Performance News

Chevy Cruze SS, Anyone?

Chevrolet is looking at two structure to \"sport up\" General Motors' Delta auto platform. The more radical idea involves all new, \"four-door coupe\"-style sheetmetal on the same papers as the 2011 Chevy Cruze compact. The car would retain the Cruze's wheelbase, but with a more rakish roofline that would sacrifice some backwards seat expanse for a more expressive design.

The idea would be to intend a higher profit-margin car out of a relatively crushed platform. It's same to what Mercedes-Benz did with its CLS four-door coupe -- a car that essentially raised the retail toll of an E-Class-based car to nearby S-Class levels. A Cruze-based four-door coupe would theoretically serve as a travel up toward the Camaro.


The more practical solution would be a Super Sport edition of the Cruze. That entails support mods, of course, nonnegative requisite trim upgrades and a high-pressure edition of the 2.0-liter turbo along the lines of the 260-horsepower organisation that powered the Pontiac Solstice GXP/Saturn Sky Redline and the coming 255-horsepower Buick Regal GS.

Both the four-door coupe and the Cruze SS could take the larger Epsilon platform's all-wheel-drive system to mitigate force steer. We're not likely to see the SS earlier than the '13 model year; the four-door coupe would take modify longer. But of course, before either of them hits Chevy dealers, the priority is to do a high fuel-mileage Cruze XFE.