General Motors President for North America Mark Reuss promises that fans of NASCAR and the Chevrolet brand will be in for a treat in 2013—a year that will be known as the year NASCAR let the manufacturers put some four-wheeled personality back into the series.
Reuss and Jim Campbell, U.S. Vice President, Performance Vehicles and Motorsports, sat down with Autoweek on Thursday morning in Las Vegas following the glitzy reveal of its 2013 NASCAR Chevrolet SS to discuss the company's newest super stock racing model. Reuss and Campbell are hopeful that all of the new-look NASCAR models in the series—the Chevy SS, Ford Fusion and Toyota Camry—will combine to bring back an excitement to the sport that Reuss remembers from three decades ago.
NASCAR got this call right, says Reuss.
“I can remember in the mid-'80s in NASCAR, we ran Buicks and Oldsmobiles and Pontiacs and Chevrolets,” Reuss said. “Those cars had really distinct front sections—the grille, the splitter, everything. The Pontiacs were completely different from the Buicks, completely different from the Chevrolet Monte Carlo, completely different from the Cutlasses, all that stuff. That's what made it stock-car racing.
“You knew what you saw. You didn't have to see a bowtie on it to know what it was, and that's sort of the test. Those were the days when the sport exploded. It was huge. The whole heritage of the sport was based on stock cars.”
NASCAR is finally coming out of a historical era where it has become a car series that could be called templating on steroids. Manufacturers were left to get more and more creative with stickers on sheet metal in an effort to make the cars look more like their alter egos back in the showroom, or at least a little different from the car sitting next to it on the NASCAR starting grid.
Hardly anyone was fooled.
“It's been a collaborative effort [with NASCAR] for more than two years,” Reuss said of the change away from the Car of Tomorrow. “How do we make the cars unique? We decided we were going to create a Chevrolet SS that is going to be V8, rear-wheel drive, and look like the car we're selling in the showroom.
“That was one of the three things we wanted. We wanted the car we race at the track to be connected to the car we sell in the showroom. We wanted relevant technologies in NASCAR that didn't drive up the cost of racing. And we wanted biofuels. The three things we worked on together with NASCAR, and we came away for '13 with the Chevy SS.”
The Chevy SS replaces the Impala, which scored 152 wins from 1959-64 and 2007-12.
Campbell said that there are also three goals with the manufacturer's association with motorsports, and the new cars are a part of the formula.
“We race for three reasons,” Campbell said. “One is tech transfer. What we learn on the track helps us make better production cars and powertrains. Two, when you win big races and championships, it lifts the image and opinion of the brand, and good things happen. Customers put you on the shopping list faster.
“And, three, customers give you a lot of time in the racing environment. Customers hang out with us and their fellow customers at the racetrack. It gives us a chance to show them our latest products and we can interact with perspective customers who don't own Chevrolets. The whole focus is to sell a car, truck or part. That's our focus every week.”
General Motors zigged a bit where the other two manufacturers zagged when it came time to choose the model nameplate for its 2013 Sprint Cup Series car. While Ford and Toyota chose to stick with high-volume production models with the Fusion and Camry, the Chevy model is one that Reuss admits won't likely be a big seller in the U.S. showrooms.
“It's going to be a relatively low-volume—probably between 10,000 and 15,000 units—but we really don't know because we'll make as many as we sell,” Reuss said. “There's no target, there's no goal. We're bringing the car here to go racing. That's the No. 1 goal. It will be a halo for Chevrolet. We really don't have a high-performance four-door sedan in the lineup. It fills that niche. We'll make as many as people want.”

Without getting into price points, Reuss was smooth to share his vision of the Chevy SS showroom market.
“Anyone who has the right amount of money and shows up in a Chevrolet dealership, we will sell them this car,” Reuss said. "You don't want to over-think this stuff. We haven't focus-grouped it. It's going to be a really good car. People are going to want it.
“We will fill the orders of people who want one instead of declaring some kind of production volume and trying to fill it from across the ocean.”
The production model Chevy SS, which will be manufactured in Australia, will be unveiled at Daytona in February.
Will it be American enough for NASCAR and the fan loyalty that comes with the sport?
“We'll see,” Reuss said. “I think it is. The heart of it is from here. That's a pretty important point.”
Rumors throughout this year had pegged Chevy's NASCAR model as being the Impala or possibly even the Malibu. Instead, it's the SS that will be going after Chevy's 11th consecutive Sprint Cup Series manufacturer's championship next season. Chevy also won the manufacturers' championship in the Nationwide Series, Camping World Truck Series and the IndyCar Series to score a sweep in major U.S. motorsports.
“They can't do an SS,” Reuss said of his NASCAR Sprint Cup rivals. “That's always attractive to me. We've done Impala, Monte Carlo, Grand Prix, all that stuff for a long time, and it was all front-wheel drive. The SS is very special for Chevrolet because it is rear-wheel drive and not front-wheel drive. The SS has a lot of meaning over a long period of time. When it was done right, it included the very highest performance.”
Reuss used the words “a four-door Corvette” when describing what the small-block V8 power package the SS will bring to Chevy's lineup.
The limited-production version of the Chevrolet SS will be a 2014 model, and is is expected to arrive in dealer showrooms in late 2013. It will mark the first time in 17 years that Chevrolet will offer a rear-wheel-drive sedan for sale in the U.S.
The first production vehicle to be offered with an SS optional package by Chevrolet was the 1961 Impala. A total of 453 were built with the performance upgrades, which included a modified chassis and suspension, power brakes and a steering column mounted tachometer.
In, 2010 Chevy brought back the SS designation with the debut of its fifth-generation Camaro.
“We're thinking about the Chevrolet showroom,” Reuss said. “We have no sedan that is a high-performance sedan. That's the void that the SS fills. We're not going to rank order of performance by model or any of that stuff. The Corvette will naturally always be the fastest high-performance thing we do. When you start laddering performance, it's a very dangerous game.
“This will be a very special car for Chevrolet,” Reuss said. “This will be a pretty special SS.”

..4 door corvette

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 151 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.

Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world's largest car brands, doing business in more than 140 countries and selling more than 4 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature spirited performance, expressive design and high quality.