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In addition to aerodynamic and safety benefits, the Car of Tomorrow promises to decrease costs. The Car of Tomorrow will be easier to build and will eventually be tunable for all the tracks on the Nextel Cup circuit, thereby eliminating the need for specialized cars for different tracks.
GM Racing engineers have played an integral role in the creation of the Car of Tomorrow since the early stages of its development. Working closely with NASCAR, GM Racing engineers assisted with the safety and aerodynamic changes as well as recommendations on the wing and splitter based on findings from extensive wind tunnel and on-track testing. GM also enlisted the help of its design studio which allowed for greater input on design cues so that the Impala SS on the race track more closely resembles the Impala SS production vehicle.
Impala Return Marks 50th Anniversary of Model's NASCAR Debut
As announced last October, Chevy's legendary Impala nameplate will return to NASCAR competition in 16 Car of Tomorrow events this season, sharing race duties with the Monte Carlo SS. Following its Bristol debut, the Impala SS will compete at race tracks less than a mile and a half in length, all road course events and the fall Talladega race. Next year all races at tracks two miles or more in length are expected to feature the new model with the Impala SS to run exclusively during its first full season in 2009.
The Impala nameplate is no stranger to NASCAR competition or racing success. Chevrolet introduced the Impala in 1957 as a 1958 model and drivers immediately took to the big car, racing it first on the beach at Daytona, then at Daytona International Speedway in 1959. Redesigned that year, Bob Welborn scored a victory with the new model for the qualifying race of the 1959 Daytona 500 - the first 500 at the Speedway. Success continued for Impala with consecutive NASCAR championship titles in 1960 (Rex White) and again in 1961 (Ned Jarrett). In 1963, stock-car legend Junior Johnson ran 32 races of the 55-race schedule in the famous white No. 3 Impala owned by Ray Fox and collected seven wins, 12 top-fives, 13 top-tens and nine poles.
"The Impala is a name associated with performance, from the earliest models which raced on the sands and Speedway at Daytona to the newest SS sedan," Suhy added. "The Impala has been extremely successful in the marketplace (best-selling domestic car of 2005) and we look forward to aligning that success with additional accomplishments on the race track."
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