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CORVETTE TODAY #211 - Corvette News & Headlines, Late April 2024
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Jul 12, 2025
CORVETTE TODAY #211 - CORVETTE NEWS & HEADLINES, LATE APRIL 2024 The NCM Michelin Bash is now complete! And there was a lot of Corvette news and information gleaned from this event. Your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett, and Keith Cornett from CorvetteBlogger were both in attendance. So this CORVETTE TODAY News & Headlines show is packed with new, fresh information from the Bash. So it's an expanded episode of CORVETTE TODAY, covering everything learned at the Bash for 2025! Here are other stories you'll get on this new edition of CORVETTE TODAY News & Headlines show this week: 1. Corvette Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter announces his retirement later this summer
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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.
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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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more. Chevrolet together. Let's drive. And a shout out to Canadian Corvette Forum and Corvette Forum. Welcoming
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Corvette enthusiasts from around the world. It's time for the latest Corvette news and headlines with my buddy Keith
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Cornet from corvette blogger.com. Keith is here every other week. Together we keep you current and uptodate on what's
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happening with America's sports car. Keith, welcome back to the show. It's been a busy week last week for you and
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me. Yeah, it was great to see you, all my friends, all the new stuff coming out of the NCM bash. There's a lot of
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excitement and good things happening for Corvette and also a couple poignant moments. You know, of course, the retirement of Tad Sher and some other
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things going on, but I think I'm feeling really good about this. I tell you what, I think this episode's going to be
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pretty full. Yeah, as a matter of fact, this is going to be a four segment episode. The fourth segment will be dedicated to everything
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that Keith and I learned at the bash, just in case you didn't get to go. First, Keith, let's start off like we
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always do. How about Corvette production updates from the Bowling Green assembly plant? Absolutely. Yeah. So, we got unofficial
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production estimates ending for Friday and it shows that 20,826 Stingrays have already been produced so
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far for 2024. Now, the production of the Stingray is running at about 650 to 725
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units per week. It seems like whenever they need to pick up the slack, one of the other models slows down, the
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Stingray is there. And so, sometimes we see that number jump higher if the Z06 falls a little bit lower. but they're
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just cranking out the cars that haven't had any production issues as far as we know. So things are good there. For the
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Z06, that number stands at 5,821 units. And of course, the -ray still
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ramp up mode 292 produced. So total 2024 production unofficially stands at
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26,939. As we are nearly at the end of the month, a couple days left, I think
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Monday and Tuesday, we have seen the production of 2,744 stingrays for April, as well as 92 Z06s
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and 70-ay. That was one of the things that Taj said is, you know, even though is talking about the ramp up for the
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-ay, we saw a similar ramp up for the Z06 and today they're making about 300 a week or so, right?
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We can expect the -ay at some point to get up to there. In fact, we both heard from the plant director who said it's
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coming. It's deliberate. There don't seem to be any issues. They thank all their suppliers for making sure that
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they had everything they needed. Be patient there. It's gonna be interesting to see how that works out through the end of 2024. Of course, Chevy still
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hasn't announced the end of 2024 or when the 2025 is going to begin. And now that we know that at least two colors are
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going away, Accelerate Yellow and Amplify Orange. If you want those colors, you might want to see if you can
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get those orders in as quickly as possible because obviously they're going away. So, if those colors are your bag,
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baby, get those orders in. Exactly. Right, buddy. And you alluded to this a minute ago, but Corvette's
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executive chief engineer Taj Jar has announced his retirement after 47 years
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with GM. Yeah. Not only this is probably the biggest news of this cycle, but it's one of the biggest stories for 2024 so far.
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47 years at General Motors. Taj has been on the Corvette program since the C4 and he became chief engineer in 2006. Of
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course, under his leadership, we've seen some great cars produced, including the C6 ZR1, the first supercharged Corvette.
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He fought for Corvette survival during GM bankruptcy. and then of course knocked the ball of the park with the C7 Corvettes and finally as the chief
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engineer he was able to realize Zora's dream to make the car mid engine with the C8 Corvettes. Just a fantastic
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career run. Everybody loves the guy. He's such a humble person. Really is shy in terms of all the accolades he had
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thrown at him. Anytime he got up on the stage at the bash, he got a standing O. It's definitely a position that we're going to miss. We are so lucky again to
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have Taj for all these years and also the people he surrounded himself with. His official retirement will happen this
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summer. He'll be missed not only for his engineering skills, but again his humor and the way he wowed Corvette audiences
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around the world with his humor and his knowledge and his fun just being tagged. Definitely going to miss him. Yeah, Taz is great people. We will
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definitely miss him. But you know what? We have a great support system for him there. Josh Holder, chief engineer,
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Corvette, Devin Blue, everybody on the Corvette team will carry that banner proudly. Also, Keith, I don't know if
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this should have been in the rumors or not, but we saw ZR1 mules testing in Ohio right before the bash. Yeah, that
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was pretty interesting. So, they like to work out in southern Ohio. A lot of two-lane roads there, very curvy, some elevation changes. Obviously, we were
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hoping that maybe we'd see a repeat of the prototypes showing up and doing a little drive around the circle at the Corvette Museum during the bash. Of
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course, that didn't happen, but we did get some spy shots from those cars in Ohio. We're showing, you know, a combination of coups and convertibles.
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And there were a couple of coups that had the Big Wing on there as well. So, with that reveal coming up sometime this summer, it's going to be a really
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exciting time for Corvette fans. Yeah, definitely. Also, GM has added the sueded microfiber trim panel for C8
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Stingrays and also the Z06 frunk and the trunk. Now, isn't this the same thing that I've got in my 70th anniversary
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2023 car? You know, this is interesting because this came out through the distribution updates on the Corvette
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order guide. This was not part of a 2025 model year introduction. That's kind of why it's showing up in this segment as
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opposed to that bash segment we're going to do later. But, a member of the Committ Corvette forum caught this update. It shows this LPO SXB suede
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frunk and trunk liner. The catalog description for the Corvette accessories says that it is a more premier look and
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feel and it replaces the standard carpet in the trunk. It's also designed to match the interior of your vehicle. We believe that'll come in like the same
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3LT, 3LZ interior suede colors like jet black, adrenaline red, and others. Think
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about if you had a dip adrenaline red interior and then you opened up your frunk or you open up your trunk. That might be red sueded microfiber as well.
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That's what we think is going to happen. They only showed the jet black one on the catalog. In fact, they didn't even have a picture of it. They just had the
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description of it. We're still kind of anxious to see what's going to happen there. But the price for this accessory is $1,95. And for those that are
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interested, the GM part number is 8560043. So, it looks like you can order it and
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probably retrofit it to your existing cars. And of course, it is only for Stingray and Z06, which has the same
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dimensions for their frunk and trunk. The -ray's frunk is just a little bit different and they were not included in
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this update. Okay, that sounds good. Also, speaking of updates, remember that guy that bought the Z06 and he didn't flip it,
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but GM voided his warranty? Well, now they're going to honor the warranty, aren't they? Yeah, it's nice to have a nappy ending
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to this story. So, just as a recap, Corvette Posi is his name waited over two years for his 2023 Corvette Z06 to
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be built and shipped. He was there at the dealer when it came off the truck. Very excited. He took delivery the very next day. even received his 500,000 GM
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points in January. But his troubles began when he wanted to take his C8 back to the dealership for an oil change, get
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that free service visit, and the service manager showed him a print out that showed his warranty was blocked due to
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violating GM's Z06 retention policy. Unable to get the oil change, dealership then reached out to GM, and then after
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some investigation, they reversed that warranty block. Apparently, the problem came up after he took delivery of the
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car and then he ordered a vanity plate from Arkansas. He didn't realize at the time that he got it back that Arkansas
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DMV had screwed up his first name on the registration. Oh, everything else was the same but his
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first name. But when the Chevy service department entered that in and it formed a mismatch, that's what caused the
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warranty block to happen. So for those of you with the Z06 and the -ray, which also has a retention program, pay
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special attention to anything like registrations, anything that happens within that first 6 months that has the potential to raise the red flag in
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Detroit. We like to say it's important for you to do your due diligence because with warranties, GM will just block it
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until you fight it and get it back. Do that due diligence. Be very careful during those first six months of ownership.
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I'm glad that all had a happy ending. That's for sure. Also, we had a service bulletin just issued for 2023 and 2024
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Corvettes. The transmission might have some improperly torqued fasteners. What's going on with that?
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Yeah, so this is something that they saw servicing cars and enough have come through that said, "Hey, we need to
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really look at this. This appears to be a stingray only problem and it's a manufacturing issue from TMIC, not the
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Corvette assembly plant. Oh, we still don't have an idea on how many units are affected. There are some bin break points that are coming and we believe
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that those who are affected will receive a letter from General Motors. Really, the simple fix is to replace the full
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transmission. Otherwise, you've got guys pulling out the transmissions that are working on it. They have to do all this other stuff. No, just take it out, put a
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new one in. You get a full warranty on it. You're starting at zero with that, which again is a part that gets wear and
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tear. So, if you've already got some miles on your car, you're starting back at zero. I think this is really the best way to go. The clock resets on that
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maintenance schedule. Speaking of which, it's very important to follow that correct maintenance schedule as outlined in your owner's manual. We had a chance
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to talk to a senior GM technician at the Bash. He says it's put in there for a reason, and you can find that on
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Chevrolet.com. You can find it your Chevy app or if you own even a Cadillac, you can add your Corvette to that and
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pull up manuals as well. GM offers a free filter change for the transmission. You really want to do it within 500
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miles or so as you close in on that 7500 mile odometer reading or the mileage reading on your transmission and then
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you need to change it every 22,500 miles after that. We've seen some changes, but GM has extended that free service for
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the filter change on the transmission up to 3 years now. So, I just realized that many Corvette owners, they drive
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sparingly. They drive maybe just a couple thousand miles a year. So, they weren't getting close to that. So, within that three-year time period, if
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you get up to that 7,500 miles, you definitely want to get it changed. Yeah. For Corvettes that are also getting up in miles, this is a one that I wasn't
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really sure of, but again, in the owner's manual, it's important to change the transmission fluid when you hit 45,000 mi. Follow the service and
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maintenance procedures in that manual, and you really should be okay. Yeah, absolutely. And I'm raising my
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hand because after the bash, I drove over 1,000 miles. It's time to get my fluid filter changed on the
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transmission. So, I've got to get that done this week for sure. Well, buddy, it's time for our first break. When we
12:51
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Today with Steve Garrett. Thanks for checking out Corvette Today on podcast and YouTube. It's the only
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I'm your host, Steve Garrett. With me is Keith Cornet from Corvette Blogger. We are both fresh back from the bash at the
15:36
National Corvette Museum. We've got news for you in the second segment. Corvette Racing and Corvette Rumors are up next.
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Keith, let's talk first about Corvette Racing at Long Beach. Yeah, so this was an interesting race. Corvette Racing's partner in IMSA, AWA
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Racing, competed at Long Beach Grand Prix. Only the GTP and GT cars ran at the street circuit for the 100minute
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sprint car race. They split it because if you put all those cars from all the classes on that small grid, it would
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just have been chaos. And it was chaos anyways. The number 13 Z06 GT3R actually had its best finish to date. 17 cars in
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the class and it finished six. Anything can happen in these tight courses. Of course, they were running, I think, 12 or 13th, but within the last 15 minutes
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or so, there was an accident. Everything stopped and they were able to squeak through. So, they jumped into the top 10
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within 15 minutes to go and then race around again and then came up in sixth position to finish the race. Fantastic
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there. They're going to get some muchneeded points. Very excited to see them do well there. So AWA and Corvette
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Racing's two Z06 GT3RS will next be in action in Monterey at Laguna Secika on Sunday, May 12th.
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Nice. Also, we had Corvette Racing at Emila. We had points for TF Sport, didn't we? Yeah. So, they were racing their two Z06
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GT3RS in the World Endurance Championship at Emila. TF Sport was one of the two teams in the class to have
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both its cars finish in the top 10. So, again, much needed points. The number 81 Corvette finished seventh and the number
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82 came in eighth. Great to see that. Of course, for them, this is a new car. We've had some teething issues. I
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believe this is the first race where both cars finish. And of course, finishing in the top 10 is even better. Glad to see that. And hopefully that
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trend will continue. TF Sport will next race the FIAWC at the Six Hours of the Spa on Saturday, May 11th. Once again,
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we'll have cars on both continents racing that same weekend. Lots of Corvette racing going on out there.
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How cool is that? I love it. I love it. Keith, in the rumors category, I don't
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know about this one, buddy. It says the 2026 Corvette interior is going to get one huge screen and the great wall of
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buttons goes away. Steve, it's the rumor that just keeps on rumoring. I don't know how else to say it, but we've got two different sources
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on this and they're both pretty decent sources. A friend of mine who relayed it to me says trusted. First report says
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that a group of green assembly plant employees, they're referred to as a transition team took over the
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installation where the current instrument panels installed on the assembly line. what they were working on was hidden undercover and it was further
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blocked by about 10 of these people surrounding the area. To us, it sounds like they're either doing a fitment test
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or it could be testing the process and equipment required to do a install of the dash on the assembly line. That's
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the first one we had. And then the second rumor was that huge screen. This tip comes from another insider says look
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to the 33in instrument panel on the 2025 CT5V Blackwing. This was a new addition
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for the Black Wings in 2025 and apparently it was a plan for 2024, but it got delayed by a year. Does that
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sound familiar, Steve? Yeah. The fact that our rumor got bumped another year. Yep. Other interesting detail of this change
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could very well mean that GM Super Cruise with this handfree driver assistance technology is finally coming to the Corvette whether you like it or
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not. With Corvette now with the 2024s having emergency braking, lane assist, and other driving enhanced technologies,
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it looks like it has everything it needs to be able to handle super cruise. So, we'll have to see that happens. Of
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course, the Super Cruise would have to have some lights on that steering wheel and stuff like that. The Corvette's a driver's car, not really a rers's car.
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So, we'll see how that all works out. But, there's some big stuff coming and we think that these rumors are starting
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to nail stuff down. Knocking on wood, though. They are just rumors. It could be pretty cool, buddy. It could
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be pretty cool. Also, speaking of cool stuff, let's talk about what we do know already about the ZR1 prototypes since
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we didn't get a drive-thru at the Bash. Absolutely. So once the public tours shut down in early February this year,
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we figured that Chevy would do some ZR1 prototypes and they did. Internal paperwork shows at least 21 Corvette ZR1
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quote EX cars have been completed. The EX cars are classified as experimental. They say EX on the VIN. That's why we
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always say if you see a prototype, if you can get a picture of that VIN, that's always helpful because it tells us what it is, so to speak. EX cars will
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all be destroyed once GM is done testing. And then we get to the CTF cars. Those are salailable. So once we start seeing CTF cars or cars in the VIN
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that don't have EX, that means we are getting much closer to customer production. Our friend Rick Kiy looked
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up some of these details on the cars. They have production codes very similar to the Z06. For example, the Z06 has
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four wheel designs and they are S SOA which is black, SOC satin graphite, SO
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machine face, and SOE the titanium satin. The ZR1 is also showing four
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similar codes. We believe those are wheels. They are SOF, SG, SH, and S OJ.
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We don't have the designs attached to them yet, but we've got the code. So, again, sounds very similar. And then
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along with the wheels, there's a J58 code, which should be for the Brembo carbon ceramic brakes. Okay,
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that code for the Z06 is J57 and I think Stingray's J56. Yeah, always something
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to keep in mind on there. And of course, the return of one of our favorite options is J6B, which are the blue
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calipers. Nice. which were always exclusive to the ZR1 in the C6 days and the C7 days. The
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internal paperwork showed LT7 for the engine, but no details, and M1K, again, no details. That's the 8-speed DCT
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transmission. We see the return of ZTK, which was the same performance package code that was on the 2019 ZR1's. Great.
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And finally, there was a code for T0M, which we believe is the very big wing seen on the prototypes and the cars that
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were at the Nurburg Ring. Chevy uses T0F and T0G for the Z06's highwing carbon
21:08
fiber or carbon flash painted carbon fiber. So T0M seems to fall within that same RPO structure. This car expected to
21:16
be revealed sometime this summer and production could start later in the 2025 model year, but don't rule this out of
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this car being a 2026 yet. It could be a late 2025 or 2026. Maybe they started early. Who knows? Their schedule's so
21:28
weird these days. We're just along for the ride, Steve. Absolutely right, buddy. All right, it's time for our next break. When we come
21:33
back, it's the lighter side of Corvette coming up next here on Corvette Today.
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watching Corvette Today, the show that talks about everything Corvette. Corvette Today is brought to you by
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Visit wheelcraft.com and learn about their advanced PVD chrome finishing. They can refinish your wheels or do a
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wheel exchange and you get a 5-year warranty as well. So visit wheelcraft.com today or give them a call
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833-639-4231. I'm your host Steve Garrett. With me is
23:15
Keith Cornet from Corvette Blogger. If you want a deeper dive into any of the stories Keith and I cover on this show,
23:21
you can always go to corvette blogger.com. In segment number three, we talk about the lighter side of Corvette.
23:27
First of all, this is not the lighter side. Ken Lingenfelter, congratulations, my friend. You've dynoed the first
23:33
supercharged. Yeah, this is pretty cool. So, and we got actually see this car at the NCM Bash and talked to Steve and the owner
23:39
there. He said it was very important for the car to remain drivable. You know, there's no special fuel systems added on. Yeah,
23:45
he just wanted to be able to get up there and drive, but he wanted more power than the Z06 and he says it definitely has it. So, prior to the
23:50
supercharger edition, we saw the -ray put down on the dyno and it had 573 WH horsepower and 630 foot-lbs of torque.
23:58
And then with the supercharger added, the car doed at 734 WH horsepower and
24:04
792 foot-lbs of torque. So, that's a gain of 161 horsepower and 162 foot-lbs
24:09
of torque. He says it's very quick. Although he says prior to the NCM badge, he's probably driven it about five miles
24:15
or so just because it was picked up at the dealership by Paragon, drove to their shop where they did some work on
24:20
it, then shipped Linganfelter in Michigan where they did some work to it and then shipped back. So, he's finally getting a chance to enjoy it a little
24:26
bit. He says actually it's going to be headed to the track hopefully within the next week or two equipped with some drag radials. This thing should put up some
24:32
serious times to see what that does. Yeah, that's really cool. Now, that was the first supercharged. We also have the
24:38
first twin turboed -ay and it hit the track and did some drags in the high nines. Wow.
24:43
Yeah. So, this comes from Boost District and it's equipped with extreme turbo systems, twin turbo kit. And then they
24:49
also installed a heavy duty clutch, Lincolnfelder Performance Engineering pistons, and a direct injection fuel pump. And also, the stock computer was
24:56
unlocked and calibrated. So, they were able to tune that. The E-Ray still retains its stock cam heads, cats, and
25:02
the PS4s tires. So again, another very drivable car. At the drag strip, the car
25:08
made multiple passes and its fastest time was 9.741 seconds at 152 mph.
25:14
Amazing. Boost District claims it's a,000 horsepower build. I don't know if that's the raw number. I'm assuming that's the
25:19
raw number and not the dyno number. But as they put these things together, if you want to do one of these, their packages start at $21,250.
25:27
That's installed and tuned and out the door. There you go. I like that. Speaking of E-Rays, we had a 2024 -ray did a little
25:35
bit of bullying on the track. Your favorite car, Keith? The Nissan GT-R and also one of my favorite cars, the
25:41
Lamborghini Aventador SV did some drag racing with the -ay and lost to the -ay.
25:46
Yeah. So, for me, this is exactly why the Ray is preferred over the Z06. Again, nothing for the Z06 with that
25:52
magical engine it has and the track performance it's capable of. blogging for 18 years. Anytime I saw a Corvette
25:57
line up against an all-wheel drive competitor, they usually lost because the all-wheel drive car could outlaunch
26:02
and then race to the finish line just as fast as the Corvette, usually the Corvette would even have worse horsepower. When I see Jesse Luji takes
26:09
out his stock ERA and runs it against a Nissan GCR and kills it, I was shouting. I was shouting. That's exactly why when
26:15
I heard all-wheel drive, I was like, "Sign me up." And then, of course, he races against a Lamborghini Aventtor SV.
26:21
That car was tuned. that cost nearly $600,000 and he beat that at the quarter mile. His times for the -ay though, not
26:28
spectacular in terms of he didn't even really quite meet the factory numbers. The DA is a little bit higher out there
26:33
as opposed to being closer to sea level. But he says the -ray ran 10.635 at 126
26:39
against the GTR and then 1065 against the Lamborghini at 126 mph.
26:45
Wow. If you watch any of Jesse's videos, his laugh is pretty infectious and there's a lot to be excited about. So, I think I'd
26:51
be laughing too if I was bullying a GTR and Aventador. That's bragging rights for sure at its
26:56
highest. That's for sure. Also, Keith, this is awesome. In honor of the upcoming ZR1, Moto Week published a
27:02
retro review of the C6 ZR1, which is nice. Yeah. So, John Davis and Motor, they've
27:08
been around for decades. So, when the announcement came, a new ZR1 was on the way this summer, they dived into their archives and pulled out a track review
27:14
of the C6 ZR1. Of course, with 638 horsepower, that LS9 engine showing
27:19
through that hood there as it did. Boy, did that make waves back in the day. Oh, yeah. Making this review even cooler, the car
27:25
they used was finished in atomic orange, which again is a color that people look back and say they really like. We now
27:31
know that they only put that color on 35 ZR1's in that first year. Just a fun review from Motor Week. You can see the
27:37
car launch and drive around the track. It looks kind of plain jane compared to the new Z06 and what we're seeing with
27:42
the ZR1 coming, but still a huge competitor in its own right. So, we've got that video and all these others up
27:47
on Corvette Blogger that you can see. So cool. So cool. Also, you know, we see celebrities in Corvettes. You know,
27:53
we've seen people like Jimmyi Hendricks in front of his Corvette. Bruce Springsteen sitting on the front of his C1 Corvette. William Shatner sitting
28:00
right next to a 63 split window. Paul McCartney was seen leaving recording studio in a blue C5 Corvette.
28:07
Yeah, Sir Paul has owned that car for almost as long as we've been blogging. And I've got several posts going back, I
28:13
think as far back as 2009 with him in his car. Yeah. He drives it whenever he's in California. I guess he's got a home here
28:19
in California. And if you're a billionaire recording legend like Paul, you probably have a house in Los
28:24
Angeles. He was seen actually driving the sports car as he was leaving a music studio. Not only was he driving the
28:29
sports car, but he might be making some new music. So that's pretty cool as well. This showed up on one of the celebrity paparazzi caught it, posted it
28:36
to Tik Tok. It's funny how this went viral. I saw this everywhere. road and track and all kinds of places showing
28:42
Paul and the C5 not as flashy. It kind of offers a little bit of some incognito driving for Paul I would think compared
28:48
to imagine in the new Z06 how that would look that would definitely attract some eyeballs where the C5 been around for
28:54
20ome years. You know, you might discount it not knowing that there's a music legend Beetle behind the wheel.
28:59
It's a great car. C5s are one of the best performance bargains on the market right now. You can be driving the same
29:05
same as your favorite Beetle. Absolutely. You know, growing up, the Beatles were always my favorite group, and Paul McCartney was my favorite
29:11
beetle. This is a great story for us here on Corvette Today. Same here. Same here. You got it, buddy. All right, Keith.
29:17
Time for our final break. When we come up, a special bonus segment here on Corvette Today, talking about the NCM
29:23
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And now back to Corvette Today with your host and my husband, Steve Garrett.
31:19
Thanks for checking out Corvette Today on podcast and YouTube. It's the only current podcast dedicated to Corvette.
31:25
Corvette Today is brought to you by Wheelcraft. You want your Corvette looking its best. I know you do will
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I'm your host Steve Garrett. With me is Keith Cornet from corvette blogger.com my partner in crime every other week.
31:55
It's a special bonus edition of Corvette Today. Segment four will focus on the NCM Michelin Bash. First of all, Keith,
32:02
what did we learn that was new for Corvette in 2025? Yeah, this is why we love the NCM Bash. It's where we find out all the latest
32:08
updates for America's favorite sports car. And this year was full of new colors and options, but also Chevy's keeping us hanging as well. So, there's
32:15
a little bit of drama still. We are getting three new colors for 2025. They include Hysteria purple metallic,
32:21
competition yellow, and then the return of Sebring Orange Metallic. That last one is very interesting to us. I don't
32:26
remember a time when Chevy ever brought back a previous color during the same generation. True. But they say that word got out there and
32:33
people demanded it, I guess. Wow. Competition yellow was on C4 Corvettes. Insiders tell us it's slightly different
32:39
than the color that appeared on the 1990 and later cars. And then as for Hysteria metallic, it does have a little bit of
32:45
blue in it, and some would say that it kind of reminds me of the radar blue on that 1998 Indy500 pace car. Just have to
32:51
get some yellow wheels, I guess, to complete that look. The purple in the sun looks very good. And then in the
32:56
shade, it's definitely a grape. It doesn't fade to like a black or anything like that. It's definitely great. Right. The other color change is that the
33:03
Corvette team is making the yellow calipers match the new competition yellow as well. Before they had the edge
33:08
yellow, which was basically the accelerate yellow, had a little bit of green in it, a little bit of fluorescent look to it. Now you can match your
33:14
yellow car with yellow calipers and yellow seat belts and you'll be the school bus that's good to go there.
33:20
The drama is that Chevy hasn't really said which colors are going away. So, we assume that we're going to get the new
33:26
yellow and the old yellow go away. We're going to get the new orange, the old orange will go away, but they hadn't said what's going to go away for
33:32
hysteria to come in. Some interesting rumors going away. I think the consensus is that it's probably the ceramic matrix
33:38
gray. That color has been around since 2018. It was on the 65 carbon anniversary editions. It's done well, but it's kind
33:45
of dropped down into the top of the last tier of colors. I think that's probably a safe bet there. But again, anything's
33:50
possible. We've got two blacks, we've got four grays, two blues, two reds. There's somewhat of some duplication
33:57
going on there. So, wouldn't be surprised to see some changes to the colors for 2025.
34:02
Cacti might live another model year then, buddy. You never know. As for the interior, we got a habanero interior, which is orange
34:09
and black. We hear it's very spicy. I think one of the guys said, "Yeah, it kind of slaps you in your face, you
34:14
know." Yeah. Hence the name. And then also, you can now order jet black with blue stitching, which I think is a very nice addition.
34:20
Some people with the blue cars, they felt that the two-tone blue was just a little overwhelming, but black with that blue stitching, I think, will be very
34:26
nice. And of course, you got the blue seat belts to tie it all in there. Yeah, Z06 will have a new wheel. I don't know
34:32
if the online reviews have been very kind to it yet, but seeing it in person, I think, is really a big difference.
34:38
There's going to be four different finishes for this wheel. They are pearl nickel, gloss black, polished, and then
34:43
the bright polished with the carbon flash pockets, which is what we saw on the Z06 at the bash. They're way different than the spider wheels on the
34:49
car. Of course, we only had the two choices currently. We had the spider wheels or the carbon fiber wheels. Now,
34:54
you've got the third choice. It's actually not a bad looking wheel, I think, once you get up and look at it. Once I started looking at it, it grew on
35:01
me. Yeah, and that was the case for me as well. And of course, the first picture I had of it, it was kind of in the shade.
35:06
We captured it early morning. We would have seen it out in the sun where that polish could shine a little bit more and the carbon flash could sparkle just a
35:12
little bit with the metallic in it. Might have made a bigger difference as well for the people that saw it online. We'll see if mine's changed on that.
35:18
Finally, this Corvette Stingray Z-51 performance package. They're getting a new standard spoiler. You know, before
35:24
they've got this wing spoiler opens up on the sides. There's a little slit right there in the middle. We're going to get a new wing that looks just like
35:31
the highwing spoiler, the four-post highwing spoiler, but it's only roughly half the size, maybe just under half the
35:36
size. I think it looks really good. I kind of like the highwing, but I always thought it was a little too much being that high. And of course, it's a little
35:43
harder to put stuff in the trunk, put your top away for your coupe owners. With this thing reduced in size, but
35:48
still maintaining those same characteristics, I actually like it. I think it looks pretty good. And you can get it in all the body colors, or you
35:54
can get it in carbon flash metallic as well. So basically it's the highwing a little bit shorter just to make sure everybody understands
36:00
exactly we're calling it the midwing. Those are the changes for the 2025 Corbett. Of course again not knowing
36:05
what colors are going away. One other thing they did announce this is just a one-off but they're going to do a special NCM edition for the 30th
36:12
anniversary coming up this summer on August. And then that car is going to be raffled as a fundraiser. They're going to do some special stripes and some
36:19
packages around that. But it's only that one car. Yeah. You have to donate to win it. Yeah. It's a one-off car and it looked
36:24
really really good. Everybody, also Keith, let's cover the NCM Hall of Fame announcement. Who won and who's going
36:30
into the Hall of Fame? Yeah, this is always big news. They announce it now and then the Hall of Fame induction ceremony is actually held
36:36
in August at the anniversary celebration. The 2024 class is going to be made up featuring both Oliver Gavin
36:43
and Yan Magnuson. They're going in the racing category. Gavin and Magnuson, boy, they were a lot of fun. With all
36:48
the new drivers we have, I'm having actually trouble keeping up with their names and who's in what car. You knew what car Magnus was in, right?
36:55
Yeah, that was always the case. He was dynamite. And of course, Gavin. Together, they won eight championships
37:00
driving for Corvette Racing. 51 wins for Gavin, 34 wins by Magnus. We just love those guys, both of them. So glad to see
37:06
that they've made it in. Big news there again. Tad Jer will be joining Zora, Dave Mlen, Dave Hill, Tom Wallace as
37:13
chief engineers to be inducted in the Corvette Hall of Fame. He spent 47 years at GM, been working on Corvette since
37:18
1993. Probably no one more deserving than Taj for sure. Finally, in the enthusiast class, it's automotive and
37:24
racing photographer. Richard Prince will become a member of the Hall of Fame. He was running a Corvette restoration
37:30
business and writing some articles for Vet magazine when he got what we call the break of a lifetime to document the beginnings of Corvette Racing. And he's
37:36
been their official photographer ever since. And he somewhat used as the official photographer for Corvette because he obviously he's well known to
37:43
the program, Could be trusted with all the stuff that happens in advance. Richard's a friend. He wrote the book that just came out, 70 years of
37:49
Corvette. great person and very happy for him as well. Yeah, definitely. Also, I was really honored, Keith. I got to do a
37:55
presentation on Corvette today, a seminar at the bash. And we had a special tribute to Corvette today,
38:00
didn't we? This was a surprise for Steve. He had no idea this was coming, but our friend Jeff at Zippy's Garage put together this
38:06
special tribute video for Steve. What he did was he reached out, had about 40 previous guests on the show do a video
38:13
shout out, and then he compiled them all into the one video. Steve had no idea this was happening. I saw some tears
38:18
from Steve when it first fired up. I I don't know if he contained himself, but he got it together and there was some
38:23
really good people that were in there. The video is online. You got to see it. We'll have it up on Corvette Blogger. It's also on YouTube at Zippy's Garage.
38:30
But congratulations again, Steve. What a fantastic milestone for you and couldn't be happier to be part of it.
38:35
Yeah, I was completely surprised by this and it was an honor of starting year number five of Corvette today. Thanks to
38:41
Jeff Duda at Zippid's Garage for putting that together. It was absolutely fantastic. We will also have it on the
38:48
Corvette today website as well. And finally, Keith, we did this last year, we did it again this year. We recorded
38:54
with the holy trinity of Corvette. That would be Taj Jer, Josh Holder, chief engineer, and brand manager Harlon
39:00
Charles. Yeah, we actually videotaped that whole seminar again. You'll actually be able to see Steve asking the
39:06
questions and the three guys answering them. Very informative. The questions were very good this year. Some really
39:11
technical stuff as well. So, if you're into that kind of thing, stay tuned for that announcement. And I can't wait to see that video as it's up.
39:17
That should hopefully come out next week after this show. We're working on that as we speak. Yeah, that's going to be a great one,
39:23
Steve, to be part of that and see it happening. Very honored to be part of that. And also a little announcement, we're going to also do that again at the
39:29
anniversary celebration/caravan. So, we'll have a second one coming up later on this year as well, which will
39:35
be really cool. And maybe we can hear about a new Corvette that will be part of that that will hopefully be revealed by then.
39:41
That's the big wondering when it's going to happen. But boy, that'd be fantastic to be able to talk about ZR1 with those guys and actually have them answer those
39:47
questions. Exactly. Right. That's what I'm hoping for, buddy. Hopefully all the stars will align, buddy. Thanks for being back on
39:54
Corvette today. It was great to see you last week at the Bash. We'll talk to you again in two weeks. Absolutely. All these stories are up on
40:00
Corvette Blogger. Again, we appreciate everybody that came up to the Bash said, "We love you. We love listening to you guys." Steve's a true friend. We just
40:06
have the best time doing this. So, if we see you guys out there, just keep waving. Thanks again for listening and watching Corvette Today. And be sure to
40:13
tell your family, friends, and other Corvette enthusiasts about the Corvette Today Show. And thanks to our sponsors,
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41:03
Thanks for checking out Corvette Today on podcast and YouTube. If you'd like to contact Steve with ideas for Corvette
41:10
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