The designer of the Charger Carl Cam Cameron passed away. .Updated.

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My condolences to his family. I heard of and met him for the first time at Barrett-Jackson in 2002 or 2003. He introduced himself as I was checking out a Viperized Challenger. He spent 25 minutes explaining about searching for the right look and material for the 70 Challenger grill (eggcrate from florescent light fixture diffuser), and Charger body design. He was very pleasant, friendly, and loved sharing details about our cars. A true gentleman and a sincere people-person.

[Nacho-RT74]

Imposible to me to meet him, but sorry about his death. My condolences to all his family and his "virtual" family here sharing same ideas and likes about what is a great car.

Shame he lived to see the 4 doors Charger or at least not enough to see again a new REAL Charger.

[Todd Wilson]

I got to spend some time with Carl down at the TDC Ardmore show a few years back. Super guy to talk with. He truely enjoyed his line of work and had lots of interesting stories to tell of the old days. Problems with making parts because the manufacturing technology had not figured out how to do things yet. So sorry to hear about his passing!





Rick Keelser took this picture.   Carl had rode with Red Kilby in Ginger and we went to the castle at Ardmore! We were all up in the tower enjoying the view!






Todd

[deputycrawford]

I met Carl at the Jefferson meet. I couldn't get far from him after I met him. He was easy to talk to and I just loved the old stories. I am very sad to hear this. My Charger was not ready for hte show or I would have had him sign it. I just had him sign the TDC model instead. He will be thought of very often. Hemi68charger mentioned another one we lost. Who was that?

[Finoke]

I met him at one of the Carlisle Mopar shows. A very nice guy to talk to. He had some neat stories on the Challenger design. Sorry to see him pass 

[694spdRT]

Truly sad to hear this. I met Mr. Cameron at the Jefferson City meet. He walked over and spent a while talking to me and my wife about our car and what parts he had designed.(the W15 hubcaps caught his attention) He also mentioned a lot of little facts that were very interesting too about how the designers got overruled on things by the higher ups.

I feel very honored to have met him and my sympathies go out to his family.  RIP 

[duo-stripe]

I met Mr. Cameron this year on the Dodge Chargerregistry meeting in Jefferson City and he was so nice to sign my t-shirt.
The best to his family and friends.....

[ds440]

He was one of the reasons I became an industrial designer.....   I wasn't ever lucky enough to meet him.

My sympathies.

[The Mad Scientist]

I had the pleasure of meeting him at the 2003 Ardmore TDC meet. 

I'll remember a lot of the stories he told when he spoke to us at the conference room at the hotel.  He also signed a picture I had of my car.  I was going through college and working at Wal Mart so I was all kinds of broke.  I wish I could have bought one of his prints at the meet instead, if signing my wrinkled and creased 3 x 5 bugged him he gave no sign of it.  He was a nice guy and a class act all the way. 

[almerkel]

There are thousands of memorials to him driving around.  I have a 69 memorial!

[Brock Samson]

Wow,..  I missed this thread entirely...

I'd be interested in any of the stories he told you that you can remember...

Rest In Peace Carl, I sure wish i had a chance to shake your hand!   
 

[Argos_Chargers]

I was horribly shocked and dissapointed when I heard the news.  I was unaware of his heart condition.  I had met him in 2003 or 2004 at the Registry meet at Whidbey Island.  I have the dubious honor of loaning him the '66 that broke down on him during the poker run.  I met him again at Jefferson City this last year, where I was lucky enough to buy one of his prints.

He was a class act all of the way.  He obviously loved the work he did.  He also obviously loved people.  He was kind, humble and helpful.  One of my favorite stories was of how they got the concave window for the '67 Dart.  The glass people told him they couldn't make a concave window so he grabbed a windshield turned it so the inside was facing out and put it in his clay model.  Had he not had the ingenuity to do that, just think of how many of the late '60s and early 70's roof lines would never have existed! 

He was a creative genious!  It is a shame that corporate wouldn't let him do a number fo the things he had designed for the original Charger.  Some of them came out on later models, like the power sunroof and the headlight doors operated by a single motor using a torsion bar.

Does anyone know what happened to the hemi magnum he was having done?

All my best to Suzanne...I can only imagine the depth of her loss!!!

Argo

[Todd Wilson]

He was a class act all of the way.  He obviously loved the work he did.  He also obviously loved people.  He was kind, humble and helpful.  One of my favorite stories was of how they got the concave window for the '67 Dart.  The glass people told him they couldn't make a concave window so he grabbed a windshield turned it so the inside was facing out and put it in his clay model.  Had he not had the ingenuity to do that, just think of how many of the late '60s and early 70's roof lines would never have existed! 

Or the story of the emblems falling off and they find out the fat sweaty hairy lady on the assembly line was sticking several emblems on her arm to save time and then peeling each one off and sticking it on the vehicle as it went by. What she was doing was hurting the glue and thats why the emblems were falling off!   Had lots of interesting storys!!!! He will be missed!

Todd

[chargerboy69]

He was a class act all of the way.  He obviously loved the work he did.  He also obviously loved people.  He was kind, humble and helpful.  One of my favorite stories was of how they got the concave window for the '67 Dart.  The glass people told him they couldn't make a concave window so he grabbed a windshield turned it so the inside was facing out and put it in his clay model.  Had he not had the ingenuity to do that, just think of how many of the late '60s and early 70's roof lines would never have existed! 

Or the story of the emblems falling off and they find out the fat sweaty hairy lady on the assembly line was sticking several emblems on her arm to save time and then peeling each one off and sticking it on the vehicle as it went by. What she was doing was hurting the glue and thats why the emblems were falling off!   Had lots of interesting storys!!!! He will be missed!

Todd

One of his storys I thought was cool was that the Charger was to be called the Monte Carlo. In his original prints the Chargers all said Monte Carlo on them. He said GM must have had a spy in Chrysler. Good thing GM stole the name. I like name Charger much better.

[The Mad Scientist]

My favorite story was when someone in the design depart bought a new dodge (a 68 Charger or something???) and parked it in the same spot in the same exact way with anal retentive precision.  They made an imprint of his key with a soft gum eraser and had a duplicate key made then started parking his car in the same position a few spaces away from "his" space.  Then when that got old they took it to the gas station and put gas in it.  All of a sudden he's getting 40 to 50 mpg and he doesn't know why.  He was delighted though.  The guy even wrote Volkswagen a letter about it.  When he had a tune up the guys started taking gas out of it.  He went from 40-50 mpg to about 6 mpg.  Cam said that the guy was killing himself digging through the trash behind the shop to find his old spark plugs. 

Now that's funny.

[Chryco Psycho]

the VW gag was great

[70charginglizard]

Thats too bad. RIP brother.

I did met him once with a couple of the other designers a few years back at one of the NW charger registry shows we had here in Washington State.

I didn't get a picture of Carl next to my car but I did get a picture of one of the other designers that was around at the show sitting in front of my car but I can't remember what his name was. I know he was one of the main guys for the 2nd gen line up.

Heres the picture-


By kels70charger

Do any of you know what his name was?

[Ghoste]

Is it Richard Sias?

[70charginglizard]

Is it Richard Sias?

I think so. I think that this guy had mentioned that he was quite involved with the 2nd gen design then Carl was. Carl was more involved with the 1st generation one if I'm remembering right. At least I think they said something to that affect at the show then. That is why I took a picture of this guy with my car I believe. It was quite a few years ago and that alztimerzer thing is starting to set in and I'm having a hard time recalling this...lol

[FastbackJon]

I was at the TDC Whidby Island meet in 2003 and met Richard Sias, Carl 'CAM Cameron and the guy in the picture above. Unfortunately I don't remember his name either but it's not Richard Sias.

'CAM was a pretty cool guy. I personally invited him to the June 40th Charger Anniversary over the phone back in 2006 and he explained why he couldn't make it. Sad to hear of his loss. At the time he was having a '66 Charger built that would look like how he initially designed it, with revised taillights, emblems moved around, etc. Not sure what happened to it. I also have the VIN that 'CAM gave me of a black on black '66 383 Charger that he used as his lease vehicle when these cars were new. Would be interesting to see that one pop up again, might be a nice addition to my collection.   

Here are some pictures.

#1: Me as 19 year old and 'CAM in front of my '67 Charger.
#2: The three designers with 'CAM in the middle and Richard Sias on the right.
#3: The three designers in Steve's Charger. 'CAM is driving, Richard is riding shotgun.
#4: What I got to look through driving home 300 miles.

[Chad L. Magee]

Is it Richard Sias?

I think so. I think that this guy had mentioned that he was quite involved with the 2nd gen design then Carl was. Carl was more involved with the 1st generation one if I'm remembering right. At least I think they said something to that affect at the show then. That is why I took a picture of this guy with my car I believe. It was quite a few years ago and that alztimerzer thing is starting to set in and I'm having a hard time recalling this...lol

I talked with Carl for a short time at the 2006 TDC meet (JC, Mo) and he mentioned that he really did not design much on the second gen Chargers, mostly worked with the 1st gen stuff.  He did mention that he did do some work designing the luggage rack for the second gens (if I am remembering right).  Although I did not buy a lithograph from him that day (low on funds), I at least got his autograph (with email address) on a piece of scrap litho he had lying around........

[FastbackJon]

I also remember him ('CAM) talking about how he designed the round side marker lights that were on the '68's and the wreath emblem for the '69 SE's.

[chargerboy69]

At the time he was having a '66 Charger built that would look like how he initially designed it, with revised taillights, emblems moved around, etc. Not sure what happened to it. I also have the VIN that 'CAM gave me of a black on black '66 383 Charger that he used as his lease vehicle when these cars were new. Would be interesting to see that one pop up again, might be a nice addition to my collection.   

I know what happend to his car. We actually had both his cars at our place for a while a year or so ago. He had a 66 Charger and a 75-77 Charger, I can not actually remember the year. I can not really talk about what went on with the car, however, I will say I learned that there are some very crooked people in this hobby.

As a side note, you guys did realize I originally posted this about Cam going on 2 years ago right? I was just making sure. 

[TeeWJay426]

Sad to hear this- it's a real loss for the Mopar world. I loved his design work for years- being the proud owner of a first gen! RIP, Carl.

[Ghoste]

The other guy isn't Bill Brownlie is it?