Chevrolet is introducing the new Cruze to the World Touring Car Championship in the hopes of continuing their success in the series. Developed and built by the same team that ran Chevy’s previous car in the WTCC, the new Cruze hopes to extend the brand’s successful streak of twelve wins in world championship races.
Director of Chevrolet Europe, Wayne Brannon, relates WTCC’s motto of “Real Cars, Real Racing” to Chevy’s “philosophy to provide real cars for real lives, with expressive design, world class quality / reliability and an impressive list of standard features and content, all at an affordable price.”
Chevrolet Europe Motorsport Manager, Eric Nève said that “The new Cruze will be the next milestone in Chevrolet Europe’s motorsports history. So far, we have achieved every goal we set in 2005, step by step: challenge the competition, score points, prove we can win and then become regular frontrunners against competition with an established motorsports resume. With the Cruze, we will put the bar even higher and firmly aim at winning the World Championship. Chevrolet’s unique ‘trump card’ is having worked with the same team, engineers and drivers for the past four seasons, with the success we all know. To be able to do this again with the Cruze will only help to increase our chances of achieving our goals.”
Testing for the new car is already underway and is on schedule to continue throughout the remaining season and into the winter. The new model is expected to first see action at the opening round of the 2009 WTCC in Curitiba, Brazil.
