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CORVETTE TODAY #149 - Corvette News & Headlines, Late February 2023
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May 8, 2025
CORVETTE TODAY #149 - Corvette News & Headlines, Mid February 2023 If you want the latest Corvette information, your best source is the CORVETTE TODAY Podcast show and YouTube video! Every other week, Keith Cornett from CorvetteBlogger joins your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett to keep you current and up-to-date on America's Sports Car. Next week is no exception...here are a few of the stories Steve and Keith cover on next week's show: 1. A new C8 Z06 suffers engine failure after only 621 miles of driving 2. GM's Color Chief says a "color renaissance" is coming for automobiles 3. Retired GM Exec, Bob Lutz, talks about the development of the C7 Corvette and gives us budget and a timeline for it 4. The 2024 E-Ray visualizer shows a viewable engine cover for the hard-top convertibles 5. The C8 Z06 is the fastest car in the Car & Driver Lightning Lap 6. The Stradman is already selling his yellow C8 Z06 7. You can now order the C8 "boomerang" in Carbon Fiber from GM Don't miss a single episode of CORVETTE TODAY. These News & Headlines shows every other week will keep you on top of everything happening with Corvette! Listen to the podcast, watch the YouTube video, join the Facebook group, sign up for email notifications and shop in the Merchandise Store at:
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0:00
[Music] welcome to Corvette today the podcast
0:06
that talks about everything Corvette with your host Steve Garrett MC and DJ at one of the largest Corvette weekends
0:13
in the country Corvette Fun Fest president of the Corvette club of Kansas City Missouri and radio disc jockey at
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the number one radio station in Kansas City for over 40 years here's Steve Garrett
0:28
thanks for listening and watching Corvette today the show that talks about everything Corvette and the only current
0:34
podcast dedicated to Corvette I'm your host Steve Garrett I appreciate you tuning in Corva today is brought to you
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by wheelcraft want to dress up your Corvette with bright Chrome or black chrome wheels visit wheelcraft.com and
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canadiancorpetforum.com welcoming Corvette from around the world it's time to bring you the latest Corvette news
2:32
and headlines with my pal Keith Cornett from corvettebblogger.com as you know Keith is here twice per month about
2:38
every other week we keep you current and up to date on what's happening with America's Sports Car Keith welcome back
2:43
to the show you know if you stand on your tippy toes I can see Springtime from here buddy well I live in Florida
2:50
so what can I say we have this the best weather right now so it's gonna be 82 degrees and sunny here Steve it's going
2:57
to be sunny and 44 here in Kansas City we're still basking in the glory of the chief Super Bowl win so I'll take it
3:03
yeah I was thinking about you that night and I thought I know one podcaster that's gonna be very happy next time I talk to them absolutely right buddy well
3:10
let's get right into it Keith with Corvette news and headlines let's get an update on production at the Bowling
3:15
Green assembly plant I started off the last podcast talking about how bullish I was on production counts where we might
3:20
end up with the VIN counts at the end of the year and it had been since October since we had that last weekly shutdown
3:25
due to Part Supply issue and now we're facing another or four days off this week because of a Part Supply issue it
3:31
would be five days but because Monday is President's Day in the UAW holiday they had a day off so we're only impacted by
3:37
four days the plant will reopen again on the 27th and both ships are expected to report and we were told this wasn't due
3:43
to chips so that's good but we don't know what exactly the other issue was that caused this pause and production
3:49
here it's just one of these things and I got to remember not to get ahead of myself Steve I get excited when we see great numbers and then of course people
3:56
have to go home for the plant because they don't have Parts as far as production numbers Stingray is just banging out very strong and z06s just
4:02
seem to kind of ebb and flow we watch these counts they come in a little bit later sometimes so they're a couple days behind but as far as the bin counts go
4:09
when the plant restarts on the week of the 27th we should probably be right around 26 000 regular stingrays produced
4:16
and approximately 2 700 70th anniversary editions and that's a total of 28 700
4:22
stingrays produced so far for the model year Chevy only did 25 800 stingrays
4:27
2022 2 so we've already exceeded last year's figures and then some and we have roughly four months to go so there's
4:33
still a lot of cars to be made for the 2023 model year for the Z06 counts we saw that there was actually a pause that
4:39
lasted nine days February 1st to the 9th they didn't build any z06s production resumed on the 10th with 20 completed
4:46
and then on the following Monday they did 24. they just seem to have parts and then they don't have parts and then all
4:51
of a sudden they'll do a bunch of cars our current totals for the Z06 are 843 regular z06s and 121 70th anniversaries
4:59
for a total of 964 customer built cars we're really closing in that that first 1000 Milestone we should actually see
5:07
that pretty quickly here I believe that sounds good I understood from someone on the Corvette team the GM a lots chips
5:12
for the two most profitable Vehicles they make one is the Chevy Silverado and the other is the Corvette so it must be
5:20
some other parts that they're looking for that they're just running short on I guess yeah you know we've heard too there was that ice storm in Texas a few
5:27
weeks back and that did delay some parts and we hear that that might have been like wiring harnesses that come up through Mexico there's all kinds of
5:33
things so it's not just chips it could be weather related it could also just be a component that they are just in time
5:39
just in time just in time so they a few days off they Bank all those parts as they come in and then they can go
5:44
uninterrupted again and hopefully do another three or four months run and bang out some cars the chips thing is
5:50
really seem to have alleviated itself at least from what we've heard the Market's sort of coming back there and General
5:55
Motors I think has done a pretty good job at mitigating the chips unlike what we saw with Ford I believe yeah
6:00
definitely also we saw gmsv tell dealers to hold off on accepting ZO6 down
6:05
payments why so gmsv is the General Motors specialty vehicles and they handle the sales of Corvettes and other
6:11
Chevys in Australia New Zealand and they are telling their New Zealand dealers not to accept any deposits yet for the
6:17
Z06 and it's just because they don't know it's allocation they don't know the cost yet they don't know when it's going to be available in country so they're
6:23
just advising their dealers not to take any deposits and I know there's a lot of us enthusiasts out there that kind of get in our shape anytime we talk exports
6:30
and cars going overseas but for the record New Zealand's allocation for stingrays totaled only 28 cars oh it's
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only four cars for each of their seven dealerships as I was thinking about this I remember that old army commercial we
6:42
do more before 9 A.M than most people do all day yeah well on the assembly line the assembly line starts at six o'clock
6:47
those 28 cars could be built in just a couple hours how many z06s will actually get sent to New Zealand but they did 28
6:54
stingrays they might only see like seven zero sixes for that first allocation out there not a huge number going overseas
7:00
at least at that one market so we'll wait and see what they say when the z06s are coming to Australia and New Zealand
7:06
probably we'll have that news coming up that sounds good speaking of Zeo six's Keith we found that a Z06 suffered
7:12
engine failure at only 621 miles what happened there yeah you know this was
7:18
interesting we had seen the pics of a orange Z06 on a flatbed and people were talking about engine failure engine
7:23
failure but the owner actually came out with a great video to discuss what had happened and not only that but he had
7:30
GoPro video of when the engine failure actually occurred and you can actually hear the engine just grinding to a halt
7:36
we really actually don't know what happened at this engine we know that he had 681 miles on it he says that he broke it in properly and that when it
7:43
failed he got the car back to City Chevrolet Chevy jumped on it had him a replacement engine and he was back to
7:48
driving again within just two weeks wow they're gonna send that engine back up to Detroit and crack it open up there
7:54
and see if they can determine what caused the engine failure and I'm sure that's one of the things that the engineering teams are always interested this is our baby what caused it to break
8:00
we go right in and try to figure that out but we've had roughly a thousand co6s produced and only two known
8:06
customer cars with engine failures although in that video the owner says that when he's talking to one of the
8:11
techs at City Chevrolet they mentioned there might have been a third one maybe a test car or something else that was out there but nothing that we've seen
8:18
publicized it's just one of those things but it was covered under warranty and the guy's driving his new Corvette right
8:23
now good to hear and good news for the Z06 we saw a new world record for a CIA Z06 in the quarter mile yeah well as one
8:31
of my commenter sets it's easy to set World Records when you're the only one doing it
8:36
this is Jesse illusi's Z06 and he set a time of 10.443 seconds at 134 miles an
8:43
hour at Formosa Raceway we've been following Jesse he's also done a 1 8 mile drag race that had some videos
8:49
there and like a lot of people we saw speed Phenom doing this they're kind of struggling with the launch control feature of the Z06 it's customizable you
8:57
know you can set your RPMs you can set your transmission slip but it's always based on the conditions then and there
9:02
Jessie's kind of been struggling with it a little bit also with the cup bar tires you know you got to really have those
9:07
things warmed up to grip so for this race he actually switched over to racing slicks that's probably what got him that
9:13
faster time the time before that was the 10.51 I think which was Amelia set with
9:18
that press card there's just not a lot of people doing this the only other car that we've seen faster than Jesse's car
9:23
is a modified Z06 from late model racecraft they've run a 1035 at 131
9:29
miles an hour we don't actually have that video up yet but it's going to go up we'll have that up there for you shortly sounds good buddy let's take our
9:35
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and now back to the only current podcast on Corvette Corvette today with your
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host Steve Garrett thanks for listening and watching Corvette today the show that talks about everything Corvette
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833-840-5334 I'm your host Steve Garrett with me every other week is Keith Cornett from corvettebblogger.com we
13:36
keep you current and up to date and what's happening with the world of Corvette in segment number two we talk about Corvette racing and Corvette
13:43
rumors first of all Keith Corvette Racing's Factory driver pool is going to be a big key for this new gt3r I love
13:50
that car yeah it's a cool car and of course we've been wondering what's going to happen with our racing program because really what's going to happen
13:57
with the GT3 regulations is that the professional drivers tend to go away or you only have one per car and then you
14:03
have like in the wec for next year you're gonna have a professional driver paired with a silver rated driver and a
14:08
bronze rated driver so what's that do for our teams that are consistent professional drivers this customer
14:13
program that Chevy's going to have they're going to be supporting these teams at the track they're going to have Parts they're going to have Engineers
14:18
but there's also this potential of this driver pool so you might say all right well this team's going to get Jordan
14:24
Taylor and this team's going to get Antonio Garcia and they're going to be paired up with their silver and bronze
14:29
drivers that's one of the ways that we're supporting the program so it's pretty neat it's kind of like a triple A
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team you know you're lending out your best players to different places and they go to the big leagues it's kind of a neat program it keeps these familiar
14:41
faces that really understand the Corvette and the race car and what the team brings and they can take that
14:46
Spirit to some of these independent teams and sort of extend that Corvette racing brand I think it's pretty cool
14:51
we're going to have Jordan Taylor or Tony Garcia we've got Tommy Milner we got Nikki katzberg and then we've also
14:57
had these other drivers that have kind of come and gone Alexander Sims did the endurance racings for us so there's a
15:02
bunch of guys that have raced with us previously that could also be leaned on for this driver pool for Corvette racing
15:08
so it's a pretty interesting concept and we'll have to see where it goes that's really cool I'd love to have someone like Jordan Taylor hey Jordan come on
15:14
over and drive a few laps that'd be great also the C8 Z06 is going to Pace the
15:20
65th Daytona 500. yep that was Sunday it was a great American race it was a Elkhart Lake blue Corvette full z07
15:27
package had me watching on the yellows so I usually you walk away grab some drinks at the yellows but for Corvette
15:33
enthusiasts or run away during the race happens and when we hear a yellow flag is on then we'll race back and watch the
15:38
car go around that's really cool in the rumor section Keith GM's color Chief and I don't know who that is but they said a
15:44
color Renaissance is coming for automobiles I like that because I love Lamborghinis and Ferraris that would be
15:51
great for Corvette absolutely so Pop Quiz Steve what's the most popular Automotive color in North America white
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you are corrected it's been white for 16 years so GM's director of global color her name is Jennifer lydrick and she
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says is that her team's job is to predict color preferences for the next five years so they have to determine
16:10
basically through 2028 what the popular colors are going to be what colors become trendy they believe that the
16:16
primary compound colors like Reds Blues orange and greens are on their way back a GM supplier BASF they did a study they
16:24
are also seeing increasing popularity for yellows greens oranges and violet a
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lot of neat different colors out there of course you know lately it seems like the Market's been taken over by these Battleship Gray colors of course we're
16:35
getting finally our first Battleship Gray color the Sea Wolf Gray for 2024 but it's really these vibrant colors
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that people are really anxious to see and we got cacti for Corvette for 2024 which is like this pastel green some
16:48
people like it some people don't we'll have to see it on a real car but they're trying at least that's one of the best things that we can say is we've had some
16:54
neat colors kind of come through and rotate it'd be nice to see a couple colors like that come in one year make a splash and then go and replace by
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something else that's really a vibrant and something that you don't see every day on the Corvette yeah I like the colors that they're coming out with I
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don't know about cacti green but that Sea Wolf Gray looks really really cool yes it does also Keith former GM retired
17:13
exec Bob Lutz says that the C7 was developed on only 270 million dollars
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and 900 was earmarked for the mid-engine Corvette and that was okayed way back in
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2007 that's C6 era yeah it was a fascinating interview he did with Henry paid he runs the automotive column at
17:31
the Detroit news and then of course he has this podcast so he had the former GM Vice chair on he was talking about the
17:36
miniature Corvette could have come a decade sooner had the economic conditions been better and he's talking like 2011 2012 we could have had that
17:43
big ninja Corvette wow one of the interesting things says is that it was styled completely different back then he
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said it was much smoother it was less angular you know the ca's got all these lines on it he says it looked a lot more
17:54
like a McLaren or a mid-engine Ferrari he also said that the Cadillac was going to have their own mid-engine car and
18:01
that it was going to be more refined than the Corvette and Corvette was going to be Burley and brash as we always are like you said they were going to spend
18:07
900 million to do this Mid Engine Corvette but because bankruptcy they had to really extend that front engine platform for another generation and
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they're only given 270 million to do that we got a great car the C7 that generation ended up being fantastic and
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the engineers were actually able to do a few things that paved the way for when they did make the switch to the mid-engine C8 just a fascinating story I
18:27
would definitely go back and listen to that podcast he also had on CAD chief engineer and he had on our friend Manny
18:33
catakis from muscle cars and trucks fascinating podcast I'd go listen to that one absolutely right also Keith we
18:39
had a couple carbon fiber rumors and I'm excited about these first off the Z06 accessory rear spoiler is possibly
18:46
coming in and also for the stingray the boomerang is now going to be available on carbon fiber yeah you know and this
18:52
is all bodes well you know if we're starting to talk about additional carbon fiber pieces coming back especially for
18:57
the z07 Aero package which has been holding things up there the fact that we got a maker A supplier giving us carbon
19:03
fiber pieces is good news so on the new Z06 accessory spoiler the auction code is called 5v5 and it's an lpo so it's
19:11
dealer installed this was a late addition when Z06 ordering first started last summer but it's available now we
19:16
saw our first real world photos of the spoiler on a car that was at the NCM for an rhc delivery the spoiler it actually
19:24
spans the entire rear deck it's invisible carbon fiber it costs 5995 when ordered with the car wow and
19:31
according to a team member on the Corvette team says that 5v5 makes more downforce than the standard Z06 spoilers
19:37
and the street driving setup and less drag than a standard Zeos Explorer the track driving setup the track when you
19:43
had that wicker build that taller wicker build solid right you do have some performance benefits there and then as
19:48
far as the boomerang for the Stingrays those were limited to just the 3lt trim groups right but now Chevy has expanded
19:55
it so anybody can get it with a 1lt 2LT or 3lt I think the cost is 3195 dollars
20:01
and it's also a dealer installed option haven't seen two any visible carbon fiber boomerangs there was a car that
20:07
Chevy had last year at Carlisle that was sort of dressed up with all their carbon fiber and had the tech bronze wheels and
20:13
the visible carbon fiber High Wing there are people out there that are putting this stuff on their cars and it's good news now that like you said this seems
20:19
to be Supply is back yeah it looks great it really really does and hard top convertible people Rejoice the new
20:26
visualizer shows a viewable engine cover on the new upcoming e-ray yeah having
20:31
the ability to see the engine through the glass engine hatch is one of the main reasons why a lot of buyers really go for the Coupes they want to show off
20:37
their engine it's a Supercar visualization it's one of the things that Chevy's Incorporated from other supercars and it's a cool feature it's
20:43
the jewel under glass as they called it with the HTC the hardtop convertible you know that top goes up and down all you
20:49
see is that black engine cover the aftermarket is sort of taking care of that they've come up that polycarbonate see-through cover right but what we're
20:56
seeing now is that on the visualizer for the e-ray when you go in there if you have the convertible and then you go
21:02
into the exterior you want to add one of the engine covers which don't come with the convertibles but if you add it the
21:08
visualizer actually shows it as the engine top goes up if you run the animations to put the top up or down
21:13
you'll see that red engine cover there and not only that but when you add it you know it spins the car around to the
21:18
rear and you can see that red engine cover through that rear deck bed on the top of the rear deck I really think this
21:24
is a glitch of the Matrix Steve I don't want to get everybody's hopes up it's going to take a lot of engineering to be able to make a visible engine cover
21:30
through that heat shield right whether or not they might do this for the zores here one down the road is another thing
21:35
because obviously they'll want to make those big cars special that's what the visualizer shows a lot of people are out there saying hey if this happens they're
21:42
going to be really happy about it again another wait and see well Keith I know you didn't see me but I had my hand
21:47
raised when you said a lot of people ordered the coupe because you want to see that Jewel under glass that's why my
21:52
70th anniversary is a coupe not a hard top convertible I love the htcs but I want to see that engine under glass it's
22:00
a major factor for a lot of people if you could see the jewel under glass in the convertible those sales would be
22:06
maybe even higher than the coupe right right well buddy let's take our final break when we come back it's the lighter sided
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you're enjoying the only current podcast on Corvettes Corvette today
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hey thanks once again for listening and watching Corvette today the show that talks about everything Corvette brought
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to you by wheelcraft want to dress up your Corvette with bright Chrome or black chrome wheels visit wheelcraft.com
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and learn about their Advanced PVD chrome finishing they can refinish your wheels or offer a wheel exchange for
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most models and it comes with a five year warranty visit wheelcraft.com or call them at
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833-840-5334 I'm your host Steve Garrett with me every other week is Keith Cornett from corvettebblogger.com don't
24:39
forget if you want a deeper dive into any of these stories that Keith and I cover you can always go to corvettebblogger.com segment three is
24:47
the lighter side of Corvette Keith this is pretty cool a c806 is the fastest on
24:52
car and drivers lightning laps and it's the fifth fastest car ever done in that thing it's pretty darn cool it's really
24:59
cool and the bragging rights are off the chain for the Corvette Team every year car and driver takes the top performance
25:04
cars out to Virginia International Raceway and they time them up they make Laps on the Grand course there say rapid
25:09
blue Z06 with the z07 package GM sent them ran the lightning lap an astonishing two minutes and 38.2 seconds
25:16
so like you said it was the fastest Corvette ever tested and the fifth fastest car ever tested at the lightning
25:22
lab the ZO6 beat the C7 ZR1 is timed by nine tenths of a second there's a number
25:27
of videos that you got to go see there's obviously the ZO6 making labs and they also did some videos where they talked
25:32
to the drivers and there was a neat experience that happened as the Corvette was setting its lap the Lamborghini Huracan was doing its lap and the Z06
25:39
was just gaining on him and gaining on and gaining on them during that time you could see it on the camera and then they sat down with those two drivers
25:45
afterwards to talk about it really great news yeah Z06 aced the lightning lap for 2023 wow big stuff that's big news
25:52
that's fantastic also we saw some great Corvettes sold over Barrett-Jackson in Scottsdale it's in the books and there's
25:59
a really strong Corvette sales group oh man uh Barrett-Jackson and Mecum to start off the year it kind of sets the
26:05
tone for a lot of the auctions for the rest of year and we know what mikum did so this is bear Jackson's turn to shine
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154 Corvettes went through all at no Reserve nine of the top 11 were wrestle
26:16
mods which is exactly the opposite of the mecum's top 11. most of those cars are original so really interesting how
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the two auctions are different and cater to different tastes there about 50 or so of these cars were Customs there are
26:29
five C seven zero ones that went through that averaged 229 thousand dollars so if we are continually seeing ZR1 prices
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above 200 000. the top seller was a Jeff Hayes 1967 custom Resto mod sold for
26:41
seven hundred and seventy thousand dollars a couple notable sales there was an L82 four-speed from 1979 for actual
26:48
miles that sold for 38 500. 1954 a red car sold for 385 000 a 1961 270
26:57
horsepower car 308 big numbers there for 61. yeah and again a 2022 c8r Coupe 143.
27:04
those cdrs are still retaining their values as well and the El Cheapo award goes to a dark red 89 convertible which
27:10
sold for 12 000. that's pretty funny good stuff but he also the strad man has sold his yellow
27:18
c806 he needs the money for his house because the house was two million dollars it went a million to over budget
27:25
and he said he's going to take half that money and put it into a new car why doesn't he put the whole thing into the
27:31
house you know kids these days more money than brains maybe I like strad man
27:36
I think his videos are fun to watch he does talk fast and he annoys a lot of people but it's just part of who he is
27:42
he says he's forced to sell he's building his home which he says he picked the worst time in 50 years to build a custom home he said the lumber
27:48
costs were the highest ever when he was buying Lumber and then when he was doing the mortgage that's when the interest
27:53
rates have doubled so he says he needs the money yeah he said he was going to take a hundred thousand put it into the house take a hundred thousand maybe go
27:59
car shopping again and of course when the car was up for sale in cars and bids website it sold for 218 000 and 200 that
28:07
new owner is not going to get a warranty and maybe James will no longer be allowed another VIP purchase for another
28:12
in-demand GM vehicle has been through threatened right but again the guy puts out videos they get seen by thousands
28:19
and thousands and thousands of people so who knows what's going to happen there it hasn't been a really good run for
28:24
these YouTubers and their z06s so far it's left a bad taste on a lot of customers a lot of enthusiasts seeing
28:30
these people what they're doing with these cars we also have Street speed he's got that Stingray you know he was jumping that car in the field so there's
28:36
people doing out there all kinds of crazy stuff that you and I would never do with our cars nope and some people just see this entertainment other people
28:42
see it as it's a personal affront to their Corvette Hobby and they just can't deal with it so just gotta being sold
28:47
his car I can't believe it I've just shake my head on this kind of stuff look at it and say kids these days
28:53
also I was glad to see that the Ron Fellows performance driving school at Spring Mountain got their shipment of
28:59
z06s yeah you know they're probably coming in now we saw that an auto transport had showed up and dropping off
29:05
cars Ron fellow's performance Driving School shared this on their Facebook pages we had a mix of both base cars and
29:11
z07s with the Aero package they're gearing up supposedly they're gonna start doing classes in April maybe a
29:16
little bit sooner but we're waiting to see there and of course as soon as you get it in if you're a zero six buyers call up and get your name on a date so
29:23
that you're set in advance as opposed to waiting because what happens is people wait and then they not able to get into
29:29
a class and use their subsidy there so definitely take advantage of that call the class as soon as you get a VIN number and take advantage of that
29:35
driving school yeah I was there in December because I bought my 70th Anniversary car they were booking for
29:41
June of that next year so once you get your VIN call them immediately even if you don't have your car yet but at least
29:47
get on the books because they sell out really really fast they do it it's so much fun you just did it right
29:53
absolutely so much fun Keith our final story I'm going to do this in my best John Wayne voice there's a new sheriff
29:59
in town in Ontario Canada yeah it's a Z06 dressed as a police car
30:04
people are freaking out on this one because it first the first picture was like the car was on the back of a
30:10
trailer being towed at night and then the second one was it was in a parking garage but it's wearing an Ontario
30:15
provisional police Livery black white doors we assume it's gonna have some lights on it people were kind of freaked
30:21
out again saying well why are they doing this but it turns out it's just a promotional card for recruiting for the
30:26
Ontario provisional Police Department it's going to be on display this week at the Canadian auto show in Toronto that'd
30:33
be really cool boy if I was looking at that thinking I could drive that car I joined the police force there that's for
30:38
sure that's right you would not want to see that in your rearview mirror exactly well buddy thanks for being back on
30:44
Corvette today our next news and headline show is going to be a Monumental one we have crossed our 150th
30:50
regular episode of Corvette today wow that's amazing congratulations and again go to Corvette today you can see all the
30:56
different podcasts all the different guests he's had on just an amazing collection of people and groups that talk about Corvettes and obviously
31:03
inform educate and entertain that's right thanks for listening to Corvette today and please be sure to tell your
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with Steve Garrett if you'd like to contact Steve with any thoughts on the podcast or ideas for guests on Corvette
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Steve Garrett DJ thanks again for listening to Corvette today [Music]
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