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CORVETTE TODAY #239 - Corvette News & Headlines, Mid November 2024
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Jul 12, 2025
CORVETTE TODAY #239 -Corvette News & Headlines, Mid November 2024 This week, CORVETTE TODAY makes sure you are current and up-to-date on what's happening in the world of Corvette! Keith Cornett from CorvetteBlogger joins your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett, to cover these topics and more this week: 1. The Chevrolet Insider gives us a new ZR1 video 2. The C8 Corvette is the #1 sports car for buyers 35 years of age and under 3. Big personnel changes coming for Corvette Racing 4. A Red Mist C8 Corvette will be starring in an upcoming movie As we enter the holiday season, make sure you stay on top as to what's happening in the world of Corvette! The CORVETTE TODAY News & Headlines show comes to you every other week!
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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,
0:13
president of the Corvette Club of Kansas City, Missouri, and radio disc jockey at the number one radio station in Kansas
0:20
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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And a shout out to Canadian Corvette Forum and Corvette Forum, welcoming Corvette enthusiasts from around the
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world. All right, let's do it. It's time to bring you the latest Corvette news and headlines with my pal Keith Cornet
3:51
from Corvette Blogger. Keith is here with me every other week and together we keep you current and up to date on
3:57
what's happening with America's sports car. Keith, welcome back to the show. By the way, Keith is very, very happy, very
4:02
excited, feeling very young. He just took delivery of his brand new shiny Hysteria Purple E-Ray with a hardtop
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convertible. Congratulations, buddy. Well, thanks, Steve. I mean, it is one heck of a car. I am so excited. I'm
4:15
actually over the moon over it. Just one of these things that was a long time coming. Something that eventually I
4:21
never really thought would happen, but eventually it just started all coming together. And you wait around for a car for 5 years, and eventually when it
4:27
falls into your lap, you're just like, I can't believe it. It didn't literally fall on my lap. There was a lot of work that went into getting it done. But
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yeah, we're pretty excited about it. I'm glad. And congratulations again. As a matter of fact, I'm going to have Keith talk about his first impressions
4:40
of the -ay at the end of the show, so be sure and stay tuned for that. Buddy, let's start off like we always do. Let's
4:45
get a Corvette production update from the Bowling Green assembly plant. Absolutely. So, the 2025 model year has
4:50
been running for about 2 months now. We're showing actually just about a little over 5,000 stingrays have been
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completed as well as 1500 Z06s and about 380 - rays. The current total we have
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combined is 6,964 for 2025. And so like they did last
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year, they appear to be well on their way. Have not seen any kind of issues with production or anything like that. The workers did have election day off
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which is standard for their contract, but other than that, they've been pumping out the cars. Looks like it's going to happen for the foreseeable
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future. So, great job happening up there in Bowling Green. That's fantastic. And those are pretty good, healthy numbers as well, aren't
5:25
they? Yeah. You know, we talked about when we got the stats for last year, the 2024 model year. You know, it's really what
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we thought was kind of like the perfect year for them. It was 12 months worth of production. I think they did a little
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over 42,000 cars total between the two shifts. If they could continue to do that while mixing in, you know, we've
5:43
now got three models. We're soon we're going to have the fourth model with the ZR1. It's going to be a very diverse lineup of cars that are being produced.
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I would say things are going really well right now. Absolutely right. And also, this is really cool, buddy. We found out that
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Corvette was the number one sports car for buyers under 35 years of age. We first heard this stat during the NCM
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anniversary show. Harlon Charles who did the Chevrolet what's new with Corvette seminar. He confirmed that the average
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age of Corvette buyers has dropped during the first 5 years of C8 production and it's actually now the number one sports car for people under
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the age of 35 while also still maintaining its popularity with long-term fans like you and me. What
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Harlon said during a recent podcast with GM Authority, he says, "We've done something I think is very hard to do. We
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managed to bring in new customers while still exciting the ones we've had who love it. we are able to give them their
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dream car, but then also to attract people who never thought about Corvette before. And of course with that lineup,
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Stingray, Z06, and -ay, and then you got the ZR1 coming as the ultimate Corvette, there's a lot of good stuff there to
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choose from. So, excellent word from Harland. You know, this has always been one of the concerns about what basically
6:46
the Corvette age out because of its customer base and know the new Stingray, especially the convertible models are
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really bringing in people that have never considered a Corvette before. It's great to see that we're bringing some youth into the Corvette world and
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keeping that tradition going. Also, it was great to see we have a new insider video from Chevrolet about the ZR1, too,
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buddy. Yeah. So, Chevrolet does these videos. They call them Corvette insiders. In this new video, we were introduced to
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Emma Mikalus, who is a color materials designer. Emma talks about the return of
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competition yellow to Corvettes and as well as the new Hysteria purple. Both these colors were featured on the reveal
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of the ZR1, the coupe, and the convertible. She really thinks the competition yellow is going to go well
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with the car and I cannot disagree with her with that. One of the things and I'm not really talked about in this video, but one of the things we've seen for the
7:32
2025s is of course Corvette had a reduction of available exterior colors and we went from 14 down to 10. One of
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the things we learned, it's actually not just Corvettes that are going through a reduction of exterior choices, but it's
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other models throughout GM as well. I guess the thinking that they are saying is that by reducing the number of
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choices available, it does help simplify the manufacturing process when there's less colors to worry about, which I
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guess makes sense. Yeah, can't really argue with that. But, you know, we're so used to having that broad lineup of
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colors, but we also had a lot of variations of a color. Three or four grays with the silver, two blues. So,
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it'd be nice to see a little bit more diversification over the 10 colors. It's just one of these things where a new
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color comes out. I love hysteria. I've seen a lot of people not like hysteria. And again, that's just whatever floats
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your boat sort of thing. We know people out there love their cacti. We know people out there love their Zeus bronze.
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Yeah. If there's a color out there that really hits home for you, don't listen to what the naysayers are doing. Do it for
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yourself. You're absolutely right. Hysteria purple is a really cool color, too. I agree. Also, Keith, we saw a technical service
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bulletin for the 2024 and 2025 Corvettes with the PDR issues. Refresh my memory.
8:39
I can't remember exactly what that issue was with the PDR. Yeah. So, this is again for people with
8:44
2024s and 2025s. What they're seeing is that the PDR might show a blank screen or nothing at all. Or if they activate
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it, it might display a welcome screen, but then doesn't do anything after that. Steve, you know, we joke sometimes that
8:57
our cars are becoming more and more like computers every day, right? And this is where it gets a little funky because Chevy's new service bulletin for this
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issue says reset the 12volt battery by disconnecting the battery cables, holding them in contact for a full five
9:10
minutes, which discharges any power remaining, and then you hook everything back up and turn it back on. So like a
9:16
computer, you're essentially rebooting it. You're turning it off and turning it back on. Right? GM says this is a software anomaly. Most
9:23
likely will go away after you perform that battery discharge, but occasionally there might be some additional issues.
9:29
So, if that's something that you tried and it's not working, take it into the dealership who can perform a deeper look into why your PDR might not be working.
9:36
But again, when I heard turn it off and turn it back on, I slapped the forehead, Steve, and said, "These things are like
9:42
computers. It's a Corvette reboot, buddy." That's right. Also, it was really cool to see the
9:47
Aussies are getting their right-hand drive E-Rays, and they did a hot lap, and it was neat to see some of their
9:53
first impressions of the -ay. Yeah. So, the 2025 Corvette just landed in Australia. We talked about that I
9:59
think the last time we were together. I these cars are expensive down there. I don't know how much they will be embraced over the regular Stingray. But
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what they did was they had a race down there with the Australian supercars. They were given hot laps to people that
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were there at the event. Seven time supercars champion Jamie Wineup took Australian Olympic gold medalist swimmer
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Ariani Titnas. I hope I spelled her name right. But she went for a hot lap on the temporary course at setup in Queensland.
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And as you can imagine, the right-hand drive Corvette with its all-wheel drive provided plenty of excitement. I like
10:29
hearing the windup of it. It's a fun video to watch because Jaime's really throwing this car around and the
10:34
all-wheel drive definitely responds very well to it. I would definitely check out that video again. There's some more
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videos of the E-rays in Australia. You can find those both on Corvette Blogger and YouTube. That sounds great, buddy. Well, let's
10:46
take our first break. When we come back, it's Corvette racing and Corvette rumors up next here on Corvette Today. We all
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I'm your host Steve Garrett. With me is my buddy Keith Cornet from corvette blogger.com. Every other week we keep
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you current and uptodate on what's happening with America's sports car. In segment two, we always cover Corvette
15:01
racing and Corvette rumors. In Corvette racing, Keith, we have some big personnel changes coming for Corvette
15:07
racing as well as Cadillac, don't we? Yeah. Our friend Doug Dehan when he was the program manager for Corvette racing,
15:13
he'd do his seminars in the Corvette corral and he would always talk about Cascade Engineering and that's where
15:19
improvements to the street car made a better race car and then the improvements they made to that race car
15:24
would then be turned around and make a better street car. We saw that C5 to C6 to C7 and now we're in C8. So for
15:31
General Motors, this also applies to personnel because what they're going to do is they're moving some people around. So after three years as managing General
15:38
Motors sports car racing program, Laura Wantrop Clauser is now headed to another assignment. This time on the production
15:45
side. This is all part of a corporate strategy of using lessons learned on the racetrack to make production vehicles
15:51
better. She will become an engineering group leader for the global hardware systems and integration team. I don't
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really know what all that job entails, Steve, but it sounds pretty complicated, doesn't it? Yes, it does. In another change, Christy
16:03
Bagy will move from her current role as Corvette Z06 GT3R program manager to
16:09
being a senior analyst for GM corporate strategy. Taking their places are going to be two new ladies. Jessica Dayne
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comes from Australia with extensive experience in racing both as a racer and then on the management side will be
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taking over for the Corvette GT3 programs while Keley Bzen will take over as the program manager duties at
16:28
Cadillac Racing. And then of course overseeing all of them is Mark Stilo who remains as GM's director of motorsports
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competition and engineering. So again it sounds like exactly what Doug used to talk about cascade engineering. You're
16:40
taking these people racing is learning by fire. You know in the heat of competition taking those skills and then
16:46
applying it to general production is a way to further enhance the whole process. It sounds like that's exactly
16:52
what they're doing. They're bringing in some new personnel who will learn it and then hopefully they'll have a chance to move up as well. Like you said, some
16:57
really big changes, but at the heart of the Corvette racing program, a lot of that stuff will all stay the same with
17:02
the personnel from Pratt Miller Motorsports, of course, the drivers and the crew team there as well. Very cool. Yeah, lots of moving parts
17:09
there, too. Also in Corvette Racing, Keith, two podium finishes in Bahrain to finish off the season. That's awesome.
17:16
Yeah, final race of the 2024 World Endurance Championship held at the six hours of Bahrain. TF Sports number 81
17:22
and 82 Corvette and Z06 has really had their best race of the season. Both cars leading the LMGT3 class multiple times.
17:29
In fact, the 81 Z06 led for a total of 121 laps during the race. So, they were
17:34
right up there in contention. In fact, they could have been a win hadn't been for a safety car, which I think split up
17:39
the groups there at the end. And they were able to get back all the way from eighth place, I believe, up to second place, but just couldn't make it to that
17:46
first place to take the win. So, yeah, both 81 and 82 finished second and third in class. Best finish so far for the
17:52
team in the World Endurance Championship. Congratulations to them. They're actually going to be returning next year for the 2025 season, which
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kicks off February 28th in Cutter. That sounds great. In the rumor section, we had a really cool video from our
18:04
buddy Mike Brink at Brink of Speed comparing the competition to the upcoming ZR1, didn't we?
18:10
When you've got 1,64 horsepower at a top speed of 233 mph, the thinking about who
18:16
you're going to kind of go up against definitely changes. You know, we see cars costing hundreds of thousands or
18:22
even millions of dollars more than the current king of the hill. Some of those names are like Rimik, Bugatti, even
18:27
Koise. On the cheaper side, and I say on the cheaper side, we're still talking hundreds of thousands to million dollars
18:33
are the McLaren W1, Ferrari F80, and the Lamborghini Revolto. It's really going
18:38
to be interesting to see the ZR1s tested against some of these supercars. And believe me, there's people out there with these cars that would love to see
18:44
how they will do against the budget car, the ZR1. I just know it's going to kick butt. So, I'm really looking forward to
18:50
this. And we just need that car to get out here and get in those hands. Boy, YouTube's not going to be the same for Corvette fans.
18:56
That's for sure. And it's a really good video. Mike brings up some good cars, even Pagani. It's really well worth
19:01
watching. Check that out. All right, Keith. Time for our final break, buddy. When we come back, it's the lighter side
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And now back to Corvette Today with your host and my husband, Steve Garrett.
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Hey, thanks for listening and watching Corvette Today, the show that talks about everything Corvette. Corvette
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I'm your host Steve Garrett. With me is my partner every other week, Keith Cornet from corvette blogger.com. Don't
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forget if you want a deeper dive into any of the stories Keith and I cover, you can always go to corvette
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blogger.com. In this final segment, we always talk about the lighter side of Corvette. Keith, I was real excited to
22:32
see this. Motor Week got a hold of an -ate and did a review on it. Yeah, I think it's the 44th season
22:38
opener for Motor Week. They've been around that long. I know. I grew up as a kid, you know, with three or four channels and, you know, there was
22:44
nothing on Sunday mornings. Sometimes you have motor week there. It was just something you'd watch, you know. Yeah.
22:49
They took a new Ray. They did some road testing first driving around the countryside and then they took it to the track where they were able to do some
22:55
launches. I think they said it was still 100°. It was very humid, but they were still able to do a 2.8 8 second sprint
23:01
to 60 mph and then 11 second flat/4er mile at 127 mph. They really seem to
23:08
like it. You know, again, I think back to Motor Week where 30 years ago, you know, the cars had 260 or 300
23:13
horsepower. Now, the -ray 655 horsepower and of course the hybrid setup with the
23:18
front motor and the rear engines. Pretty cool there. You can actually watch that test going to YouTube, search for Motor
23:24
Week, or you can watch it here on Corvette Blogger as well. That's cool. It was a good run. It really was. I enjoyed watching it. It
23:30
brought back memories. I did the same thing as you did. Three channels is all we had. You watch Motor Week. What's the
23:35
guy's name that's the host of it? John Davis. John Davis. Yep. John's an icon. All
23:40
right. Mikum Auction sold the last C7 ZR1 recently for $410,000.
23:47
I know those cars are expensive, but wow. Yeah. This wasn't on YouTube. So, I called our buddies up at Nico. I said,
23:53
"Hey, listen. You got to talk to your production people. get this car on YouTube so we can share it because I
23:59
know people want to see it. This auction happened back in September. Mikum Dallas, the very last C7 Corvette ZR1
24:05
produced was offered. Arctic white, one of 22 ZR1's finished adrenaline red with black sueded interior. The only thing
24:12
lacking on this car was a nonZTK, meaning no high wing, but it did come with the very desirable 7-speed manual
24:18
transmission. And Steve, it had just 16 miles on the odometer, so you know there'd be a collector there just
24:23
wanting it. Oh, yeah. We weren't disappointed. The video shows that the hammer fell at $360,000.
24:29
The out the-do price ended up being a record $410,000. We say record. The only one that we ever
24:35
saw beat that price was again the very first ZR1 that sold for charity. So, this was a regular one here, 16 Miles on
24:42
the clock. And yeah, it sold for some big money. You can watch the auction video, the ZR1 on Mikum at YouTube or
24:48
Corvette Blogger. I also wanted to mention that Steve and I are going to Mikum's CMI auction in January. Last
24:54
year they did a Corvette day where they gave us like a tour with a group behind the scenes. We saw some really cool
24:59
stuff there. We're going to do it again. I think on Friday, January 10th is what our tenative date is so far. We'll have
25:05
some additional details coming up as we get closer. But if you're going to be in Central Florida for Miko CMI, we would
25:10
love to have you guys join us for a little fun and action on Corvette Day. Corvette Day is Friday, January 10th.
25:16
We'd love to see you all there. Also, Keith, there's a new movie coming out called Red One, and I think The Rock is
25:21
in there. They have a red mist C8 Corvette in the movie. Yeah. So, Steve, I was watching my
25:26
Buccaneers play your Chiefs about a week ago, and first, let me say that the NFL really needs to change those overtime
25:32
rules because we lost on a coin flip, right? You lose the coin flip and then we lost the game without even getting out on the
25:38
thing. But anyways, during the game, there was a trailer for a new Christmas movie, like you said, with The Rock,
25:43
Dwayne Johnson, and then Captain America's Chris Evans. The premise is that Santa Claus, aka Red One, has been
25:50
abducted and an elite team of Santa's helpers must rescue him. So, I'm thinking, okay, another Christmas movie.
25:56
You know, the Christmas movies are actually getting better these days. You know, more action, I think, than what we're normally used to. But what really
26:02
piqued our interest in this was the trailer where Chris Evans is told to grab a Hot Wheels toy and you see him grabbing the package off the rack and
26:09
then throws it on the ground and then The Rock uses like this special ray to turn a toy into reality. And that toy
26:15
then goes from being a little Hot Wheels car up to a full-size Red Niss C8 Corvette Stingray. Once they have a real
26:21
car, the duo uses that to pursue those who are going to get coal in their stockings if Santa's helpers can rescue Red One in time to save Christmas. It
26:27
looks like a fun movie. It's actually an Amazon movie, but it's only going to be in theaters. Opens November 15th this
26:33
week. Looks like a lot of fun. Definitely check that out. If not for anything other than your American sports car has a featured role in the film.
26:40
That's awesome. Also, Keith, we got the new top 10 for Corvette dealerships that ran through October 31st. Was there any
26:47
changes in the top 10? No, not really. What's really changing is the fact that McMullen has this
26:52
insurmountable lead. 1,609 Corvettes sold over the first 10 months of this year. Wow.
26:58
They're averaging 160 cars per month and no dealer is even close. In fact, number 10 on the list has sold only 160 cars
27:05
for the year. Wow. First again as McMulan. Second, Sioka Corvette of Atlantic City. They have 95
27:11
Corvettes sold for the year and then our friend Mike Ferman and Criswell Chevrolet are third at 445 for the year.
27:17
You can see that list doesn't look like to be changing all that much. We've been able to come up with like a top 50 or
27:22
top 100 to give us a more expanded look at the Corvette sales. We generally can hopefully get those in
27:28
January again. So stay tuned for that if we can. That sounds good. Our final story is Keith Cornet and his hysteria purple
27:36
with a hard top convertible. Buddy, tell me how you like the car. Tell me about the whole buying experience. I know you
27:41
got the car with Mike Ferman and that was one of the things I really wanted to do as opposed to doing like a museum delivery. Of course, been to the
27:47
museum a 100 times. Not taking away any from that experience. If you're a first-time Corvette owner and you're new
27:52
to the car, I would definitely say do a museum delivery. But, you know, I've been doing these Sunday posts with Mike
27:58
Ferman going back almost 10 years now as one of our best sponsors here on the website. So, for me, it was important. I
28:03
wanted to go through that experience as well. I took delivery of my 2025 Corvette -ay on November 1st. That was
28:09
last Friday. We drove it home back to Tampa over two days. It was just a blast. We stopped in Savannah, showed
28:14
off the car to my mom, my sisters, and her family was there. And then Saturday afternoon, we got home. My trip was 940
28:21
mi. We averaged 22.7 miles to the gallon. Nice. Which I think is pretty good. You know,
28:27
I felt like it's pretty good. I kind of baby the car because we were still in the break-in mode. But the nice thing is I broke in that car the very first day
28:33
with a 600 mile trip from Baltimore to Savannah. Jeez, Steve, I don't know what else to say. The car is so fun to drive.
28:39
It's very smooth. I don't really have a reference as this is my first C8 Corvette, but you can really feel the
28:45
difference with the all-wheel drive, especially at low speeds. You feel that regenerative charging. It's almost like driving a manual, like being in third
28:51
gear and then coming up to a stoplight and you just kind of let off and you let the engine slow you down. You definitely feel that with the -ay. I thought that
28:58
was pretty cool. Now again, my car is hysteria purple. I think it's a beautiful color. I really like how it
29:04
color shifts depending on the light. I call it like an indigo blue in the sun in the shade or out of the sun. It's
29:11
basically grape. My friend calls it grimace. And that's kind of a name that's kind of sticking there because
29:16
purple character is what you would expect. In fact, our first stop on the way home was out of McDonald's. Took a
29:22
picture of the car outside McDonald's. You know, the very first stop the C8 Corvette ever made outside of General
29:27
Motors. remember they took the car to a McDonald's in Cadillac, Michigan, and it just so happened to be photographed by
29:33
road and track photographers as the first official sighting of the CA Corvette. So, we thought that was fun.
29:38
My car also has the bright chrome badging, which shows up well against hysteria. Bright red brake calipers,
29:43
which I was a little nervous about, but go really well with the car. People were saying I shouldn't do yellow. Yellow
29:48
would be great with this car, but I like the performance aspects of red calipers, and it really shows it off well. Yep.
29:55
Inside I've got a Skyool gray two-tone interior with matching red seat belts. Now I'm just kind of doing the learning
30:01
of it. You know, I've been home with it for about a week. I've taken it out a couple times. Just driving it around. Haven't done any of the fun stuff yet,
30:07
like launch control. That'll come. And in fact, I've got my first car show I'm going to take it to, I think, next Friday at a Chevy dealership down here.
30:14
So, looking forward to that. I know you asked me about, hey, you got any carbon fiber on there, Keith? I said, yeah, I
30:19
got the level one package. And I'm not really loading up on stuff yet, but I did do some stuff. I did obviously
30:24
scrape armor screens at the dealership and I also had the ACS composite rock guards put on for the car for my trip
30:30
home. So again, just trying to offer a little bit of protection there. I ordered a set of the full weather floor
30:35
liners with the Jake logo from our friends at Corvette Central and also got a car cover coming my way. So not quite
30:40
the 19 boxes you had, Steve, but I find myself perusing different parts and
30:46
accessories dealers. I was sitting there watching TV and I'm like, hm. So I got a little list going too of things that I
30:52
might be adding. It's a lot of fun. I'm very excited to be a new C8 Corvette owner. Just really looking forward to
30:57
learning all about this car and what it can do, its capabilities, because it's a lot of fun and it's just so beautiful.
31:03
That's all I can say about it. It's just so beautiful. Buddy, congratulations again. Many happy miles and smiles with that car. I know
31:10
you and your wife will have a great time with that car. The bad thing is is you and I are best friends. I rub off on
31:15
people real easily. So, I'm sure there's more carbon fiber in your future. Well, I've been getting emails and I expect to
31:21
get some more emails of, "Hey, look at this or look at that." So, yeah, it's been a lot of fun. I see how people get
31:27
so excited over it and so I'm just one of you guys, you know, just out there enjoying a brand new car and seeing what
31:32
it can do. I love it. I can't believe it's here. Well, congratulations again, buddy. Thanks for being back on the show and
31:38
we'll see you again in two weeks. All right, and as my plaque says on the interior, keep waving. Thanks again for
31:44
listening and watching Corvette Today. And be sure to tell your family, friends, and other Corvette enthusiasts
31:50
about the Corvette Today Show. And thanks to our sponsors, Wheelcraft. Want to dress up your Corvette with bright
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chrome or black chrome wheels? Visit wheelcraft.com to learn about their advanced PVD chrome finishing. They can
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refinish your wheels or offer a wheel exchange for most models, and it comes with a 5-year warranty. Visit
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wheelcraft.com today or call 833639-4231.
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Sold performance products at sulp.com. The official performance exhaust of
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Corvette today. Sioka Corvette at ciocorvette.com.
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E5 wheels at e5wheels.com. IntelliSense at intellisense.com.
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Also, Aerolari wheels. Get $100 off your purchase with the new promo code CT111
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at aerolari.com. Racing sport concepts at racingsports.com.
32:39
and Hendrickk Chevrolet in Kansas City at chevyusa.com. Thanks for checking out Corvette Today
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on podcast and YouTube. If you'd like to contact Steve with ideas for Corvette today, you can email him at stevegared
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33:01
Also, sign up for email notifications at corvette.k.page.
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DJ. Thanks again for listening and watching Corvette today. [Music]
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