2014 Chevy Camaro Z/28 is so slick it gets a Flowtie

When you see a golden bowtie, you know you're looking at aChevrolet. And that's completely by design. First introduced way back in 1913, the famed Bowtie has gone through several permutations, but it's never quite been modified like it has for the new Chevy Camaro Z/28. Instead of a solid bow, as we've become accustomed to seeing, the Z/28's Bowtie is hollow.

According to Chevy's press release, which can be found below, Powertrain Cooling Development engineer Richard Quinn noticed during wind-tunnel testing that the Z/28's Bowtie-emblazoned grille was pushing air away instead of allowing it to hit the radiator. The solution was to cut out the center of the emblem, leaving a chrome outline that lets air through.

GM's engineers have named the new Bowtie-shaped emblem the Flowtie. Clever, boys. An additional three cubic meters of air is let into the engine bay per minute, lowering coolant and oil temperatures by 2°F. Scroll down below for more information from Chevy about its so-called Flowtie and to watch a video.

This post originally posted here.

Next Chevy Volt will be 2016 model and ride on new chassis

What do we know about the 2016 Chevy Volt? Well, for now, all we can do is try to put the puzzle together without the box. Thankfully, a new batch of pieces has arrived from a new report in Edmunds, which says that the 2016 model year will introduce the second generation of a car that hasn't been dramatically updated since it went on sale in 2010. The new Volt is getting an "evolutionary styling change" and will ride on a new front-drive platform that has been developed by General Motors. GM's Kevin Kelly told AutoblogGreen that he has "no comment on future products," but he did acknowledge that Chevrolet is working on a second-generation Volt, "but I can't say anything about timing."

Everybody already knew that a next-gen Volt is coming, so that's not a surprise. What we don't know is any real concrete information on the car itself. The few tidbits of information we do have help define the outlines of the next version of Chevy's halo car, but they're not confirmed yet. For the record, they range from the eye-raising (a $10,000 price drop) to the logical (20 percent more electric range). We can't see the whole picture yet, but the pieces do point to the 2016 Volt, which would be released next year sometime, being a much bigger deal than the last update, when the Volt's range was increased by three electric miles thanks to a battery capacity increase of 16 kWh to 16.5.

This post originally posted here.