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[Music] welcome to Corvette today the podcast
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that talks about everything Corvette with your host Steve Garrett MC and DJ at one of the largest Corvette weekends
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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
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[Music] thanks for listening and watching Corvette today the show that talks about
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everything Corvette and the only current podcast dedicated to Corvette I'm your
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host Steve Garrett I appreciate you tuning in Corva today is brought to you by wheelcraft want to dress up your
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world it's time to bring you the latest Corvette news and headlines with my pal Keith Cornett from Corvette blogger.com
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Keith is here every other week we keep you current and up to date on what's happening with America's Sports Car
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Keith welcome back to the show you and I have a busy week this week we'll be at Corvettes of Carlisle yeah I've already
3:02
started packing and of course we've got all the events coming up there in the two weeks from now we're going to be at the National Corvette Museum this is
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where we really get down to the wire on some of these final events for the summer so we're very excited of course Corvette's at Carlisle one of the best
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shows to ever attend glad to see you there that's the great part about these shows is we get to see all of our old friends in person again really looking
3:21
forward to it it's a great big car show and it's great to get everybody together that's for sure all right buddy let's
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start off like we usually do with Corvette news and headlines and an update on Corvette production from the Bowling Green assembly plant I think
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I've got some pretty big news here you know our numbers always lag a day or two but based on where we were following last Wednesday's production count we
3:39
believe the 2023 Corvette model has just surpassed 50 000 Corvettes produced for the model year wow 50 000 Steve I mean
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that's an amazing number we're currently showing around 44 419 Stingrays and
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another 5375 or so z06s for a total of 49 775.
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we've got 70th Anniversary models we're at 4140 Stingrays and 812 z06s for a
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total of 49.52 so I really think that we're going to see us do over 5 000 70th
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anniversaries for the Year this is closing week first of all I can't even believe that we're at that 50 000 Mark
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we still got a couple weeks to go in production so we're chasing records where I think right now we're at number three all time on the list just got a
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few more weeks to go and see if we can hit that number two marker even the number one mark that number one Mark I
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believe is the 79 Corvette it's like 53 000 in 800 or so okay I don't have the
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number at the top of my head but man oh man I could not believe that we've surpassed 50 000 for the year we always
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think of all the stuff that's been going on you know and we're still kind of snake bit with the supply chain and issues lingering from covid and all the
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other stuff that's going on in the world and yet every day these guys are just pumping out car after car off your car
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so great news there really excited about it I'm gonna double check on Monday just to see where we were following Friday
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but I'm pretty sure we've surpassed 50 000 for the model year that's fantastic news we're kind of like Avis we try
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harder yeah here we go yes we do and Buddy speaking of production we understand that the 2024 e-ray ordering
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has been delayed hasn't it well it seems like you know a lot of times we don't know timetables so to say that
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something's delayed when you don't know the timetable Chevy likes to do that you know but back in July they sent out a
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memo to dealer stating that the first e-ray orders would start on August 17th they set the date but then last week
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when it was time for dealers to get their first allocation numbers the dealers only got another batch of stingray and Z06 numbers instead there's
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some speculation going on about that you know what's going on here and a lot of dealers we're speaking with they're really thinking this could be related to
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the ongoing negotiations between the UAW and the big three automakers the contract is up I believe on September
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15th and the thinking from some of the dealers we spoke with is that this could be kind of like a negotiation tactic you
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know you're removing the launch of a new Corvette in the middle of a strike and that might help these negotiations that
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are taking place a lot of people are saying strike and the national UAW is actually urging its Local Union shop to
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vote for strike authorization which means that they vote to strike but they're not striking yet basically
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they're saying they're all on board this is all expected but there's a lot happening behind the scenes that kind of
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leads us to our next Point yes you're right our next point is that the e-ray production is supposed to begin on
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October 23rd yeah so I'm sorry to throw that out there like that Steve Chevy again set the state they sent out a memo
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to dealers on August 10th but we kind of really looked at this as you know this startup date is six weeks past the other
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2024 model which are supposed to start down the line on Monday September 11th by looking at the date the calendar and
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stuff by delaying the start of regular production for the e-ray again it's given Chevy some time for these labor
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issues to work themselves out and not be in the middle of a new Corvette launch the previous strike started in late 2019
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it lasted 40 days hopefully you know we'll be able to get all this all reserved before that first b-ray starts
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down the production line we just want our cars we want the best car possible we want everything to be good between
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management and the workers and that just results in a better car for us again I think that the staggered startup with
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the e-ray I really think they're starting to look at these negotiations with the UAW and saying let's kind of
7:07
remove the e-ray from that we're already doing Stingray and Z06 we have to do Stingray and Z06 let's remove that first
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hybrid from the mix let everything kind of settle down and then we'll launch it I'm hoping that's really what happens and of course if we go to strike during
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that it'll be resolved after the strike ends anyway no harm no foul there there's a lot of little speculations
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going on and everybody's wondering what's going on here and there but our thoughts are that they're ready to make this car obviously they made a whole
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bunch of ctfs they've been down the line they've got the process in place they're just ready to start making that happen
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and we just need everybody on board to do it I hope we get that thing out and I hope the labor negotiations go really
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smooth I know it's already bumpy but gosh let's get this thing rolling not have any interruptions whatsoever well
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in the end you know we're all one big happy family and I hate the phrase that we're all in this together but really a
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lot of ways we are management and the workers need to come together and get this done yeah very true also the
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National Corvette Museum had a real Milestone they delivered VIN number one of the 2023 70th Anniversary Corvette
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coupe that was cool you know it was real cool that they used the 70th Anniversary but the coupe Vin zero zero one to give
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that to the National Corvette Museum as a raffle car a great way to help that museum bring in money they've been doing
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these Raffles forever it's a major fundraiser for them a guy named cliff Payne out of Jacksonville Florida he was
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there at the NCM during the National Council of Corvette club's annual convention back in June his wife bought
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a ticket she said you better go buy a ticket he bought a ticket and he won it so pretty cool there he says he's always
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been into black Corvettes and so he should be right at home with his carbon flash 70th Anniversary Edition the
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National Corvette Museum says that this was their 432nd Corvette that they've given away since the raffle program
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started in 2019. wow I'm going to be up there in two weeks I just did look there's a couple Raffles going on during
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the anniversary celebration they're both stingrays but one of them's always unlimited at twenty dollars which I'm always in for you know here's 20 give me
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a ticket sure just happy just help and support do you ever do the Raffles at the Museum I have not done any of the
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museum Raffles at all I like to win a Z06 or an e-ray though they do have those I think they've had a Z06 once or
9:07
twice as a raffle car they are but production's so tight on those you know they obviously want to give those to customers yeah hopefully we'll see a
9:14
little bit more of that but I think there probably will end up being a special e-rate at some point offered by the museum there pretty cool stuff and
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again you know real people do win these cars that's really cool and also the Corvette team is going to be at Corvettes of Carlisle this week I'm
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looking forward to seeing everybody on the team I know it's always great this is the 41st annual Corvettes of Carlisle
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both Steve and I are going to be there we'll be there with all our friends including Corvette team members like Devin blue the Corvette program manager
9:37
Taj Decker Corbin executive chief engineer Josh holder Corvette vehicle chief engineer and our good buddy Harlan
9:42
Charles Corvette marketing manager is going to be there the corporate Engineers they always have their own tent there on manufacturers row they're
9:49
hosting like Daily Tech talks so you can go look at the calendar that day and they'll have like three or four different seminars throughout the day
9:54
our understanding is that there's going to be at least four e-rays there Under the Tent both Coupes and convertibles
9:59
there's also going to be the e-ray rolling chassis the Cutaway chassis so you can see where the batteries are stored where the front electric Drive
10:06
Unit is that's going to be there and then I'm also told that there's going to be a 2024 Stingray on display which
10:11
we're guessing that this is always the Corvette accessories car that they show every year so you can expect to see hopefully that new Stingray two pedestal
10:19
spoiler we want to check out the chrome wheels like the 15 spoke chrome wheels that just came out so we're really
10:24
expecting a lot of things and then of course the three new exterior colors should be available if you or the 2024 Corvettes as well always good stuff
10:30
happening there they do the big seminar talks in front of the stage on both Friday and Saturday you don't want to
10:36
miss those good stuff happening there just very excited to be back to Carlisle and we will see everybody there well
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Keith let's take our first break when we come back it's Corvette racing and Corvette rumors on deck on Corvette
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thank you and now back to Corvette today with your
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host and my husband Steve Garrett hey thanks for listening and watching Corvette today the show that talks about
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everything Corvette brought to you by wheelcraft car show season is here and you want your Corvette looking its best
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dress it up with bright Chrome and black chrome wheels visit wheelcraft.com and learn about their Advanced PVD chrome
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finishing they can refinish your wheels or do a wheel exchange and you get a five-year warranty visit wheelcraft.com
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or call them 833-639-4231 I'm your host Steve Garrett
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with me is Keith Cornett from corvettebblogger.com we keep you current and up to date on what's happening in
14:48
the world of Corvette every other week in segment number two we always cover Corvette racing and Corvette rumors
14:53
first in racing Keith how did we do it Road America well we finished third in class at the amsa race at Road American
14:59
again it was sort of another frustrating outcome number three equipment c8r Antonio Garcia was leading with 51
15:05
minutes to go and we were poised to take it to The Checkered Flag but race officials said that the team did not
15:11
meet the minimum refueling time as they short filled the tank in that last stop so the team tried to show evidence that
15:17
no we did everything okay but they were overruled and Garcia was forced to come in through a drive-through penalty that
15:22
knocked us down to third we finished third in the race but even worse is the fact that the Lexus that's leading in the championship standings they ended up
15:29
finishing ahead of us they finished second so they got those additional second place points we got less with third place points and so now we're even
15:36
further back in the standings than we were and we only got three races to go the sole thing about short filling the tank they put out a chart on how they
15:42
did that there's a minimum refueling time for the full tank but because they short filled it they have to do an
15:47
estimate basically what happens is at the end of the flow the fuel flow is faster at the end than it is at the
15:53
beginning so they ended up finishing quicker than they would have had they done the full tank and met the minimum I
15:58
guess this is all around Bop balance of performance and a bunch of other things that are factors in place it was very
16:05
confusing and it did require the team to kind of come out hit the white board and kind of explained what happened there we've had a couple of these races this
16:11
year that have ended frustrating like this at the end and had everything gone perfectly and of course you know Doug fehan he says 25 good team 25 fast car
16:19
and then 50 lock and that 50 Luck's been going away from us a little bit and that's why we're running second and
16:24
third in these races here we just really kind of need to get this all together with these next three races our next event is the Michelin TT challenge at
16:31
VIR and then the number 33 Corvette c8r in the wec they race again at September
16:36
2nd and they have two races in the season so we're getting there towards the end and of course get some additional news coming up here about
16:42
that season that sounds good the good thing about Road America they had a gt3r out there on display yeah you know I
16:49
don't know if they've shown this car to the public before other than the unveiling at Daytona this year but Pratt Miller Motorsports showed off that new
16:55
z060 t3r race car outside the Corvette Corral at Road America people are going Gaga over it a bunch of photos hit
17:01
social media we were able to share a bunch of those photos that came out I mean it's a great looking car with that side intake trim that matches that of
17:08
the Z06 finally you've got that wild arrow that big Wing hanging on the back I mean it's an incredible looking machine so far we've got three teams
17:15
announced that'll be campaigning the car and imsa two are going to the Pratt Miller Motorsports go to the GTD Pro
17:20
class we got two going to the Canadian team AWA for racing in the GTD clash of
17:26
the amateur class and then finally we got two scheduled for the FIA World Endurance Championship with an English team called TF sport they're dropping
17:32
the Aston Martins this year and going to Corvette next year these teams are expected to get their cars sometime in
17:38
November and of course we'll see them first on the track at the Rolex 24 Daytona in January and we also had some
17:43
big news about Corvette racing for next year Keith Alex Sims and Nikki katzberg are going to join the imsa Corvette
17:49
lineup for next year and Jordan Taylor is leaving Corvette racing wow yeah kind
17:55
of big news and kind of surprising Pratt Builder Motorsports announced last week that Alexander Sims and Nikki casberg will be joining the team vmsa team to
18:01
race that second Corvette ZO6 gt3r in the GTD Pro class and we assume it's the number four Corvette however was reading
18:08
through it as we were preparing for this first of all it's great to have two cars to root for again especially in the
18:13
longer races where anything can happen you know we're used to that you know one car gets in trouble it's always all hands on deck for the other car having
18:19
just a single car has always led to a little bit more anxiety amongst the Corvette racing fans but the number
18:24
three Corvette will feature Antonio Garcia and Tommy Milner but the press release did say that these pairings will
18:29
be confirmed at a later date so we could see Garcia teamed up with katzberg or Sims as opposed to Milner so we're just
18:36
waiting to see and how that works out usually they do a lot of things based on how quick people are there's this
18:41
person's health their height you know they say with the seat requirements things like that things that make it easier for doing driver changes and such
18:47
obviously we're very sad to learn Jordan Taylor will be leaving Corvette racing it was his decision he wanted to return
18:53
to prototype class to contend for those overall wins and of course you know when your dad's running a racing team it
18:59
makes it real easy to kind of go back to that so he's returning back to Wayne Taylor racing piloting the Acura ARX 06
19:05
GTP entry with co-driver Lewis Stellar tries I think that's how he says his name we of course wish Jordan the best
19:10
of luck great having him on the team a lot of fun love the social stuff away from Corvette was a lot of fun you know
19:16
we're still gonna be following that but got some really competent people both Alexander Sims is returning to Corvette
19:22
racing uh of course Nikki casberg just won the championship in the FIA WC with the number 33 car over there this year
19:28
so these guys are very fast we're really excited to have him back in the insta team definitely and also if you're going
19:34
to Corvettes of Carlisle if you like racing we're going to be celebrating 100 Years of Le Mans at Corvettes of
19:40
Carlisle this is fortuitous for the fact that they kind of came up with this last year and then we go out with them on
19:45
this year but fortunately we won't have that Le Mans winning c8r there to show but we've got some really cool stuff lined up for the tips Choice exhibit you
19:52
know tips choice is named after the late chip Miller who co-founded Corvettes of Carlisle this friend Bill Miller they put this special collection together
19:58
called the best of the best and each year you know there's always a different theme and now these vehicles are hand
20:04
selected by chips on Lance Miller this year's collection of Corvette race users will be on display at Corvettes of
20:09
Carlisle in building T so look for building T and that's where you'll find the chips Choice they're going to have two Cunningham cars from the 1960 LeMans
20:17
they're bringing together three Callaway Racers and actually gonna be the first time that all three of these Callaway
20:22
Racers that will be shown at an event together uh of course we're realizing the loss of Reeves Callaway there's
20:27
gonna be some celebrations and some thoughts about him great to see those cars there there's going to be the 1968
20:32
L88 that ran in 1973. that was the red car that wore the Ferrari Banner many people don't know that story great
20:38
backstory to that also a 1962 Corvette that race at the 1962 LeMans could be
20:44
there a couple of other significant Corvettes that were prepped for Le Mans but never quite made it they include a
20:49
1968 L88 the blue TX racer and then of course one of my favorite Corvettes of all time the 1963 Gulf one Z06 that was
20:57
driven by the flying dentist Dr dick Thompson that car should have been over there never made it over there ended up
21:02
dominating an fcca competition here in the States but that would have been a lot of fun to see that car racing well
21:07
yeah that's really cool in the rumors category Keith it looks like Ford might also come out with a mid-engine Mustang
21:14
and they're benchmarking it against the C8 Z06 and Stingray well that's the rumor the rumor came from Ford Authority
21:21
you know there's DM Authority then they have a sister site called Ford Authority who suggested that a mid-engine Mustang built by multimatic which also produced
21:27
their Ford GTs would be coming out there's not a lot of news about this yet but what we're actually seeing was there
21:33
was a leak last Wednesday night and it actually showed a really wild front engine wide body car that people are
21:39
calling the Mustang GTD this is supposedly going to be the ultimate Mustang for the streets we're not going
21:45
to really see any real meaningful production numbers out of the car I think they were scheduled to build a thousand GTS over four or five years you
21:53
know so I mean it was really slow as they were putting these cars out of course the cars are really expensive as well and they had some crazy ownership
21:59
requirements so if they do the same thing with this Ford GTD Mustang probably gonna be a niche car yeah
22:05
interesting well wait and see what happens with that if they're benchmarking it against the stingray and the Z06 it could be really cool and I
22:13
saw pictures of a Ford GT with a Mustang nose on it that was an interesting rendering that's for sure yeah that was
22:19
something we captured from Instagram just to kind of show you know what some people are thinking it might look like again still waiting on the official
22:26
details to roll out there which we might end up talking about depends but it's just another front engine Mustang but if
22:31
it was actually been a Mid Engine Mustang that'd be kind of cool but again you got to kind of think about the car their Roots you know obviously the
22:37
Corvette's always been a sports car the Mustang's always been a muscle car Pony car you got the four seats versus the
22:42
two seats I love the Mustangs out of one in high school was my second car a fox buddy in 1879. we're all for Corvettes
22:49
we think it's a superior car with a superior engineering platform behind it they're not stealing us away that's for
22:55
sure absolutely and it is a superior car you're absolutely right well buddy let's take our final break when we come back
23:01
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car show season is here and you want your Corvette looking its best dress it up with bright Chrome or black chrome
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wheels visit wheelcraft.com and learn about their Advanced PVD chrome finishing they can refinish your wheels
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or do a wheel exchange and you get a five-year warranty visit wheelcraft.com or call them at
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833-639-4231 I'm your host Steve Garrett with me is Keith Cornett from Corvette blogger.com don't forget if you want a
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deeper dive into any of the stories the Keith and I cover on this show you can always go to corvettebblogger.com in our
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final segment we always cover the lighter side of Corvette this was an interesting story Keith that I picked up and I wanted you to talk about Robert
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Downey Jr is selling his decarbonized cars and one of them is the C2 Corvette
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yeah so he's had the show on HBO or Max as it's called now it's called the Robert Downey Jr dream car have you seen
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any of it no I don't have Cinemax or HBO okay well I made it through the first four episodes or so it's a pretty
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interesting show I know there's a Corvette coming up I know we're getting closer to that on the flip side there's
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a lot of lecturing going on about climate change in these so this Show's not for everybody I guess but I'm watching it because I like Iron Man and
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uh he's got some cool cars so I want to just kind of see what's happening there they've done some really neat stuff so I'm following along what he's done is
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he's got these six cars He decarbonized them so they put in EV power plants I know one of them was a biodiesel
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conversion they did on a Mercedes what they've done is now that they've got all six of them done he's gonna be giving away one of the time beginning next
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February wow and then running one per month through July and it's a raffle actually and this raffle the money is
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going to go to its foundation which I'm sure is going to generate some more lecturing on climate change but it's Iron Man so I'll put up with it yeah but
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it's actually a pretty good show looking forward to seeing the Corvette he's going to do I guess a couple races with
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it against some other cars so it should be interesting to see how it does well let me know how it goes I'd like to see what happens with that C2 Corvette
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absolutely yeah also Keith the company that transports Corvettes around the country Jack Cooper transport has
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acquired a rival company and that's 240 extra transports yeah you know this was an interesting story I think our friend
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John over at the Imaging Corvette forum he kind of mentioned it to me kind of an aside hey did you hear about this and I went that's kind of interesting let me
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dig into that and we found out that yeah they're the shipping company that brings new Corvettes from the assembly planted
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dealers and they recently purchased a company called more transport out of Tulsa they had a fleet of 240 Auto
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carriers so right away you know you're adding a significant amount of capacity to haul cars from the plants to the
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dealers now it's not just Corvettes they do they do a lot of Chevrolets and other GM vehicles as well shipping these
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completed cars has become a real issue for the big three auto companies currently there's a shortage of rail cars we find out that GM's got like
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thousands of trucks piling up outside of Fort Wayne in Auburn Indiana because they can't ship them fast enough there
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was some news earlier this year that GM was buying 400 of their own car carriers so that they could basically do it
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themselves so with this merger acquisition anything that can increase capacity is going to help we've talked
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to dealers before they sometimes we'll wait two three or even four weeks for a shipment to arrive from the plant you
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know that's just dead time for them when it could be you know they're delivering the car moving on to somebody else and of course if you've been behind the
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plant you know you've seen all that sea of white transport covers all these cars are sitting there waiting to be shipped
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as well I think this is a really good move of course Jack Cooper went through bankruptcy I believe in 2019 they've
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come out of it since then even stronger so this move can only be good for Corvette owners and hopefully like I said the logistics will even themselves
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out or we'll be able to get cars from the assembly plant to dealers even faster that'd be really cool I'd love
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that also we saw a 2023 Z06 set the record fastest time at Virginia International Raceway didn't we well I
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say the old Homer Simpson meme fastest time so far but actually the real story there it's not the fastest time ever
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it's it's the fastest time for the c806 oh a YouTuber named steel ankles we've
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shared his stuff before and he's friends with a guy named Marco who's got a c806
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he shared that PDR footage and basically Marco ran the 3.3 Mile full course in
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one minute and 58 seconds during that lap we saw him hit speeds as high as 166 miles an hour really fun video to watch
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of course this is not the same course as what car and driver uses for the lightning lap they use that full Grand
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course which is like foursome miles okay this is a 3.3 Mile Stretch we had another video we watched that guy wasn't
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quite as fast was running about two minutes and three seconds to miss in four seconds but again a lot of traffic that he was having these cars are really
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fast it's nice to see him being used as the track weapon they were designed for this is really something you should go find and check it out that's really cool
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and speaking of racing against other cars the C8 Corvette and some of the other domestics are going to be in a
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battle against Imports on the track aren't they well I don't know about you Steve but I really like watching Corvette's kicking butt at the track
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especially when they win you know so why the other one was that vir on the road course here we got Corvettes at a drag
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strip do it a quarter mile at a time I was watching this video and it occurred to me wait a second we're going up against it's domestics versus Imports
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which kind of was cool we saw a C8 Corvette Stingray they went up against the new Supra it won up against the new
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BMW and beat the BMW and then there was a C7 Corvette that raced the Nissan GTR of course they won because of the
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all-wheel drive but it's just really fun stuff that video comes from the wheels Channel on YouTube and you can search it
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out again on Corvette blogger when we talked about the Corvette it's always fun when we can see that quarter mile
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domination happening the rear-wheel drive of the car combined with that engine sitting over those rear wheels
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has really changed the Outlook of Corvettes when they do go to the track so it's fun to watch and good to see
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them beating up on the competition absolutely right our final story Keith is kind of a sad one we're gonna miss
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this guy Bob bubnas over at the National Corvette Museum is going to be leaving yeah good friend Bob butness he was the
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curator of Collections and the exhibits manager at the end CM he's been there for a long time I believe about 15 years
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or so he's actually leaving his position after the anniversary event in September to become the executive director of the
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aviation Heritage Park in Bowling Green I Googled it and it's basically an aviation museum they have a building
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that's not huge building certainly not big enough to host a lot of aircraft in it so what they do is they have this
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building and I tell you Steve I looked at it looks like the Justice League from back in the day wow but they've got this building there and then there's a big
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circle out front there's like eight aircraft parked out there I saw like a blue angels maybe there was like a
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former looked like Marine one that transports the presidents from the White House to Andrews Air Force Base and stuff that was parked out there a couple
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other fires some really cool stuff out there he calls it his dream to do that especially as his career is winding down
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to be in charge the executive director of that he's still getting in touch with the Corvette Museum and they're going to do some cross promotions and things like
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that when I was on their website they had a whole thing about astronauts so right away I'm like aha but again Bob's
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been with the NCM forever he was a huge help when I was putting together my book on Corbett special editions he either
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had photos that we needed or he knew who had them and so he's just a big help there of course we wish Bob the best of
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luck looking forward to checking out the aviation Heritage Park again which has these military aircrafts parked outside in Bowling Green so we'll be checking
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that out absolutely well Bob we're going to miss you all the best of luck in your new position it sounds very very cool
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well Keith thanks for being back on Corvette today I will see you later on this week at Corvettes at Carlisle yeah
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and you've got a couple seminars you're doing at Carlisle correct absolutely right buddy I'm going to be doing a seminar on Friday and Saturday afternoon
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at one o'clock in the afternoon on both days on Corvette today I've actually got some new updated stuff for you so if
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you're out there please come on by either Friday at 1 or Saturday at 1 and see the seminar that I do on Corvette
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today yeah we'll try to make that happen as well it's always a good time it's fun talking to people that listen to the show you built this passionate listener
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base obviously they're hungry for news like we all are and we're glad to contribute every two weeks so we appreciate that thanks for listening to
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Corvette today and please be sure to tell your family friends and other core of that enthusiasts about the Corvette Today podcast and thanks to our sponsors
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thanks again for listening to Corvette today [Music]