Chevrolet working hard on its car of the future
For Chevrolet, that means more closely aligning what fans will see on the track to what they manufacture for the street.
"I think what we all learned with the 2011 Nationwide car is that you can balance looks and performance," said Mark Kent, director of racing for General Motors. "The cars are distinctively different. So each of us was able to get more manufacturer identity. And I think what we saw on the track showed that it could be done.
"So as we go forward toward the 2013 Cup car, we're working to push that envelope even farther. Each of the manufacturers wants to get more identity into the car. And NASCAR, based on what they learned, is a lot more open to help us work collaboratively in 2013 to meet all of our objectives."
For Chevrolet, those objectives are the use of biofuels, relevant technologies that take cost into consideration and a distinctive design that allows the manufacturer to market and promote its products.
"For the series we compete in, in motorsports, we're looking for series that run on biofuels," said Jim Campbell, U.S. vice president for performance vehicles and motorsports. "We want to use relevant technologies that don't push the costs up so high that it's unaffordable. Then we want the vehicle to be distinctive in a way that it can be associated with us.
"In the case of NASCAR, they've moved on to biofuels. They're going to go to an E-15 ethanol. I'm very pleased about that. And with the other two, we're working very closely with NASCAR on that. … For NASCAR, the car on the tracks looks like the car we sell."
What that car might be, Campbell didn't say.
"We are working on a car for 2013 that will look like a production car that will be in the market at that time," Campbell said. More at nascar.com