Chevys Are Designed by Drivers for Drivers

Cox Auto, your Tampa area dealership and source for new Chevrolet models and service, is proud to be selling vehicles with world-class handling. Chevy engineers and designers produce cars that are innovative and intuitive for the driver. It’s not surprising that some of these designers are as passionate about driving as they are about making cars. Case in point is Chevrolet Sonic Lead Development Engineer John Buttermore.

Racing Experience Transferred To Engineering Expertise

Chevrolet Corvette C6

John Buttermore brings a ton of experience to car engineering. Not only has he been in the industry for years, he has raced cars at a high level for much of his life. This kind of insight into how you want a car to perform and handle is key to engineering a car. Buttermore started racing in college at Waterford Hills Raceway outside of Detroit. In 2004 he joined the SCCA National Circuit racing a new Cadillac CTS-V in the Touring 2 category. He went on to racing school Road America, and would eventually break the track record at Waterford Hills in the same CTS-V.

John recently won a gold medal in the faster Touring 1 category, which is prime territory for souped up street based sports cars. The kicker is that he raced an essentially stock Chevrolet Corvette C6. He didn’t think that the Corvette needed much alteration with its stock 6.2L LS3 V-8 engine except minor tune-ups. He put an unmuffled exhaust on and adjusted the engine to work with racing fuel. That’s all it takes to make the Corvette not only race ready but into a champion. John Buttermore has won medals the last six years in the SCCA Touring 1 Class.

Designing the Sonic

John Buttermore put just as much passion into the Sonic’s design as his racing pursuit. He particularly enjoyed pouring some of that race experience into the engineering of the Sonic RS. He said, “With the RS, we updated the suspension tune, brakes, final-drive ratio, manual trans-mission gear ratios and ride height to create a sporty ride.” The Sonic is the only sub-compact made in America and the RS is an exciting and fun car to drive with a 1.4L turbo engine that generates 138 horsepower and 148 lb.-ft. of torque.

We’re happy to bring this great little car to our Bradenton dealership. Visit us today to take it for a test drive. Click here for directions, reviews, and contact info.