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Chevrolet launches Monte Carlo SS into Nascar

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Alex Law
To help promote their everyday vehicles, car companies are willing to spend billions of dollars sponsoring racing series whose cars have virtually nothing in common with their everyday vehicles.

As bizarre as this sounds, this practice speaks directly to how competitive the industry is today, and how accepting consumers are of such behavior so they can continue to enjoy motorsports.

Though it's pretty much common practice today, this wasn't always the way things operated of course. Even the series that used to be called "stock car racing" because the products were essentially regular (aka stock) production vehicles that you could buy in a dealership has moved completely away from that.

That would of course be Nascar, which has grown dramatically away from its redneck roots in recent years and is struggling hard to gain acceptance with a more urban crowd and upscale its reputation.

This is very important racing to the sponsoring companies, because traditional fans are unbelievably faithful to the product they support and, to an astonishing degree, vehicles from U.S.-based car companies
2006 Chevrolet Nascar Monte Carlo SS (photo: General Motors)
ingeneral. "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" is a parable that still works with Nascar.

So it's a big deal when Chevrolet rolls out a new version of its branded cars, even though the racecar has practically nothing in common with the actual production car. They have managed to suggest the body shape of the 2006 Monte Carlo SS in the racecar set for Nascar's 2006 Nextel Cup Series, but most people would be hard-pressed to recognize the racecar's heritage if it didn't say Chevrolet on the side.

This time around Chevrolet is trying to make a connection between the engines in the two cars, though in truth they have little in common beyond their basic configuration (V-8) and general size (small block).

So here's successful racer Jeff Gordon of the #24 DuPont Chevrolet Monte Carlo making a pitch for the relationship: "We've won races in Monte Carlos for years, and it's exciting that we'll have a brand new one to race next year. The new car looks to be even faster than the one we have this year and I can't wait to get a chance to race it. These cars are so fun and fast to race, and it's great that fans will now be able to come even closer to that experience with the new small block V-8 in the Monte Carlo SS."

2006 Chevrolet Nascar Monte Carlo SS (photo: General Motors)
Previously, the Monte Carlo SS had to make do with a supercharged version of a 3.8-litre V-6, which isn't very Nascar-like at all. For 2006, the Monte Carlo SS gets the 5.3-litre small-block V-8, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

The new race car for the Nextel and Busch series was developed over a 14-month period using the full complement of engineering and design tools available to the people at GM Racing and Chevrolet, says Pat Suhy, GM Racing group manager for Nascar. "The company's engineers worked in concert with their key partners on pit lane, the real 'customers' for the new Monte Carlo SS race car."

Suhy says the firm "worked with all our Chevy teams to get their input on how to make a better race car, and I believe that shows in our new Monte Carlo SS. We spent a lot of hours in our wind tunnel, coast-down test facility and on race tracks to make the Monte Carlo even better. Having the SS name on our new race car is important, as it directly relates to the high-performance SS that the thousands of Chevy race fans can buy for the street."
Alex Law
Alex Law
Automotive expert