Up next in 10
CORVETTE TODAY #157-It's Our 4th Birthday Episode, News & Headlines!
0 views
Jul 11, 2025
CORVETTE TODAY # 157 - It's The Start Of Year #4 For CORVETTE TODAY We are incredibly proud to announce that this News & Headlines show with Keith Cornett from CorvetteBlogger marks the beginning of year #4 for CORVETTE TODAY! As we start the 4th year of CORVETTE TODAY, this podcast and YouTube video show remains the ONLY current podcast dedicated to Corvette. We also celebrate the start of year #4 with a brand new CORVETTE TODAY logo! Here are a few of the topics that your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett, and Keith Cornett will cover on next weeks show... 1. GM delivered over 7.900 Corvettes in the first quarter of 2023 2. Chevrolet extends model-year 2023 until September 1st 3. Corvette Academy puts out a new E-Ray video
View Video Transcript
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
0:12
in the country, Corvette Funfest, president of the Corvette Club of Kansas City, Missouri, and radio disc jockey at
0:19
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
0:34
current podcast dedicated to Corvette. I'm your host, Steve Garrett. I appreciate you tuning in. Corvette Today
0:40
is brought to you by Wheelcraft. Want to dress up your Corvette with bright chrome or black chrome wheels? Learn
0:45
about their advanced PVD chrome finishing. They can refinish your wheels or offer a wheel exchange for most
0:50
models, and it comes with a 5-year warranty. Visit wheelcraft.com today or
0:56
call 833-639-4231. You can listen to Corvette today on all
1:01
podcast platforms. You can also listen on your smart device. Just say, "Hey Google," or "Alexa, play the podcast
1:07
called Corvette today and you're connected." Be sure and visit the updated Corvette Today website. It's
1:12
corvette.com. You can also access everything there, including the Corvette Today merchandise
1:17
store. You can also join the Corvette Today Facebook group there and sign up for Corvette Today emails,
1:23
notifications, and updates at corvette.page. And if you like YouTube, you can
1:30
subscribe to the Corvette Today YouTube channel. See all Corvette Today episodes on YouTube. And be sure and patronize
1:36
our flagship sponsors of Corvette today. Aerolari wheels, a true 4-in wheel with over 20 different unique styles to
1:43
choose from for your C8 and widebody versions of the C7, C6, and C5 Corvettes. It's an amazing value
1:50
starting at only 23.88 for a set of four fully forged wheels. And use the promo
1:55
code CT111 and get $100 off your purchase. Visit aerolari.com. That's a r
2:02
o l a r i.com and use the promo code ct111 for your $100 discount. And Soul
2:09
Performance Products developed and manufactured in the United States. The Soul Performance Products exhaust
2:15
portfolio has been tailored to elevate the experience of the world's most exciting sports cars, including the
2:20
latest generation of the Corvette. Soul Performance Products, the official exhaust of Corvette today. Also,
2:26
mid-engine Corvette forum.com. the forum that focuses on the new mid-engine C8 Corvette. Meet a lot of Corvette
2:32
enthusiasts like yourself at mid-enginecorvetforum.com. And a shout out to Corvette Forum and
2:38
Canadian Corvette forum.com. Welcoming Corvette enthusiasts from around the world. It's time to catch up on the
2:44
latest Corvette news and headlines with my pal Keith Cornet from corvette blogger.com. Keith is here every other
2:50
week to keep us current and uptodate on what's happening with America's sports car. Keith, welcome back to the show.
2:56
This is a big one, buddy. This show marks the start of year number four for Corvette today.
3:02
And a big happy birthday to Corvette today out there, the all the people that come and listen to you and E every
3:07
couple weeks here. It's an exciting thing, Steve. And what you've really built here is something special. You had the creme to the crop of the Corvette
3:13
team members, the who's who of the Corvette family has been on to talk to you and keep up the great work. We love
3:18
being here. We consider it an honor. I tell you, we go out to shows and people, they don't come up and say about the blog, they say about the podcast. So,
3:25
that tells me a lot that I think I need to work harder. Well, buddy, first of all, thank you very much. Second, it's my pleasure.
3:32
It's an honor to have you on the show and celebrate the four years at Corvette today. We even have a new logo. You can
3:38
see the new logo on the YouTube video, so make sure you check it out. Yeah, you changed quite a bit. We do
3:44
have a new URL as well. You're at corvette.com as well as Corvettepodcast.com. You got the new logo, correct? Paul, you're even driving
3:51
a 70th anniversary Corvette, so I'd say things are pretty good in Steveville.
3:56
Things are looking up, that's for sure, buddy. Well, let's start our show like we always do and get a production update
4:01
at the Bowling Green assembly plant. Yeah. So, as we record this, we're coming off of a 4-day holiday for the
4:06
assembly plant. They were closed on Good Friday and Easter Monday as part of their UAW contract. So, we've been
4:12
seeing some really good things on the Z06 side leading up to that break, but as usual, we end up disappointed by the
4:18
numbers. So, we're going to start with Z06 first. Usually, we start with the stingray. We'll start with Z06 first. Prior to the Easter break, we had some
4:24
record setting numbers. Z06, we saw 63 built on April 5th, which was a new
4:30
production record by far, and then they came back the next day on built 68 for another record. So, we're all expecting
4:37
really great things. Hopefully, when the plant reopened on the 11th, we'd see some numbers there. They only built 31 when that plant opened on the 11th on
4:44
Tuesday, but then on the following Wednesday, we were back to zero again. What causes these extreme swings in this
4:50
car's production is still a huge mystery to us. How you can go from 30 to 60 to 68, back down to 30, then to zero again.
4:57
There's got to be something significant there that's really happening. But the good news is that when production falls
5:03
off on the Z06, they are able to make up that slack again with the Stingrays and fill in all those holes. Let me give you
5:09
the numbers and let you know where we are on both these cars. As of last week, the numbers for the Z06 were 1,425
5:16
regular models and 219 70th anniversaries. That's a total of 1644
5:22
cars. A lot of speculation. Will we get to 2,000? Will we get to 2500? Really
5:27
hard to tell because the way these number swings go. The good news again with Stingray production that day that
5:32
there were zero Z06es built. You know, the Stingrays, they step up. They built 181 cars during that day,
5:37
right? We're going to actually hit 30,000 stingrays as a VIN count this week. That's really good. I think we're
5:44
really looking at the best production year for Corvettes yet. Our numbers for Stingrays currently are 29,628.
5:51
Those are the regular ones with 3190 70th anniversary model. So, we have a total right now of 32818.
5:58
We just continue to see that grow. We've got some news about the year extended a little bit. So, we'll see a lot more
6:03
stingrays before this model year closes. Definitely. And we also had some good news about the first quarter. GM
6:09
delivered over 7,900 Corvettes in January, February, and March. Yeah, this was a little bit of a mixed
6:15
month. We'd seen some better months out there. In fact, this was actually the worst quarter for Corvette since first quarter of 2021. It's just disappointing
6:22
because it shows what multiple closures do when both the weather and part shortages come together to affect our
6:28
production quantities. But that total of 7,94, I mean, that's not a horrible number. It was down 10.3% from the year
6:35
previously when we saw 8,800. And that's where we really want to be in that 8,000 to 10,000 range, but we had just had the
6:42
multiple closures in first quarter due to parts supplies. We had horrible weather coming out of Texas. Ice storms
6:48
I think that impacted production sent workers home a couple days during the months in first quarter. So, yeah, you
6:53
know, we just really need a lot of things to align perfectly and then we could really get to some great numbers,
6:59
but it just shows how fragile things still are. Yeah, absolutely right. And Chevrolet extended the Corvette model
7:05
year of 2023 to September 1st and then the 2024s will begin on September 5th,
7:11
which is good news as well. Yeah, you know, this is interesting. We'd always been thinking that the model changeover
7:17
would happen around July 4th. That's when it's been previously for Corvette, but guess what? It's also previously
7:22
happened around the Labor Day time frame as well. It's real interesting. We say they're extending it, but our friend
7:27
Mike Ferman will say, "Well, how do you know it's an extension if you never knew the date that it was ending in the first place?" Right. Good point.
7:33
I have to give it to him. That's true. We don't know if this extension or if it was always the plan. There's some interesting theories out there, you
7:39
know, by quote extending it, you're getting more of the 70th anniversary special editions out there, especially
7:44
on the Z06 side, which again, we only had like 200 and some built so far. So, that might be one reason. But the other
7:50
reason that I saw on a Rick Ki video was, think about this. There's a lot of stuff happening in 2024. We're getting
7:56
some new emergency equipment on the car, automatic braking, stop start, these kinds of things. Why not start banking
8:02
those parts and trying to get those supplies in ahead of time for the car and that way you can get to work on the
8:08
2024s uninterrupted? I mean, that's another theory out there as well. It's really hard to say what it is. We don't
8:14
know. We're not privy to their internal conversations there. But I actually kind of do like the Labor Day because you are
8:19
thinking, you know, it's fall time, football starting, kids are back in school, weather starting to turn a little bit. Gives us some additional
8:25
time frames here to continue to push those 2023 models and the 70th anniversary cars. Definitely, this will be a big year
8:32
indeed for the C8 Corvette for sure, buddy. Yeah, we also have some additional news with that announcement. This was sent to
8:38
dealers as part of what we call their dealer deck. some of the additional dates for this model year switchover is
8:43
that they say that the 2024 vehicle order guides will be out on July 10th. Oh, and then the visualizers for the 2024
8:51
models, of course, we already have the -ray, but for the Stingray and the Z06, those should go live by July 18th or so.
8:57
We don't really have any dates yet on when the start of ordering for the 2024 model year will occur. However, you can
9:02
always kind of backdate it. So, if you figure that we're looking at September 5th as our start time, we're probably
9:08
going to have ordering open up. Gez, I'd say late July, somewhere in July. Yep. With the order guide coming out on the
9:14
10th, it wouldn't surprise me if one to two weeks later, we would see ordering happening there. Put that into your
9:20
calendar, especially for you people. They're talking -ay deliveries at the end of the year. Some people are saying
9:26
you might not even see an -ay delivery happen until January. We think the idea that they move the E-Ray up. We thought
9:32
originally it was a 2025 model is because they can build these cars. Something's slowing down the Z06, but
9:37
they feel they can build these cars. That's why they were pushed to 2024 and that's why we're going to see them this year. I'd say it's good news. You know,
9:43
we're just getting a lot of dates here. Hopefully, we'll have more at the bash in a couple weeks, too, with some of the firming up of this 2024 info.
9:50
Yeah, definitely. And speaking of the -ray, Keith, Corvette Academy put out a new video.
9:55
Yeah, this was kind of a surprise as well. We go all this time with no news and then Chevy just nails it all in one
10:00
day. That's what they kind of did here with all that 2023 and 2024 information. Oh, and by the way, we dropped the first
10:06
video on the Corvette Academy. This is simply called Meet E-Ray. And it's a very short video. I think it was only 1
10:13
minute and 41 seconds or so. It featured a lead vehicle development engineer named Michael Kutcher and Chevrolet's
10:19
marketing director Brad France who give their take on the first electrified all-wheel drive Corvette. Definitely
10:25
worth watching for those people. again looking at the -ray. We want more. We want a lot more. Absolutely right.
10:31
So, keep bringing them out. We want to know more of the background of the car, how it works, how it all ties together.
10:37
Show us some more of that stuff. Absolutely. As a matter of fact, Keith, we're going to be addressing that on Corvette today with some of the members
10:43
of the Corvette team. I don't want to let the cat out of the bag yet, but listen and watch next month. I'm going
10:48
to have a huge, huge show coming up for you right after the bash. Okay. Well, be staying tuned for that.
10:54
That's for sure. Absolutely. Our final story on the news section, a 70th anniversary CHZ06 set a
11:00
sales record at the Mikum auction in Glendale, Arizona, didn't it? Yeah, this is a big number. You know,
11:05
we've seen some cars on Bring a Trailer and some other places. They really haven't been selling all that well. I
11:10
know that there's currently five cars have been up for sale on Bring a Trailer. Only one of them is sold. We're expecting one to sell over this weekend.
11:16
So, we'll see what happens there. But at the auction houses, it's been a different story. There was a torch red
11:22
1LZ coupe that sold at Mikum CMI at the beginning of the year for 275. This was
11:27
a white pearl 70th anniversary Z06. It had 11 delivery miles on it. The window
11:32
sticker was still attached. It was really nice. Front lift, carbon flash nay cells on the roof, black exhaust
11:38
tips, and MSRP they said was 140. So when it hit the auction block, it
11:43
hammered for $275 and with the commissions on it, it was over $35,000.
11:49
So that's a $164,000 over MSRP. You see why these guys are
11:55
trying to get a 100. They can't get it on Bring a Trailer apparently, but yet at the auction houses where it's being
12:01
sold as a new car again, probably without warranty. They're having a lot of success there. It's just still something to watch. Of course, we have
12:07
two auctions that just happened over the weekend. We don't have those results yet. We had the Palm Beach auction for Barrett Jackson and then Mikum is in
12:13
Houston for a couple days there as well. We'll go back and take a look at those and see how they did. That sounds good. Buddy, let's take our
12:20
first break. When we come back, it'll be Corvette racing and Corvette rumors up next on the four-year anniversary show
12:26
here on Corvette Today. We all know that wheels make the car. Wheelcraft will
12:31
help you take your Corvette to new levels. Wheelcraft offers the world's best PVD chrome finish available on the
12:36
market. Available in bright chrome and black chrome. Wheelcraft nails it in both appearance and durability. And it
12:42
comes with a 5-year warranty against brake dust burns, pitting, peeling, and color delimination. Wheelcraft is also
12:48
ISO certified. Whether you're having your wheels refinished or an exchange transaction, there is no core fee, no
12:53
deposit, and you don't pay for the finished wheels until they are installed on your car. Wheelcraft insists on
12:58
complete satisfaction before you pay. Hear from one of our customers. I picked up a brochure at the National Corvette
13:04
Museum. We took delivery of our new C8. I called Wheelcraft and in 15 minutes, I ordered the new bright ice chrome
13:10
wheels. Wheelcraft's followup and follow-through is superb. The wheels arrived on Sunday, installed on Monday,
13:16
and cores will return same day. Wheels are the highest quality I've ever seen, and they look awesome. Great prices,
13:22
great customer service from initial contact to installation. Thanks, Dennis from Nashville. In many cases, Wheelcraft offers finished wheels
13:29
on exchange or we'll apply this new finish to your wheels. Either way, Wheelcraft treats your wheels as their
13:35
own. Visit our website at wheelcraft.com or call us at 833-845334.
13:40
Arrive in style with Wheelcraft. When you want to buy a Corvette or any
13:46
Chevrolet for that matter, get yours from Hendrickk Chevrolet Shauny Mission located in Kansas City. Hendrick
13:51
Chevrolet is the largest Corvette dealership and showroom in the Midwest. With a knowledgeable sales staff and
13:56
Corvette sales specialists on hand, they'll help you build the Corvette of your dreams, and they ship nationwide.
14:02
With Corvette certified master mechanics on site and a huge parts department with over 24,000 parts and $2 million in
14:09
inventory, Hendrickk Chevrolet is well equipped to take care of your every need. From sales to service to collision
14:15
repair, Hendrickk Chevrolet has you covered. Visit chevyusa.com or call 913841550.
14:22
The Radiator Grill Store offers C8 Corvette A-pillar wind diffusers in beautiful carbon fiber or OEM gloss
14:30
black that help reduce wind buffeting when a window is open. Easy installation and OEM fitment. Plus, get 10% off your
14:37
total purchase with the promo code CT10 at radiator grillilstore.com.
14:44
And now back to the only current podcast on Corvettes, Corvette Today with your host Steve Garrett. Thanks for listening
14:51
and watching Corvette Today, the show that talks about everything Corvette and the only current podcast dedicated to
14:57
Corvette. Corvette Today is brought to you by Wheelcraft. Spring is here and you want your Corvette looking its best.
15:04
Dress it up with bright chrome or black chrome wheels. Visit wheelcraft.com and learn about their advanced PVD chrome
15:10
finishing. They can refinish your wheels or do a wheel exchange and it comes with a 5-year warranty. Visit wheelcraft.com
15:17
today or call them at 833-639-4231.
15:22
I'm your host Steve Garrett. With me is Keith Cornet from corvette blogger.com. We always keep you current and uptodate
15:28
every other week on what's happening in the world of Corvette. In the second section, we always cover Corvette racing
15:34
and Corvette rumors. Keith, we have two big races that just happened last weekend, didn't we? Yeah. And of course, because we do
15:40
record these prior to the weekend, we're going to have recaps coming up. But this is an exciting thing and this is one of
15:45
these benefits of splitting the team into the two series. We have the number three C8 team in IMSA. They're over in
15:52
Southern California for the Long Beach Grand Prix which is one of the best races of the year in my opinion. You got that 100 minute shootout on the streets
15:59
of Long Beach. It's just always fantastic. We were winning that race a year ago up until the very end of it. It
16:04
just shows that anything can happen. On another continent, we've got the number 33 Corvette. It's in Portugal for the
16:10
six hours of Portoo and it's the first time we've been to Portugal as a team, but luckily our three drivers on the
16:16
number 33 car have all raced there previously. So, good exciting things. You know, we've started off this season
16:21
with a bang. You know, the IMSA car has been competitive, although the finishes haven't been quite where we wanted, but
16:27
we've been there at the end. And I think that's the most important thing. It does show that we are a little bit more competitive this year that we had a
16:32
crazy ending at the end of Daytona Cring. Of course, we were leading there. We were all set up for the win. We got
16:38
hit twice in the rear within the last few minutes to knock us out of contention. So, there's good things
16:43
happening with the teams here. We're looking forward to being able to recap these to our Corvette Today listeners when we come back for our next headlines
16:50
post. Then we'll do that in two weeks. Also, Will Farmer sets a world record in the Z06. It's a 10.16/4
16:58
mile in a 2023 Z06. Wow. Yeah. So, he's an enthusiast. He's been racing cars for years. I know the name.
17:05
I've never met him or anything like that. I just know he's always had really fast Corvettes. So, he recently set two
17:10
records in this new Z06 in the quarter mile and the runs were all verified by time slips and multiple videos of the
17:17
runs as well. So, we definitely recommend watching the video because with the racing tires on the car, the
17:22
Z06 ran 1016 at 135 m an hour knowing that people say, "Well, that's not stock
17:28
because you got racing tires on." He had the stock Michelins on the car and that ran 1026 at 134 miles an hour. So again,
17:37
blistering speeds, two world records. I love these world record chases. I think they're exciting. They're good for the
17:42
car. They're good for the people that follow this stuff. We always see breakthroughs and some interesting things that happen. We saw that with the
17:47
Stingray chasing first the nines and then the eights and now we've got the Z06 out there. So, we just need a few
17:53
more enthusiasts with these cars that are willing to do some tearing down and putting some go fast parts on them and see what they can really do.
17:59
And speaking of go fast Z06s, Keith, I know we hit 182 miles an hour on the Texas Mile in a Z06. Yeah, I know. And
18:06
this was a fun one, too. And, you know, we don't really have an idea of the specs, and the video was only from the PDR, so chances are it was probably just
18:13
the base car, but again, the base cars are supposed to run a little bit faster because they're a little bit more streamlined than the Z07 era, which is
18:20
designed for road tracks and a lot of downforce. But yeah, that 670 horsepower Z06 was able to get up to 182 mph in
18:27
just a mile. And truthfully, it looked like it had a little bit more room to run there. Chevrolet had actually told
18:32
us last August at Carile that the top speed of the Z06 was 195 miles an hour for the base car and 189 for cars
18:39
equipped with Z07. But this is really one of the first times we've actually seen an enthusiast do a high-speed run
18:44
that was a mile. I think Speed Phenom did a half mile race when he picked up his car, but there was a huge headwind
18:50
and some other things going on there. To see this car do it in that fast was pretty good. He actually said in his
18:55
YouTube video that he made four runs during the day and they averaged 174.8 8
19:00
mph up to the 182 top speed run that was shared in the video. We'd like to see some more of these. And what we'd really
19:06
like to see is this was just the Texas Mile. We had here in Florida the Johnny Bomber proving grounds which is on the
19:13
space shuttle runway at Kennedy Space Center, right? They run 2.7 miles there. We had that
19:18
Z-51 Stingray that ran a couple weeks ago that we shared that video of, you know, and it took him a long time to get
19:24
up to that. I think he ran 191 there. Here we had 182 in a mile. So, it'd be
19:29
interesting to see what it would do with some additional track to run there. Yeah, if he had another mile and a half to go, he could have come closer to 200
19:36
mph. It'd be cool. I think it's definitely doable. And when Chevy sets the times for their top speed, they're very
19:42
conservative. They say you have to run them both ways, both directions, right? And then you average that time. And in
19:47
fact, when we talked to Josh Holder last year at Carile about it, he said they hadn't actually even done that part yet.
19:53
So, that'd be a good follow-up question if they've actually done an official top speed run where they average both ways
19:58
and put them together to see what we get. Yeah, this car, I think Tajin said it's not a numbers car, but it puts up
20:04
some great numbers, doesn't it, Steve? Absolutely right, buddy. In the rumors section, Car and Driver came up with a
20:09
couple biggies. First of all, they said that the 2025 Corvette SUV is not going
20:14
to be an EV. What's the backstory on that? Yeah, this is interesting. And again, this shows how everybody's got their own
20:20
little ears to the ground and this is what they're hearing. And we'd actually like to see this. We'd like to see a internal combustion powered SUV before a
20:28
full EV because the full EV is just going to turn some people off while an ICE engine that's performanceoriented.
20:34
That might raise a few more eyebrows among the Corvette faithful who again aren't really supportive of this whole
20:39
idea at all. But having said that, Carver says that there's some good stuff coming. They're actually looking at this
20:45
performance SUV, but it might be offered in multiple sizes much like the Porsche does with the Macan and the Cayenne. So,
20:51
the Macan competitor will feature a 300 plus turbo V4 base engine, but then it
20:56
could also step up into an optional twin turbo V6. That would create somewhere around 400 horsepower, maybe a little
21:02
bit more. But the larger Cayenne Challenger, that one will start off with that twin turbo V6 and could actually
21:08
move all the way up to a Cadillac Escalade supercharged 682 horsepower V8. you know, the LT4 that powered last
21:15
generation's C7 Z06. You put on the curb and ceramic brakes, you put on the super
21:20
wide tires, and you could have a highly oriented performance machine there very quickly. Again, we're talking 2025.
21:27
That's not very long in terms of development time. We'll have to see what happens there. The other thing was I went looked at Chevrolet. They have nine
21:33
vehicles in the SUV segment already. Wow. And it's seven ice powered cars and then
21:39
the two hybrids, the Bolts. There's a lot of choices there already. How they manage that with adding another one in
21:45
there remains to be seen. Yeah, definitely. The other rumor the car and driver came up with was the speculation about the ZR1 and the Zora
21:52
editions. Yeah, and this is all good. Again, I don't think we had any groundbreaking news here. They like to say that these
21:58
next two Corvette models are hiding in plain sight because we have the Z06 and the - currently out. And those are going
22:04
to be the starting points used for the ZR1 and the Zora models. To start off with the ZR1 again, they're saying 2025
22:11
with twin turbos providing that additional firepower on the 670 horsepower Z06. We've heard estimates of
22:17
somewhere between 800 850 horsepower for that car and it's going to target the likes of the McLaren 750S or the Porsche
22:24
911 Turbo S of performance. They think that the ZR1 will regain the title of the quickest Corvette from the -ray when
22:31
it does come out, in which case we'll see similar times of that 0 to 60, you know, 2.4 4 2.5 seconds or so.
22:37
Right. On the other side, we don't know when this is going to come in 2026, 2027. They didn't really give us a time frame
22:43
on the Zora, but that's going to retake the King of the Hill title from the ZR1 as that new top dog Corvette. And then
22:50
that'll be the mashup of the ZR1 with the twin turbo powering the rear wheels. And then you'll have the -ray inspired
22:56
front electrical drive units resulting somewhere around,00 horsepower, 1,000 horsepower, 1100 horsepower combined.
23:03
The downside is that Car and Driver says it can weigh in around 4200 lb, but with a turbo electric powertrain, they call
23:10
it the top fuel dragster of the Corvette lineup with the car estimated to run 060 in 1.9 seconds.
23:16
Wow. It would be a 9second car in the/4 mile out of the factory. You're going to pay $200,000 for it, but it is going to be a
23:24
monster of a car. So, huge news there. But let me throw this in there, Steve, because seeing this exercise always gets
23:30
us thinking. There's a gap in pricing now between the base Stingrays and then the Z06 rays which are both starting
23:37
similarly in that $1045,000 range, right? There was some rumors of the Grand Sport
23:42
coming back. They re up the trademark on it. We think that it would be really easy for them to put together a widebody
23:48
looks of the Z06 with the reliability of the LT2 powertrain. They're gonna be doing it anyways in the -ray. Now
23:54
they're just using basically the stock stuff off the Stingray. And that's a great way to get 20 $25,000 out of
24:00
buyers. That might be the way that when they talk about doing a quote refresh of the Stingray, it's not really a refresh
24:07
for the Stingray, but it's a grand sport that comes. So something to think about there. Absolutely right. That could be really
24:12
cool, man. That'd be a big lineup, too, for Corvette. Yeah, that's wild. Well, buddy, let's take our
24:17
final break. When we come back, it's the lighter side of Corvette on the four-year anniversary show of Corvette
24:23
today. [Music] Are you ready for a better insurance policy without the Corvette tax? With
24:29
Agreed Value Protection, the value of your collector vehicle will never change. Plus, you'll save money. Get a
24:35
quick quote at ncm insurance.com. Hey honey, are you awake?
24:40
M I am now. I can't sleep. Since turning 50, I keep dreaming of a red door and a blue door.
24:46
Somehow knowing there are only choices for retirement. Okay. Through the red door, we outlive our
24:52
money. We have to rely on our kids. We're stuck on a fixed income. It's terrifying. Yeah, that would suck.
24:58
But through the Blue Door, our money outlives us. We retire on our terms. Our kids stay our kids, not our caretakers.
25:05
We make work optional. Yes, that's much better. That's what I want, too. But what do we do?
25:10
We call True Wealth and Company at 913-6538783. They specialize in helping successful
25:17
people make work optional. They're our fiduciary blue door personal wealth managers. Hey, where are you going? It's
25:23
3:00 a.m. I can't sleep. I'm going to check out True Wealth & Company online at retirewithtr.com. That blue door is
25:29
going to be our retirement. 9136538783. Visit us online at retirewithtr.com.
25:34
Investment advice offer through company LLC, a registered investment adviser in the state of Kansas. Vetfinders.com is the internet's
25:41
original Corvette classified ads website with classified ads starting at just $25. And every ad runs until your
25:49
Corvette is sold. If you're in the market for a Corvette, vetfinders.com has over 500 Corvettes for sale from all
25:56
around the USA and Canada and covering all eight generations. Visit vetfinders.com, the internet's
26:02
destination for buying and selling Corvettes. That's vefinders.com.
26:11
And now back to Corvette Today with your host and my husband, Steve Garrett. Hey,
26:18
thanks once again for listening and watching Corvette Today, the show that talks about everything Corvette and the
26:24
only podcast that's dedicated to Corvette. Corvette Today is brought to you by Wheelcraft. Spring is here and
26:30
you want your Corvette looking its best. Dress it up with bright chrome or black chrome wheels from Wheelcraft. Learn
26:35
about their advanced PVD chrome finishing. They'll refinish your wheels or do a wheel exchange and you get a
26:41
5-year warranty. Visit wheelcraft.com today or call them at 833-639-4231.
26:49
I'm your host Steve Garrett. With me is Keith Cornet from corvette blogger.com. It's our 4-year anniversary show. Don't
26:55
forget if you want a deeper dive into any of the stories we cover on this show. You can always go to corvette blogger.com. In this third and final
27:02
section, we always talk about the lighter side of Corvette. Keith Bloomington Gold's 2023 gold collection
27:08
will salute the Z06s. Yeah, this is going to be a nice collection, you know. So, the gold collection at Bloomington Gold, it's in
27:14
an invite only exhibition. They only pick the cream of the crop, the best cars. They'll focus on a model. They'll
27:19
focus on like the L88s. They'll focus on racing cars. So, we're going to see a nice collection here of the Z06. And not
27:26
just the 63 Z06, but Z06's from all generations that it was offered. So, it should be a really nice collection.
27:32
They'll probably pull in anywhere from 20 to 30 cars to show off the collection of Z06s over the years. You can see how
27:38
they evolved and, you know, some of the things that they've done differently. The 2023 gold collection is held within
27:43
the Bone Student Center on the campus of Illinois State University. Bloomington Gold's held that June 2nd and 3rd.
27:49
There's going to be a private reception to kick off the gold collection that Thursday night. So, if you want to get tickets for that, you can, but
27:55
otherwise, you'll be able to see it during Bloomington Gold on June 2nd and 3rd. That'll be a lot of fun. I'd love to see
28:01
that display. Something else I really enjoyed, buddy, was a Z07 going through PDI. There was a video about that. That
28:07
was really cool. Yeah, this was put together by our friend Morgan Crosby up at Finch Chevrolet in London, Ontario.
28:13
Morgan's got a great channel up there, Cars and Crosby, he calls it. They have a customer that had a Z06 with the Z07
28:19
performance pack and going through the pre-ely inspection process, the PDI. That's where they check everything. They
28:25
put on new parts that were shipped from the factory or the dealer installed parts. They do this whole once around
28:30
the car before it's actually delivered to the new customer. He really showed the process and everything that kind of
28:35
goes in on it. you know, different this year is that the Z07s, they're shipped from the factory with that big arrow kit
28:42
on the back just to make sure that it's done one specific way. It's done right. The dealer still has to come in. They
28:47
put on the splitter. They're putting in all kinds of other things on the car. Really interesting to see that process. One of the cool things about this was
28:53
this car had the new Jake stripes on the rear quarter panels, right? So, we got to see those added. He actually farmed
28:59
that out to a different company local to them that specializes in stripes and graphics. So, they put on the Corvette
29:04
racing hood graphic and then those side quarter graphics. Those are really sharp. A neat thing to do with this car
29:10
and watch it go through the PDI. I know that if my car ended up at the dealership, I'd be like that Danny DeVito commercial where he pulls up the
29:17
chair with the little binoculars watching everything that's going on. That would be me. Yeah, pretty exciting stuff. Congratulations
29:23
up there to that customer who gets a Z07 north of the border. Check out Morgan Crosby show. It's a fun show. He does
29:29
great stuff there and really knows his customers well. So, good things happening with Morgan. Definitely. And Morgan's been on
29:34
Corvette Today. You can check out that episode at corvette.com. And buddy, this was really cool to see on Motor Week.
29:41
They featured a 2022 Callaway Corvette, a B2K 35th anniversary edition car on
29:47
the show. I love that. Yeah. You know, Motor Week's been around forever. It's a TV show. I think it runs on like the PBS stations, the nonprofit
29:54
television stations there. This show's been on forever. In fact, they probably had the first Callaways on. That's how long they've been on the air. It was
30:00
nice to them to feature this Callaway Corvette. It's the 35th anniversary, the B2K edition. Of course, the B2K in the
30:06
late 80s was the twin turbos that Callaway started turning out for Chevrolet. Pretty cool stuff there. This
30:12
car, the B2K 35th anniversary, an appearance only package. They added some custom upgrades with the arrow and
30:18
wheels and the double D exhaust. Inside you've got like the sill plates and floor mats, but there's no performance
30:23
upgrades here. So, we're really just looking at the car as a whole. But, they do get it out on the track. They actually say that they can feel some of
30:30
the enhancements that Callaway makes with even though this is an appearance package, they can definitely feel it on the performance side. The cool thing is
30:36
that Callaway is working on a supercharged version of their LT2 program. Motor Week teased that and so
30:42
hopefully we'll be seeing that one on the program coming up in the next few months. That's true. Very true. Also, this was
30:48
kind of interesting and I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, Keith. Corvette was ranked 12th out of
30:53
the top 14 in used cars that are more expensive than the new cars. We've really seen the market cool. It used to
30:59
be we had studies like this all the time. In fact, the last time we actually had a study like this, it comes from a
31:04
car marketing and data company called IC Cars. Yes. They do all this data crunching with the numbers of car sold. I think
31:11
they look at something like 8 million cars for sale over the course of a month, both new and used. And from that,
31:16
they dive deep into the data, crunch it all, and come up with these numbers. In the March 2023 study, the Corvette was
31:22
12th overall on the list of these top 14 cars that are more expensive used than
31:27
they are new. With the Corvette priced at only point4% higher than that new car
31:32
price and it's just proof that shows that the pricing of these cars is coming down now. I don't know if it's that
31:37
drastic. One year ago, that number was 20% more for a used car than a new car.
31:43
But we have seen there's 101,000 Stingrays out there now. Some people have 50 and 60,000 miles on their car,
31:49
so they're not getting 20,000 over for their car anymore. We're definitely seeing the mileage and the age factors
31:55
now bringing these prices down. And I think this study is just one more of it. And the funny thing is, you know, it's not just the Corvette, it's across the
32:01
board. A year ago, the study was the top 15 cars, but now they could only get 14 in the list. A year ago, all the cars
32:08
were double digit, more expensive used than new. And here, only one car is double digit. The other ones are 7% all
32:15
the way down to like I said the Corvette was4%. Again, we're just seeing some major movement in the used car market. It's
32:22
definitely bringing prices down. Absolutely right. And buddy, we had two videos that came out that were really
32:27
kind of crazy. First of all, a 62 Corvette fell off a transport and then our feel-good story of the show is a
32:34
family surprised their 80-year-old parents with a 67 convertible. Yeah, we'll start off with the bad news
32:40
first. We'll line up with the good news. If you haven't seen this video of the beige 1962 Corvette, it's heartbreaking.
32:46
It shows it up top. It's a semi-truck that's an auto carrier. They have these elevated lifts that pull it up to the second floor there. As the trucker was
32:53
rolling the car back off, you see that left rear wheel actually looks like it goes over whatever speed bump was
32:59
supposed to stop it because the car just keeps on going, the back wheels drop off, and it just slams down on its tail
33:05
before landing hard on all four wheels on the ground. It's not good at all. But here's the crazy story. This might be
33:11
the part that people don't know about, and we haven't really verified this, but I've seen it listed several different places. We had a couple commentators
33:17
come on. This was actually the second time the driver dropped that car off the lift. Oh, no. Apparently, it was dropped on top of a
33:24
new Porsche Tyan as it was being delivered. This was now bringing it back or doing whatever. But another guy
33:30
chimed in and said a good friend of his own the car. The car had been sold on Bring a Trailer. You can go to Bring a
33:36
Trailer and see pictures of the car there. He confirms that it had dropped twice as well. Not good there at all for
33:42
the shipper of this company. And again, it just shows by the insurance. Anything can happen with these when you have
33:47
third parties moving your cars. It's always nice that if you can have a video camera there, you know, showing the loading and unloading, it just might be
33:54
useful in any kind of legal situation. I'm sure that the owner of the 62 is going through right now.
33:59
Yeah. On the flip side, we've got this great story about mom and dad being surprised with the 67 convertible. The story goes
34:07
that, you know, like we've heard a lot of times before, in 1965, JR was this youthful young man, walks into a Chevy
34:13
dealership and buys a brand new red-on- Corvette Stingray convertible off the showroom floor. Couple years later, he
34:20
meets his wife, Alice. They're in love. They have a couple kids, they have three kids, and guess what? The Corvettes got
34:26
to go. He tells the son in the story named Brent tells a story about the Corvette was replaced with a faded blue
34:32
1962 four-door Mercury Comet. Imagine going from the Corvette to a four-door Comet. Not good there at all. No. And in
34:39
fact, his dad would say for the 50 years or so, he would tease the kids about, "Well, you're the reason why I had to
34:44
get rid of my Corvette." So, they were able to return the favor and they did a nice They told their parents, they had
34:50
them over to the house, and they told their parents, "We got to go check out the next door neighbor. He just got this new red Corvette." And so, the parents
34:57
are sitting in the car and they're kind of checking it out. And Brent opens up the glove compartment and pulls out this note and hands it to his mom. And she's
35:03
like, "Oh, this is the specs of the car. It's the L79. It's got this. It's got that." And then she sees the last line
35:09
where it shows that the owners are JR and Alice. And she just starts shrieking. And when he sees it, he lifts
35:15
his hand straight up over his head and yells, "Hallelujah." He says, "I didn't even know I died and I've gone to heaven now."
35:22
Just a really neat story there. Those kinds of things always put a tear or two in your eye. Great way to end the week
35:28
here. Great way to end our anniversary episode for your four-year start here. Again, you can see all these stories at
35:33
corvette blogger.com. Absolutely, buddy. Thank you so much for being back on Corvette today. Happy 4th
35:38
birthday. I love having you on the show. Here's to four years or more coming up. Looking forward to it, Steve. We'll keep
35:44
waiting. Corvette Today and Corvette blogger.com, where a match made in heaven. Absolutely. Thanks for listening to
35:50
Corvette Today, and please be sure to tell your family, friends, and other Corvette enthusiasts about the Corvette Today podcast. And thanks to our
35:57
sponsors, Wheelcraft. Want to dress up your Corvette with bright chrome or black chrome wheels? Visit wheelcraft.com to learn about their
36:03
advanced PVD chrome finishing. They can refinish your wheels or offer a wheel exchange for most models. And it comes
36:09
with a 5-year warranty. Visit wheelcraft.com today or call 833-840-5334.
36:16
Soul Performance Products at soulppp.com. The official exhaust of Corvette today.
36:22
Truealth & Company at retirewithtr.com. Also, Aerolari wheels. Get $100 off your
36:28
purchase with the new promo code CT111 at aolari.com. And Hendrickk Chevrolet
36:33
in Kansas City at cheviusa.com. You've been listening to Corvette Today
36:40
with Steve Garrett. If you'd like to contact Steve with any thoughts on the podcast or ideas for guests on Corvette
36:46
today, you can email him at stevegaredjgmail.com.
36:52
That's stevegared djgmail.com. Garrett has two Rs and two T's. Or
36:58
connect with Steve on social media on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram using @ stevegared dj. Thanks again for
37:06
listening to Corvette today.
#News