Along with hosting the new
Evora Racer, the Autosport show in Birmingham today (14th January 2010) has a new racecar of less pedigree but no less interest on display in the form of the Chevrolet Cruze Cup.
The maker describes it as an 'affordable route into modern saloon car racing,' which means its no good if you live in the baroque period, but is quite a compelling racing prospect for anyone else. A new one-make series will accommodate the racer, with the first event at Rockingham in April.
It's not the first racing Cruze ever - there's a Cruze World Touring Car already - but the Cruze Cup is the first to offer private competitors the chance to do so at a more affordable level than something from Porsche or Lotus. A £1,000 returnable deposit is all you need to secure one of the 20 cars that will be made, though we can only assume you'll find out how much it's going to cost after you've written that cheque - Chevrolet doesn't say. We're going to use all our professional skills to guess it's somewhere between the £12,445 commanded for a Cruze 1.6 S and the £250,000 a Porsche 911 GT3 R costs. That's why we do this job.
We don't know much about how the car is changed over and above the stock Cruze, though it's based on the 1.8-litre petrol version and has KW adjustable suspension and lightweight Rimstock custom alloys. The Cup series, says Chevrolet, 'is all about driver skill, as each vehicle will be identical.' Paul McMillan, owner of Maxtreme Racing, the company behind the Cruze Cup, added: "The fact this is a car with racing pedigree, but is little different to what's found in showrooms makes it all the more exciting." Don't expect 1,000bhp then.
Mark Nichol - 14 Jan 2010