Chevy SS Production Ends

In some sad news, General Motors has just disbanded its High Performance Vehicle Operations, putting all high-performance projects on an indefinite hold. This means no more new “SS” Chevy’s, V8 Colorado’s and even V-series Cadillacs.

According to a report from Automotive News, there are absolutely no plans for high-performance versions of any of the company’s upcoming cars. The bright spot out of all this is it doesn’t stop current vehicles from getting high-performance variants — so all of you out there looking to buy a Cobalt SS or CTS-V are safe for the moment.
This is, of course, due to the world’s bad economy and GM’s viability plan to keep alive. But who wants to buy cars if they aren’t fun to drive? As a caddy commercial asked, When you turn on your car, does it return the favor?

Cchevy Cruze with Its Engine

The bad news just keeps coming down the pipe for General Motors and Flint, Michigan. It has been reported that construction contracts for the new $370 million engine plant that was going up in Flint have been canceled. In fact, GM actually stopped work on the project in early December. The plant was to produce the new 1.4-liter 4 cylinder engine for the 2011 Chevy Cruze and Volt. GM spokeswoman Sharon Basel has said to reporters that they always had the intention for the engines of the early production runs of the Cruze and Volt to be supplied from a European facility that already builds variants of GM’s so-called “Family 0″ powertrains. The Flint plant would not have been ready for start of production of Cruze next spring.

However, with the continuing financial crisis and weak sales, GM’s European factory has basically enough capacity to supply Cruze and Volt for a while so that the automaker can conserve capital. The timing of construction was reaching a point where GM would have had to commit to spending millions of additional dollars that it doesn’t have right now. Therefore, the general has opted to cancel the contracts and put the plant on hold until the situation improves. In the meantime, both vehicle programs are still on schedule and otherwise unaffected by these decisions.

Jeremy Clarkson Sitting on the 2009 Corvette ZR1 - Car of the Year

Cranky Brit auto-journalist extraordinaire Jeremy Clarkson has, shockingly, named the 2009 Corvette ZR1 the best car of this past year. Of course, he also selected an American car as one of the worst.

When Jeremy Clarkson first reviewed the ZR1 he claimed love for the American-made supercar despite the propensity for it to disintegrate. In his year-end retrospective for the Sunday Times he essentially repeats this claim but says, despite this, it was the best car of the year.

And then out of nowhere came the ZR1, which has a supercharged V8 that manages to be both docile and extraordinarily savage all at the same time. I’ve been trying to think of a dog that pulls off a similar trick, but there isn’t one. And anyway, this car is not a dog.

It is an epic car and I’m only sad that unless the healthcare and pensions company that makes it can be turned around, it will be the last of the breed.

By selecting the new Corvette ZR1 as the best car of this past year Clarkson is agreeing with our ZR1 review, in which we stated it was “the best car ever made” and had an Amerigasm so massive the earth shook. He also seconds our fear of the Carpocalypse halting the return of the great American car.

Of course, he has some bad things to say about the Chrysler Sebring but, c’mon, who doesn’t hate the Sebring?

The Sebring is an extraordinary car. Ugly to behold and hateful to drive, it is not cheap, elegant, comfortable, practical, prestigious, clever, economical, luxurious, well designed, well thought out or, if the rental car I drove in America this year is anything to go by, especially well made either.

Those wacky guys at MotorTrend get all the fun. When they were given the keys of the new awe-inspiring Corvette ZR1, they decided to pit it against the mighty Ferrari 599 GTB, Nissan GT-R and Porsche 911 GT2. Luckily for us, they threw us a bone by recording the supercar showdown for the world to see. Hit the jump to see the 638-hp Corvette ZR1 take on some of the best and brightest from Italy, Germany, and Japan. We watched the video 4 different times, just to see the differences in the starts and finishes of 4 very different supercars.
For fun, BEFORE you watch the video, guess what will be the result and let us know if you were right or wrong. The results shouldn’t surprise you, but the start might. This Drag race of the Chevy Corvette ZR1 vs Ferrari 599 vs Porsche 911 GT2 Vs Nissan GT-R is a good one!

Ford managed to be nice and save money by wishing GM a happy 100th birthday not by cake and card, but by spelling it out in lights on the side of their world headquarters in Dearborn, MI. Whether the act was that of penny-pinching or creativity, one thing’s for sure — it was a well done. We managed to get the memo sent around reminding Ford’s world headquarters staff to keep their blinds open below the jump.

    Subject: WHQ Illumination for GM’s 100th Anniversary

A few years back we celebrated our 100th year in business…and what a great 100 years it was. On Tuesday, September 16th General Motors will be celebrating its 100th year anniversary.

As a sign of goodwill and to offer our congratulations, WHQ will be illuminating the south side of the building Monday night commemorating their 100th Birthday.

This will be accomplished by strategically opening and closing specific blinds on the south side of the building. On Monday, September 15 please do not change the position or direction of your blinds to ensure that WHQ is brightly illuminated for the 100th Anniversary of General Motors. We ask your cooperation and thank you for helping us make Ford Motor Company shine.

Happy Birthday General Motors, congrats Ford.

Sure, We’ve all seen the Camaro SS in unofficial photos, many, many times. But you probably haven’t seen the official photos of a 2010 Camaro SS in front of a dark background. Or maybe you have. Either way, GM has officially posted another set of photos of the Chevrolet Camaro SS, which looks remarkably like the other 2010 Camaros we’ve seen.

The Camaro SS will be getting the LS3 6.2-liter V8, along with the 422 horsepower and 408 lb-ft of torque that comes with it.

Otherwise, not much to see here. Moving along.

This C6 Corvette ragtop has been caught rear-ending a W210 Mercedes E-Class in Ventura county on the morning of September 5th. Luckily, no one was hurt, but take a look at the the structural integrity of a convertible Corvette. Considering that it has driven under a 2 Ton Mercedes Benz, its remarkably in shape. One must wonder how the Vette driver felt after it was all over, staring up at the Mercedes’ driveshaft.

More pics after the jump

We can’t help but wonder, if the Vette driver had had the inclination to keep on the gas, would he have been able to go completely under the Benz and end up in front?

The 2009 Dodge Viper ACR has now claimed the fastest time ever for a production car around the Nürburgring. A lap of 7:22 is just a few seconds quicker than the 7:26.4 lap set by the 2009 Corvette ZR1. Not that it comes as much of a surprise, since the ACR is the most brutal version of the already-unforgiving Viper, whereas the ZR1 has taller gears and is still built for driving well on the road. Nonetheless, the Viper ACR is the new unofficial king of the ‘Ring.

If you’d like to compare its on-board video of the record lap to the ZR1’s video, check it out over at Motor Trend. Looks like Jim Mero may have to head back to Germany and set that faster lap he was talking about. [Motor Trend]

An out-of-control Hertz Corvette ZHZ crashed into a popular and upscale Dallas restaurant yesterday, proving yet again the age-old axiom, “with great rental horsepower, comes greatly diminished responsibility.”

The basically brand new special edition “Velocity Yellow” ‘vette with a black hood and roof stripe was added to Hertz’s Fun Collection” lineup only about 1 month ago. So yea, it was about time one was smashed up by some idiot vacationer hoping to play with too much horsepower.

Considering the 436 HP 6.2-liter V8 under the hood tied to a flappy paddle gearbox, this thing was just begging to create a “Corvette ZHZ Crash Watch.” Oh well, we guess we’ll just have to wait for the next one — there’s at least 499 more chances depending on whether Hertz can fix ‘em. Until Next Time…

After months and months of teaser photos, the brand new 2010 Chevrolet Camaro has finally made its debut! And we were there to give you the video of Chevrolet introducing the car to the world via its own webcast.

Well now there’s a high resolution set of 56 photos showing off the interior and exterior of the car in Red, Yellow and Silver. In the stanard, RS, and SS trims. So basically if you want a configuration of the 2010 Camaro, here’s a picture of it.

Enjoy the Gallery of the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro from GM.

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