The True Origins of the Flowtie

"Somethin' 'bout a truck" (somethin-bout-a-truck) 03/16/2016 at 13:32 • Filed to: Chevy, flowtie, zl1, camaro, porsche, lotus, weight reduction, Lightweight, Cavalier, base model, stripper

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Chevy unveiled the newest Camaro ZL1 and with it keep talking about the revised Flowtie. The Flowtie is if you recall, a unique Chevy badge made specifically to increase airflow to the engine bay on high-performance models. I will be honest, I’m a bit disappointed in Chevy has not made reference to the original use of the Flowtie on one of the most performance oriented cars to ever use the Flowtie, a true Godfather of the ZL1 & Z28 Camaros. That car is the third gen, Chevy Cavalier Base .

See, Chevy originally invented the Flowtie in the early 90's as a way to reduce mass on the upcoming performance spec version of the Cavalier called the Cavalier Base . The crack team of product planners and designers wanted the third gen Cavalier to set the streets on fire with attainable performance right from the factory. With this goal in mind, they set out to build it a truly unique car that was so far ahead of it’s time that only now do we see other companies like Porsche and Lotus using similar principals to make higher performance models. The highlights of what Chevy’s performance team was able to accomplish are listed below.

I’ve also included a link that will allow you to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! so you, yes you, can come to know the amazing cutting edge performance of the first Flowtie Chevy, the Cavalier Base .

Flowtie: Weight savings of .8 oz

Unpainted bumpers: Weight savings of 14 oz (this was only available on the earlier, much more hard core models)

Performance Steering Wheel Plastics w/ Performance Grip Positions: Weight savings of 2 lbs

Steel Wheels: Weight savings of 1 oz per wheel

Unpainted door handles: Weight savings of 12 oz

Thinnest Paint ever applied to a factory car: Weight savings of 6 oz

Thinnest clearcoat ever applied to a factory car: Weight savings of 35 oz

Manual Crank windows: Weight savings of 1 lbs per door

Manual locks: Weight savings of 1.5 lbs per door

Ultra ridged interior plastics: Weight savings of 13 oz

Speaker Reduction: Weight savings of 3 lbs

Factory bald tires: Weight savings of 2 lbs per wheel

Lightweight Seat Fabrics: Weight savings of 2 oz per seat

Additional Lightweight Performance Cars Like The Cavalier Base:

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RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Somethin' 'bout a truck 03/16/2016 at 13:38

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This is good Oppo.

dogisbadob > Somethin' 'bout a truck 03/16/2016 at 13:44

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Flus sign

crowmolly > Somethin' 'bout a truck 03/16/2016 at 13:47

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Thinnest clearcoat ever applied to a factory car:

SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman > Somethin' 'bout a truck 03/16/2016 at 13:53

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This is great Oppo

Birddog > Somethin' 'bout a truck 03/16/2016 at 13:54

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Bytemite > Somethin' 'bout a truck 03/16/2016 at 13:58

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Glad to see others see past this marketing BS. The only extra air passing through that Flowtie may be the thick stench of its own bullshit.

Steve in Manhattan > Somethin' 'bout a truck 03/16/2016 at 14:00

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Even if this adds nothing to the performance, it’s cool. Cool is good.

dogisbadob > Bytemite 03/16/2016 at 14:02

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hot air intake

Bytemite > dogisbadob 03/16/2016 at 14:08

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Hah! Zing!

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > Somethin' 'bout a truck 03/16/2016 at 14:12

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So it saves 280 oz over a higher spec model. Pretty decent.

Brian McKay > Somethin' 'bout a truck 03/16/2016 at 14:41

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no airflow through Chevrolet emblem on hood

Illegitimus Prime > Somethin' 'bout a truck 03/16/2016 at 14:53

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I saved even more weight by removing the flowtie from my cavalier entirely. This was a well documented procedure straight from GM performance division and added a whole five microhorsepowers while drastically reducing front end weight.

Somethin' 'bout a truck > Bytemite 03/16/2016 at 16:22

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This is a fantastic reply! The Flowtie has always bothered me.. but I’m in marketing so I get why they push it so hard.

Somethin' 'bout a truck > Birddog 03/16/2016 at 16:23

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I will rewrite this post for tomorrow!!

Somethin' 'bout a truck > BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. 03/16/2016 at 16:23

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Thank you for the maths.

Somethin' 'bout a truck > Steve in Manhattan 03/16/2016 at 16:24

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Cool is a flowtie Cavalier?

Somethin' 'bout a truck > Illegitimus Prime 03/16/2016 at 16:25

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You should work for Chevy’s performance divsion, you would bring a whole new skillset to the team!

Illegitimus Prime > Somethin' 'bout a truck 03/16/2016 at 17:15

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In fact, I did. You can thank me for most of the weight reduction features in the Cobalt interior. I designed it to lose weight over time, giving you better performance overall.

Brian McKay > Somethin' 'bout a truck 03/16/2016 at 20:21

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The cartoonish Chevrolet outline emblem is cold.

Boxer_4 > Brian McKay 01/05/2020 at 13:11

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He’s close, you just need to go back a generation: