It's almost a given that modern cars from the major carmakers will be built and designed to achieve maximal crash safety ratings - especially brand-leaders like the new 2010 Chevrolet Camaro, right? Well, not quite, it seems, as the new muscle car has managed just 4 of 5 stars thanks to below-expected frontal impact scores.

Side and rollover testing still secured 5-star ratings, but the car's front impact 4-star rating dragged down the overall result. Copmared to the Camaro's main rival, the 2010 Ford Mustang, that's a major blow, as the Blue Oval product secured five stars in all tests.

Comparing the numbers tells an even darker story for the Camaro, as the Mustang scored 457 head injury criterion for the driver and 379 for the passenger, versus 661 and 626 respectively for the Camaro. Chest deceleration figures were equally biased against the Camaro, which scored 53 g for the driver and 49 g for the passenger against the Mustang's much less strenuous 34 g and 40 g chest loads.

Finally, the Camaro placed a load of 908 lb and 866 lb on the driver's left and right legs, compared to 478 lb and 551 lb for the Mustang's driver. Those figures reflect pretty intuitively just how much more severe the same impact would feel in the Camaro.

Click through to the government's Safercar site below to see video of the Camaro's crash testing for yourself.

Forumites at Camaro5 have been collectively scratching their heads for a couple days, wondering why there appear to be two layers of lead wheel weights stuck onto their brake calipers. It's a mystery Charlie Brown!

The confusion started when a poster uploaded an image of his new Camaro's Brembo calipers, on which were riding two rows of lead weights, normally affixed to the inside of a wheel rim to balance the tire. This led everyone with a Camaro to run outside to see it their mullet machine's also had the weights, which they do, at least on among the folks on the forum. GM has not answered to the confusion yet, but the leading theory is they were place on the caliper as a quick and dirty fix to alleviate brake squeal. From a physics perspective, this explanation is plausible, as resonant frequency is in large part determined by mass, and by changing the vibrating mass of the caliper with the weights, a troublesome squeal would be eliminated for a particular driving condition.

The trouble is if they're using normal brake weights, the heat cycling of the caliper will eventually cause the adhesive to fail and, if things get too serious on the track, the lead could actually melt. Though it's an odd issue and not really a big deal, we'll be keeping you in on the loop during Camaro brake-gate, though we recommend Camaro owners visit their local dealer and have their muffler bearings, blinker fluid, and piston-return springs checked out, just in case. Click here for the high-resolution image."]Forumites at Camaro5 have been collectively scratching their heads for a couple days, wondering why there appear to be two layers of lead wheel weights stuck onto their brake calipers. It's a mystery Charlie Brown!

The confusion started when a poster uploaded an image of his new Camaro's Brembo calipers, on which were riding two rows of lead weights, normally affixed to the inside of a wheel rim to balance the tire. This led everyone with a Camaro to run outside to see it their mullet machine's also had the weights, which they do, at least on among the folks on the forum. GM has not answered to the confusion yet, but the leading theory is they were place on the caliper as a quick and dirty fix to alleviate brake squeal. From a physics perspective, this explanation is plausible, as resonant frequency is in large part determined by mass, and by changing the vibrating mass of the caliper with the weights, a troublesome squeal would be eliminated for a particular driving condition.

The trouble is if they're using normal brake weights, the heat cycling of the caliper will eventually cause the adhesive to fail and, if things get too serious on the track, the lead could actually melt. Though it's an odd issue and not really a big deal, we'll be keeping you in on the loop during Camaro brake-gate, though we recommend Camaro owners visit their local dealer and have their muffler bearings, blinker fluid, and piston-return springs checked out, just in case. Click here for the high-resolution image.
You might think the General would have addressed the brake weights added to the Chevy Camaro's squealing calipers for their Indy 500 pace cars. You'd be wrong, because these have those plus a ton of weights for actual wheel balancing.

Shhhh, those are probably just "speed weights," you know, to keep the car firmly on the ground during high speed pace car duties.