American Car - November 2015

news

ACM 9

PrejudiceBulletin

According to Continental Tyres, 45% of UK motorists – some 16 million drivers – judge other drivers based on the colour, type and cleanliness of their

car, allowing it to affect how courteously or otherwise they treat them. This could boil down to “he has a BMW/Audi, ergo he’s a tw*t.”

Limited Mileage?

Not this lot. One hundred years

ago, Edsel Ford drove a Model T

Ford 3,500 miles from Detroit to

San Francisco to the 1915 World's

Fair, where Ford had a display

including a functioning Model

T production line. In July this

year, a team from the Historic

Vehicle Association drove

the same journey in another

1915 Model T in celebration of

the centennial of the Panama

Pacific International Exposition.

Edsel's journal of the original

trip proved that, for the

first time, Americans could

consider driving across the US

by automobile.

Factory Fresh

Back in 2013, GM bought the old Durant-Dort Factory

One carriage factory in downtown Flint, Michigan.

Back On Display

They recently announced that

they will be converting it into

an automotive archive and

research centre, with the west

wing housing classic vehicles

and other artefacts. The

project is scheduled for

completion in 2017.

In early September, GM

announced that the one-millionth

Corvette – which fell into the

sinkhole under the Bowling

Green museum almost 18 months

previously – had completed its

four-month, 1,200 man-hour

restoration at GM’s Technical

Center, and was unveiled back at

the National Corvette Museum.

The white ragtop had been

autographed by every worker

who built the car in 1992, and

only two signed components

couldn’t be saved. The resto team

scanned the autographs and had

them reproduced as transfers to

stick to the new parts.

Have It Your Way

As the sixth-gen 2016 Camaro goes into production,

Chevrolet have announced that pricing will begin at

$26,695 (RRP) for the base V6 1LT.

They also announced

performance figures for the

lighter, more powerful SS, such as

0-60mph in 4.0 seconds, 455bhp,

and 12.3 seconds in the quarter.

Even the 2.0 turbo can cover the

quarter in 14 dead. There’s a new

online ‘visualizer’ for potential

customers (or dreamers looking

for something to do on their

lunch break) to configure their

car with colours, options and

trim – see http://www.chevrolet.

com/2016-camaro/

news.indd 9 21/09/2015 14:01: