{"id":29823,"date":"2022-09-23T09:53:31","date_gmt":"2022-09-23T13:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=29823"},"modified":"2022-09-23T09:53:31","modified_gmt":"2022-09-23T13:53:31","slug":"payne-ogling-detroit-auto-shows-evs-and-v-8s-with-penske-indycar-star-scott-mclaughlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2022\/09\/payne-ogling-detroit-auto-shows-evs-and-v-8s-with-penske-indycar-star-scott-mclaughlin","title":{"rendered":"Payne: Ogling Detroit auto show’s EVs and V-8s with Penske Indycar star Scott McLaughlin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Detroit<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 Even professional race car drivers get weak in the knees around the Corvette Z06.\u201cThat\u2019s going to be mine when I win the Indy 500 next year,\u201d smiled IndyCar star Scott McLaughlin, driver of the #3 Chevrolet for Team Penske, as he eyeballed Chevy\u2019s mid-engine hellion. With a production-car record 670-horspower from its normally-aspirated V-8, the sports car is one of the highlights of this year\u2019s show.<\/p>\n

\"Gotta<\/p>\n
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A week after the Detroit auto show opened with a presidential visit and media previews, the public portion of the show is abuzz with customers, musical entertainment and the occasional celebrity visitor. A native of Hamilton, New Zealand, McLaughlin\u2019s visit put the \u201cinternational\u201d in North American International Auto Show in a year in which foreign automaker displays are scaled back from years past.<\/p>\n

McLaughlin\u2019s appearance also showcases the intersection between the Detroit automakers, global markets and motorsports. Chevy, for example, brought McLaughlin to the show floor to not only highlight the Detroit Grand Prix but also to understand the larger Chevy product lineup the brand promotes when its race cars win in front of millions of TV viewers.<\/p>\n

\"Chevy<\/p>\n
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The Kiwi is a natural ambassador for American muscle.<\/p>\n

Unlike European drivers who grew up negotiating narrow city streets in wee, four-cylinder shoeboxes, Australia is a country with miles of open roads like America \u2013 and V8-powered American sedans to match. McLaughlin is a veteran of Australia\u2019s biggest auto show in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

\"Chevy<\/p>\n
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\u201cI craved V-8s as a kid. It\u2019s hard not to. The national sport is the V-8 Supercars,\u201d said the 29-year-old of the Ford Mustangs and Holden Commodores (similar to the late Chevy SS in this market) that are similar to NASCARs Down Under. \u00a0In Australian Supercar, Team Penske waves the Ford Mustang flag, different from the Chevy IndyCar colors he flies here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I raced, and I grew up idolizing V-8 Supercars,\u201d McLaughlin continued. \u201cMy Dad had a V-8, my mom had a V-8.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLaughlin\u2019s dominance of the Supercar series in Australia \u2013 winning three titles from 2018-2020 \u2013 convinced Penske to bring the personable New Zealander stateside.<\/p>\n

\"Chevy<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis is the big leagues. I grew up idolizing America,\u201d said McLaughlin. \u201cRoger asks a lot of (his drivers). We promote the sport, we promote his brands, we promote his town. I wouldn\u2019t want to drive for anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where Chevy made its reputation on American muscle, it is now joining the international market to go all-electric by 2035. For McLaughlin, that means getting familiar with the brand\u2019s new EVs, which surround the Corvette display in Detroit. McLaughlin \u2013 just like other showgoers on the floor Wednesday \u2013 got an in-depth tour of the Silverado, Equinox and Blazer EVs and the Ultium battery chassis they ride on.<\/p>\n

\"Chevy<\/p>\n
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\u201cComing here as a Chevy driver, it\u2019s been an awesome introduction into the GM family,\u201d said McLaughlin. \u201cTo see the resources they put into their race cars and into their production cars is great.\u201d<\/p>\n

The push to electrification is not as pronounced in motor racing. McLaughlin\u2019s Chevy-powered IndyCar will get battery assist in 2024 as a V6-powered hybrid. And the Corvette Z06 is based on the V8-powered C8.R race car that Chevrolet is, for the first time, selling to international race teams.<\/p>\n

McLaughlin\u2019s primary task here is selling tickets for the Detroit Grand Prix, which will return to downtown streets for the first time in more than 30 years next June. NAIAS planned to offer showgoers a tour of the new 1.7-mile track in Chevy Bolt EVs and Volkswagen ID.4s \u2013 but that hasn\u2019t come to pass. Instead, visitors can get a brief ride in the vehicles on Atwater Street on Huntington Place\u2019s riverfront.<\/p>\n

McLaughlin did manage to take some laps of his own on the new circuit while in Detroit.<\/p>\n

\"Chevy<\/p>\n
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\u201cOn paper it doesn\u2019t look very interesting, but then you get on track and see how wide it is and the monuments you pass like the Renaissance Center. It\u2019s gonna’ be a really cool and unique race,\u201d McLaughlin said of the circuit where IndyCars will approach 180 mph on Jefferson Avenue into the Griswold hairpin. \u201cChevy being a part of it and promoting it in the Motor City is really a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

After leaving downtown Wednesday afternoon, McLaughlin\u2019s day continued with laps on a second track: GM\u2019s Milford Proving Grounds out I-96. In a Corvette Z06.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo get to drive a Z06 will be awesome,\u201d he laughed. \u201cI\u2019ll get a taste of what I might own one day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Detroit\u00a0\u2013 Even professional race car drivers get weak in the knees around the Corvette Z06.\u201cThat\u2019s going to be mine when I win the Indy 500 next year,\u201d smiled IndyCar star Scott McLaughlin, driver of the #3 Chevrolet for Team Penske, as he eyeballed Chevy\u2019s mid-engine hellion. With a production-car record 670-horspower from its normally-aspirated V-8, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29823"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29824,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29823\/revisions\/29824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}