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CORVETTE TODAY #193 - Corvette News & Headlines, Late December 2023
Happy holidays from CORVETTE TODAY!!! I hope your holiday season is going well.
Even though Christmas falls on the same day that each weekly CORVETTE TODAY show launches, we will still provide you with a Christmas Edition of our popular News & Headlines show!
Keith Cornett from CorvetteBlogger joins your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett, to discuss these topics below and more...
1. The Drive names the E-Ray as the best performance car for 2024
2. E-Ray production has begun!
3. The National Corvette Museum announces its 2024 schedule
4. The National Corvette Museum also names a new R8C Delivery Manager
5. Corvette wins the Canada Black Book 2023 Best Retained Value award
Again, happy holidays from CORVETTE TODAY! It's pretty cool that Christmas and CORVETTE TODAY arrive on the same day this year.
Listen to the podcast, watch the YouTube video, join the Facebook group, sign up for weekly email notifications, follow the show on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, X (Twitter) and Threads. Plus shop in the CORVETTE TODAY Merchandise Store at:
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[Music] Welcome to Corvette Today, the show that
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talks about everything Corvette with your host Steve Garrett, lifetime member of the National Corvette Museum,
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president of the Corvette Club of Kansas City, Missouri, and radio disc jockey at the number one radio station in Kansas
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City for over 45 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? Visit
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wheelcraft.com and learn about their advanced PVD chrome finishing. They can refinish your wheels or offer a wheel
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$100 discount. And a shout out to Canadian Corvette Forum and Corvette Forum, welcoming Corvette enthusiasts
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from around the world. It's time to bring you the latest Corvette news and headlines with my pal Keith Cornet from
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corvette blogger.com. Keith and I get together every other week and we keep you current and uptodate on what's
3:26
happening with America's sports car. Keith, merry Christmas, buddy. How are you doing? Great today, Steve. Merry
3:32
Christmas to you as well and your family. I am just excited. We had a great year. There's so much promise and
3:37
opportunity coming next year. So, there's a lot of great things happening. So, I'm very optimistic about the outlook for Corvette.
3:43
Me, too. And it's a unique week because the show releases on Christmas Day. I mean, Christmas Day comes on the day of
3:48
the show, but it's also the week between Christmas and New Year's, too. So, it's a very unique year as far as the
3:54
holidays go. Yes. It's a fun time period. You know, you're surrounded by family and friends. Other things aren't quite as important
4:00
as they are during the normal course of the year. So he kind of gives you a chance to reflect and do some things and we hoping for some big things to happen
4:06
in 2024 for us personally with Corvettes as well. So stay tuned for that. Absolutely. The good thing is you still
4:12
got a Corvette Today show coming out on Monday even though it's Christmas Day.
4:17
That's your Christmas present from Keith and Steve. There you go. That's exactly right. Well, buddy, let's start off the show
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like we always do. Let's get an update on production from the Bowling Green assembly plant. Absolutely. So we're headed into the
4:28
home stretch for 2023. Corvette production remains very strong. Looking at the VIN counts, we have 8,177
4:34
stingrays built. And we have another 2736 Z06s for a total of 10,913.
4:41
You know, if you take those two numbers, we're operating at roughly 75% stingrays and 25% Z06s. Again, these counts are
4:49
just coming out very strong each day. We're seeing 185, 195 per day most days.
4:55
Interruptions are still happening. We saw back on December 15th just 109. That was a Friday, so just 109 were
5:01
completed. But then on the flip side, looking at December's production, December 5th, they did 214, which
5:07
included 69 Z06s. So when they have everything, they do have the ability to pump them out. And then, of course,
5:13
there was three E-Rays that were built last week as well. So, looks like it's all starting to come together and there there's some good news coming up that
5:19
we'll talk about. Well, it's really cool because we were kind of stunned that we all of a sudden got production ramped up and going,
5:25
weren't we? Yeah, we got the news late on Monday, December 11th, that two were already on the assembly line and then by
5:31
that Wednesday, the daily tracker report from Robert Keel confirmed that there were a total of three-rays completed for
5:36
the week. Now, since those first three- rays were completed, we haven't seen any more go down the line. That kind of leads into our assumption that Chevy
5:43
wanted to say that production started in 2023, which is what it was planned for. Really start to see regular production
5:50
ramping up probably the week of January 8th. I don't know what's it really in store. I think there was some TPWS for
5:56
that week of 1. Most of the stuff we're starting to see is the week of 18, January 8th. Okay. And a couple people
6:02
have been posting that their TPWs have changed from 3000 status to 3,300, which means scheduled for production. So
6:08
that's the last notice they get before their car gets produced. It looks like that's really starting to happen. Also
6:13
exciting is that we got a heads up on all this from the Detroit News and they said that they had a employee memo that
6:19
went out to everybody working at the plant saying that when the -ray start down the line there's going to be filming happening in the plant. So just
6:25
know that that's going on. All that stuff should be coming up here shortly. That's pretty exciting. And of course remember that that first was purchased
6:32
by Rick Hendrick at Bear Jackson Palm Beach in April for 1.15 million. Those funds went to charity. He has a thing
6:37
for black Corvettes. We saw a black Z06 come off the line first. That was his. Most likely we're going to see a black
6:43
U-ray coming off the line. Chevy will share those photos sooner rather than later. I'd love to see some video. We'll put
6:48
some of that video on the YouTube version of Corvette today. That'll be fun. Of course, we got the good news about the -ray. Then we got the
6:55
constraints for December for Stingray and Z06. Yeah. So, only one order cycle in December for Corvettes. And if you
7:01
recall, there were no allocations, just dealers getting numbers for Stingray and Z06. And actually, the Stingray numbers
7:06
were huge. So, the constraints the dealers received on December 14th were just for those two models. But there's
7:12
really good news, especially if you're a Z06 buyer wanting Z07. But first, with Stingray orders, we're seeing a split
7:17
again. The nonZ51 versus Z-51. They've got numbers next to them. Dealers are being told you can order number of nons
7:24
versus the Z-51 performance packages. So, that's still kind of happening, but the numbers are healthy enough that I
7:29
don't see people really being too limited in that. We also have gloss black wheels and the FA5 interior level
7:35
one carbon fiber package which are available but with limitations. Some of the stuff that's not available is like
7:40
that tech bronze package. The wheels, the stripes, things like that. Okay, maybe they're just starting that up. That might be the case there. But the
7:47
real big news for Z06 is we're not seeing any constraints on the CFV and the CFZ crown effects or the visible
7:53
carbon fiber arrow for Z07. Only the painted carbon fiber arrow is constrained, which is backwards in my
7:58
book, Steve. You get a blemish on visible carbon fiber. You paint it carbon flash and you're set, right?
8:03
Yeah. But it's the opposite. We have all these visible carbon fiber arrow packages, but we don't have the painted
8:09
carbon flash. The good news for a dealer, let's say dealer get five Z06 allocations last month for December.
8:15
They could actually order five Z07s as long as the buyers were selecting the visible carbon fiber arrow and the
8:20
ground effects. That's really good news. We've not seen that for a little while here. We hope that that stands. Our next
8:26
order cycle for Corvettes happens later in January towards the end of the month. So, we're actually hoping to see even more improvements by then.
8:32
It seems like Corvette and Chevrolet have kind of solved the problem of the visible carbon fiber. And Keith, you
8:37
know me, there's never enough carbon fiber to go around. Yeah, but it's, you know, it's been cyclical where it seems like they fixed
8:44
it and all of a sudden we get hit again with major constraints and stuff. I don't know if that's an interesting thing that's happening on the composite
8:50
side of the business or if it's just all of a sudden the demand goes way up high and then they shoot through their
8:55
supplies and then we're stuck to waiting for the trucks to come again. Exactly. Hopefully we are seeing the flip side
9:01
that just more is available. The other talk too is that once the race come down, where is that production going to
9:07
come from? Is it going to come from the Stingrays or is it going to come from the Z06s? I think it's going to come from a little bit of both. But it helps
9:13
the Z06s by constraining the numbers of cars that are built anyways. For Z06 owners, they love it because not as many
9:19
cars out there. Their cars retain their values higher longer. Sure. And then of course for owners, they're
9:24
not buying that heavy aero package. None of that stuff's really available for the mostly like the interior carbon
9:30
packages. You do have the carbon fiber wheels and some of the other things. For the most part, I think it's going to slot in rather nicely to with the
9:37
Stingray and the Z06 production based on the numbers we've seen the last few weeks. We're really excited to see how that's going to happen. And just to say
9:43
this one more time, they are expecting a slow ramp up with -ay production, but it could be a few months before we get any
9:49
real semblance of what those real numbers are going to be. That's true. Speaking of -ay, Keith, the drive has named the -ray the best
9:56
performance car for 2024. Yeah, we're hoping that this is again the start of a bunch of awards and people testing these
10:02
cars and seeing how good it is. They beat out the Porsche 911 DA car, which is that off-road Porsche.
10:08
Oh, it beat the Ford Mustang Darkhorse, the Acura Integra Type S, and the McLaren Artura, which is a new car from McLaren
10:15
as well. Here's what they said about it. I really do enjoy what they said about it. They said the -ray is easily the
10:20
cheapest hybrid supercar out there, and it's quicker than many of them, too. For God's sake, it's as quick as his 60 m
10:26
per hour as the McLaren P1, but for less than onetenth of the price. And then they also said this, keep in mind that
10:32
for the 106 595 that the E-Ray starts at, you can't even get a base Porsche 911 for that amount.
10:38
That's right. Congratulations again to the -ay. We're hoping that this will be many awards for Chevy's first performance hybrid sports
10:44
car. Like to see more. Yeah, always. We'll take as many awards as possible. Thank you very much.
10:49
Right. Also, Keith, Chevrolet is officially out of the attainable performance car game. What the heck does
10:55
that mean? First of all, this is one of our most read articles of the year. It was written by Alex Summers, my guy from
11:00
Colorado. He's a Camaro owner, and he's lamenting the fact that the Camaro ended production officially this month.
11:06
Right. What's happened is the fact with with the Camaro ceasing production, Chevrolet no longer provides any
11:11
affordable V8 powered vehicles. He says, "Back in 2017, you could join the V8 club in a Camaro for just $36,900."
11:19
Right now, with the Camaro gone, you know, you get the base Corvette for $70,000, which is nearly double. It's
11:24
like 87% of the price. He also says that back in 2017, you can walk into a Chevy dealer and there would be six different
11:30
vehicles powered by the small block V8, which included Camaro, Corvette, and that Chevy SS sedan. And now the push is
11:36
in the other direction where you have all these high horsepower vehicles selling for well over $100,000. What are
11:42
we going to see when the ZR1 or the Zora come in? Will they be $150,000? Will they be $200,000? I'm really afraid that
11:48
Alex is correct in saying that Chevrolet is now out of the attainable performance car game for those that really want a V8
11:54
powered vehicle. Well, that all makes sense, that's for sure. Well, buddy, let's take our first break. When we come back, it's Corvette
11:59
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And now back to the only current podcast on Corvettes, Corvette Today with your host, Steve Garrett. Thanks for checking
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out Corvette Today on podcast and YouTube. It's the only current podcast dedicated to Corvette. Corvette Today is
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give them a call 833-639-4231. I'm your host, Steve Garrett. With me
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every other week is Keith Cornet from corvette blogger.com. We keep you up to date on what's happening in the world of
16:20
Corvette. In segment number two, we always cover Corvette racing and Corvette rumors. Keith Corvette Racing's
16:26
chassis number one went back to Bowling Green. That was kind of a cool deal with some nice pictures, too.
16:32
Yeah, we caught this news from racing driver Tommy Milner shared photos of the Corvette Z06 GT3R racer. This is chassis
16:39
number one and it was on display inside the Bowling Green assembly plant mid December. Tommy writes the following on
16:45
his Facebook page. He says that chassis number one Z06 GT3R went back to where it started life right off the line at
16:51
Bowling Green. Special day to get a tour of the facility and show the men and women who make these production cars and
16:56
engines. Basically just a thank you. I guess the car was either in transit or they wanted to do just a little special
17:02
where they bring the car back and give people a chance to see the car completed as well as talk to Tommy. Tommy's a
17:07
development driver for the car. He has more time in it than probably anyone. So, he's getting ready to join the
17:12
full-time staff for Corvette Racing again in January. Nice way to show thanks to where it does start off the
17:18
line. Of course, the GT3's RS contain a whole bunch of production parts from the street cars. So, it's a lot more than
17:25
what we've seen previously with the C8R. Right. Definitely. And also, AWA revealed their Corvette livery for the
17:31
upcoming season as well. Yep. Canadian team AWA Racing. They're racing in IMS IMSA's GTB Amateur class
17:37
with two Z06 GT3R racers and they released their livery design. One of these cars will be painted the
17:42
traditional yellow and black. Although it's different from the way that Corvette Racing is a lot more black on
17:48
the sides. You can tell the difference, but you're going to see that front end with that yellow and right away you're going to think Corvette Racing. Uh no,
17:53
AWA. It's kind of like Cadillac had a yellow car this year even in the top class. And occasionally you'd see it and
17:59
say, "Is that the Corvette?" No, no, no, no. It's Cadillac. There's going to be a little bit of that going on. Their other car is painted a dark green with a red
18:06
stripe down the middle and then a white and black accents around it, too. That's kind of the same colors I think they've been running in LMP3. So, they wanted to
18:13
keep their traditional livery design, but also pay a little bit of homage to the fact that they're racing Corvettes with the black and yellow car. So, their
18:19
black and yellow car, I know, is number 13. I don't know how lucky that number is, but we're going to be wishing the best for them.
18:24
Yeah, definitely. In the rumor section, Keith, did we set a new world record for a C8 Corvette in a quarter mile? Well,
18:30
this was a fun story that caused us to look back at 2021 and 2022 when there were several tutors and builders trying
18:36
to get that Corvette Stingray faster. They did it quarter mile at a time. We had players like Extreme Turbo Systems.
18:42
They were the first to get into the nines. Of course, Ameilia Hartford, she had the record for 6 months or so.
18:47
FuelTech USA, they actually got the record and then late Model Racecraft, we took the record from them. So, all these
18:53
people were all jockeying. We'd see some different position, something would happen. FuelTech USA would be the first
18:58
in the eights in the quarter mile with a time of 8.973 seconds at 160 miles an hour. Soon after, their record was
19:04
eclipsed by late model Racecraft with a time of 8.83 seconds at 160 mph. So again, we're talking about the Corvette
19:10
Stingray. The video that came out last week was the return of Extreme Turbo Systems back to the track. They ran a/4
19:16
mile with their twin turbo Corvette Stingray for 8.64 seconds at 170 mi. And
19:22
the video is pretty wild, too, because there's another run that they show first and that Stingray front end really pops a wheelie and driving with a wheelie
19:29
down the drag strip. Wow. That's making a whole lot of power there. It was so much fun watching these records fall. We really were hoping to
19:36
see a lot more of that with the Z06. We kind of saw just a little bit of it, but people keep saying that engine's just
19:41
too good to tune or it sounds too good to make changes to. And so that makes me wonder if where the -ay because it is
19:47
the LT2 V8, people won't be as afraid to modify that. Put a procharger on it, put twin turbos on it, and then get the
19:53
all-wheel drive to talk somehow with the other systems. So, should be interesting to see how that works out, but we'd like
19:59
to see more records. I think this is a lot of fun for people. This story did very well for us as well, so I think people really gravitated to it.
20:05
I think you're right. Well, buddy, let's take our final break. When we come back, it's the lighter side of Corvette on
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I'm your host Steve Garrett. Every other week, my buddy Keith Cornet from Corvette Blogger teams up with me. We
23:18
bring you the latest Corvette news and headlines. If you want a deeper dive into any of the stories that Keith and I
23:24
cover, you can always go to corvette blogger.com. In this final segment, we always talk about the lighter side of
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Corvette. Keith, let's start off with a couple stories about the National Corvette Museum. First of all, they did
23:35
announce their 2024 exhibit and event schedule, which I'm glad to see came early. Yeah, it gives you some time to make
23:41
some plans. There's some good stuff happening in 2024. Of course, next year is the 30th anniversary of the National Corvette Museum. That means that the
23:48
2024 National Corvette Caravan is happening in late August. That's going to be a really big event. You know, it
23:53
brings 5,000 Corvettes or so to the National Corvette Museum for their anniversary show in August. I was there
23:58
four years ago for the last one. It was a lot of fun bringing all those new people, many people have never been to
24:04
the museum before. Of course, all those cars, making a target rich environment for looking at cool license plates or
24:09
mods or exciting new paint jobs or rap. It's just a really fun time. So, really looking forward to that. And then also
24:15
2024 is the 10-year anniversary of the infamous sinkhole that opened up and swallowed eight Corvettes.
24:20
Wow. There's going to be a special display to mark that occasion. Some of the other events, March 15th, they're going to have an art show called Luster, Realism,
24:27
and Hyperrealism and contemporary automotive and motorcycle painting. They'll display like 55 paintings by
24:33
realists and hyperrealists whose favorite subjects are cars and motorcycles. Something a little bit different there. 55 paintings. That's a
24:38
lot to look at. There's going to be some good stuff there, I'm sure. My favorite show, the NCM Bash, is on the schedule for April 25th through the 27th. I've
24:45
already got my plane tickets and the hotel booked for that. That's always a great show to be at. The Veterans will again be celebrated during Military
24:52
Appreciation Month, which runs the month of May. And then the year will close out in October with they did that American
24:57
Love Affair, which is a multimedia presentation. And then they've got a new one coming out called Pop Culture in the
25:03
Corvette, and it'll include that new multimedia performance in the Sky Dome with those display panels that go around
25:08
the circular building. Should be pretty cool there. That's what's coming for the Corvette Museum in 2024.
25:14
As a matter of fact, we'll have a Corvette Today teaser at the end of January. Mariah Hughes, the marketing
25:19
manager for the National Corvette Museum, will be on Corvette Today with me and talk a little bit more in depth
25:24
about everything that Keith just covered. So, make sure you mark your calendar for the end of January for that show coming up on Corvette Today. The
25:31
other news at the National Corvette Museum, I was glad to see we have a new RHC delivery manager, don't we?
25:37
Yeah. Join me in welcoming Rod Keller, who is the Corvette Museum's new senior Corvette delivery experience manager.
25:42
And Rod's taking over for Shane Webb, who has led the delivery program for the last few years. I think Shane's been there at least since 2015 and maybe even
25:49
longer. Shane will be staying on at the museum, and we thank him obviously for his tireless work on behalf of Corvette Buyers doing the RAC deliveries. And we
25:56
find out a lot of information because the RAC deliveries are so different. And there's a really good communication that
26:01
happens usually between the museum and the buyers. That's how we find out certain things like TPWs for the -ay
26:06
where everybody else just has a status. Really thank you Shane for everything that he did here. Rod Keller, he brings
26:12
decades of experience in sales operations, customer service and team leadership experience according to the museum. He said he's an avid Corvette
26:19
enthusiast, a member of Florida's Pon Inlet Corvette Club, which I think is over in Valuchia County. He currently
26:24
owns a 2015 coupe, which is his fifth. He's a longtime supporter of the National Corvette Museum, and he was part of the NCM's grand opening in 1994.
26:32
somebody with a lot of Corvette gravitas. Sounds like he's gonna be leading the delivery program experience. So, good to have him. Again, thanks to
26:38
Shane for all he did. And Rod is a faithful follower of Corvette today. He loves the show, loves
26:43
our news and headlines show. Rod has already reached out to me to tell me about his new appointment there at the
26:49
National Corvette Museum. Oh, good. Rod, congratulations. We look forward to having you on the show sometime soon.
26:55
Yeah, I'll have to listen for that one for sure. Absolutely. Also for our friends in the great white north, Corvette wins the
27:00
Canada Blackbook as the best retained value car for 2023. Yeah, this is always a fun award. They
27:06
won their category, which is sports car luxury. It was the 16th annual Canadian Blackbook, and they do best retained
27:12
value awards, which means that they're honoring vehicles predicted to retain the highest percentage of original MSRP
27:19
in 2027. So, this is four years after today's cars are being sold. But there's a lot of history there and they really
27:25
know how to take a look at those numbers. For this year, we beat out the Porsche 911 and the Porsche 718 Boxster
27:31
for that award. Wow. Good for Corvette and Canadian buyers. You know, you're buying a car, you're going to have great retained values for
27:38
up to four years after and probably longer. I like the way they think, buddy. That's pretty cool.
27:44
Our final story, Keith. Again, City Chevrolet was named the Chevrolet dealer of the year.
27:49
Yeah. So each year Chevy awards it most outstanding dealerships the coveted dealer of the year award. It's really
27:54
the most prestigious award a Chevrolet dealership can receive from Chevrolet. There's 2903 dealers in the country.
28:01
Only 60 of them were named dealer of the year and it's a really big deal. Winners receive a trophy and a banner that can
28:07
be displayed in the dealership. As we saw down at City Chevrolet they closed the store for the afternoon. All 185
28:14
some employees came in. Mr. Hendrickk was there. Members of Chevrolet were there. They said it was a big deal for
28:19
them this time because they haven't been able to celebrate because of COVID before. So, this is really the first time they've been able to do this huge
28:25
gathering with everybody, you know, kind of an all hands- on deck kind of thing. And again, for Mr. Hendrick to come and
28:31
he takes a ton of photos, shakes everybody's hands. This was his very first dealership that he bought back in
28:36
1978 and it became the springboard for the Hendrickk Automotive Group, which is now over a 100 dealerships. I think
28:42
they're one of the top five dealer groups in the country. Congratulations to them. This was their seventh consecutive year to be named dealer of
28:48
the year and it was the 13th time overall. They're real proud of it. We are glad to feature them. They've been
28:53
good friends of ours. Of course, Rick Cruzo is there. He handles the Corvette sales. Good guy to know. So, if you're
28:58
looking for a Corvette you're in the Charlotte area, give Rick a call. Absolutely. Well, congratulations to them. Keith, thank you for being back on
29:05
the show and merry Christmas, buddy. Well, merry Christmas. Have a happy new year, Steve. I always look forward to
29:10
these dates. They're so much fun for us. Thank you again for everybody that comes up to us when we see them. You know, you listen to you on the Corvette Today
29:16
podcast. We wouldn't be here without you and appreciate it. So, have a great year in 2024. This is our last show for 2023. Coming
29:23
up in week number two for 2024, we'll have our first Corvette Today news and headline show of the year. Thanks to
29:30
everybody. Merry Christmas everyone. We'll see you in 2024. Thanks again for listening and watching Corvette Today.
29:36
And be sure to tell your family, friends, and other Corvette enthusiasts about the Corvette Today Show. And
29:41
thanks to our sponsors, Wheelcraft. Want to dress up your Corvette with bright chrome or black chrome wheels? Visit
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30:22
Thanks for checking out Corvette Today on podcast and YouTube. If you'd like to contact Steve with ideas for Corvette
30:28
today, you can email him at stevegared djgmail.com. Garrett has two Rs and two T's. That's
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