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CORVETTE TODAY #175 - Corvette News & Headlines, Late August 2023
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Jul 11, 2025
This week is the week of Corvettes at Carlisle and your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett, along with Keith Cornett from CorvetteBlogger.com (http://corvetteblogger.com/) will both be attending! But, before they both leave for Pennsylvania, Steve and Keith bring you the latest news & headlines in the world of Corvette. Here is a preview of a few of the topics you'll learn about this week... 1. 2024 E-Ray production is scheduled to begin on October 23rd 2. The new C8 GT3.R was shown at Road America 3. The National Corvette Museum delivers 70th Anniversary Coupe VIN 001 4. A 2023 C8 Z06 sets the fastest lap time at Virginia International Raceway
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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
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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
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current podcast dedicated to Corvette. I'm your host, Steve Garrett. I appreciate you tuning in. Corvette Today
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is brought to you by Wheelcraft. Want to dress up your Corvette with bright chrome or black chrome wheels? Learn
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about their advanced PVD chrome finishing. They can refinish your wheels or offer a wheel exchange for most
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Corvette Forum.com. Welcoming Corvette enthusiasts from around the world. It's time to bring you the latest Corvette
2:47
news and headlines with my pal Keith Cornet from corvette blogger.com. Keith is here every other week. We keep you
2:54
current and uptodate on what's happening with America's sports car. Keith, welcome back to the show. You and I have
2:59
a busy week this week. We'll be at Corvettes of Carile. Yeah, I've already started packing and of course we've got all the events
3:05
coming up there and then two weeks from now we're going to be at the National Corvette Museum. This is where we really get down to the wire on some of these
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final events for the summer. So, we're very excited. Of course, Corvettes at Carile, one of the best shows to ever attend. Glad to see you there. That's
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the great part about these shows we get to see all of our old friends in person again. Really looking forward to it. It's a great big car show and it's great
3:23
to get everybody together. That's for sure. All right, buddy. Let's start off like we usually do with Corvette news and headlines and an update on Corvette
3:30
production from the Bowling Green assembly plant. I think I've got some pretty big news here. You know, our numbers always lag a
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day or two, but based on where we were following last Wednesday's production count, we believe the 2023 Corvette model has just surpassed 50,000
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Corvettes produced for the model year. Wow. 50,000, Steve? I mean, that's an amazing number. We're currently showing
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around 44,419 Stingrays and another 5375
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or so Z06s for a total of 49775. We've got 70th anniversary models. We're
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at 4,140 Stingrays and 812 Z06s for a total of 4952. So, I really think that
4:05
we're going to see us do over 5,000 70th anniversaries for the year. This is closing week. First of all, I can't even
4:11
believe that we're at that 50,000 mark. We still got a couple weeks to go in production. So, we're chasing records.
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We're I think right now we're at number three all time on the list. Just got a few more weeks to go and see if we can
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hit that number two mark or even the number one mark. That number one mark, I believe, is the 79 Corvette. It's like
4:27
53,800 or so. Okay, I don't have the number off the top of my head, but man oh man, I could not
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believe that we've surpassed 50,000 for the year. We always think of all the stuff that's been going on, you know, and we're still kind of snake bit with
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the supply chain and issues lingering from COVID and all the other stuff that's going on in the world. And yet
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every day these guys are just pumping out car after car after car. So, great news there. Really excited about it. I'm
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going to double check on Monday just to see where we were following Friday, but I'm pretty sure we've surpassed 50,000
4:56
for the model year. That's fantastic news. We're kind of like Avis. We try harder. Yeah. Here we go. Yes, we do. And buddy,
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speaking of production, we understand that the 2024 -ray ordering has been delayed, hasn't it?
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Well, it seems like it. You know, a lot of times we don't know timetable. So to say that something's delayed when you don't know the timetable, Chevy likes to
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do that, you know, but back in July, they sent out a memo to dealers stating that the first orders would start on
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August 17th. They set the date, but then last week when it was time for dealers to get their first allocation numbers,
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the dealers only got another batch of Stingray and Z06 numbers instead. There's some speculation going on about
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that. You know, what's going on here? And a lot of the dealers we speaking with, they're really thinking this could be related to the ongoing negotiations
5:39
between the UAW and the big three automakers. The contract is up, I believe, on September 15th. And the
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thinking from some of the dealers we spoke with is that this could be kind of like a negotiation tactic. You know, you're removing the launch of a new
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Corvette in the middle of a strike. And that might help these negotiations that are taking place. A lot of people are
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saying strike. And the National UAW is actually urging its local union shop to vote for strike authorization, which
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means that they vote to strike, but they're not striking yet. Basically, they're saying they're all on board. This is all expected, but there's a lot
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happening behind the scenes. That kind of leads us to our next point. Yes, you're right. Our next point is
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that the -ray production is supposed to begin on October 23rd. Yeah, sorry to throw that out there like
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that, Steve. Chevy again set this date. They sent out a memo to dealers on August 10th. What we kind of really
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looked at this is, you know, this start up date is 6 weeks past the other 2024 models which are supposed to start down
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the line on Monday, September 11th. By looking at the date and the calendar and stuff by delaying the start of regular production for the -ay again, it's given
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Chevy some time for these labor issues to work themselves out and not be in the middle of a new Corvette launch. The
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previous strike started in late 2019. It lasted 40 days. Hopefully, you know, we'll be able to get all this all
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resolved before that first dra starts down the production line. We just want our cars. We want the best car possible.
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We want everything to be good between management and the workers. And that just results in a better car for us.
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Again, I think that the staggered startup with the -ay, I really think they're starting to look at these negotiations with the UAW and saying,
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"Let's kind of remove the from that. We're already doing Stingray and Z06. We have to do Stingray and Z06. Let's
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remove that first hybrid from the mix. Let everything kind of settle down and then we'll launch it." I'm hoping that's
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really what happens. And of course, if we go to strike during that, it'll be resolved after the strike ends anyway. No harm, no foul there. There's a lot of
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little speculations 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.
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Obviously, they made a whole bunch of CTFs and they've been down the line. They've got the process in place. They're just ready to start making that
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happen, 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 smooth.
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I know it's already bumpy, but gosh, let's get this thing rolling, not have any interruptions whatsoever. Well, in
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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 National
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Corvette Museum had a real milestone. They delivered VIN number one of the 2023 70th anniversary Corvette coupe.
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That was cool. You know, it was real cool that they used the 70th anniversary, but the coupe VIN 001 to give that to the National
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Corvette Museum as a raffle car. A great way to help that museum bring in money. They've been doing these raffles
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forever. It's a major fundraiser for them. A guy named Cliff Payne out of Jacksonville, Florida. He was there at
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the NCM during the National Council Corvette Club's annual convention back in June. You know, his wife bought a
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ticket. She said, "You better go buy a ticket." He bought a ticket and he won. Wow. So, pretty cool there. He says he's
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always been into black Corvettes and so he should be right at home in 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 did look. There's a couple raffles going on during the anniversary
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celebration. They're both stingrays, but one of them's always unlimited at $20, which I'm always in for. You know, here's $20. Give me a ticket.
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Sure. Just happy to help and support. Do Do you ever do the raffles at the museum? I have not done any of the museum
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raffles at all. I'd like to win a Z06 or an Ray, though. They do have those. I think they've had a Z06 once or twice as a raffle car.
9:09
They are, but production's so tight on those, you know, they obviously want to give those to customers. Hopefully we'll see a little bit more of that, but I think
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there probably will end up being a special rank at some point offered by the museum there. Pretty cool stuff. And again, you know, real people do win
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these cars. That's really cool. And also, the Corvette team is going to be at Corvettes of Carile this week. I'm looking forward to seeing everybody on
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the team. I know. It's always great. This is the 41st annual Corvettes at Carile. Both Steve and I are going to be there. We'll
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be there with all our friends, including Corvette team members like Deon Blue, the Corvette program manager, Tad Sher,
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Corvette executive chief engineer, Josh Holder, Corvette vehicle chief engineer, and our good buddy Haron Charles,
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Corvette marketing manager, is going to be there. The Corvette engineers, they always have their own tent. They're on manufacturers row. They're hosting like
9:49
daily tech talk. So, you can go look at the calendar that day and they'll have like three or four different seminars throughout the day. Our understanding is
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that there's going to be at least four-rays there under the tent, both coups and convertibles. There's also going to be the -ray rolling chassis,
10:02
the cutaway chassis, so you can see where the batteries are stored, where the front electric drive unit is. That's
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going to be there. And then I'm also told that there's going to be a 2024 Stingray on display, which we're guessing that this is always the
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Corvette accessories car they show every year. So, you can expect to see hopefully that new Stingray two pedestal
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spoiler. We want to check out the chrome wheels, like the 15-spoke chrome wheels that just came out. So, really expecting
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a lot of things. And then of course the three new exterior colors should be available to view on the 2024 Corvettes as well. Always good stuff happening
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there. They do the big seminar talks in front of the stage on both Friday and Saturday. You don't want to miss those.
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Good stuff happening there. Just very excited to be back at Carile and we will see everybody there. Well, Keith, let's take our first break. When
10:43
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And now back to Corvette Today with your host and my husband, Steve Garrett.
14:14
Hey, thanks for listening and watching Corvette Today, the show that talks about everything Corvette, brought to
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833639-4231. I'm your host Steve Garrett. With me is
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Keith Cornet from corvette blogger.com. We keep you current and uptodate on what's happening in the world of Corvette every other week. In segment
14:50
number two, we always cover Corvette racing and Corvette rumors. First in racing, Keith, how did we do at Road
14:55
America? Well, we finished third in class at the IMS race at Road America. Again, it was sort of another frustrating outcome.
15:02
Number three Corvette C8R, Antonio Garcia was leading with 51 minutes to go and we were poised to take it to the
15:08
checkered flag, but race officials said that the team did not meet the minimum refueling time as they short filled the
15:14
tank in that last stop. So, the team tried to show evidence that no, we did everything okay, but they were overruled
15:19
and Garcia was forced to come in through a drive-through penalty. That knocked us down to third. We finished third in the
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race, but even worse is the fact that the Lexus that's leading in the championship standings, they ended up finishing ahead of us. They finished
15:30
second. So, they got those additional second place points. We got less with third place points. And so, now we're even further back in the standings than
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we were. And we only got three races to go. This whole thing about short filling the tank, they put out a chart on how
15:42
they did that. There's a minimum refueling time for the full tank, but because they short filled it, they have to do an estimate. Basically, what
15:49
happens is at the end of the flow, the fuel flow is faster at the end than it is at the beginning. So, they ended up
15:55
finishing quicker than they would have had they done the full tank and met the minimum. I guess this is all around BOP,
16:00
balance of performance, and a bunch of other things that are factors in place. It was very confusing, and it did
16:06
require the team to kind of come out, hit the whiteboard, and kind of explained what happened there. We've had a couple of these races this year that
16:11
have ended frustrating like this at the end and had everything gone perfectly. And of course, you know, Doug Feehan, he says 25% good team, 25% fast car, and
16:19
then 50% luck. 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 GT
16:30
Challenge at VIR and then the number 33 Corvette C8 in the WEC. They race again
16:35
at September 2nd and then they have two races in the season. So, we're getting there towards the end and of course getting some additional news coming up
16:42
here about that season. That sounds good. The good thing about Road America, they had a GT3R out there
16:47
on display. Yeah, you know, I don't know if they've shown this car to the public before other than the unveiling at Daytona this
16:53
year, but Pratt Miller Motorsports showed off that new Z06 GT3R race car outside the Corvette Corral at Road
16:58
America. People were going gaga over it. A bunch of photos hit social media. We were able to share a bunch of those
17:03
photos that came out. I mean, it's a great looking car with that side intake trim that matches that of the Z06.
17:08
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 in IMSA. Two are going to the Pratt Miller Motorsports for the GTD Pro Class. We got two going to the Canadian
17:22
team, AWA, for racing in the GTD class or the amateur class. And then finally,
17:27
we got two scheduled for the FIA World Endurance Championship with an English team called TF Sport. They're dropping the Aston Martins this year and going to
17:35
Corvette next year. These teams are expected to get their cars sometime in November and of course we'll see them first on the track at the Rolex 24
17:41
Daytona in January. And we also had some big news about Corvette racing for next year. Keith Alex Sims and Nikki Katsburg are going
17:48
to join the IMSA Corvette lineup for next year. And Jordan Taylor is leaving Corvette racing. Wow.
17:54
Yeah. Kind of big news and kind of surprising. Prep Builder Motorsports announced last week that Alexander Sims and Nikki Katsburg will be joining the
18:00
team, the IMSA team to race that second Corvette Z06 GT3R in the GTD Pro class.
18:05
And we assume it's the number four Corvette. However, I was reading through it as we were preparing for this. First of all, it's great to have two cars to
18:11
root for again, especially in the longer races where anything can happen. You know, we're used to that. You know, if one car gets in trouble, it's always all
18:17
hands on deck for the other car. Having just a single car has always led to a little bit more anxiety amongst the
18:23
Corvette racing fans. But the number three Corvette will feature Anton Garcia and Tommy Milner. But the press release
18:28
did say that these pairings will be confirmed at a later date. So we could see Garcia teamed up with Catsburg or
18:34
Sims as opposed to Milner. So we're just waiting and seeing how that works out. Usually they do a lot of things based on
18:39
how quick people are. Then there's this person how their height, you know, are they the same with the seat requirements, things like that, things
18:45
that make it easier for doing driver changes and such. Obviously, we're very sad to learn Jordan Taylor will be leaving Corvette Racing. it was his
18:52
decision. He wanted to return to prototype class to contend for those overall wins. And of course, you know, when your dad's running a racing team,
18:58
it makes it really easy to kind of go back to that. So, he's returning back to Wayne Taylor racing, piloting the Acura
19:04
ARX06 GTP entry with co-driver Lewis Delatraz. I think that's how he says his
19:09
name. We of course wish Jordan the best of luck. Great having him on the team. A lot of fun. Love the social stuff away
19:15
from Corvette was a lot of fun. You know, we're still going to be following that, but got some really competent people. Both Alexander Sims is returning
19:21
to Corvette racing. Of course, Nikki Casberg just won the championship in the FIAWC with the number 33 car over there
19:27
this year. So, these guys are very fast. We're really excited to have him back in the IMSA team.
19:32
Definitely. And also, if you're going to Corvettes and Carlile, if you like racing, we're going to be celebrating
19:38
100 years of Lama at Corvettes of Carile. This is fortuitous for the fact that they kind of came up with this last year
19:44
and then we go out win lemon this year. Fortunately, we won't have that lemons winning C8 there to show, but we've got
19:49
some really cool stuff lined up for the Chips Choice exhibit. You know, Chips Choice is named after the late Chip Miller, who co-founded Corvettes of
19:55
Carlile with his friend Bill Miller. They put this special collection together called the best of the best. And each year, you know, there's always
20:01
a different theme. And now these vehicles are hand selected by Chip's son, Lance Miller. This year's collection of Corvette racers will be on
20:08
display at Corvettes of Carlile in building T. So look for building T and that's where you'll find the Chip's Choice. They're going to have two
20:14
Cunningham cars from the 1960 Lemons. They're bringing together three Callaway racers and it actually be the first time
20:21
that all three of these Callaway racers will be shown at an event together. Of course, we're realizing the loss of
20:26
Reeves Callaway and there's going to be some celebrations and some thoughts about him. Great to see those cars there. There's going to be the 1968 L88
20:33
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 raced at the 1962 Lemons going to
20:44
be there. A couple of other significant Corvettes that were prepped for Lemons but never quite made it. They include a
20:49
1968 L88, the blue DX racer. And then of course one of my favorite Corvettes of all time, the 1963 Golf 1 Z06 that was
20:56
driven by the Flying Dennis, Dr. Dick Thompson. That car should have been over there. Never made it over there. End 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 at Le.
21:07
Yeah, that's really cool. In the rumors category, Keith, it looks like Ford might also come out with a mid-enine
21:13
Mustang, and they're benchmarking it against the C8, Z06, and Stingray. Well, that's the rumor. The rumor came
21:20
from Ford Authority. You know, there's GM Authority, then they have a sister site called Ford Authority, who suggested that a mid-enine Mustang built
21:26
by Multimatic, which also produced their Ford GTs, would be coming out. There's not a lot of news about this yet, but
21:32
what we're actually seeing was there was a leak last Wednesday night, and it actually showed a really wild front
21:37
engine widebody car that people are calling the Mustang GTD. This is supposedly going to be the ultimate
21:43
Mustang for the streets. We're not going to really see any real meaningful production numbers out of the car. I
21:49
think they were scheduled to build a thousand GTs over four or five years, you know. So, I mean, it was really slow
21:54
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. But if they do the same thing with this Ford GTD Mustang, probably going to be a niche car.
22:05
Yeah. Interesting. Well, we'll wait and see what happens with that. If they're benchmarking it against the Stingray and
22:10
the Z06, it could be really cool. And I saw pictures of a Ford GT with a Mustang
22:15
nose on it. That was an interesting rendering, that's for sure. Yeah, that was something we captured from Instagram just to kind of show, you
22:22
know, what some people are thinking it might look like. Again, still waiting on the official details to roll out there,
22:27
which we might end up talking about. Depends. But it's just another front engine Mustang. But if it would actually been a mid-enine Mustang, that'd be kind
22:33
of cool. But again, you got to kind of think about the car, their roots. You know, obviously the Corvette's always been a sports car. The Mustang's always
22:39
been a muscle car, pony car. You got the four seats versus the two seats. I love the Mustangs. Had one in high school.
22:46
Was my second car, a Fox Buddy in 1979. We're all for Corvettes. We think it's a superior car with a superior engineering
22:52
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on Corvettes, Corvette Today with your host, Steve Garrett. Hey, thanks for checking out Corvette
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Today on podcast and YouTube. It's the only current podcast dedicated to Corvette. Corvette Today is brought to
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833-639-4231. I'm your host Steve Garrett. With me is
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Keith Cornet from corvette blogger.com. Don't forget if you want a deeper dive into any of the stories that Keith and I
26:13
cover on this show, you can always go to corvette blogger.com. In our final segment, we always cover the lighter
26:20
side of Corvette. This was an interesting story, Keith, that I picked up and I wanted you to talk about Robert Downey Jr. is selling his decarbonized
26:27
cars and one of them is the C2 Corvette. Yeah. So, he's had the show on HBO or
26:32
Max as it's called now. It's called the Robert Downey Jr. Dream Car. Have you seen any of it? No, I don't have Cinemax or HBO.
26:39
Okay. Well, I made it through the first four episodes or so. It's a pretty interesting show. I know there's a Corvette coming up. I know we're getting
26:46
closer to that. On the flip side, there's a lot of lecturing going on about climate change in these. So, this
26:51
show is not for everybody, I guess, but I'm watching it cuz I like Iron Man and uh he's got some cool cars, so I want to
26:57
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 he's got these six cars. He decarbonized
27:03
them. So, they put in EV power plants. I know one of them was a biodiesel conversion they did on a Mercedes. What
27:09
they've done is now that they got all six of them done, he's gonna be giving them away one at a time beginning next February and then running one per month
27:15
through July. And it's a raffle actually. And this raffle, the money is going to go to his foundation, which I'm sure is going to generate some more
27:21
lecturing on climate change. But it's Iron Man, so I'll put up with it. Yeah. But it's actually a pretty good show.
27:27
Looking forward to seeing the Corvette. He's going to do, I guess, a couple races with it against some other cars, so it should be interesting to see how
27:33
it does. Well, let me know how it goes. I'd like to see what happens with that C2 Corvette. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Also, Keith, the
27:39
company that transports Corvettes around the country, Jack Cooper Transport has acquired a rival company, and that's 240
27:46
extra transports. Yeah, you know, this was an interesting story. I think our friend John over at the Midian Corvette Farm, he kind of
27:51
mentioned it to me kind of in the side. Hey, did you hear about this? And I went, "No, that's kind of interesting. Let me dig into that." And we found out
27:57
that yeah, they're the shipping company that brings new Corvettes from the assembly plant to dealers and they recently purchased a company called More
28:03
Transport out of Tulsa. They had a fleet of 240 auto carriers. So right away, you
28:09
know, you're adding a significant amount of capacity to haul cars from the plants to the dealers. Now, it's not just
28:15
Corvettes they do. They do a lot of Chevrolets and other GM vehicles as well. Shipping these completed cars has
28:20
become a real issue for the big three auto companies. Currently, there's a shortage of rail cars. We find out that
28:25
GM's got like thousands of trucks piling up outside of Fort Wayne and Auburn, Indiana just because they can't ship
28:31
them fast enough. There was some news earlier this year that GM was buying 400 of their own car carriers so that they
28:36
could basically do it themselves. So, with this merger acquisition, anything that can increase capacity is going to
28:42
help. We've talked to dealers before, they sometimes will wait two, three, or even four weeks for a shipment to arrive
28:47
from the plant, you know, and that's just dead time for them when it could be, you know, they're delivering the car and moving on to somebody else. And of
28:53
course, if you've been behind the plant, you know, you've seen all that sea of white transport covers. All these cars are sitting there waiting to be shipped
28:59
as well. I think this is a really good move. Of course, Jack Cooper went through bankruptcy, I believe, in 2019. They've come out of it since then even
29:05
stronger. So, this move can only be good for Corvette owners. And hopefully, like I said, the logistics will even
29:11
themselves out and we'll be able to get cars from the assembly plant to dealers even faster. That'd be really cool. I'd love that.
29:17
Also, we saw a 2023 Z06 set the record fastest time at Virginia International
29:22
Raceway, didn't we? Well, I say the old Homer Simpson meme, fastest time so far. But actually, the
29:27
real story there, it's not the fastest time ever. It's the fastest time for the C8 Z06. Oh,
29:33
a YouTuber named Steel Ankles, we've shared his stuff before, and he's friends with a guy named Marco, who's
29:38
got a C806, he shared that PDR footage, and basically Marco ran the 3.3 mile
29:44
full course in 1 minute and 58 seconds. During that lap, we saw him hit speeds as high as 166 mph.
29:51
Really fun video to watch. Of course, this is not the same course as what Car and Driver uses for the Lightning Lap.
29:56
They use that full grand course, which is like four some miles. Okay, this is a 3.3 m stretch. We had another
30:02
video we watched. That guy wasn't quite as fast. Was running about 2 minutes and 3 seconds, 2 minutes and 4 seconds, but
30:08
again, a lot of traffic that he was having. These cars are really fast. It's nice to see him being used as the track weapon they were designed for. This is
30:15
really something you should go find and check it out. That's really cool. And speaking of racing against other cars, the C8
30:20
Corvette and some of the other domestics are going to be in a battle against imports on the track, aren't they? Well,
30:25
I don't know about you, Steve, but I really like watching Corvettes kicking butt at the track, especially when they win, you know. So, while the other one
30:31
was at VI on the road course, here we got Corvettes at a drag strip doing a quarter mile at a time. I was watching
30:38
this video and then it occurred to me, wait a second, we're going up against it's domestics versus imports, which kind of was cool. We saw a C8 Corvette
30:44
Stingray. They went up against a new Supra. It won. Went up against the new BMW, beat the BMW. And then there was a
30:50
C7 Corvette that raced a Nissan GTR. Of course, they won because of the all-wheel drive, but just really fun
30:56
stuff. That video comes from the wheels channel on YouTube, and you can search it out again on Corvette Blogger. When
31:01
we talk about the Corvette, it's always fun when we can see that quarter mile domination happening. The rear wheel
31:07
drive of the car combined with that engine sitting over those rear wheels has really changed the outlook of
31:12
Corvettes when they do go to the track. So, it's fun to watch and good to see them beaten up on the competition. Absolutely. Right. Our final story,
31:19
Keith, is kind of a sad one. We're gonna miss this guy. Bob Bubnes over at the National Corvette Museum is going to be
31:25
leaving. Yeah, good friend Bob Budniss. He was the curator of collections and exhibits manager at the NCM. He's been there for
31:31
a long time. I believe about 15 years or so. He's actually be leaving his position after the anniversary event in
31:36
September to become the executive director of the aviation heritage park in Bowling Green. I Googled it and it's
31:43
basically an aviation museum. They have a building. It's not huge building.
31:48
certainly not big enough to host a lot of aircraft in it. So, what they do is they have this building. I tell you, Steve, I looked at it looks like the
31:54
Justice League from back in the day. Wow. But they've got this building there and then there's a big circle out front. There's like eight aircraft parked out
32:00
there. I saw like a Blue Angels maybe. There was like a former looked like Marine One that transports the
32:06
presidents from the White House to Andrews Air Force Base and stuff that was parked out there. A couple other fighters. Some really cool stuff out
32:12
there. He calls it his dream to do that, especially as his career is winding down to be in charge, the executive director
32:17
of that. He's still getting in touch with the Corvette Museum and they're going to do some cross promotions and things like that. When I was on their
32:23
website, they had a whole thing about astronauts. So, right away, I'm like, "Aha." But again, Bob's been with the NCM forever. He was a huge help when I
32:30
was putting together my book on Corvette special editions. He either had photos that we needed or he knew who had them.
32:36
And so, he's just a big help there. Of course, we wish Bob the best of luck. Looking forward to checking out the Aviation Heritage Park again, which has
32:42
these military aircrafts parked outside in Bowling Green. So, we'll be checking that out. Absolutely. Well, Bob, we're going to
32:48
miss you. All the best of luck in your new position. It sounds very, very cool. Well, Keith, thanks for being back on
32:53
Corvette today. I will see you later on this week at Corvettes at Carile. Yeah. And you've got a couple seminars you're doing at Carile, correct?
32:59
Absolutely. Right, buddy. I'm going to be doing a seminar on Friday and Saturday afternoon at 1:00 in the
33:04
afternoon on both days on Corvette today. I've actually got some new updated stuff for you. So, if you're out
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there, please come on by either Friday at 1 or Saturday at 1 and see the seminar that I do on Corvette today.
33:16
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
33:22
base. Obviously, they're hungry for news like we all are and we're glad to contribute every two weeks. So, we appreciate that.
33:27
Thanks for listening to Corvette Today, and please be sure to tell your family, friends, and other Corvette enthusiasts about the Corvette Today podcast. And
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thanks to our sponsors, Wheelcraft. Want to dress up your Corvette with bright chrome or black chrome wheels? Visit
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You've been listening to Corvette Today with Steve Garrett. If you'd like to contact Steve with any thoughts on the
34:22
podcast or ideas for guests on Corvette Today, you can email him at stevegared
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Garrett has two Rs and two T's. Or connect with Steve on social media on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram using @
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stevegaredj. Thanks again for listening to Corvette today.