First 2012 Camaro ZL1 Brings $250,000 for Charity

From Chevrolet.com:

The first 2012 Camaro ZL1 offered to the public sold for $250,000 at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Las Vegas on Saturday evening.

The car was offered by Fairway Chevrolet-Buick-GMC in Las Vegas, with 100 percent of the auction proceeds benefitting the YMCA of Southern Nevada.

Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports and chairman of Hendrick Automotive Group, placed the winning bid and is expected to take delivery of his new Camaro in the first quarter of 2012. His will be the only 2012 Camaro ZL1 coupe produced with a Carbon Flash Metallic exterior. It will be the 69th ZL1 produced at the Oshawa Assembly Plant, in tribute of the legendary 1969 Camaro ZL1, of which only 69 were produced.

“Our family has been involved with the YMCA for more than 25 years,” said Greg Heinrich, president of Fairway Chevrolet. “In that time, I have seen firsthand how the ‘Y’ helps young people, families, and seniors in our community. Today, the community’s dependence on the YMCA of Southern Nevada is greater than ever, with the Y sponsoring one out of four members.
Hendrick’s generosity will allow the YMCA of Southern Nevada to open its doors many more people who need a helping hand.

“Like the original, the 2012 Camaro ZL1 introduces a performance benchmark for the street and the track,” said Russ Clark, marketing director for Chevrolet performance cars. “Offering the 69th Camaro ZL1 at auction was a fitting tribute to the 1969 model, and a great way to benefit such a worthy cause as the YMCA.”

The 1969 is the most exclusive and elite Camaro in history. That year, “ZL1” was the code name for the 427-cubic-inch, all-aluminum big-block engine developed for Corvette race cars in the late 1960s, but found its way into 69 Camaros in 1969. The ’69 Camaro recently was voted the “best Chevy of all time” in an online contest.

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Learn more about the currently available Chevrolet Camaro models at Tyrrell-Doyle Chevrolet.

2013 Chevrolet Malibu Provides Segment's Best Ride

From Chevrolet.com:

Segment-best ride and handling was a fundamental element for dynamic engineers as they calibrated the all-new 2013 Chevrolet Malibu sedan for customers in 100 markets on six continents.

Benefiting from continuous refinement of an award-winning global architecture, the global development team matched the car’s resized proportions – including wider front and rear tracks – with more direct steering and advanced chassis control systems. Architecture refinements produced a Malibu with European-style precision and comfort tailored to North America’s diverse range of driving conditions.

“Our development team has been everywhere with the new Malibu, tuning the ride on rural back roads, suburban boulevards, urban freeways and just about every other type of road imaginable,” said Mark Moussa, global chief engineer. “The result is the most finely tuned Chevrolet mid-size sedan ever, with controlled dynamics in all driving conditions.”

A roster of integrated elements enable the dynamics of Malibu’s driving experience, including:

• A solid body structure as stiff as any in the global mid-size sedan market, enabling more precise tuning and dynamic vehicle control
• Proven and refined MacPherson strut front and four-link rear suspensions
• Hydraulic ride bushings and isolated lower A-arms that enable a more quiet and refined ride
• A premium, ZF rack-mounted electric power steering gear for smooth, precise responsiveness and greater on-center feel
• Chassis control technologies include StabiliTrak electronic stability control, with full-function traction control, electronic brake force distribution, brake assist system, corner brake control, and hydraulic brake assist
• Large, ventilated front disc and solid rear disc brakes, clamped on by dual-piston front and single-piston rear aluminum calipers, which are expected to deliver segment-best stopping distance.

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Learn more about the Chevrolet Malibu at Tyrrell-Doyle Chevrolet.

2013 Chevrolet Malibu to Receive Quieter Engine

From Chevrolet.com:

The 2013 Chevrolet Malibu’s new 2.5L engine with direct injection is expected to be one of the quietest and most refined in the segment. It will be available in the new Malibu next summer.

The 2.5L development team reduced noise intensity by 40-percent of the Ecotec 2.4L engine, which was already a Ward’s 10 Best Engines award winner. It also passed subjective evaluations of what sounds good as the engine climbs through its rpm band. To Malibu’s passengers, that is expected to mean a quieter driving experience and a more refined sound as the engine revs to its 7,000-rpm peak.

The refinement and quietness of the 2.5L are impressive,” said Tom Slopsema, Noise and Vibration engineer. “No fastener, cover or internal engine part was left unexamined in our quest to make this an engine that surpasses the benchmarks in the industry.”

Specifically, the engine’s noise frequency signature was targeted, with the aim of pushing radiated noises into a higher frequency range well above 2,000 hertz, which is more pleasing to the ear – particularly in the high-load operating ranges where engine sound is the most intensive.

“Think of it as the difference between low-frequency, course noise, such as a vacuum cleaner, versus a higher frequency, precision noise, such as a sewing machine,” said Slopsema. “We focused on reducing the overall engine noise level and placing the remaining noise in a higher frequency range.”

Contact Tyrrell-Doyle Chevrolet for more info on the Chevrolet Malibu.

2012 Chevrolet Sonic is Arriving!

The 2012 Chevrolet Sonic, one of Chevrolet's newest vehicles, is arriving at Tyrrell-Doyle Chevrolet in Cheyenne!  Contact us to find out more about this new vehicle which is available in either a hatch or sedan.

Chevrolet Logo History Mystery

From Chevrolet.com:

Globally recognized today, the Chevrolet bowtie logo was introduced by company co-founder William C. Durant in late 1913. But how it came to be synonymous with the brand is open to wide interpretation.
Durant’s version of how the logo came into existence is well known. The long-accepted story, confirmed by Durant himself, was that it was inspired by the wallpaper design in a Parisian hotel.
According to The Chevrolet Story of 1961, an official company publication issued in celebration of Chevrolet's 50th anniversary:
“It originated in Durant's imagination when, as a world traveler in 1908, he saw the pattern marching off into infinity as a design on wallpaper in a French hotel. He tore off a piece of the wallpaper and kept it to show friends, with the thought that it would make a good nameplate for a car.”
However, conflicting accounts have emerged, each of which is plausible enough to deepen the mystery and suggest it may never be solved. Two of the alternate origins come from within the Durant family itself.
In 1929, Durant's daughter, Margery, published a book entitled, My Father. In it, she told how Durant sometimes doodled nameplate designs on pieces of paper at the dinner table. “I think it was between the soup and the fried chicken one night that he sketched out the design that is used on the Chevrolet car to this day,” she wrote.
More than half a century later, another Bowtie origin was recounted in a 1986 issue of Chevrolet Pro Management Magazine based on a 13-year-old interview with Durant's widow, Catherine. She recalled how she and her husband were on holiday in Hot Springs, Va., in 1912. While reading a newspaper in their hotel room, Durant spotted a design and exclaimed, “I think this would be a very good emblem for the Chevrolet.” Unfortunately, at the time, Mrs. Durant didn't clarify what the motif was or how it was used.
That nugget of information inspired Ken Kaufmann, historian and editor of The Chevrolet Review, to search out its validity. In a Nov. 12, 1911 edition of The Constitution newspaper, published in Atlanta, an advertisement appeared from by the Southern Compressed Coal Company for “Coalettes,” a refined fuel product for fires. The Coalettes logo, as published in the ad, had a slanted bowtie form, very similar to the shape that would soon become the Chevrolet icon. Did Durant and his wife see the same ad – or one similar – the following year a few states to the north? The date of the paper was just nine days after the incorporation of the Chevrolet Motor Co.
One other explanation attributes the design to a stylized version of the cross of the Swiss flag. Louis Chevrolet was born in Switzerland at La Chaux-de-Fonds, Canton of Neuchâtel, to French parents, on Christmas Day 1878.
Whichever origin is true, within a few years, the bowtie would emerge as the definitive Chevrolet logo. An October 2, 1913 edition of The Washington Post seems, so far, to be the earliest known example of the symbol being used to advertise the brand. “Look for this nameplate” the ad proclaims above the emblem. Customers the world over have been doing so ever since.
Many variations in coloring and detail of the Chevrolet bowtie have come and gone over the decades since its introduction in late 1913, but the essential shape has never changed. In 2004, Chevrolet began to phase in the gold bowtie that today serves as the brand identity for all of its cars and trucks marketed globally. The move reinforced the strength of what was already one of the most-recognized automotive emblems in the world. More than 4.25 million Chevrolets were sold in more than 120 countries and regions during 2010.

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