapid growth of the automotive industry after WW II and the assimilation of the unibody technology for large series production left a lot of coachbuilders without chassis to dress in bespoke conditions and, in a couple of decades, forced most of them out of business. Many of them closed during the late sixties and seventies.
However, the case of the Swiss workshop established in Morges (near Lausanne) by Willy Felber is a bit different, with a special dramatic note. Initially, he operated a successful dealership for expensive car brands such as Rolls-Royce and Ferrari named ‘Haute Performance Morges.’
Even if the trend was not favorable, he decided to start designing and building special cars on his own in 1974 under the brand WH Felber Automobiles. He also used to modify a lot of mainstream cars. As you can imagine, he didn’t reach very far: WH Felber Automobiles closed in 1984.
The so-called Felber Excellence coupe was presented in 1977 and, until 1979, only 12 of them were made. Since European clientele was not really familiar with GM products, the style of the Chevy Camaro/Pontiac Firebird second generation could be taken for some kind of exclusive appearance (anyway, the design team led by Bill Mitchell in Detroit did a very nice job with these cars).
What Felber did was he flattened the front end of the coupe, fitted it with a classic radiator grill that is very Lancia-like and bolted-on two pair of round and square headlamps. We are not impressed by the result, anyway.
What is not visible in these pictures: the quite serious work done on the rear end of the car. Unlike the original American coupes, the Felber Excellence featured a big liftback type of tailgate! The Ferrari-like tail lights came (err!) from the Fiat 850. At least one of the Felber Excellence examples is a convertible. We also added to the gallery a couple of photos showing a 1970 Camaro, so you can easily spot the differeneces.
