Although two years have passed since General Motors announced its plans to abruptly end production of the vehicle in North America, the second-generation Chevrolet Cruze soldiers on in South America, the only region in the world where the compact car is still manufactured and sold. What’s more, the Cruze is a starter in several sports programs in the region, and just won the 2020 Stock Car competition in Brazil.
Recognized as the main racing championship of the South American country and the entire region, the 2020 Stock Car championship title in Brazil was conquered by pilot Ricardo Maurício of the Eurofarma RC team, who drove his yellow number 90 Chevrolet Cruze to victory in spectacular fashion. With this, the Bow Tie brand picks up its 35th title in the competition and the fourth in a row with the Cruze model.
This year’s Stock Car championship was marked by several events that made the 41st edition totally different from all the previous ones. In addition to the calendar readjustment and the application of safety protocols due to the pandemic, GM reports that the Brazilian 2020 Stock Car season introduced a profound change in the structural design of the cars, which for the first time adopted more conventional bodywork based on the street model’s monocoque structure.
This new configuration, introduced with the aim of bringing even more competitiveness and excitement to the events, required the company to prepare a new Chevrolet Cruze Stock Car based on the production model manufactured at the GM Rosario plant in Argentina. As such, the car designed for this competition is a deeply modified Cruze equipped with a 550-horsepower V8 engine.
“The New Cruze Stock Car was developed within an innovative concept that allows a similar visual identity to the vehicle that the Chevrolet consumer can drive on the road, but with that dose of performance already enshrined in the competition model” said Marketing Experience Manager at GM South America, Jorge Maiquez, in an official press release.
The Chevrolet Cruze is GM’s official entry in the Brazilian Stock Car since 2016, when the second-generation model was launched locally. The company is the founder of the racing championship that debuted in 1979, in which it has participated with iconic Chevrolet models such as the Opala, Omega, Astra, Vectra and Sonic. The 2020 edition was one of the most contested in history and featured 25 drivers, 13 teams and two automakers (GM and Toyota).
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Comments
This is kind of coincidental I think. I also own a Chevrolet Cruze, and just earlier today I won a Check Engine light. Appointment on Tuesday to find out what that’s about.
LMAOOOOO he “won a Check Engine Light”
the Chevy Cruze isnt even available from Chevy anymore….. why are they still racing this car??? At least race the Malibu, which is still being made??
The Cruze was a good looking car though, kind of wished they kept the Cruze and scrapped the Malibu
Well, this article is about Brazil, and I’m pretty sure they still build the Cruze in Argentina, don’t they?
read the article again, the CHEVY Cruze lives on in South America
“Although two years have passed since General Motors announced its plans to abruptly end production of the vehicle in North America, the second-generation Chevrolet Cruze soldiers on in South America, the only region in the world where the compact car is still manufactured and sold.”
Learn how to read, this is the first sentence of this article^^^^^^
explaining how the Cruze is still in production in South America
Is it still FWD? Lol
There is a picture of tire smoke pouring out from under the rear wheels, its RWD
Real race cars are rwd. Faux racing making production fwd cars into rwd race cars. That’s not Stock Car Racing.
silly opinion, they build the cars and Raced them in the real world, so you hold on to that stupidity.
550 hp under the hood sounds like a race car to me, so what if its not really stock.
NASCARS are far from stock based upon a real world stock car design,Camary,Camaro and Mustang.
I believe the current Camary is FWD Camaro/Mustang are RWD
The “STOCK” in “STOCK” has been gone for awhile. If you want to watch true Stock Cars, I would go to a smaller race track and watch amateur racing its much more “STOCK” .
Orangeshow Speedway in San Bernadino is a good example
“As such, the car designed for this competition is a deeply modified Cruze equipped with a 550-horsepower V8 engine”
It’s rwd for this circuit, the WTCC Cruze was an actual “stock car” until GM left Europe.
What bugs me is I want to see a racing body that has a Challenger/Mustang/Camaro in their actual stock bodies.
Cruz is front wheel drive. The only thing these cars have common with the Cruz at a dealer that you can buy is the shape and bowtie. Yes these cars pictured are race cars but calling them a Cruz is a stretch. Yes there are classes of fwd cars that are raced, but lower entry class.
Hasn’t that always been the case with race cars though?
At least it isn’t a generic car body with stickers on it to make it look like a Chevy.
Yea exactly. Why isn’t there a racing league that uses only factory/dealership cars with no mods. I would love to see professional race car drivers race regular cars that we see on the road WITH NO MODS. That would be wicked.
Any chance GM would start us production I have a 2014 cruze love it
What?
You mean US production? They just ended that a couple years back, so… no.