Chevy unveils VF/Chevy SS Nascar

[bigwil]

Looks like epica and cruze love child.

[HULK EF]

VE looked tougher.. almost BA GT-ish if you squinted hard enough.. that Vf headlights looked like sucked caramel and Tail lights have aurion/toyota checking their tail light stock for theft..

[pmacc]

looks very close to the new chevy/holden malibu

[HULK EF]

Seems a few on LS1 forums are allready see'ing and not like'ing the "Cruize" and "Daewoo" connection looks... lol

[LeadFoot81]

Very Americanized styling. Feels like Australia is getting the Chevrolet SS rebadged as a Commodore, rather than the Yanks getting a Holden Commodore and rebadging it as a Chevy SS. Thumbs down from me.

[Buntz]

Originally Posted by HULK EF

VE looked tougher.. almost BA GT-ish if you squinted hard enough.. that Vf headlights looked like sucked caramel and Tail lights have aurion/toyota checking their tail light stock for theft..

Helps when the VE borrowed heavily on the overall shape and lines of the BA.

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

Turn left, turn left, turn left, turn left, Crash!, safety car.

Repeat lots times then wake me when it's over

Mind you put them on a road course and it gets quite exciting.

..........

The car will prob look better when its in the flesh....well one would expect because that thing looks like garbage.

[MethodX]

Looks ok for a Nascar, hopefully it wins and kicks toyota ***.

[FPV GTHO]

Originally Posted by Buntz

Helps when the VE borrowed heavily on the overall shape and lines of the BA.

Thats an extremely long bow to draw.

That would suggest the silhouette and proportions of VE and BA matched up, to which they were nothing alike. VE drew criticism for its BA styled headlights. That was about the strongest link.

[Dave R]

Holden have never disappointed in the design department, I'm guessing GM and Chevrolet have had a lot of say in the design of those bland, Cruze-esque head and tail lights. It's actually looking like an evolution of Cruze. Hopefully it's not as aweful on the VE's body.

[Fab]

Originally Posted by Falcman0o7

how?....

Whincup's not winning.

[Motorbreath310]

Not liking the epica-esque designs from GM lately. Not because they're particularly bad, but they already look dated, and there's nothing notably-distinguished about them. They just look like bland cheap crap that could've come from anywhere.

When you look at the Malibu shown above, and compare it to VF spy photos, the openings in the lower front bumper and the crease along the bootline are both similar. It's not going to look like a Commodore any more. Hopefully it'll still look nice and the interior hasn't been too 'Americanised'.

[mattp]

Some renderings from Car & Driver in the States, which tee up pretty well with the details evident on the Nascar...

"Our artists have managed to get a look at a Chevrolet SS and came up with the rendering you see here. It shows a front end inspired by a combination of the Caprice PPV, 2014 Impala, and 2013 Malibu; a vertical fender vent that flows into sculpted door skins ; and taillights similar to those on the Cruze."





I reckon it looks pretty good, at least in the renderings.

Cheers,
Matt

[T3ts50]

Yeah that would look alright, if it we were still in the 90's. Very bland and dated IMO.

[Falcman0o7]

Originally Posted by vztrt

Mind you put them on a road course and it gets quite exciting.

..........

The car will prob look better when its in the flesh....well one would expect because that thing looks like garbage.

Agree and ambrose seems to do well on them also.

[Mighty Reds]

Not a fan of headlight designs that make the car look like its surprised.
The current liberty suffers from this.

[350125GO]

Originally Posted by mattp

Some renderings from Car & Driver in the States, which tee up pretty well with the details evident on the Nascar...

"Our artists have managed to get a look at a Chevrolet SS and came up with the rendering you see here. It shows a front end inspired by a combination of the Caprice PPV, 2014 Impala, and 2013 Malibu; a vertical fender vent that flows into sculpted door skins ; and taillights similar to those on the Cruze."

image

image

I reckon it looks pretty good, at least in the renderings.

Cheers,
Matt

Looks a bit like the E series Merc.

[Jastel]

Watching the Nascar awards and they just said 71% of Americans prefer the new chev to the Ford 23%, or Toyota 6%.
So they like it anyway.

[Mighty Reds]

Originally Posted by Jastel

Watching the Nascar awards and they just said 71% of Americans prefer the new chev to the Ford 23%, or Toyota 6%.
So they like it anyway.

Most NASCAR fans would also think Earnhardt Jr is a better driver than Sebastian Vettel too, sheep mentality.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by Jastel

Watching the Nascar awards and they just said 71% of Americans prefer the new chev to the Ford 23%, or Toyota 6%.
So they like it anyway.

The home of Nascar is the South, and they've always preferred Chebbies down there

[Windsor220]

Doesn't look bad but it looks old. I'm guessing the grill will be different for us which may modern it a bit.

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by Jastel

Watching the Nascar awards and they just said 71% of Americans prefer the new chev to the Ford 23%, or Toyota 6%.
So they like it anyway.

But they'll go out and buy a pick up, SUV or people mover instead of a sedan.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by LeadFoot81

Very Americanized styling. Feels like Australia is getting the Chevrolet SS rebadged as a Commodore, rather than the Yanks getting a Holden Commodore and rebadging it as a Chevy SS. Thumbs down from me.

What do you expect, GMNA did the bulk of the work on VF including new interiors.

[TC200six]

Originally Posted by Falcman0o7

how?....

The category contests more than 2 teams per year.

V8SC is still my sport though.

[fou_bleu]

Reserve judgement till real thing...

Originally Posted by Nikked

YEah, thats what i want to know...

Cars smashing up ripple strips, switch backs, fight's for position and some sideways action out of corners?

Supercars are heaps better!

I think I remember that one lap you're referring to this year ;)

[Buntz]

Originally Posted by mattp

Some renderings from Car & Driver in the States, which tee up pretty well with the details evident on the Nascar...

"Our artists have managed to get a look at a Chevrolet SS and came up with the rendering you see here. It shows a front end inspired by a combination of the Caprice PPV, 2014 Impala, and 2013 Malibu; a vertical fender vent that flows into sculpted door skins ; and taillights similar to those on the Cruze."

image

image

I reckon it looks pretty good, at least in the renderings.

Cheers,
Matt

Doesn't look too bad. This might rock your socks though:


http://www.autoblog.com/2012/11/30/h...ette-halo-car/
(For the clicking impaired)

Yesterday on a stage on the Encore Theater at The Wynn Resort in Las Vegas, Chevrolet revealed its NASCAR SS, the race car that will contest next year's Sprint Cup series. A lot of people are talking about this car, and doing so well beyond the NASCAR fraternity – we were told that 30 minutes after it began the car became the number one trending topic on Twitter. The car looks great, Jeff Gordon showed up for some banter, everyone who was there applauded, the assembled drivers said the the right things.

But it was at lunch after the event with Mark Reuss, president of General Motors North America, and Jim Caldwell, US vice president of performance vehicles and motorsports, that we learned what we really wanted to know. That story centered on the car that the NASCAR Chevrolet SS heralds, the production Chevrolet SS that will go on sale late next year. Reuss was quick to lay out two of the biggest issues surrounding it: "The only reason we brought this car over is to go racing," and "This is not a return of the Pontiac G8."


So let's get the obligatory NASCAR derision out of the way first, shall we? Yes, NASCAR Chevrolet SS is the Bowtie's version of NASCAR's 2013 not-really-Car-of-Tomorrow, meaning it's got a tube-frame chassis that you won't find on the options sheet of the production SS. And yes, it's covered in decals that mimic the features and lines of the SS production car, except for the rather important part where it has just two doors to the production car's four doors. So no, it's not exactly a stock car, and even if it wins on Sunday you can't really buy it on Monday.

Yet the 2013 car – no longer called the CoT – is a huge step for NASCAR, nearly two years in the works, to try to get more "stock" back into the series. Primary reasons for the seven-year development of the 2007 CoT were driver safety, lower costs and improved competition, but the formula went so far that teams were running "a template car, it was just decals," Reuss said. A press colleague added, "You couldn't tell what car was coming out of Turn 4 until you saw the number." "It became about drivers and sponsors," said Reuss, "and we said 'hey, we need to get back to the stock car roots.'"

Chevrolet was one of the first manufacturers to go to NASCAR executives to suggest a collaboration on a new formula. Caldwell said the three hot points that Chevrolet had were that "We want the car we race to be the car we sell," which is also about how the race car looks, "we want relevant technologies and we want biofuels." NASCAR could address two of those, which next year's car does. If you're wondering about the biofuels request, here's a look at just some of Chevrolet's manfacturer and engine supplier championship victories in 2012: Ryan Hunter-Reay's championship-winning Indycar uses a Chevy V6, the C6.R Corvette took the ALMS GT series, as did the Grand Am Daytona prototype Corvette, the Chevy Cruze took the World Touring Car Championship, Holden nabbed Australia's V8 Supercars championship. All those other series use ethanol.

Beyond the surface initiative of the first request – and a look at the Stock Surfaces slide (above) reveals a close similarity between the NASCAR SS and the one you'll be able to buy – there was also work for Chevy to do. That's why the front-wheel-drive Impala is out and the rear-wheel-drive, small-block-V8-powered SS is in.

Reuss has a particular interest in what happens with the SS because he was Managing Director at Holden while the next-generation Holden Commodore, the VE series – the car that is the SS in its original guise – was being developed. He said that from inception, it was decided that the VE series would be the car that would become Chevrolet's RWD halo sedan, rumors from three years ago even pegging it as a Chevy SS, and spearhead its NASCAR efforts.

The Australia-to-US move has been tried before with the Pontiac Monaro and G8, neither one working out as hoped. There are two vital ways in which the SS will not be The Pontiac G8 2.0, however: It's going upmarket and it's not for the masses

In fact, Reuss said the SS is a completely different car from the G8, specifically in terms of refinement and NVH, and that's before you get to the high-power small-block V8 that, in his words, makes the SS "a four-door Corvette." The user interface, the tactile points, the perceived and real touches are a step in another direction, "quite different" is what we were told. Above that, Reuss said the entire SS package has been about making sure all aspects of the car fit together. "The integration in NVH, ride and handling has to match, and the refinement of the car will match the performance of the car." The meaning for us is, "Don't expect this to be like the G8 or the G8 GXP." We should expect it to be better. We don't have a problem with that, since the G8 GXP was one of our favorite cars.

Any time you mention the word Corvette, you're probably not talking about an inexpensive car. Add two more doors, three more seats, the tuning work needed to keep the word "Corvette" in the conversation and the phrase "halo car," and you're definitely not talking about an inexpensive vehicle. Therefore, Chevy is treating the SS like a halo car: Instead of making grand predictions about production volumes or churning out a performance car that sits on dealer lots, Reuss said, "We will fill the orders of the people who want them."

In terms of where SS buyers might also be looking, Caldwell said, "We're in a unique spot because there isn't a lot of competition at the Chevy level."

When we succumbed to asking the boilerplate "Who is this car for?" question that always comes up when a manufacturer presents an upmarket offering, Reuss looked thoughtful and said, "Anyone who has the right amount of money and shows up in a Chevrolet dealership, we will sell them this car." Point taken. "You don't want to overthink this stuff – we haven't focus-grouped it," he added. "It's going to be a really good car. People are going to want it." Right on.

Said buyer could be faced with a shorter options sheet than that of the G8, though, Reuss saying "Pontiac had all kinds of options and trim levels [for the G8]. This will be different." Again, this sounds like halo-car talk.

As for the name, there is a bit of heritage to the SS badge as a nameplate, but it seems this was more about steering clear of what has come before. There was an SS concept car in 2003, and in 1957 there was a factory-backed SS racing project that used the Corvette but it didn't get beyond a few laps of of one race. "We raced the Impala, Monte Carlo, Regal, Grand Prix, and they were all front-wheel-drive in their last [production] versions," Reuss said, "and we didn't want to come up with a new name for it." As such, what's happening now is also about returning some lustre to the SS badge, assuming it wins on Sunday come 2013: Reuss said he purged all of the SS models from the Chevrolet line-up except on the Camaro because none of the other offerings were about increased performance, only trim pieces, which is a bit of a slap in the face to an acronym for "Super Sport."

It will be three months before we see the production version of the SS revealed at Daytona Speed Week, the same week the NASCAR SS hits the track, but almost a year before we can buy it. Asked by another journo whether he thought the SS was American enough, Reuss said – hinting at the decades-old icon it will house in its engine bay – "It's American enough."

While we wait for that verdict, there's a press release with more info on the NASCAR SS below, a large gallery of high-res photos above.

They are treating the SS as a "Halo Car" or "Foor-door Corvette".

Yep, time to send over the Falcon and knock 'em dead.

[Buntz]

May as well have the press release too:

2013 NASCAR Chevrolet SS Unveiled
Will Debut at the 2013 Daytona SpeedWeeks in February

LAS VEGAS – Chevrolet today opened a new chapter in its storied racing history, unveiling its eagerly anticipated 2013 NASCAR Chevrolet SS race car. Powered by the legendary small block V-8 engine, the rear-wheel drive performance sedan will be Chevrolet's newest entry in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, beginning with the 2013 SpeedWeeks in Daytona, Fla.

The new NASCAR race car closely resembles the all-new rear wheel drive V-8 Chevrolet SS performance sedan that will debut early next year.

"As a passionate race fan, the debut of the SS NASCAR race car is a genuinely exciting moment for me," said GM North America President Mark Reuss. "With the SS, Chevrolet is delivering a true rear-wheel-drive NASCAR race car that is very closely linked to the performance sedan that will be available for sale, ensuring that our most loyal enthusiasts will have the opportunity to experience the same thrill every day on the open road that our race car drivers enjoy on the track on race day.

"The Chevrolet SS also demonstrates how we are able to leverage our global product portfolio to deliver a unique performance experience," Reuss said. "The specialized development and testing work done for the race car will certainly benefit the entire Chevrolet product lineup."

The Chevrolet SS is the next in a long line of famed nameplates that Chevrolet has campaigned in NASCAR. It replaces Impala, which scored 152 wins from 1959-64 and 2007-12.

"We are looking forward to another exciting year of NASCAR competition and expect that the new SS race car, with some of the most skilled drivers on the circuit behind the wheel, will distinguish itself on the track," said Jim Campbell, U.S. vice president of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports.

The Chevrolet SS will be a derivative of the award-winning global rear-wheel-drive architecture that spawns performance vehicles like Chevrolet Camaro and Holden's upcoming VF Commodore. The limited production version of the Chevrolet SS will be a 2014 model and will arrive in dealer showrooms in late 2013. It is the first time in 17 years that Chevrolet will offer a rear-wheel-drive sedan for sale in the United States.

Chevrolet has long used the SS (Super Sport) designation on high-performance models of some of its most enduring nameplates. The SS designation first appeared in 1957 on a Corvette prototype race car built under the guidance of Zora Arkus-Duntov with the plan to enter it in the Le Mans 24-hour race.

The first production vehicle to be offered with an SS optional package was the 1961 Impala – 453 were built with the performance upgrades, which included a modified chassis and suspension, power brakes, a steering column mounted tachometer and unique wheels and tires. The SS designation returned to the Chevrolet lineup in 2010 with the debut of the fifth-generation Camaro.

Chevrolet has 702 victories in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, more than any other manufacturer. Fonty Flock earned the manufacturer's first win on March 26, 1955, at Columbia, S.C. Five-time series champion Jimmie Johnson achieved Chevrolet's 700th victory earlier this month at Texas Motor Speedway.

Chevrolet was America's best-selling performance car brand in 2011 with Camaro and Corvette accounting for one out of every three sports cars sold in the United States. The addition of the SS to the lineup is expected to further strengthen Chevrolet's position as a leading performance brand.

Hopefully Falcon has left as big an impression on Bob Graziano, as Commodore did on Mark Reuss.

[Bossxr8]

If they are going to keep the price up it's no wonder they are expecting such tiny sales, based on how cheap you can buy some performance cars in the US for.

[rjr]

I saw the new Nascars on Speed last night and they look slightly better than they look in the pics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1HAsXCEFYY

[note > lots of burnouts]

[TC200six]

Originally Posted by rjr

I saw the new Nascars on Speed last night and they look slightly better than they look in the pics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1HAsXCEFYY

[note > lots of burnouts]

Those stock cars have epic exhaust sounds, especially Truex Jr.'s Toyota. These are the small things about NASCAR I like better than V8SC. You never see V8SC doing large street burnout parades like that and the exhaust sounds they have put our Australian touring cars to shame.