What’s the best way to significantly increase the performance of your classic? Drop in one of Chevrolet’s Connect and Cruise packages of course! We really like the idea of an all-inclusive drivetrain package from Chevy, so we followed up with Blake Nye to get some additional details on what these kits offer.

“Connect and Cruise is a package we put together that includes engines and transmissions,” Blake explained. “The reason we did it, was that a few years ago we looked at our portfolio and noticed that we were selling five or six times more engines than transmissions. We asked why? We’ve never seen a hot rod that didn’t have a transmission.”

After a little bit of research, they found their portfolio was lacking a slip yoke-style manual transmission, and that all of their transmissions were service based. In other words, “if you needed a transmission for your hot rod, you would go to a dealer and buy that transmission, and it would come with a torque converter,” Blake continued. “So, you’ve picked a nice transmission, the problem was, the torque converter didn’t work for 90-percent of our crate engines.”

And that is the explanation as to why they sold so many more engines than transmissions. Their options just weren’t lining up. With that in mind, they decided to create a system that would allow a person to buy a complete kit where everything was designed work together. “Connect and Cruise was born!”

Now, with Connect and Cruise, you buy the system that works for you and was designed by Chevrolet. It opens up new possibilities and makes it much easier to get exactly the performance you want. While they don’t offer every combination with the Connect and Cruise system, they do still offer a sort of a-la-carte menu that lets you order whatever you want for your own custom drivetrain.