Autoblog

General Motors reported mixed results on the salt flats Tuesday, with the day marred by a 250-mph crash of the Chevy So-Cal HHR (top, right).

So-Cal HHR driver and GM engineer Jim Minneker walked away from the HHR wreck, which happened after the car lost traction at nearly 250 mph when the parachute deployed. Minneker was on track to beat the G Class/Blown Fuel Competition Coupe record after hitting the long course speed traps at 246.686 mph (nearly 20 mph faster than the old record) before the crash.

On a brighter note, the So-Cal Speed Shop-built Chevy Cobalt SS (bottom, right) looks set to blow the doors off the G Class/Blown Fuel Altered Coupe record with a blistering 246.680 qualifying run. Driver Mark Dickens hopes to back up that run and break the Cobalt's previous record of 218.392 mph set two days ago. Meanwhile, the record-setting "Student Cobalt", also driven by Wickens, upped its G Class/Unblown Fuel Competition Coupe record to 163.608 mph, this time running its E85-fueled Ecotec with nitrous oxide injection, good for a 7 mph lift.

[Source: GM Performance Division, So-Cal Speed Shop]

General Motors' Performance Division has just completed recreation of this wonderful 1954 Cadillac "Carrera Panamericana" coupe, from an era when Cadillac's high-compression, overhead valve V8s were a hot ticket in the U.S. performance car market.

The original car competed in one of the toughest point-to-point road races in the world, Mexico's Carrera Panamericana, in the hands of a Colorado-based privateer team. Headed by driver Keith Andrews and co-driver/mechanic Blu Plemons, the "five ordinary guys from Colorado" went up against massive factory teams, including the 53-man Lincoln team (with its own refrigerated food truck!), and nearly won the stock car division, winning two stages and finishing third behind two factory-sponsored Lincolns.

The Carrera Panamerican covered nearly 2,000 miles of open road from southern Mexico to the Texas border, and attracted the best drivers and the best teams from around the world, including world champions Phil Hill and Juan Manuel Fangio, and factory teams from Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz.

The recreated Caddy coupe will run in this fall's restaging of the Carrera Panamericana for vintage racecars. More pics after the jump...

[Source: GM]

Both General Motors and Ford are making big inroads into the aftermarket world for high-performance parts, and now GM Performance Parts is taking it to the streets-- literally. The company has put together a mobile exhibit of its offerings called the GM Performance Parts Power Shop, which is travelling the country this summer making appearances at various racing and car-oriented events.

One of the stars of the exhibit is a fully-operational display of the GMPP ZZ572 big-block crate engine - 720 hp of off-the-shelf motivation. The drag racing and hot rod-oriented display also features a brand-new drag racing simulator that promises the "full sensory experience of rocketing down the quarter-mile."

The Power Shop debuted this past weekend at "The Year One Experience" at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia.

[Source: GM]