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2016 Chevy Camaro teased as current-gen car prepares to hit 500k sales

Just as Chevrolet prepares to launch the sixth-generation Camaro, the current, fifth-generation car is about to hit a major milestone: 500,000 units sold in the United States. That's impressive, and to celebrate, Chevy has released this video, showing the Camaro Z/28 doing what it does best around a race track. But that's not all there is to see in this video. At the end, Chevy gives us a glimpse at the sixth-generation Camaro, expected to debut in the not-too-distant future. Have a look, and check out Chevy's press blast, below, for more details about the 500k sales mark. Related Video: Fifth-gen Camaro Approaches 500,000 U.S. Sales Production milestone caps five years as America's best-selling performance car DETROIT – Talk about a big family: Chevrolet expects to deliver the 500,000th fifth-generation Camaro in the United States this month. The fifth-generation Camaro has been a runaway success for Chevrolet since it went on sale in August 2009. Camaro sales passed Mustang in 2010, to become America's best-selling performance car – a title Camaro has retained for five consecutive years. In the process, the Camaro has helped bring new buyers to Chevrolet – with 63 percent of retail buyers new to GM. "The fifth-generation Camaro has clearly resonated with both long-time Camaro fans, and first time performance-car buyers," said Todd Christensen, Camaro marketing manager. "That sets the bar high for the next chapter of the car's history." Remarkably, the Camaro continues to gain momentum, even as the fifth-generation Camaro nears the end of production this year. In 2014, Camaro total sales increased 7.1 percent for its second-best year of sales since its introduction.

Is the skill of rev matching being lost to computers?

If the ability to drive a vehicle equipped with a manual gearbox is becoming a lost art, then the skill of being able to match revs on downshifts is the stuff they would teach at the automotive equivalent of the Shaolin Temple. The usefulness of rev matching in street driving is limited most of the time – aside from sounding cool and impressing your friends. But out on a race track or the occasional fast, windy road, its benefits are abundantly clear. While in motion, the engine speed and wheel speed of a vehicle with a manual transmission are kept in sync when the clutch is engaged (i.e. when the clutch pedal is not being pressed down). However, when changing gear, that mechanical link is severed briefly, and the synchronization between the motor and wheels is broken. When upshifting during acceleration, this isn't much of an issue, as there's typically not a huge disparity between engine speed and wheel speed as a car accelerates. Rev-matching downshifts is the stuff they would teach at the automotive equivalent of the Shaolin Temple. But when slowing down and downshifting – as you might do when approaching a corner at a high rate of speed – that gap of time caused by the disengagement of the clutch from the engine causes the revs to drop. Without bringing up the revs somehow to help the engine speed match the wheel speed in the gear you're about to use, you'll typically get a sudden jolt when re-engaging the clutch as physics brings everything back into sync. That jolt can be a big problem when you're moving along swiftly, causing instability or even a loss of traction, particularly in rear-wheel-drive cars. So the point of rev matching is to blip the throttle simultaneously as you downshift gears in order to bring the engine speed to a closer match with the wheel speed before you re-engage the clutch in that lower gear, in turn providing a much smoother downshift. When braking is thrown in, you get heel-toe downshifting, which involves some dexterity to use all three pedals at the same time with just two feet – clutch in, slow the car while revving, clutch out. However, even if you're aware of heel-toe technique and the basic elements of how to perform a rev match, perfecting it to the point of making it useful can be difficult.

Recharge Wrap-up: EVs poll well in Portland, Tesla seeks office space

In a poll of drivers in Portland, more than 80 percent said they would be driving an EV in the next 10 years if they weren't already. The poll was small and not scientific, with just 218 votes cast, but it does reflect a slice of a certain population with changing attitudes toward electric mobility, and 80 percent is an impressive figure. Additionally, 43 percent of respondents planned to have an EV in the next five years, and only 18 percent said they prefer gasoline-powered vehicles. With EVs in many ways repeating the adoption process that hybrids went through a decade ago, the five- or ten-year timeframe for more widespread use seems only natural. Read more at the Portland Business Journal. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee parks like an idiot, or rather, his security detail does. His Chevrolet Volt has been ticketed for parking six times since he took office. Granted, those street-sweeping signs are tough to keep track of, but his car has been photographed blocking at a bus stop while grabbing a burrito (who hasn't sinned in the name of a delicious burrito?), and was even caught parked in a crosswalk. The tickets were all dismissed. Read more from the SF Gate. Tesla is looking for office space in Silicon Valley. As the electric car company continues to search for a place to build its $4- to $5-billion battery Gigafactory, it also needs some real estate to expand its operations near its Palo Alto home. Tesla has expanded from 3,000 to 6,000 California-based employees since the end of 2012, and plans to add 500 more by the end of the year. It is currently looking for 200,000 to 300,000 square feet of office space close to its Fremont factory, according to sources in the real estate industry. Read more at the Silicon Valley Business Journal. Related Gallery 2014 Chevrolet Volt View 11 Photos News Source: Portland Business Journal, SF Gate, Silicon Valley Business JournalImage Credit: Paul Sakuma / AP Green Chevrolet Tesla Electric recharge wrapup portland silicon valley parking ticket