Chevrolet is America’s Favorite Performance Brand

The year 2011 was quite an impressive year for Chevrolet: one out of every three sports cars in the United States was either a Camaro or a Corvette. The company sold 88,249 Camaro units - or about 18,000 units more than its nearest competitor, the Ford Mustang - and a total of 13,164 Corvette units - more than double compared to the Porsche 911.

To prove that these numbers are relative to the fantastic cars they create, Chevrolet took the Camaro and the Corvette to the "Grand Course" at Virginia International Raceway. The 2012 Corvette ZR1 lapped the Grand Course in 2:45.6 – faster than the published lap time for any production car. The Camaro ZL1 scored a time of 2:52.4 – more than six seconds faster than the published lap time of a 2011 Ford Shelby GT500.

"With the addition of the Camaro ZL1, there are only a handful of brands in the world with two cars that can match the performance, technology, and excitement of Corvette and Camaro," said General Motors North America President Mark Reuss. "Unlike many competitors’ performance cars, the Corvette ZR1 and Camaro ZL1 are appropriate for both daily drivers and track use from the factory – with standard coolers for brakes and drivetrain."

"And we challenge any company to bring two cars to compete with the Corvette ZR1 and Camaro ZL1, dollar for dollar," Reuss said.

Hit the jump for more stats, as well as videos of the sports cars’ laps in Virginia.