Automotive Einstein

You may think that southeast Michigan, home to General Motors’ proving ground in Milford, gets plenty cold enough in winter. Yet for true cold-weather testing, GM engineers subjected the next-generation C7 Corvette to the extreme chill of northern Canada. That gave our spy photographers a chance to snap photos of this prototype version of the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette as it is readied for production.

Photo Gallery: 2014 Chevrolet C7 Corvette – Spied Vehicles – Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: 2014 Chevrolet C7 Corvette – Spied Vehicles – Automobile Magazine

Chevrolet’s stand at the Detroit auto show provided an intriguing if confusing look into the bow-tie brand’s sport compact strategy, from the mild — a slightly modified version of the Sonic due out later this year — to the wild — a Lamborghini Gallardo knock-off called the Tru 140S, which would ride on the same platform as the Cruze.

Photo Gallery: Is Chevrolet Serious About Its $20,000, Rear-Wheel-Drive Sports Car? – Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: Is Chevrolet Serious About Its $20,000, Rear-Wheel-Drive Sports Car? – Automobile Magazine

Chevrolet knows damn well how to build a sports car. Evidence: the Corvette. Ever since the mid-1950s, it has defined the very idea of what an American sports car is. Attempts to create a second Chevrolet sports car, however, have been met with less success. Excepting the Chevelle SS and a handful of Camaros — and maybe the Corvair Monza if we’re being generous — it’s been rare to find a performance Chevy as inspired as the Corvette. The 2010 revival of the Camaro raised our hopes, until its sloppy handling and performance-numbing obesity torpedoed our expectations. The 2012 Camaro ZL1 changes all of that with huge power, sophisticated technology, and exceptional handling.

Photo Gallery: Sibling Rivarly: 2012 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and 2012 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport – Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: Sibling Rivarly: 2012 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and 2012 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport – Automobile Magazine

Our 2011 Automobile of the Year didn’t earn a spot on our 2012 All-Stars list, but the Chevy Volt’s powertrain is still a massively impressive piece of engineering. The Volt’s key trick is a seamless transition between running on electricity and gasoline. The gas/electric drivetrain allows for roughly 35 miles of driving range using electricity stored in a large lithium-ion battery before firing up a small, four-cylinder gas engine for another 300 miles of range. The dual power sources offer all of the incentives of driving an electric vehicle — charging at home, cheap energy, and the potential for reduced emissions — while eliminating the inconvenience of limited range and slow charging times that afflict pure electric vehicles.

Photo Gallery: 2012 Chevrolet Volt – Editors’ Notebook – Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: 2012 Chevrolet Volt – Editors’ Notebook – Automobile Magazine

Kids. Young’uns. Whippersnappers. Generation Y. Millennials. Call them what you may, but don’t call them irrelevant when it comes to purchasing power. General Motors estimates this group, which consists of about 80 million consumers in the U.S alone., has a collective purchasing power of about $1 trillion. That’s the sort of gold vein any automaker would love to tap into, but few do so effectively.

Photo Gallery: Chevrolet Code 130R and Tru 140S Concepts – 2012 Detroit Auto Show – Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: Chevrolet Code 130R and Tru 140S Concepts – 2012 Detroit Auto Show – Automobile Magazine

You’d probably never expect this pretty green 1936 Chevy to have a horn that sounds like that of a diesel train locomotive. Tap the button at the center of the steering wheel, however, and the thundering noise startles just about everyone within earshot. When the double-hinged, passenger-side hood panels are raised, the source of the sound becomes obvious: two huge trumpetlike horns hang prominently above the six-cylinder engine, which isn’t much longer than the horns themselves.

Photo Gallery: Collectible Classic: 1935-1936 Chevrolet Master DeLuxe – Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: Collectible Classic: 1935-1936 Chevrolet Master DeLuxe – Automobile Magazine

A stiff clutch pedal and a manual shifter that doesn’t move through the gears with much fluidity make the Camaro SS a chore to drive around town. The tall cowl, small windows, huge A-pillars, and tall, broad hood are also bummers, because you can easily feel claustrophobic in this car. If you’re a Camaro person, you might not much care, but I find the Ford Mustang to be easier to drive and to have a more livable cabin than the Camaro. I suppose I would have liked our test Camaro better had it been equipped with the Hurst short-throw shifter, which seems like it would be $380 well-spent.

Photo Gallery: 2012 Chevrolet Camaro 2SS – Editors’ Notebook – Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: 2012 Chevrolet Camaro 2SS – Editors’ Notebook – Automobile Magazine