Fans of touring car racing, both in BTCC and WTCC formats, will know Chevrolet has had quite a good year. In short, a tuned and stripped-out version of the Cruze saloon that’s on sale in the UK won both titles (above). All very nice, well done Chevy. But for a brand that freely admits it needs to massively raise its profile in the UK, does motorsport success translate into showroom traffic and new car sales? It’s a question I posed earlier this week to Wayne Brannon, the president of Chevrolet Europe. He’s an impressive character, someone who started on the engine assembly line in Detroit opposite his dad when he was 18 years old and has worked his way up the ranks over the 38 years since. Here’s what he said; racing gives the Cruze credibility and creates enthusiasm among existing customers. It also breeds a passion throughout the dealer network. Employees come to the races, buy the merchandise, shout for Chevrolet and are unified around a common purpose. To Brannon that’s priceless. Crucially he didn’t answer the actual question, and you can read what you will into that. He also explained it’s possible to put a financial value on the amount of screentime the brand gets because the race-day cameras are focusing on the cars. He reckons that value is more than twice the amount of money he spends on the entire motorsport programme. Winning races does help brand awareness, but it’s good cars that create customers.
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