Why Chevrolet Spin Phase Out

How Chevrolet Started, Grew & Became $11.5 Billion Company

Success Secrets TV:

How Chevrolet Started, Grew & Became $11.5
Billion Company
The name Chevrolet originated from a Swiss-born
American racer Louis-Joseph Chevrolet, who
founded his company with William Durant in
1911, stayed for four years and then left
his own company to Durant in 1915.
The Chevrolet Company previously called the
Chevrolet Division of General Motors Company
and simply called the Chevy is the automobile
department of General Motors, a manufacturing
company in the United States.
How Chevrolet Began
Twenty years before Chevrolet, Durant was
the founder of a successful Durant-Dort Carriage
Company which manufactured horse-drawn vehicles.
And so Durant wouldn't even touch a car with
a ten-foot pole, let alone allow his daughter
to ride in what he called, "loud and dangerous
horseless carriages."
But as time passed he realized that there
were more cars than carriages on the American
streets; an experience that did not settle
well with the relatively tentative public.
As the government regulated cars for their
safety, Durant had other ideas.
Why not improve the security of these cars
instead?
In 1904, Durant approached a struggling Buick
Motor Company and became its controlling investor.
Within a span of four years, Durant demonstrated
his salesman attitude and transformed Buick
into a leading automobile name amongst the
likes of Ford, Oldsmobile, and Cadillac.
For Durant, however, it was only the start.
Durant figured he could further improve his
odds in the industry if he built a holding
company that would control several automobile
divisions, with each division manufacturing
their own car.
With the Buick's outstanding profits, Durant
had sufficient capital to found the General
Motors Company in 1908.
A year later, General Motors acquired several
car brands like Buick, Oldsmobile, Cadillac,
Elmore, and others.
Unfortunately,Durant got so carried away in
his "automobile acquisition crusade" that
GM suffered cash shortage with their sales
losing to Ford's.
And so, in 1910, General Motors showed Durant
the exit door.
But Durant did not give up.
Having regained his bearings, he reunited
with an old colleague from the days of the
Buick motor company, Louis-Joseph Chevrolet.
Durant knew the Swiss-born American as a man
whose competency for car mechanics matched
his passion for racing.
In 1909, Louis had participated in the Giant
Despair Hillclimb.
An oddly apt name, considering the Hillclimb
race was less about the racers themselves
and more about test-driving the competing
car brands they drove.
Therefore, when Durant offered a chance to
build more automobiles, Louis couldn't resist
signing his name on the dotted line alongside
Durant's.
In 1911, Louis co-founded the Chevrolet Motor
Company with Durant.
Durant used Louis’ racing status as a means
of building a motor company, and his way of
getting back at General Motors.
The first Chevrolet car, the Series C Classic
Six was designed by Etienne Planche with directions
by Louis.
The prototype was ready before the company
was incorporated even though the production
didn’t happen until 1913 where it was introduced
at an auto show in New York.
In 1914, Chevrolet redesigned its logo.
And so a "bowtie emblem" logo was used on
Chevrolet’s first produced cars in 1914:
the Chevrolet H series and L series models.
That same year, Durant and Louis argued about
their differing intentions for Chevrolet’s
future car designs.
Durant wanted simple and affordable cars that
would surpass those of Fords.
On the other hand, Louis preferred playing
it fast and loose, with luxury or racing cars.
These differences split these two associates
and Louis sold his shares of the company to
Durant.
Now alone at the helm, Durant was able to
focus on his next winning car design.
He achieved this in 1916 when the cheaper
Chevrolet Series 490 finally outpaced Ford
in sales and cemented Chevrolet’s place
among the big automobile names.
To say Chevrolet made huge profits during
this period would be a severe understatement.
Durant revisited General Motors as a controlling
investor, purchasing their stocks, which gave
him the leverage to launching himself into
leading General Motors once more.
By 1917, Durant had become the president of
General Motors.
All was right, now that Durant's "big automobile"
dream was back on track.
And of course, his first directive was merging
the highly successful Chevrolet into the parent
company General Motors as a separate division.
How Chevrolet Grew
In 1918, Chevrolet launched a new V8 powered
model, the Series D for open two-seat cars
and the touring cars that could seat 5 passengers.
These models didn't sell well though and they
were scrapped by the next year.
Given Chevrolet's successful track record
in the market, General Motors rebranded and
sold their commercial grade cars and trucks
as Chevrolet with similar appearances with
the Chevrolet’s vehicles in 1919 from Chevrolet
factories located in Flint, Michigan.
The automobile company built several branch
assembly plants in New York, Ohio, Missouri,
California, Texas, and Canada.
Somewhere between the 1920s and 1940s, Chevrolet
would see Durant's vision for "producing simple
and affordable cars" come true.
In fact, Chevrolet, Ford and Plymouth were
known to Americans as "the low priced three".
During this period, one of Chevrolet's most
notable cars was the Stovebolt introduced
in 1929, which was tag-lined "a six for the
price of four".
This and several generations of the car model
blew away the competition of Ford and Plymouth.
In 1953, the Chevy Corvette, a sport’s car
with two seats and a fiberglass body debuted
to become the first mass-produced sports car
in the United States, championing the "America's
Sports Car" appeal.
The appeal of the Corvette and other Chevrolet
passenger cars would be enhanced with the
first-time introduction of Rochester Ramjet
fuel-injection engine as a high-performance
option for the price of $484.
The Chevrolet small block V8 car design made
its debut in 1955 and remained in circulation
longer than other mass produced engines around
the world.
Modifications to the V8 engine including the
aluminum block and heads, the electronic engine
management and the port fuel injection gave
birth to the designs in production today.
In 1958, Chevrolet introduced the Impala series,
which went on to become one of the best-selling
American cars in history experiencing popularity
during the 60s and 70s.
The parent company General Motors introduced
Chevrolet to Europe in 2005.
With rebranded cars manufactured from the
General Motors branch in Korea acquired Daewoo
Motors.
The economic depression between 2007 and 2010
hit Chevrolet hard.
But the road to recovery began in 2010 with
the introduction of fuel-efficient cars and
trucks to compete with foreign automobile
manufacturers.
Within the same year, Chevrolet introduced
the plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, Chevrolet
Volt in America, which was sold under the
name Opel/Vauxhall Ampera throughout Europe
with a record 5,268 units soldand became the
world's best-selling plug-in hybrid electric
vehicle (PHEV) car in 2012, winning the award
for the North American Car of the Year, European
Car of the Year and World Green of the Year.
The series was then named the combined Volt/Ampera
that was sold across the world.
It exceeded the 100,000 unit sales milestone
in late 2005 and eleven years later the Volt
family of vehicles had become the world's
best-selling plug-in hybrid as well as the
third best selling electric car after the
Tesla Model S and the Nissan Leaf cars.
In 2011, Chevrolet set a global sales record
of 4.76 million vehicles sold worldwide
In late 2013, the Chevy brand was withdrawn
from Europe by General Motors leaving the
Corvette and Camero lines.
In 2016, Chevrolet unveiled the first affordable
mass-produced all-electric car the Chevrolet
Bolt EV.
This car too has won several awards.
Where Chevrolet Is Today
Chevrolet now has its headquarters in Detroit,
Michigan, and operates throughout 140 countries
in North and South America, Asia, Australia,
South Africa, and Europe with over two million
vehicles sold annually in the US alone and
a brand value of $11.5 billion.
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Chevrolet Bolt EV Traction Motor - Deep Dive

WeberAuto:

Hello, I'm professor John Kelly and this
is the Weber Auto YouTube channel.
In this episode we will be disassembling
the drive unit the electric motor and
gear reducer out of our 2017 Chevrolet
bolt on the hoist behind me here. now
this drive unit and electric motor
combination is is all one piece,
unlike the Nissan Leaf that has a drive
unit that unbolts from the electric
motor. This drive unit is rated at 150
kilowatts which is 201 horsepower, it is
also rated at 360 Newton meters of
torque which is roughly 266 foot-pounds
of torque.
Now let's let's talk about torque just a
little bit. That torque rating is what
the motor itself is capable of producing,
that is not the same as the torque that
ends up at the wheels of the vehicle, so
for example the Chevrolet Spark EV
produced by Chevrolet before the Bolt
here
actually had an electric motor that
produced 540 Newton meters of torque, the Bolt EV electric motor only produces
360 Newton meters of torque and so you
might be misled into thinking that the
Spark EV had more torque; well, the motor
did, but not the torque delivered to the
axles that drive the wheels. So the gear
reducer right here on the side of this
drive unit has an impact on that because
gear reduction is also torque
multiplication minus frictional losses, so
the Spark EV had a 540 Newton meter
electric motor but it only had a three
point one five to one gear reduction
unit which resulted in about 1700 Newton
meters of torque at the wheels, at the
axles. the Bolt EV electric motor
produces 360 Newton meters of torque a
whole 180 Newton meters less of torque
from the motor, but it has a seven point
zero five one eight to one gear
reduction through this gear reducer
which multiplies that 360 Newton meters
of torque by seven point zero five one
eight, which gives us over 2,500 Newton
meters of torque at the axles. So there
are other electric vehicles out there
that are being produced right now that
have higher torque higher motor torque
than the Bolt EV
but what would be interesting, I and
I don't know what their gear ratios are
yet, is to see what is the torque
actually to the axles what's the torque
to the ground because that's what you'll
feel when you step on that accelerator
pedal, that's the torque to the wheels
that makes the vehicle move. The design
of this drive unit this electric motor
it has a peak amperage draw of 400 amps
versus 450 as for the Spark EV so it
uses less current to provide more torque
so it's a more efficient better design
electric motor. The electric motor in
this drive unit spins clear up to 8810 rpm where the
Spark EV only spun up to about 4500 rpm,
and we'll take a look at some
differences in the electric motor design
and the stator winding design that
allowed it to spin at those higher rpms
without the AC losses that typically
occur at higher rpm. As mentioned in the
previous video on high voltage
components of the Chevrolet Bolt EV this
drive unit uses about 2.9 litres, around
3.1 quarts of Dexron HP fully synthetic
base transmission fluid automatic
transmission fluid. It also is cooled by
the General Motors Dexcool 50/50 mix
of coolant and deionized water. Okay
let's take a look at the outside of the
housing here of this drive unit. The
official name or designation of this
drive unit by General Motors is the
1ET25. The one means it's a one speed
trans axle, this doesn't shift, E means
it's electronically controlled, T means
it's a transaxle, and the 25 is a
relative torque rating. Alright, right
here on the front of the transmission is
the actual last eight digits of the
vehicle identification number and you
can see that MMF right there, that is
the three-digit regular production
option code the RPO code that you can
find on label in the back of the Bolt EV if
you take out the lower compartment
carpet and look in what looks like a
spare tire tub, there's a label on the
driver's side that has a whole bunch of
three digit codes on it
MMF just means that's which transaxle
or transmission this vehicle came with.
Okay right here on the top of the trans
axle is the transmission range selector
actuator and this is a brushless DC
motor with a gear reducer that actually
moves the shift lever to put us in to
Park reverse neutral Drive and low, now
technically inside of this drive unit it
there's really only park and not park,
but there is a position sensor in here
called an internal mode switch that will
monitor which position the transaxle
range selector is in so that the vehicle
can act appropriately. For example the
shifter itself on the center console is
not directly connected to the drive unit,
it's just an input to the computer that
controls this actuator, so when we go to
the reverse position for the neutral or
drive or low, there's a feedback on the
internal mode switch electrical
connector right here, that lets the
engine control module, even though this
doesn't have an engine, know which gear
range you have selected so that it can
request the trends axle act
appropriately. Also, right here by the
electrical connector for the internal
mode switch is the transmission fill
plug, so if you want to put fluid into
this transmission you need a 14
millimeter wrench or socket to take this
plug out and put the Dexron HP fluid
into the transmission. There are two
drain plugs on this transmission, one for
each side, so there's one down below on
each end of the transaxle the driver's
side and the passenger side, there's
there are two separate drain plugs to
get the fluid out of each side, now
there's only one fluid that goes
throughout this entire transaxle but
because of how its baffled and set up
inside to remove all the fluid you need
to remove both plugs.
Now speaking of fluid and fluid level
when you drain fluid at whatever the
recommended fluid change interval is or
if you're doing service work on the
transaxle here and you're adding fluid
you need to know when to stop adding
fluid, so on the other side of the
transaxle right here is the transaxle
fluid level check plug, so the drain
plugs right down here, the fluid level
check plugs here, the fill plug is on the
other side so you take the fill plug out
you take the fluid level check plug out,
and you add fluid until fluid comes out
over here, and then you let it sit and
stabilize for a minute add a little bit
more and make sure that fluid comes out
comes out to a slow drip, and then the
instructions tell us to put both plugs
back in and go drive the vehicle until
the transmission fluid temperature
reaches 35 degrees Celsius or 95 degrees
Fahrenheit and then double-check the
fluid level again to make sure that
comes out at a very slow drip. Alright,
while we are here on this side of the
transaxle we have an electric motor an
electric pump for the transmission fluid
so there's a big filter we'll see when
we take this thing apart down the bottom
center of this transaxle it will pull
fluid up from the filter and then put it
into what's called the oil sump so the
oil sump is basically just a great big
bathtub looking area up here that the
pump fills full of fluid and then there
are these little drain channels that
fluid drains down to cool the stator
windings and lubricate bearings and so
on and we'll see that once we get the
cover off so we have an electric 12 to 14
volt driven electric motor that pumps
fluid throughout this transaxle. From
what I read this pump only works when
you are in Reverse or Drive, it does not
pump when you're in park or neutral.
Alright, we have another electrical
connector right here, this connector is
for the resolver which measures the
angle of rotation the direction of
rotation and the speed of the electric
motor rotor itself, and then there's a
transmission fluid temperature sensor
that is in the bottom of this
transmission case cover here. All of
those are accessed electrically through
this electrical connector right here. As
you may have seen in my other video on
high-voltage components we have the air
conditioning compressor of the bolts up
here and then we have our coolant pipes
that go into what's called a coolant
sump in the bottom of this transaxle and
we'll see that here in a few minutes but
we have coolant going in coolant coming
back out and goes through a series of
cooling fins and cooling circuits to
absorb heat from the transmission fluid
right here on the back we have the
electrical connection for the
three-phase cables that come from the
the
single power inverter module that sits
two modules above here. Three-phase
orange cables come down to drive the
electric motor, there's a cover
the cables bolt on and then there's a
cover they'll holds the cable in place.
We have a transmission vent right here,
let's just take that vent off while we
vent tube off while we're here now you
can see the oil sump area again on the
top and the cooling sump coolant sump
area here in the bottom all right there
is one additional plug on the side of
the case with the electric motor and
there's nothing in the service
information to indicate this but I
believe this is a pressure test plug to
check the pump output pressure, but I
can't find any information on what that
fluid pressure should be. Okay, I'm going
to be disassembling this transaxle right
here on the workbench but there actually
is a special fixture to hold this
transaxle and allow you to rotate it and
disassemble different pieces of it and
still be able to rotate it for
convenience. I have this special adapter
as you can see here in this photograph
but the way it's mounted it's too high
and too difficult for me to disassemble
in that holding fixture being in a
wheelchair, so the workbench is where I'm
going to disassemble it, but I wanted you
to know there is a special fixture for
that and I tried it it just doesn't work
for me.
by the way this transaxle weighs about a
hundred and seventy pounds or 77.4
kilograms. Okay, well we're ready to
start disassembly, the first step is to
remove this oil pump the 12-volt power
oil pump, it has three bolts right here
and a few seals underneath it as you can
see here there are two seals that seal
the pump to the transmission case right
here there are two bolts that hold the
cover over the pump gears themselves
there are no instructions on
disassembling this so I assume we're not
supposed to disassemble it but that's
exactly what I like to do
take things apart I'm not supposed to as
long as I can get them back together and
make it work again here we go we've got
a Jew rotor style oil pump there's an
o-ring right here that needs to fit in
this groove to seal and then the cover
just bolts on okay the next thing on the
list is to remove the left-hand and
right-hand output shafts that go into
our differential side gears in the gear
reducer this is the left-hand side right
hand side over there it calls for a
slide hammer and a old pilot bearing
removal tool for a manual transmission
so this is the pilot bearing removal
tool right here and a slide hammer and
we are supposed to put this up inside
and put it into the snap ring groove for
the CV shaft and then pop it out well
come to find out the snap ring groove is
thinner than the tip of this tool that's
supposed to go into it and I didn't
realize that's what the problem was and
I had a hard time getting these output
shafts removed I finally got him out but
once I got a mound got looking at the
tool versus what they were supposed to
be grabbing I realized I need to grind
these down make him a little thinner so
that they'll actually fit into the
grooves of the her for these CV shaft
snap rings that are there so since I've
had this entire transaxle apart before
and I'll put it all back together
I've removed those snap rings they'll
hold these output shafts in place so I
can just pull them out by hand right now
this big long left hand output shaft
goes right through the center of the
rotor of the electric motor itself it's
it's hollow in the middle
and it has a big heavy-duty bushing
right here on the outside with the axle
seal and this is our left-hand output
shaft and then the CV shaft itself plugs
into here that goes to the left front
hub and bearing assembly and tire and
we'll assembly so there's our left-hand
axle shaft there's a snap ring that fits
in that groove right there typically and
I've just removed and I've just removed
that snap ring for ease for this
demonstration here obviously I'll need
to put that back in when I reassemble
so that's the left-hand axle shaft on
the other side we use the slide hammer
again and pull out the right hand axle
shaft as you can see this one is much
shorter than the other one and it has
the support bearing in the differential
case itself that holds it in place and
its own snap ring that I've already
removed and of course an axle sill here
on the other side as well okay the next
thing on the list is to remove this
transaxle case to remove the case I've
got to take the linkage off and our
actuator off and then we've got these
bolts to go all the way around and then
we'll be able to see the gear reduction
transfer gear and the final drive ring
gear and differential gear set so I'll
take the clip out and lift up for a
linkage on the shift actuator and then
take the bolts out
okay here's the shift actuator assembly
itself transmission range selector
actuator kind of a great big piece I
I've seen some of these that are smaller
right I'm not sure why this one is so
giant I'm not I've never seen one this
big but it obviously does the job of
mechanically shifting the transmission
range lever since you have an electronic
shifter on your center console alright
let's take these bolts out of the trans
transmission case okay I've got all the
bolts out of the transmission case now
we can attempt to slide it off it has a
couple of dowel pins they'll hold it in
place there's a couple of pry points
plus one right back here and another one
right here there we go
I'm going to come in with a plastic
mallet here and just tap lightly there
we go okay we can see inside of the
transmission case itself and the only
things in here of real interest are the
transmission internal mode switch right
here we got the electrical connector
right here harness right there that
connects to this outer blue connection
connector that will read which Range
Park reverse neutral low you have
selected with your transmission shift
lever and then we have the parking
linkage right here we've got Park
reverse neutral Drive
and low now of course normally
transmission fluid would would be
pouring out of here of whatever didn't
get drained out when you drained it
previously but I've had this apart and
cleaned everything up before we have our
ring gear right here and our
differential gear set and as notice we
have real nice ball bearings here these
bearings since their ball bearings
instead of tapered roller bearings have
to have in place shims so there's a
special shimming procedure to control
the end play of these bearings that will
have to go through when we reassemble it
so you're supposed to take these shims
off and throw them away well and then
replace them with new new ones when you
go back together I suggest that you take
them off and measure them and then hang
on to them because you might you might
need them again when I took these off
previously and measured them they were
almost all identical in the thickness so
there are six of these shims for the six
ball bearings that are in this transaxle
four of these shims measured exactly
half a millimeter in in with the other
two one of a measure one millimeter in
width and the other one measured 0.9
millimeters so you need to keep track of
what thickness shim you had where and
write those down so that you you'll have
an idea of at least what it was before
you took it apart now if you're just
going back together and you haven't
changed any shims or any parts inside
just reuse the old shims but if you're
changing a bearing or any of these
internal pieces you need to go through
the special measurement procedure that
we'll see when we go back together to
determine if these shims are correct
okay so there's there's special shims on
each of these
bearings I've measured all of them RIT
written their dimensions on the ziploc
bag here that I keep them in and will
refer to those when we go back together
all right now we just need to remove the
counter gear right here and the final
drive a ring gear and differential gear
set this is where our short little
output shaft plugged in right here and
then our long one came all the way
through on the other side okay before we
remove these gears there is a an
aluminum gasket with a rubber seal
embedded into it the instructions tell
us that is not reusable
there is also an oil baffle right down
here to channel transmission fluid away
from the ring gear to reduce losses as
it rotates into it and to splash oil up
into different channels to lubricate the
the bearings if we look in this case
half right here you can almost see what
looks like a funnel right there for the
fluid to drain back down and lubricate
this outer bearing and a similar one
here on this other other side for that
bearing so we've got a oil baffle to
remove all right I've got the oil baffle
removed on the other side of that is our
magnet for metallic particles from gear
normal gear wear and other malfunctions
okay now we're ready ready to remove
these gears pull out on the counter gear
and then pull out on the final drive and
it'll come right out if you don't pull
out on that counter gear first there's
not enough clearance for the final drive
Unit two clear so here's our final drive
you can see our open differential gear
set inside there here's our sim on the
other side as well
all right the instructions tell us that
we can if we won't want to remove the
park linkage in the internal notes which
I don't really care about that that's
just regular stuff that you'd see in any
other automatic transmission so let's
continue on with things that are unique
to the bolt
evie drive unit here the one ET 25
transaxle so let's turn the transmission
case around and we'll take off the
transmission case cover here on the
driver's side
now the SAE document the details the the
bolt evey drive unit here that I told
you about in the high voltage component
video tells us that the drive unit
itself was designed to be serviceable in
the vehicle that's why they have a case
removable case cover on one side and a
case cover on the other side for the
gear reduction unit you can leave this
Center portion with the electric motor
in it in the vehicle and just remove one
or both case covers to do service work
on components inside the case covers
seal replacements resolver replacements
internal modes with replacement and so
on but anyway we're going to take off
this case
cover next from the driver's side all
right this case cover is going to be a
little harder to get off than the other
one because the rotor that has internal
magnets embedded inside of it has now
magnetically pulled itself over to the
stator because we are no longer
centering it inside of the stator itself
and so it puts a it pulls it off to the
side just a little bit so there's a
prying
right here
and there's a pride point right down
here another prior point right here
there we go okay so here's our case
cover and it has an aluminum gasket
that's not reusable as well our case
cover has this long transmission filter
that's not serviceable without
disassembling things as you can see has
a temperature sensor down inside of it
right there and then this is our
resolver our serviceable resolver that
measures the position speed and
direction of rotation of the electric
motor rotor inside the transaxle here
let's turn this around oh by the way
down inside of the bearing housing there
is a shim for the ball bearing right
here on the rotor itself so we're
looking at the stator and the hairpin
six conductor deep stator design a
unique design we'll talk about that a
little bit more once we get the stator
out we have a lubrication channel right
here where fluid is going to drip out of
our oil sump and run along and drop down
on to the stator windings themselves and
cool the the stator windings it also has
a drip channel that comes over and goes
down to this bearing here to lubricate
it
so we've just got an 8 millimeter head
bolt holding the filter in place and as
you can see the filter just has an
o-ring seal on the one side and you can
see the pick up filter screen filter
element on the inside so this is going
to reach all the way in up underneath
the the stator itself to pick up the
fluid on the back side of it and on the
back side of it is the inlet of the
coolant so that would be the cooler oil
on the back side there all right then on
the resolver it just has eight three
eight millimeter head bolts to hold it
in place and one electrical connector
this resolver only bolts in in one
location it's not adjustable it has
automatic learn unlike the older Toyota
Prius resolvers that that would actually
come out of alignment
if you unbolted them and there was no
way for you to line them back up okay so
here is our resolver pull back on the
connector position assurance clip
depress the tab and remove the resolver
itself the resolver is a serviceable
unit when and if it ever goes bad but it
should should never go bad all right
then the remaining wire harness and the
pass-through connector here just goes
over to our temperature sensor okay next
on the list we need to remove what is
called the center support this is what's
supported the driver's side ball bearing
of our differential case assembly
okay this is our center support it's
held in place with six bolts and aligned
with two dowel pins right there now with
that removed there's nothing to stop our
transfer gear from sliding out it's just
a tight fit on the bearing in the bore
as it should be just pray lightly
sometimes these will just slide right
out and right in and other times they'll
they'll fight you here we go okay so
here's our transfer gear it's ball
bearing and shim so put that shit over
here with the others okay right here in
the end of the case we still have a
lubrication channel right here from the
oil trough the oil sump I mean right
there and then we have a cover for the
three-phase electrical connector right
here as well then on the other side we
have that oil distribution channel right
here that cools the stator so we've got
to remove that we are now to the point
where we are ready to pull this rotor
out but we just can't grab on to it and
pull it out it has some super strong
neodymium magnets multiple layers envy
configuration inside of this stator
you're not going to pull it out by hand
and you sure don't want to come in here
and start prying on it so the only way
to get that rotor out of there if you
want to remove it for service replace a
bit bearing on it or the gear on the
other side or another bearing or just
replace the rotor itself for whatever
reason loss of magnetism and trouble
code sets or whatever
it takes a special tool to pull it out
without having it rub on the stator
frame itself and without having it
injure you with you trying to pull it
out and it's pulling back in with all
its magnetic strength so true get that
out there's a special guide tool that
will hold it centered in the stator and
we need to set that up next and it
starts on the other side here so there's
a special tool kit that costs almost a
thousand dollars to Center this rotor as
you pull it out I found one on eBay for
a little bit less than that but but it's
a very expensive tool but if you want to
do service work on this transaxle you've
got to have it so let's bring in the
special tools okay so I brought in the
special tools to keep the rotor centered
there's a special spacer with a notch in
it to clear that notch right there this
is just gonna fit in there just like
that then there's a plate that bolts on
over the top of this to hold it in place
these don't need to be super tight
they're just holding that little spacer
in place so I'll just lightly Snug those
up then there's a sleeve here that's
supposed to fit down the center of that
rotor but these sleeves are a little bit
too big I've had to take sandpaper and
send them down to make them fit inside
of this rotor and I don't know if that's
because the tools were made for a first
design rotor and then they changed it or
if they just made the tools incorrectly
but these tools are from what used to be
can't more tools the special tools
supplier for General Motors it's now
Bosch service solutions so Bosch you may
want to take a look at this this tool
here the DT five two zero one one
- one - three because it doesn't fit
it's not doesn't Center up inside the
the rotor as well as it should
i've had to sand it down just a little
bit and then i'm able to tap it in a
little bit there but I think that it's
supposed to be if it's supposed to be a
tight fit but it should be able to slide
in by hand I believe then we have a
guide pin that's going to go through the
center of that then we have this outer
housing the bolts in place to hold the
guide pin in place so the blue sleeve
this one here because there's one for
the other side also centers the rotor
into this plate and then this sleeve is
centered into this plate so we've now
centered the rotor on this side of the
stator so now we need to go to the other
side to put additional tools in to get
it centered and then pull it up and out
okay at this point if I had the
transaxle mounted in that special
rotating holding fixture I would just
simply rotate it on its side and get the
get the rest of the tools hooked up but
I don't I'm not able to use that so I'm
just going to put some extra long bolts
in this side of the case to hold the
case up off of this tool when I tip it
over to support it as we pull the rotor
out
okay so here we go we're going to tip
the tip the whole thing up on its hand
just like that so now we've got
clearance for the tool underneath and we
can get the upper tools set up to pull
the rotor up and out all right while
we've got the transaxle tipped on its
side let's take this oil sump cover off
and show you what's inside of there so
it's just a big empty trough and you can
see has one two three four five six
holes in it where fluid is going to go
out and drip down on other parts inside
of the transaxle for stator cooling and
for the ball bearing lubrication the
cover itself has that same aluminum
gasket that's not reusable also while we
have this transaxle on its end let's
turn it over and take the coolant sump
off next okay here's our coolant sump
you can see this pipe right here is
where the coolant comes in and it has to
wind back and forth back and forth and
then come back out over here the coolant
sump which is visible from the bottom of
the car with the under car cover removed
also has that same aluminum gasket
that's not not reusable why are they not
reusable I don't know maybe the aluminum
crushes these I'm going to see if I can
buy replacement gaskets at the local
Chevrolet dealer it seems like I saw a
service bulletin saying that all these
parts are serviceable now and it gave
the part numbers for them but if not
none of these are damaged it only has 35
miles on it and I'll reuse them and see
what happens
okay so coolant sump oil sump so now we
are ready to pull out the rotor assembly
so to pull out the rotor assembly we
have a guide pin it's going to come in
and screw into that dowel they had a
threaded end on it all right so this
threaded guide pin did not line up
exactly perfect with the guide pin down
below I can't tell if we're just
spinning the whole thing there we go
all right it's screwed all the way into
that alignment dowel from below now we
have this tool that has three holes that
go over the holes where the stator bolts
are so we need to remove the stator
bolts next these stator bolts are not
reusable three stator bolts so we put
this tool over the top of that we want
to be very careful that we don't damage
pry lean or set anything on the stator
windings here that could cause damage to
them so we'll get that lined up just
like that now I'm going to reposition
the camera so you can see
how tall this next tool is that fits on
here all right we have two clamshell
type tools that are going to come in and
clamp down over the resolver cam rotor
there and this bearing they're gonna go
just like that except I need to split
them apart so I can get the next tool in
it says this big tall piece right here
that's going to go over and down into
our stator bolt holes so we've got this
threaded shaft we've got this adapter
right here that these little clamshell
tools are going to hook into and then
the threaded shaft with a nut on the top
of it we're going to tighten that nut
and pull the rotor up out okay so the
tricky part of giving this hooked up is
getting both of these
clamshell tools over this lip right here
so I have to loosen the nut on the top
and let it come down let me turn this
you can see what's going on
there we go okay so we slide that open
clamp the clamshells around it put this
sleeve over the top of it to lock the
clamshell in place snug up this nut to
hold the lock in place and then from the
top here we start to pull up on the
rotor itself I'm going to get
repositioned bring my chair up a little
higher here so I can reach that nut it
takes quite a bit of turning to pull
that out okay here we go thirty
millimeter wrench we want to turn the
nut and prevent the shaft from turning
so I'm just going to hang on down here
as it comes up those guide pins the
guide dowels keep it from rubbing on the
stator frame although although there's
almost a strange ratcheting sound as I'm
pulling this out that makes me think
it's barely contacting the the stator
laminations or the rotor laminations
anyway we'll pull it out and take a look
see if we can see any witness marks you
can see the top of the rotor now is
starting to appear
I think we're finally clearing the top
of the yes we are it all of a sudden got
real easy to turn the nut so we no
longer have the magnet pulling out or
resisting us pulling out okay you can
see the entire length of the rotor here
get another bearing down below it and a
gear below that now we're supposed to
just lift up on this and and pull it out
I'm not sure if I'm strong enough I may
have to bring in the the engine hoist to
pull it out of here but it's just
sitting on these three non-magnetic
aluminum poles here and we've got the
weight of the the rotor assembly itself
I measured it earlier but I can't
remember what it is at this moment but
let's see if we can lift this up and out
though I cannot so let me get the engine
hoist we have to lift it up high enough
to clear that alignment dowel so I've
got to lift it up probably four more
inches 100 millimeters or so okay I've
never tried this before it's just a lift
strap let's bring it up
okay the lifting or the tool was getting
stuck in one of the holes for the the
stator bolts there we go
okay here we go
and we've cleared the alignment dowel so
slide the case out of the way here and
we'll let that back down
oh let's see how much that weighs it
says it weighs 60 pounds with the tool
the tools probably 10 pounds of that
okay we have to remember that this rotor
is highly magnetic very strong eight
pole magnetic field around this thing
and so we need to keep it away from
anything any metal particles or any
tools or anything else that could cost
cause it to receive damage on its
laminations here in looking at the the
laminations from removing it I don't see
any obvious damage at all there let's
let this down and take the the tool off
and just look at the rotor itself
little clamshell pieces out of there
these tools are magnet earth iron some
some sorts so we got to keep those away
from the magnetic field as you can see
these blue bars are aluminum they're not
sticking to the the rotor itself and
then plastic of course works great with
the magnetic fields so now we've just
got our rotor we've got our drive gear
down here I've got a ball bearing and
another ball bearing there's another
shim down inside the case a bigger
diameter shim for this bigger diameter
bearing all right I'm going to get some
wooden blocks to put this in all right
here's the rotor for the bolt
evie as you can see this bearing seems
to have some sort of a gray coating on
the outer race where this one does not
and on the counter gear bearings they
also have this gray coating it doesn't
say anything about what that gray
coating is for I suspect it's to prevent
corrosion from the dissimilar metals
with possible induced currents going
through them with the the motor running
vehicle going down the road I've seen
this type of coating on universal joints
in universal joint caps universal joint
caps bearing caps in an aluminum
driveshaft the same color I don't know
if it's the same material but if any of
you know what this coating is for if
you'd please put that in the comments
below I'd appreciate that
I'm just speculating okay so we've got
the rotor out of the way this is a
serviceable piece now the last piece to
remove is the stator assembly itself and
it has three special guide pins that go
into the stator bolt holes and screw
into the transaxle case and then they're
tapered on the top here and that's to
allow you to slide the stator out
without it binding inside so I'll slide
that over there rotate it down and just
pull out slightly
here it comes just like that so here's
the stator for the Chevrolet bolt Eevee
if we zoom in close and look at the
stator windings you can actually see
there are 1 2 3 rows of these hairpin
conductors which means they are 6
conductors deep in this stator and from
what I read in the SAE document on this
new improved motor that helps reduce the
AC power losses at the higher motor rpm
a typical stator like in the previous
Chevrolet Volt had 2 rows instead of 3
so they were four conductors deep in the
Chevrolet Volts and six conductors deep
here and one of the people that was on
the original design team for the
Chevrolet Volt told me that when they
designed this electric motor and it's
designed for maximum efficiency and hand
power that there was no other motor out
there that could even match the
efficiency of this motor and they said
that they designed this motor to be the
next small-block Chevrolet so to say of
power trains so the small-block
Chevrolet was and still is a very
popular very powerful v8 engine and has
been for many many years and their
intent was to have this motor design
maybe even this drive unit be in
multiple platforms with the same high
power high efficiency motor system if we
look at the other side here of the
stator windings you can see the the
other end of the hairpin conductors and
then there's a drip channel right here
for oil to come out of that oil sump and
to drip down and go down and lubricate
the stator windings because these get
really hot this is the heat source
inside of the transmission and it and
although it gets hot it doesn't get as
hot as the fluid
although the fluid gets hot it doesn't
get hot as a normal planetary gearset
style automatic transmission and the
cooling system surge tank reservoir cap
was only pressurized to 5 psi for this
loop of the cooling system so much lower
amounts of heat compared to an internal
combustion engine with a torque
converter heat generating planetary
gearset style of automatic transmission
now just a couple of things to get
wrapped up with this disassembly video
because we will reassemble it showing
the special measurements for the shims
and everything when we go back together
but one thing I wanted to show you about
these electric vehicles is how simple
they are and when I mean when I say
simple I don't mean simple design
meaning it was easy to design these
simplicity is not necessarily easy but
if we look at the number of rotating
parts in this entire drive unit
there are basically three main rotating
parts we've got the rotor assembly that
then turns the counter gear right here
that then turns the final drive three
pieces no clutch packs no bands and no
sprags no roller clutches no Pistons
none of those hundreds of parts that you
would see in a typical automatic
transmission let alone the internal
combustion engine that this is replacing
of course there are three main moving
parts these pieces here but each one has
two bearings on it so there's six more
pieces so there's nine total and then
inside of the differential here we have
two side gears and two differential
pinion gears so that makes for a total
of 13 possible moving parts inside the
of this drive unit and only when you're
turning corners would the side gears in
the differentials
be rotating at a different speed than
the differential case so a real basic
very reliable system these electric
vehicles and and this one is is very
efficient and that the design is very
compact to where this left-hand output
shaft remember goes right through the
center of the rotor instead of being
offset like on the the Nissan Leaf and
other electric vehicles out there so
congratulations to Chevrolet and the
design team that came up with this
amazing and efficient and simplistic
evie drive unit and I think it's
absolutely beautiful so coming up I hope
to shoot a reassembly video with all the
measurements for this drive unit and
then we've got all of these parts out
the drive unit all of the electronics
and our and our Chevy bolt back here on
the hoist is totally empty yeah under
the under the hood so we've got to put
that all back together and and make it
work again even the battery is out the
whole thing is stripped as far as the
powertrain is concerned and we're gonna
put that back together and and make it
work and hopefully get it converted to a
DC fast charge thank you for watching

2018 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Model Review | Edmunds

Edmunds:

[MUSIC PLAYING]
CARLOS LAGO: That's the
new Chevy Camaro ZL1,
and in this video we're going to
give you an overview about what
makes it special.
And the quick version is, it's
more than the 650 horsepower
underneath that hood.

You might be surprised to
hear that the coolest parts
about the Camaro
ZL1 are actually
the stuff you can't see.
The exterior doesn't look
dramatically different
than the standard
Camaro SS or RS models.
You can tell the
ZL1 is different
because it has big exhaust pipes
and a ZL1 badge at the back.
But over on the side, as
we get to the profile,
it retains the shape that we
know to love the Camaros by.
The wheels are bigger, they're
20 inches front and rear,
but they're a staggered
fitment, so the front tires
are a little bit
smaller than the rear.
And that gives it a
nice purposeful look.
But it's the stuff
underneath here
that really makes the car
drive as good as it does.
You have magnetic
fluid-filled dampers
that react super quick, more
so than your traditional motor
controlled dampers when you're
making adjustments on the fly.
You have an electronically
controlled limited slip
differential that continually
biases power left or right,
controls it with a
granularity you can't achieve
with a simple mechanical unit.
Up at the front you
see the big differences
that come with the ZL1.
Up on the hood here, of course,
is the badging and the carbon
fiber dome of the hood.
And there's actually
a heat extractor right
through the bottom there.
You can fit your
hand in, we'll show
you the vents in just a second.
But when we were
talking about making
650 horsepower, what we
really had to pay attention to
is cooling.
This is the same engine that's
in the Chevy Corvette Z06.
And in here, you can
tell the front fascia
is dramatically different,
and it's much larger.
And there's all these
gigantic air openings.
And that's because
this needs a lot of air
to go through it
to keep it cool.
You have heat
exchangers here, here,
here, here, there's
inner coolers
underneath the supercharger,
there's another heat exchanger
lying flat.
And all of this is designed
to get as much airflow
through the front of
the vehicle as possible.
I mean even the Chevy Badge,
you can stick your finger right
through it.
These gaping holes
right here, I mean,
you can imagine what happens if
a small animal flies in there.
It's all made in the name of
getting air through this engine
to keep it cool
under heavy use when
you're making all that power.
Now, let's take a
look at that engine.

Feast your eyes on the glory
of a supercharged 6.2 liter
V8 that makes 650 horsepower,
and 650 pound feet of torque.
This is, frankly, a
hell of an engine.
It doesn't rev that
high, 6,500 RPM.
Actually that's pretty
decent for a pushrod V8,
but really the story is
the breadth of that power.
But also consider it's
a fairly compact engine.
And it can be compact because
that supercharger, this guy
right here, isn't as big as the
last generation supercharged V8
that the previous ZL1 used and
the previous Corvette used.
Now and also the nature
of a pushrod motor
is, because it doesn't
have two overhead cams,
there's not a lot of valvetrain
up here, so it can be short.
And that can help
with visibility.
But as you'll see when
we hop inside this car,
the visibility isn't
really quite there.
And we showed you
the heat extractors
that come through here.
They're functional, you can
stick your hand right up
in there.
And the goal of that is to
promote air flow out of here
to keep pulling air through
the front end of the vehicle
to cool it down.
Let's take a look inside.
Well the first
thing you gotta do
when you slip into the interior
of a Camaro ZL1 is fire it up.
So that's how you
set things off right.
Now, couple of things
you have to accept
with the interior
of the Chevy Camaro,
especially this generation.
There is no interior storage.
You have a couple of pockets
on the left and right.
There's some space
in the armrest.
But there's basically
nothing for anything
bigger than a phone.
Even my phone has difficulty
fitting in the center armrest.
Also, rear visibility
comes up short.
It's like looking out
of a cardboard box.
But at least if you
don't want to sit low
you can raise the height up.
And that certainly helps your
view over the hood and just
at a point, there you go.
If you're concerned about
looking forward over the hood,
you can always do that.
OK now we're back
to normal height.
ZL1 specific changes
are few, but are nice.
These seats are Recaros,
they're nice buckets
with good amounts
of lateral support
but they don't
feel uncomfortable.
The material they're
wrapped with,
and especially the stuff
on the steering wheel too,
is this microfiber
suede-like substance.
It's also on the dash.
It looks and feels nice.
This is, of course,
the 10 speed automatic.
And we'll talk about how that
works once we take it out
for a drive.
For now though, it
just looks and works
like a normal
automatic transmission.
Behind it, these
controls here are
what get us into sort of the
electronic sophistication
you'll find in the ZL1.
You have four
different drive modes,
there's tube or track, sport,
and snow and ice modes.
Now those adjust a
variety of settings,
but within those settings
are further adjustments.
For example, when you go
into track like we are now,
you can double tap the
stability control button
and access the performance
traction management function.
Now this is a multi-configurable
stability control setting
that has one, two, three,
four, five different levels
of adjustment.
And you can also turn
everything completely off.
We'll talk about launch
control, too, and a line lock.
This has both those tools which
are great for drag racers.
And it speaks to the
legacy level of intent
that Chevy knows
Camaro owners are
going to use these cars for.
The ZL1 doesn't do any
one thing particularly.
It's not focused on
just doing one job,
it's focused on being
able to do everything.
It wants to ride
comfortably on your commute.
It wants to be able to tackle
a mountain road or a racetrack.
And it wants to
be able to get you
through a night
at the dragstrip.
And all that stuff
comes together nicely
in this package.
Now this display, as we get back
into more traditional Camaro
grievances, this
display looks funky.
It looks like it's tilted in.
Although when you start
using it, you realize
it's super intuitive.
It also supports Apple
CarPlay and Android Auto,
and that's really nice.
In front of you, you
have two analog gauges
and in the center is
a digital display.
That's multi-configurable
and shows
you a lot of really
nice information.
And above that is
a head up display.
As we dive into the
dash, we'll explain
how some of the drag racing
focused technology works.
I'll put the car in
its track setting,
and then I'll turn the
advance stability control
system to sport, for example.
And what you can
do here is you can
define the amount of traction
the surface that you're
driving on has.
So if you're in sport
one or sport two,
it assumes you're
on a street surface.
But if you go up
to race, it assumes
you're on a drag strip that
has a prepared surface, that
has the traction of
a prepared surface.
So it'll actually account
for all that stuff.
When you go into
the launch control,
you can set custom parameters.
There's an automatic
function, but you can also
set manually your target
RPM, your slip target--
and that slip target is
how much the rear tires
rotate versus how fast you go.
Tires like to spin a little bit
faster than you would think.
They like to have a
little bit of slip
to get the best
launch out of them.
And you can actually define
the percentage of slip
that you want the
rear tires to have.
Which is nuts.
And then beneath that
you have a line lock.
And now what a line lock does,
is it holds the front brakes
but allows the rear tires
to spin freely, which
makes a burn out a lot easier.
I'm in the school of thought
that if you have 650 pound
feet, a burnout's
pretty easy to do,
but it's nice that
the feature's there.
And this is a level
of granularity
for a drag racing that I
haven't seen in a production car
outside of the Dodge Demon.
And it's really cool, because
this car, again, is just
sort of an all-arounder.
Now up next we'll show
you what that means
when we drive it on the street.
Driving on the congested
and Toyota Prius
filled streets of LA may
not be the most exciting way
to experience the Camaro
ZL1, but it does give us
the opportunity to illustrate
just how nice this car is
to drive in general.
Sure the ride's firm, sure
you get some road noise,
but it's nothing that would
make this car difficult to live
with.
This 10 speed automatic
transmission, you might think,
wow that's a lot of gears.
I'm going to constantly see
the tack bouncing around
as it shifts.
But you don't.
You barely notice when
the shifts happen.
And the way they've
tuned this transmission
so it can skip gears
when you step on it
makes for a really
nice experience.

What's funny is
when you really see
a gap, when you nail that gas
it's almost as if the car has
night terrors.
Because suddenly it starts
growling out of nowhere
and making all these
noises and screaming.
And then it gets
really silent again.
It gets really quiet.
It just seems to get more
aggressive the more you drive
it in an aggressive manner.
But of course LA
traffic is the worst.
So we're going to go to a
place where we can explore
the abilities of this car.
[MUSIC PLAYING]

There's just so much power.
The performance of this
vehicle is just incredible.
But it's the tractability
that makes it so dominating.
It just feels so good,
feels so much fun.
This is a large, heavy car,
with pretty poor visibility.
But it just comes into its
own in this environment.
It's so much fun.
Modulating the power and
controlling the Camaro,
got to love that sound.
Get a little sideways.
So even though the
stability control is on,
it still gives you
a bit of freedom
with how much
sideways you get when
you dig into that throttle.
And there's so much
power on tap here.
We have 650 horsepower.
I'm getting a
little bit too close
to the limits of the
stability control system.
I'm feeling it grab
me a little bit more.
But what that's doing
is it's telling me
I'm applying too much throttle.
You can use this system
like a driver's tool.
You can lean on it and
use it the wrong way,
and have it try to fix
your sloppy mistakes.
But you can also
pay attention to it,
pay attention to when
it's cutting the power
and how much power
it's giving you,
and you can dial back
your choice accordingly.

Now what's working
in conjunction
there is the stability control
and electronically controlled
limited slip differential.
Which is biasing power
as it deems appropriate,
based on whatever the vehicle
sensors are telling it.
That's really nice.
And we haven't even talked
about the brakes yet.
These brakes provide
very good stopping power
and have a nice long travel.
So you can dig in to it
without using too much force,
and get the right amount
braking force that you want.

I like this car a lot.
Listen to that.
[ENGINE REVVING]

And that's the
amazing Camaro ZL1.
You want to see more videos like
this, keep it tuned right here.
And be sure to
visit edmunds.com.

2018 Chevrolet Traverse - Review and Road Test

Kelley Blue Book:

the second generation Chevrolet Traverse
it's a three row midsize SUV that we
really like propelling our positive
vibes is a deeply functional interior
let's start somewhere boring door
storage the front rear doors are loaded
with bins and nooks galore though I'm
not quite sure what defines a bin versus
a nook beyond the aforementioned door
nooks smaller items can be stowed in the
sizeable center console in this spot
below the second row climate controls or
in a handy USB adjacent bin beneath the
center stack aside from slight pressure
in the upper back region the front seats
are superbly comfortable and as the
driver you'll enjoy a highly
customizable driving position supported
by well-placed arm rests just know drive
like a maniac and you'll wish for more
lateral support Headroom is
unsurprisingly excellent up front but
that excellence extends rearward as well
Tim is six foot something and look his
head is not mashed against the headliner
nobody cares also he's British and too
polite to complain about legroom so I'm
going to proactively slide and angle my
seats slightly forward. Thank you. Sorry I was uncomfortable. It's fine.
with less diplomatic occupants rear-seat
nice space could be tight but as
consolation third row dwellers are
gifted a wealth of cupholders decent
foot space under the second row and two
USB outlets on that note the Traverse
comes with USB ports in all three rows
that plus an optional three prong outlet
means well-charged devices ensuring your
family never has to, you know, speak
where material quality is concerned the
Traverse leaves room for its Buick
Enclave sibling to fancy things up even
so GM's mainstream offering incorporates
some soft materials and in many places
uses a soft coating to spruce up hard
plastics in other places it doesn't with
the second and third row stowed Traverse
owners have a substantial ninety eight
point two cubic feet to fill raised
those seats and twenty three cubic feet
of dedicated cargo space remains
supplemented by an additional 3.2 cubic
foot underfloor storage hold while
prattling on about the traverses many
fine qualities we should reserve time to
talk about how it drives and how it
drives is lovely the suspension
skillfully absorbs bumps while keeping
the chassis in check when cornering and
when you pick up the pace interior noise
is mostly quashed except for some
whistling in this region, which you would
hear if I didn't have to stop for that
stoplight
the man says I have to stop
providing propulsion is a mighty 3.6
liter v6 that tows up to 5,000 pounds
and moves the Traverse with real
authority when asked maybe more
impressive is the standard 9 speed
automatic it's a shining star of a
transmission that delivers virtually
seamless transparent shifts and when you
introduce the accelerator to the carpet
acceleration and downshifts occur without
delay for its size the Traverse is
fairly efficient aided by an
inconspicuous but undefeatable automatic
engine start/stop system that saves fuel
when the vehicle is motionless if you
don't mind giving up a few mpg the
optional all-wheel drive system adds
traction inslippery conditions a
turbocharged four-cylinder engine is
also available but only in the sporty
Traverse RS producing less horsepower
more torque and better city fuel economy
than the v6 the real trick with a
relatively large SUV is to hide its
girth the Traverse does just that with
light and easy steering and a tight
turning circle that make it a confident
parking tool parked on the flipside
visibility over your right shoulder is
terrible especially since depending on
where the seats are the right second row
headrest completely blocks the side
window in my experience if you can see
what's in the adjacent Lane lane changes
are less stressful
helping address those visibility
concerns our higher trim features like
blind spot monitoring a 360 degree
camera system rear cross-traffic alert
and rear but not front parking sensors
rounding out the option roster are
indulgences like wireless phone charging
a hands-free tailgate heated and
ventilated front seats leather and a
heated steering wheel choose the fancy
high country trim with its power folding
seats and traction enhancing dual clutch
rear differential and you can spend
nearly fifty three thousand dollars it's
worth mentioning that adaptive cruise
control is only offered on the high
country trim while many competitive SUVs
offer similar technology at a lower
price point and if you need eight seats
you're stuck with the low end L & LS
trims as higher Traverse trims only come
with seven in basic not quite $31,000
form the Traverse comes surprisingly
well equipped with keyless entry and
push-button start three-zone automatic
climate control a wide-angle backup
camera a smart slide 2nd row seat for
easy third row access and 7 airbags
including a center airbag that deploys
from the inboard side of the driver's
seat the standard infotainment system is
a 7-inch unit featuring apple carplay
and android auto but buyers can also
upgrade to an 8 inch system with a
lockable storage area behind the screen
hiding the traverses elusive seventh USB
port either way the screen is decently
sized placed within reach and the menus
are a cinch to navigate while shopping 3
row midsize SUVs it's always smart to
investigate the alternatives some
standouts include the roomy VW Atlas
the practical Toyota Highlander the
thoughtfully crafted Honda Pilot and the
strong selling Ford Explorer
pleasant to drive and
competitively-priced with lots of cargo
space and room for up to 8 passengers
the Chevrolet Traverse is fantastically
suited for family duty despite some
formidable competition the Traverse is a
midsize SUV that deserves your attention

Chevrolet Corvette "Cobra Killer" Grand Sport by Superformance

THE DRIVE:

Yeah...
Oh man.
This is a car that encourages you to
make really bad decisions. Really bad
decisions.
I'm Kyle Cheromcha, West Coast editor of The Drive
and it might look like I'm
surrounded by millions and millions of
dollars in priceless automotive history
right now, but every single car you see
in front of you including this 1963
Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport is
actually a recreation, a continuation car
made new again in the 21st century by
Superformance.
Give me the story of Superformance.
Superformance started actually
30-plus years ago in South
Africa, the factory's in South Africa, and
the initial idea was... The owner of
Hi-tech, the factory in South Africa
wanted a Cobra and he looked around at what
was available in South Africa and it was
nothing that they know that the quality
was terrible so he hops in an aeroplane to
the US, had a look around and he wasn't
happy with what he saw there and he said
I gotta do it better, you know he's a
total perfectionist this guy, and
he bought what he thought was the best
that he could find where he brought it
back to South Africa and then reworked
everything you know he went from one
side the other side and then I've got to
admit that the first two performances
built would that good either they
weren't so thank goodness six thousand
vehicles plus minus later we say yeah
we've got approximately four and a half
thousand cobras built between
superformance cobras and Shelby Cobra's
and then of course we've done about 350
g2 bodies and Ford only built 80 to 100
rights back in the 60s there were those
we weigh about yeah and then Daytona's
that there were only six we built about
too close to 200 Daytona 100 yeah
and of course I knew a new sweetheart
covet grant sport it's a slow starter
we've just started selling them a few
years back and I think we over 30
already a 35 I believe but it's
something is pretty special you might be
able to tell it's a little loud in here
kind of hard to have a conversation
probably not the most efficient daily
driver but damn
I cannot imagine something that would be
more fun to tool around at this
here we go
I'm telling you that does not get old
that is a smile maker right there
you know what's amazing we're in this
you know it again it was built less than
two years ago because it's a
continuation car but everything about
this this whole interior it all screams
1963 and yet I have ice cold air
conditioning blowing at my face
I'm sitting in an adjustable seats I
have power windows and most of all I'm
not terrified about crashing a priceless
vintage muscle car having the freedom of
a replica car a continuation car to just
enjoy the drive man it's like you're
here back in 1963 and this is just any
old car that you're driving it really
it's really remarkable
they were only ever five of them done
originally and there's you know that
I've got the blueprints upstairs we had
to help a lot of help from a wonderful
guy
Robert ash Bhavesh from racing icons he
had two storage units full of
development parts for grand sports he's
restored I believe three out of the the
ridge tree of the original grand sports
out of the five and I know he's probably
touched the others also we were very
lucky that he had actually worked on car
number three that always raced with the
number two uh so it was actually car
number three and we managed to get all
the tooling it made that the plaster
cast molds that he had taken off that
car we got all that we got a body that
he had made the beat and body the same
as original Grand Sport we got that from
him then there was you know all the
tooling for the brakes for the side
vents for all the little details on how
the handle was put it because Corvettes
never had a handle like that that was
from a truck actually and that was
August Dunlop's idea of aerodynamics by
putting the handle butch in I see you
know the BRIT where the brake Vince went
for the cooling the coupe the dip cooler
that's on the back there's so much
detail we copied the original drawings
on how to a ghost on top altered the
original 63 Corvette suspension for the
grandpa we did all that now we've made
some safety changes better brakes and
what they had and of course we've gone
to a rat not a steering box
and if you come up to the car you'll see
that we've managed to get the gaps to be
really nice and also the door oh yes
there's no old 63 bit that's door closes
well that sounds a lot more solid you
know right down to your double seal and
then on the original grant sports that
of course had the leather straps we've
copied that too that's there now this
one is set up actually with a modern
lingo Faldo engine mm-hmm but it's got
something beautiful and it's what we
call men's jewelry when you look at it
it has the eight stack ah yes and yeah
men have here you go
men get excited when they see that you
know if we could we could wear that on
our finger or on our arms we were it's
true that's men's jewelry as pretty as
beautiful that's the real deal and as I
said you could see the power steering
air condition and was there any trouble
fitting it in the original engine bay
without modifying at all or was that the
larger hood from the Grand Sport made it
possible
yeah now the larger hood from a Grand
Sport and the two of the grand sports
the final years of racing raced with big
blocks in there so we can't fit the big
block in yet - you can go all the way to
502 and larger we'll go in in the car
yeah the sound is just amazing I mean
there's no radio in here your right foot
is the deejay
and
talented one of that
suspension is very its I wouldn't call
it soft because you do you can bounce a
little bit but it's also not very
connected the damping is not what it
would be in a modern car so you have to
watch out for that the steering
it'll hold you on a curve but the wheel
is a little a little sloppy so it feels
very much like an old American car in
that in that perfect imprecision that
cars of this era did so well the brakes
are so much better than anything you
find in a car that's really from this
era and that head and shoulders makes
the biggest difference
for our daily driving lack of an air bag
that may concern some folks but at least
you know that you have a much greater
chance of stopping in time compared to
an original 1963 Corvette
you know this whole experience driving a
1963
continuation Corvette Grand Sport on a
beautiful winding Southern California
well Canyon mini Canyon Road I can't
even summon the words describe what a
unique crazy cool feeling this is
I'll a dream come true it really is and
that's God that is that's the whole
point isn't it
a car
that makes you feel
like you're seven years old living out
your wildest dream is
pretty magical

The 2019 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 Is Actually AMAZING

Vehicle Virgins:

Next to me is the 2019 Corvette ZR1
The fastest Corvette ever made
And with a base price of $118,900, the most expensive Corvette ever made
So is the ZR1 worth the money and can it keep up with supercars of modern day
That's what i'm here to find out
Special thanks to StreetSpeed717 for loaning me this car, this is his personal baby
And I really appreciate it, I've got a link in the description below to his channel if you wanna check it out
Under the massive hood of the ZR1 is a 2.6 liter, supercharged V8
Dubbed the LT5
It's actually very similar in architecture to the ZO6's LT4
Only the blower is 52% larger
Let's go ahead and pop the hood, In fact the new 2.65 liter blower was so big
That they had to completely redesign the hood in order for this to fit
And in order to keep up with the amount of fuel required for the ZR1 at full load
Not only does this have direct injection, they had to supplement it with port injection as well
All combined it results in a massive 750HP and 715PFT (Pound Feet of Torque)
Oh yeah, and the top speed of 212 miles an hour
Around the back we have a newly designed quad tip exhaust
That makes this ZR1 the loudest Corvette ever made
And under full load when the exhaust is heated and up to tempature
It shoots massive blue flames
Now not the type of flames where you accelerate and let off the gas and then is shoots flames for a couple seconds
I'm talking about, when your flat out in the ZR1 it shoots a blue flame... the entire time your on the gas
Like this is some sort of rocket ship
Now you'll notice this wing is a little bit small for the ultimate track Corvette
That's because it's one of two downforce options that Chevy calls the "low wing"
The other one is the high wing and that produces 60% more downforce
Than the current ZO6 with the same levels of drag
It's also fully adjustable up to 5 degrees
If you look at the rear window
A ton of tiny Corvette logos
That forms this nice gradient
Did they have to do that on the rear window? Absolutely not, but it's pretty cool that they did
the front facia of the ZR1 now has 3 air intakes
instead of one
That helps feed air over the newly added radiators
In fact there are 4 additional radiators over the ZO6
For a total of 13 heat exchangers
That's actually 3 more than a Bugatti Chiron has
Cooling was huge issue on the ZO6
When it was first released and Chevy didn't want to make the same mistake again
Well the previous generation ZR1 featured a clear poly-carbonate window
In the hood so that you could see the supercharger
They didn't do that with the new ZR1 that's because
The power-train actually sits 3 inches higher
Than any other Corvettes
So as an engineering challenge, developing a hood
That both fits over the supercharger
and doesn't completely obstruct the view of the driver was quite difficult
They've done that...
Sort of,
Come around to the side of the ZR1 and you'll notice the massive wheel arches
These are actually half an inch wider than the Zo6 to help incorporate the
To help incorporate the wider 10.5 inch front wheel
285 section tires on the front
335's out back with Michelin Pilot SuperSports
Is that enough to tame 755HP, just to the rear wheels
We'll find out, the side profile of the ZR1 actually looks
Very similar to the ZO6
Minus this large carbon fiber vent here
doesn't have that ZO6 insignia looks a little bit cooler
The interior of the ZR1 feels very similar to that of a ZO6
It's familiar yet still upscale and classy
Weve got a plethora of carbon fiber
Alcantara, leather
and you can tell that Chevy took criticism into consideration with the C6 generation
As they radically improved the interior for the C7
And even upped the game a little bit more in the ZR1
There are 2 trim options for the interior of the ZR1
We have the 1ZR package and the 3ZR package
The 3ZR being the more expansive upscale version
It comes with heated and ventilated seats
custom lether interior a ten speaker BOSE sound system
It even had this camera in the front
That allows you to see exactly where the curb is
So that you don't smash the bumper of your ZR1
Into a curb, it also comes with PDR as standard
And a few other optinons as well
With the 3ZR package you also get 11 interior color choices
Instead of just one in the base package
and because this is a ZR1
You have tons of space in the back like all Corvettes
I love the fact that this is a full fledged supercar
Yet you can also carry around a lot of luggage
15 cubic feet of space
Lets compare that to the GT3 RS another car that's
Close to this one in its competition on the track
That only has 4.4 cubic feet of storage
Not even close
Alright well enough talking just stationary
Let's go ahead and put this in first gear and take it for a spin
[sounds of heavens gates opening]
[and closing]
This ZR1 is fitted with the optional
Competition seats they grip you in place a lot better
And they look a lot nicer than the normal GT seats
If I had to describe
The driving experience of the ZR1
with one word it would be brutal
whether its the sound or the acceleration
Everything about the ZR1 is intense and raw
Standard of the ZR1
Is magnetic ride suspension that scans the road
Every single milisecond and
can make corrections in as little as 15 miliseconds
to make sure the suspension is set up
optimally for for the conditions ahead
We have 3 different driving modes in the ZR1
That can be selected via this toggle in the center area here
We've got "Tour", "Sport", and "Track"
There used to be two additional modes, wet and eco
On the ZO6 but, we don't need wet and eco
On the ZR1 there's also four different
exhaust settings as well
There's "Tour "Sport" "Track" and
"Pussy" I mean stealth mode, please never use stealth mode
Not only are the driving modes customizable
Changing the throttle response and steering effort
Suspension layout
The actual dash Display is customizable as well
Your able to link them or make them independent
of what mode your in track mode has this lovely
horizontal display where the tachometer
Revs this way, the rest look like familiar circular tachometers
That's why I leave it in trac
There's a brilliant heads-up display that has 3 different settings as well
With varying amounts of information from what gear your in, RPM
As well as speed, I like the track setting
With all the performance data on that as well
If you equip your ZR1, which this one doesn't have
With the optional ZTK package
That gives you Pilot Sport Cup 2's
Instead of Pilot Super Sports for more grip
You also get a re-tuned magnetic ride suspension
With 30% higher spring rates in the front
And 13% higher spring rates in the rear
It also gives you a massive carbon fiber front splitter
And the higher carbon fiber rear wing
generating over 950 pounds of downforce
At it's new top speed of
202 miles an hour, know the difference of ten miles an hour because
Because of that extra drag caused by the downforce
The ZR1 has 2 transmission options
A 7 speed manual fitted in this car
And a 8 speed automatic having driven
A ton of automatic ZO6's
They have lackluster paddle responce
When you leave it in automatic mode, sure it upshifts and downshifts
Pretty quick but having a car
At that level of performance
When you clock the paddle there's a significant delay in downshifts
It's just disappointing and that's why I think
No matter what you should get your ZR1 with a manual
Sure it's 755 HP
With a manual it's definitely a handful
And you might be a little slower in the quarter mile
And around the track then the automatic equipped car
But there no denying
It's a heck of a lot more fun
And you might notice on the steering wheel itself there's actually paddles
Mounted behind it but what do the paddles do if i'm in a manual car
Well both of them actually activate automatic revmatching
I have that off right now and if i'm in third gear
and I downshift into second I have to actually revmatch myself
Otherwise the car lurches and the wheels spin so
Normal downshifts there, but if I click the revmatching button
I'll shift back up into third
Let's go to fourth watch this
You all of the sudden seem like the best manual transmission driver ever
Go into third perfect downshift, go into second, perfect downshift [exited giggles]

It's totally cheating but it is a little bit fun
Let's turn that back off though
I can throw my own gears
[A Car Lovers Music]
[Parker Laughing At The Merciless Sounds That Exit A ZR1]
This thing is scary
755 Horsepower
[Sweet Mother Off V8's that exhast note is beautiful] *Parker didn't say that, thats just the only way to explain the noise*
Oh wow it is a lot of power
HaHa
The steering feel in the ZR1 is fantastic
It's nice and heavy it feels precise and direct
Making the ZR1 feel nimble
And easy to dance around the track
It actually set the Virginia International Raceway Lap Record
Going around the track 1.4 seconds faster
Than the new Ford GT
That's a really big victory for Chevy especially considering
The Ford GT with options is closer to $500,000 which is
Esentialy four times more than
A ZR1, certainly not getting four times the performance
In fact, actually this car is faster in every measurable statistic
Now a lot of people have been referencing
The 7 minute and 12 second Nurburgring lap time
If in fact the ZR1 did actually set a 7:12 Nurburgring lap time
That would be pretty embarrasing, the new generation GT3 RS
With 245 less horsepower than the ZR1
Just did it in 6:56
That's actually not the case for the ZR1
Yes it did a 7:12, but that was recorded unofficialy
By bystanders on the side of the road
With there own measuring equipment, there's now way to know if there was traffic
on the other side of the track
Or if it was raining or snowing on the other side as well
And they where simply testing the ZR1
Setting benchmarks, they weren't actually going all out for the lap time
Considering the new Viper ACR
Was able to do it in the low 7 minutes
Actually 7:01:03, this things is surely
Capable of a sub 7 minute lap time, what about acceleration statistics?
Well as you'd imagine
With a car that weighs 3,500 pounds
And has 755 horsepower
They're pretty crazy
0-60 happens in a face ripping 2.85 seconds
And the quarter mile in 10.6
At 134 mph
That is serious speed, now how does that compare to it's more
expensive foreign rivals
Well a Ferrari 488 does 0-60 in 2.7 seconds, a little bit faster, and it does the quarter mile in
In an identical 10.6 at 135 mph
Second gear roll on the throttle, it's a little damp out
[The elegant sound of a 755hp LT5 all american beauty of a Chevy V8]
HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO
The fact that this is stock and you can just buy this
2019 Cheverolet Corvette ZR1 Goodness
Oh my god that's ac... that is actually terrifying
What's insane is, the ZR1 is now
Offered in convertible form
Thats right if you live in california and you want limitless headroom
and weather isn't a concern you can get it in a convertible
And the top can reatract at speeds up to 30 mph
Does it make sense to get a track performance monster as a convertible
Not necessarily, but some people might want that
Another new feature although its nothing new is the
Performance Data Recorder (PDR), this actually comes standard
With the 3ZR package
That gives you the ability to record lap times
Both with data, also with audio
and visual, there is a camera
mounted on the back of the rear view mirror, there's also a dedicated
Interior microphone for the PDR system as well
But my favorite part is valet mode
When you put the PDR system in valet mode it records
All around the front of the car
So you can see whats happening outside the car and it also records the audio inside
So if you let somebody else drive your car
Who knows Mike (StreetSpeed7171) might be recording me right now
And upload some weird video in case I do something crazy in his car
A corvette actually captured my Gallardo
While I wasn't driving crashing into a wall
and catching air, thankfully it was on film so I could
So I could figure out exactly what happened to my car
Just take this in



We have Mike aka StreetSpeed717 in the car now
So youve had this car for it looks like 2,295 miles, and before that you had a ZO6
Yeah I've had 2 ZO6's, and 2 Stingrays
And now a ZR1, so I've had the lineup, well except for a Grand Sport, I guess that's the one i'm missing
What do you think of it so far
Well this one it's an incredible machine, it's so, just crazy in your face aggresive
And loud, the sound it makes bone stock
It has such a aggressive crazy exhaust bone stock
Ya know probably, i'm gonna make it louder at some point
But it really doesn't need...
This is one of the few cars that doesn't need to be louder
And your not maiing an excuse like, "Oh, well it doesn't need to be louder cause I wanna daily drive it"
Or so on and so forth, it actually doesn't need to be any louder because it doesn't freaking need to be louder, it is so loud
But yeah, it's been a great 250,000 miles
It had it's first track day, ya know where this car is supposed to be driven
Did very well, felt very stable, was keeping up with Mclarens all day long

And I'm not a track driver
Ya know, I'm getting better
I'm in no way an expert at all
And I'm still keeping up with cars of that caliber that easily
So you where saying something very interesting and that was
This is the current highest horsepower manual car on sale
Yeah, I mean this is one thing that iv'e touched on multiple times in my videos
And I haven't heard anyone else say it, I haven't heard an interview, I havent heard GM like boast about it
But I feel like its the case, and if it's not the case, so be it
But, I feel like this is the most powerful production car you can buy with a manual transmission
And i'm not talking about like Koenigsegg or Pagani, who'll build you your own, Zonda
But, you know, actual production cars
And I feel like this is the most powerfull one
Yeah, cause the Demons only an auto
The Zl1 Obviously less power, I cant think ofanything either
The only thing potential thing that could have more power than this is the new GT500
I'd rather have this though, cause it can lap a track and go crazy fast in a straight line
We'll see about that, i'm exited to see that car
Well dude thanks again for letting me drive this car
It was raining earlier, so the fact that you trusted me out here
In a 755 HP RWD car
Appreciate that
Like always please browse the channel and subscribe, subscribe to Mike if you haven't already, link in the description below
I look foward to seeing you, in the next video

2020 Chevrolet Corvette C8 Reveal - Finally, A Mid-Engine Corvette!

Edmunds:

[MUSIC PLAYING]

CARLOS LAGO: We just watched
the reveal of the 2020 Chevrolet
Corvette Stingray.
The base price is going
to be less than $60,000.
That's incredible.
This is the eighth generation
Corvette, and of course now
it's mid-engine.
There is a 6.2-liter
V8 right about here.
Now, that's a big deal
for a lot of reasons.
Well, one, it's the first
time that a Corvette
has gone mid-engine.
Two, it brings a ton
of performance benefits
and it makes a pretty radical
change to what Corvette is.
Really quick, that engine
is still a pushrod V8.
That means it's low, it's
sacrificing a little bit
of valve train sophistication
for sitting low in the car
itself.
It's attached to an 8-speed dual
clutch automatic transmission.
The only transmission
offering, and of course, it
drives the rear wheels.
Now, it makes 495 horsepower
with the performance exhaust,
and with Launch Control, and
with the performance options,
like the Z51 track package
that was on the C7, and so on,
enables 0 to 60 in less
than three seconds.
Push is pretty spectacular.
Now, one of things
that happens when
you switch to a
mid-engine configuration
is of course all that space that
was once cargo volume is now
engine volume, I guess?
But there's still
a trunk behind it,
which Chevy says can
fit two golf bags, which
is pretty impressive.
It shows Chevy's
commitment to understanding
the practicality
aspect of the Corvette,
and why owners really
appreciate that.
It makes this car more
usable for more people.
On top of that, there's also
a front trunk, or frunk,
up front.
Combined, both of those
compartments make 12.6-ish
cubic feet of cargo space,
which is pretty important.
Let's go a little
bit further up.
One of things they maintained
was the removable roof,
which has always been a
highlight of Corvettes.
It's nice to be able to
take the roof off and just
go for a cruise.
There are a couple of
other big, dramatic changes
to the rest of the car, as well.
Gone are the
transverse leaf spring
setup that used to underpin
Corvette for a long time.
Now we're just down
to coil overs, which
is more traditional,
and should make
for a really sophisticated
ride and handling,
especially when paired with the
magnetic fluid-filled shocks
that Corvette's been using
in recent years, and those,
we've really liked a lot.
Chevy says in the
press materials
that the Corvette equipped
with all-season tires
can generate 1 G laterally.
That's ridiculous
for all-season tires,
and that's such a high
amount of grip capability
that actually all Corvettes
now will have a dry [INAUDIBLE]
oiling system to ensure constant
lubrication to important engine
bits when you're
cornering really hard.
A lot of really
exciting stuff there.
Let's move our way to the front.
And one of the real advantages,
beyond all the performance
headroom, of having the
engine in the middle,
because it's putting more
mass on the rear tires,
giving them more traction to
brake, accelerate, and handle,
but you also move the passenger
compartment quite a bit
forward in the cabin.
And that means you can
put the hood down lower,
because there's no
longer an engine there.
You can make the
windshield bigger.
That gives you a
better sight line.
And because there's no
longer an engine blocking it,
you can have a shorter
and more direct steering
system, which makes the
whole thing feel more direct.
It also helps when you're
closer to the front wheels, too.
It makes the process
feel a little bit better.
Let's find a way to
hop inside and talk
about what's going on in there.

The interior's a
pretty dramatic change,
like the rest of
the car, I guess.
Two seats, of course.
Squared-off steering
wheel, which
looks interesting, but
in my experience, cars
that use this design work
pretty well because you have
four unique points
of contact that
help in doing hand-over-hand
steering around tight corners,
or when you're in a power
slide, as I like to do,
it helps you locate where
the center of the wheel
is really quickly.
Big digital gauge cluster
behind that, infotainment
display here, all
very driver-oriented
how it wraps around you,
especially this little trim
piece of HVAC controls.
Very interesting decision.
It's going to be a while
before we actually figure out
if we like it or
not, but I will say,
I like having physical buttons
rather than digital ones buried
in the menu.
One of things we
haven't talked about
is something that's
really impressive,
and that's a button
hidden up here
that lifts the front
end of the car when
you're approaching like a
speed bump or your driveway.
And the cool thing is when
you do that, you can actually
have the GSP system
remember where that was,
so when you get home, you don't
have to always hit that button.
Or if there's always a speed
bump or a pothole on your drive
home, the car will just
learn that as you use it.
And that's a really cool
thing to have in a sports car.
There's nothing more
embarrassing than scraping
the nose on your sports car
as you leave your driveway
in the morning.
Very, very embarrassing.
There's a lot here that we're
going to learn, and experience,
and talk about.
But for the time being, this
Corvette looks really cool,
and we can't wait to drive it.

Chevrolet American Revolution Commercial from 2005

Standing in Waves:

2019 Chevrolet Silverado Review and First Drive — Cars.com

Cars.com:

we're here in some of the most beautiful
parts of the country the Idaho Wyoming
border where we've had our first chance
to get behind the wheel of the 2019
silverado half-ton now there's a lot to
talk about with this truck but we're
gonna try to keep it focused I'm going
to talk about the interior the bed our
off-road impressions how it tows and
what it feels like on the highway inside
the Chevy trail bus is e71
it's got the cloth interior the new
redesign Center stack which is closer to
the driver and passenger to control the
nav system and any AC functions it's got
a nine switch line up here depending on
what features you have and also the
four-wheel drive system is now in the
upper left-hand corner both with the tow
haul mode and a sport mode and
thankfully they've put the trailer brake
controller down here and easy access
here at the right hand but it also has a
huge center console whether you have the
storage bin here in front or whether you
have the middle seat that pops up with a
hidden storage underneath the seat you
still have tons of room inside for any
of your personal gear here at the back
we love the dual exhausts they've also
redesigned the bumper steps to make it
easier to access the bed itself here on
the tailgate push button electronic drop
and also on some trim packages all it
takes is a push of the knee and it
automatically closes all by itself but
the bed itself has some of the most
interesting features we've seen in a
pickup bed in a long time on the floor
cold rolled steel for strength also the
walls the walls themselves are made of a
high-strength steel so this is probably
some of the strongest beds in the
half-ton segment also 12 different
tie-down points each 500 pound capacity
on every pickup truck with nine other
exterior holes to give you a total of 21
different holes that you can have for
tie-downs to keep your cargo safe but
the feature we like the most
the optional 120 volt 3 prong plug
right here in the bed on the off-road
course the trail boss is z71 was
impressive there's no other way to
explain it this vehicle has a 2-inch
suspension lift makes room for bigger
wheels and tires more aggressive treads
the Goodyear Wranglers but also has
monotube Rancho shocks very good for
this kind of obstacle course that we had
created here by Chevy for us we had a
log run we had a hill climb over some
loose dirt rock we also had a
rock-strewn area very similar to a
Rubicon Trail and then we also had a big
mud pit that we were able to get up some
speed and do some very nasty splashing
but this vehicle does very well it's
going to compete very well with other
off-road packages it's not a Ford Raptor
but it's a very impressive
when it comes to trailering Chevy is
really upping their game in fact they've
created for this new half-ton Silverado
they've created what's called the
advanced trailering package which is the
combination of integrated cameras along
with a lot of accessible information
they haven't loaded right into the nav
screen that they can get any time they
can program different types of trailers
that they're going to be using and they
can keep track of the fuel economy and
different connections around the truck
in fact you can even check from the
driver's seat whether or not all the
lights on your trailer and your vehicle
your tow vehicle are all working at the
same time now the connections here
accommodate a fourth camera it has to be
hardwired but it can provide you with a
view off the back end of the trailer so
when you pop it into reverse you know
exactly what's behind you when you're
trailering now we had a chance to take
this trailer a 6,000 pound cargo trailer
out on the road and we have to say that
this is a very comfortable and confident
vehicle to tow with
6,000 pounds isn't your normal weight in
fact that's probably more than 90% of
people are going to be towing with their
half-ton pickup truck but we can say
with the suspension changes and also
this technology advancement with this
trailer package this is probably one of
the best trailer packages we've had a
chance to derive so we're out of the mud
we've disconnected the trailer we're
back on the highway so this is just two
lane road where it's 6,000 feet so the
powertrain feels a little underpowered
but that's okay because there's a lot of
horsepower in both the 5 3 or the 6-2 v8
engines that are available for this new
Silverado on the road very composed this
is probably the single biggest
improvement not that the last half-ton
Silverado was bad but this one is so
much better it's almost difficult to
even compare the two very composed
especially into hard corners it's a
wonderful little switch that puts a
little racing flag up on the information
- that
to know you're in sport mode you get a
little tighter feel to the steering
wheel little quicker response on the
throttle and this thing just stays
hugged to the ground we're in the trail
boss so that means we're a little higher
because of the suspension lift but
there's nothing about this vehicle that
feels tippy or you know out of sorts
whether we're pushing it we've pushed it
a few times around some corners it
absorbs every kind of corner that we
could throw at it no matter what the
speed is that we're going into that
corner so I mean overall this is a very
impressive feel on two-lane highways it
seems like almost any of the trim
package combinations are very versatile
doing moderately well if they're
four-wheel drive but also doing very
very well if you want to get a little
more enthusiastic on pavement what's our
biggest takeaway from our time behind
the wheel of the 2019 silverado half-ton
is how far they've come now we love the
classics but this new half-ton pickup
truck looks like it could be a game
changer for Chevy and we love the fact
that they're requiring on every single
vehicle and this isn't a government
mandate but every single vehicle on the
door jamb lets the owner of that
specific truck know exactly what the
maximum trailer capacity is and maximum
payload capacity is for each truck
that's about safety and we like that for
more information about this truck go to
pickup trucks calm
you

1973 Chevrolet Camaro: An American Let Free In The French Countryside

Petrolicious:

I've been passionate about cars
since I was a little boy.
I was lucky to have a dad
who was a mechanic
and who taught me the basics
from a very young age.
I would spend my time
fiddling around with my dad,
in the evening, on weekends,
on the family cars.
He taught me a lot of things,
but he mostly communicated
his love of do-it-yourself
and gave me tips and tricks
to repair cars,
but also about life in general.
At first, you start working on cars,
fiddling with engines and bodywork,
and you quickly move on to other steps,
like learning how to weld
or creating small boxes
out of sheet metal.
You basically try anything you can,
until you realize
you can do pretty nice things.
You twist objects, and people like it,
so it makes you happy.
It is a very rewarding experience.
Every day, you have an idea
of what you want to put into practice.
My name is Gabriel,
and I drive a 1973 Chevrolet Camaro.
I've always had a soft spot
for VW Type 1s.
I've had a lot of fun restoring a few.
These are great memories,
but when you keep on seeing
four-cylinder cars in American movies,
you end up wanting one.
From the time I was 18, I drove Type 1s,
and V8s were just a fantasy.
You think it's impossible,
until one day you say, "Why not?"
Another car enthusiast friend and I
started dreaming
of fetching a V8 in the U.S.
And we did, in 2013.
We took the plunge
and left to each buy a car.
We didn't have a set idea in mind.
Contrary to popular belief,
we didn't necessarily want a Mustang,
but we wanted a V8,
the typical American car.
So we flew all the way to Los Angeles,
but, of course,
we couldn't miss out on Las Vegas,
so we went.
Right in the middle of the desert,
I took a look at the gauge
and realized the tank was almost empty.
I knew I wouldn't be able to go 200 miles,
so we took the next exit,
which was Victorville.
We had no clue where we were going,
and there was nothing in sight.
We truly were in the desert.
So we took the Victorville exit
and tried to find a station to fill her up,
and, luckily, we found one.
Half of the shops were closed.
We were a bit lost,
but we quickly got gas at the pump.
While doing that, my friend saw
a vintage car off the road
and wanted to check it out.
I could tell it was apple green,
which is not a color I like,
but we had might as well take a look,
because the car was for sale.
So we got closer, and it was a Nova.
It was not my favorite model,
and I didn't like the color,
but then a Mexican guy showed up.
His name was Roberto.
So, Roberto came up to me and said,
"What are you looking for?
Why are you here?
Do you want to buy a car?"
So, I told him,
"Yes, I am looking to buy a car."
And he said, "Follow me."
We entered a shed full of dismantled cars.
I saw a car under a dusty tarp
and recognized a Camaro.
My interest was peaked.
He removed the dusty tarp,
and I got all excited; I loved that car.
He fiddled with the starter for a bit,
and then it made a thundering noise.
The car lived again.
I had goosebumps.
The noise filled my ears,
and I could smell gasoline.
So, we took a serious and closer look.
We looked under the car and inside,
and it was very dirty,
but despite the dirt,
it was in very good shape.
Then I confirmed with Roberto.
"I can wire the money.
Is everything okay with you?"
He said, "It's all good with me.
You'll have the car
as soon as I get the money."
The nice thing about this story
is that you indulge yourself
when you discover the car,
but also when you re-discover it
a few months later,
when the vehicle finally arrives home.
You had forgotten a lot of things.
Of course, you had pictures,
but you had forgotten the smell of it,
the sound it makes.
Details had been erased with time.
Especially since I had never seen it
all clean and shiny under the sun.
So, when the car arrived, I was awe-struck.
I couldn't believe it was my car.
This car is unique to me,
because it allowed me to meet
so many people,
and it gave me the chance
to have unique experiences
that I will never forget.