Chevrolet might be losing the horsepower war to Ford and their new Shelby GT500, but they have the upper hand in sales of high performance cars.
Just a look at the 2011 sales statistics shows that the Camaro has beaten the Mustang fair and square. They sold 88,249 Camaros, a whopping 18,000 units more than Ford could manage with the Mustang.
The Corvette has also been quite successful last year. Chevrolet accounted for 28 percent of the luxury-sports-car segment in 2011, selling 13,164 Corvettes. Currently the only domestic car in the segment, Corvette more than doubled the sales of its nearest competitor, the Porsche 911.
The Corvette and Camaro together accounted for 37 percent of the sports-car segment last year.
| Top 5 Sports Cars by 2011 Total Sales and Market Share |
Top 5 Luxury Sports Cars by 2011 Total Sales and Market Share |
|||||||
| 1. | Chevrolet Camaro | 88,249 | 37% | 1. | Chevrolet Corvette | 13,164 | 28% | |
| 2. | Ford Mustang | 70,438 | 29% | 2. | Porsche 911 | 6,016 | 13% | |
| 3. | Dodge Challenger | 39,534 | 16% | 3. | BMW 6-Series | 3,903 | 8% | |
| 4. | Honda CR-Z | 11,330 | 5% | 4. | BMW Z4 | 3,479 | 7% | |
| 5. | Hyundai Veloster | 9,284 | 4% | 5. | Mercedes SLK | 3,220 | 7% | |
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To put their money where their mouth is, Chevrolet took both the Camaro ZL1 and Corvette ZR1 to Virginia International Raceway and sent them round. Here’s some footage of the action.
In a 2012 Corvette ZR1, equipped with new Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires, Corvette engineer Jim Mero lapped the Grand Course in 2:45.6 – faster than the published lap time for any production car:
In a 2012 Camaro ZL1, Camaro engineer Aaron Link lapped the Grand Course in 2:52.4 – more than six seconds faster than the published lap time of a 2011 Ford Shelby GT500 on the same track:
