• by Karl Greenberg , May 2, 2007

Chevrolet will become the featured brand on a multi-city ride-and-drive tour called "Rev It Up 2007: Where Drivers Come To Play," a kind of mobile theme park run by automotive marketing firm AMCI. The effort, geared to car buffs, will visit six cities in July and August.

AMCI launched the program for Ford's Mazda division four years ago. This is the second year that Chevrolet has been featured. An AMCI representative says the program is promoted regionally and online and "requires about a million square feet of [physical] space." It is held in wide-open venues like Epcot Center in Orlando, Fla.

The Chevrolet event, which is free, though race participation costs $25 per person, includes several performance driving schools and competitions, wherein amateurs and more advanced racers can compete for a 2007 Corvette. Six regional winners receive two days of instruction at the Bondurant School of High Performance Driving and airfare.

The tour, visiting San Francisco and Orange County, Calif., as well as Houston, Orlando, New York and Washington D.C., includes 11 different racing and performance driving courses and ride-alongs.

They include a race in which competitors, for $25, can compete in Chevrolet Cobalt SSes to qualify to race in 2007 Corvettes. There's also a Corvette performance course and a reaction and traction competition in which drivers can test their braking skills in SS versions of Impala and TrailBlazer SUVs.

The event also lets consumers sit in a passenger seat of a 505-hp Corvette Z06 with a racer at the wheel on a timed course. Also, there will be a pavilion showing of Chevrolet vehicles and performance parts, and other events.