Auto News For Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - VP Says Corvettes Are Better Than Porsches

Here are the six must-read, must-watch auto news stories, reviews, and videos for Tuesday, May 19, 2015. Your normal news editor, Steffani Cain, is off today, as GCBC Towers has bizarrely taken on the role of fostering puppies.

INSIDE THE AUTO BUSINESS
In mid-2016, Porsche will be selling Boxsters and Caymans with four-cylinder engines in North America. No, these aren't the inline-fours from your Corolla; they're boxer four-cylinders from Porsche. Flat-fours. Horizontally-opposed. They'll probably make a great noise.

INSIDE THE VICE PRESIDENT'S CAR SPEECH
"Corvettes are better than Porsches," VP Joe Biden told a group of graduating students at Yale last weekend. 

REVIEW
Perhaps you wouldn't buy a Cadillac ATS-V over a its German rivals. But it seems that every reviewer, including the Wall Street Journal's Dan Neil, believes the ATS-V is the driver's choice.

TTAC
Mercedes-Benz's SLS AMG era is over. The AMG GT era has begun.

RECALL
Nissan North America, Inc. is recalling 263,692 Pathfinders (model year 2004) and Sentras (2004-2006) because, "upon deployment of the passenger side frontal air bag, excessive internal pressure may cause the inflator to rupture."

WATCH
Jalopnik writer and friend of GCBC, Patrick George, decided to simply be up front about the fact that he crashed, in a relatively minor way, a camouflaged 2016 Chevrolet Camaro. 

Here Is The 2016 Chevrolet Camaro

Were you busy yesterday weeding gardens, kicking off summer by opening up the cottage, or walking the dog? Then you missed this: General Motors unveiled the 2016 Chevrolet Camaro at a launch event in Belle Isle, Michigan. 

Incidentally, the island called Belle Isle sits between the United States – Chevrolet's home market – and Canada, where the Camaro has been built in each of its last two generations.

Until now. Production of the sixth-generation Camaro moves to Lansing, Michigan. The new car will be sold with a base 2.0L turbocharged four-cylinder generating 275 horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque. GM promises more than 30 mpg on the highway and 0-60 mph times below six seconds.

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Historical Monthly & Yearly Chevrolet Camaro Sales Figures
U.S. Car Sales Rankings By Model - April 2015 YTD

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The 3.6L V6 is not the same V6 as the one which served as the fifth-gen Camaro's base engine. The new 3.6 makes 335 horsepower and 284 lb-ft of torque.

The 6.2L V8 in the Camaro SS will produce 455 horsepower and a matching 455 lb-ft of torque.

Key technology includes a Drive Mode Selector which can be toggled between Snow/Ice, Tour, Sport, and a final Track setting, the latter only on SS models.

The new car is a couple inches shorter, bumper to bumper, than the outgoing model. It's also nearly an inch narrower than the 2016, an inch shorter at the roof, and it rides on a wheelbase that's now 110.7 inches, down from 112.3. 

Yes, the 2016 Camaro is a smaller car, and as a result, it weighs a couple hundred pounds less than the old car. The new Camaro shares Alpha platform architecture with the Cadillac ATS. Transmissions now include a six-speed manual or an eight-speed automatic.

Does it look too much like the 2015 model? Think back to the second-generation Camaro's introduction and how different it was from the second-generation. 

Remember that the fourth-generation model bore little resemblance to the third. And after a number of years on hiatus, the Camaro's return in 2009 adopted cues from old Camaros but didn't look at all like those cars.

Perhaps in this era, creating a more evolutionary styling theme is more suiting to the tastes of typical Camaro clientele. One way or another, it'll certainly attract attention.

In the United States, the Camaro has outsold its Ford Mustang rival in each of the last five years. A new Mustang's launch last fall, combined with the Camaro reaching the end of its term, means the Mustang is almost doubling up the Camaro through the first one-third of 2015.

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook.