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CORVETTE TODAY #241 - Corvette News & Headlines, Late November 2024 It may be the week of Thanksgiving, but there is no shortage of Corvette new to go around! Keith Cornett from CorvetteBlogger is back with your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett, to discuss these headlines and more… 1. The C8 ZR1 is Top Gear’s 2024 Best Performance Car 2. Chevrolet finishes strong in the JD Power 2024 Satisfaction Index 3. The C8 Corvette Hard Top Convertible takes home Strategic Vision’s 2024 Top Quality Award 4. The Bowling Green Assembly Plant will close for 3 weeks during Christmas and New Years 5. A new British team will race 2 GT3.R’s next year Have a terrific Thanksgiving and make CORVETTE TODAY part of your celebration!
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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
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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And a shout out to Canadian Corvette Forum and Corvette Forum, welcoming Corvette enthusiasts from around the
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world. All right, everybody. Time to bring you up to date on the latest Corvette news and headlines with my pal
3:50
Keith Cornet from corvette blogger.com. Keith is with me every other week and together we keep you current and
3:56
uptodate on what's happening with America's sports car. Keith, welcome back to the show. Happy Thanksgiving
4:01
week, buddy. Can't believe Thanksgiving's already here. I know, Steve. It's just come up on us so fast. And then, of course, we got the
4:07
other holidays coming and just a month away. And then the new year, 2024 is headed out the door here pretty quickly,
4:12
but hopefully everybody has a great Thanksgiving. I know we certainly are. My wife's like, "What do you want to do for Thanksgiving?" I said, "It doesn't
4:18
matter as long as I can drive my new Corvette." There you go. I like it, buddy. That hysteria purple is just waiting for you.
4:24
I hear it calling all the way from over here in Kansas City. Well, that's my daily startups I'm doing on it.
4:29
Nice. Well, buddy, let's start the show like we always do and let's get a Corvette production update from the Bowling Green
4:36
assembly plant. Absolutely. So, of course, we watched the VIN counts coming from Roger Ke spreadsheet on Facebook and while we're
4:42
still building a lot of Stingrays, one of the things we've noticed over many days over the couple weeks is that we've
4:47
actually seen the combined widebody C8s outproducing Stingrays about equal to or surpassing the Stingrays.
4:53
That's pretty cool, I think. And I think that's exactly what Chevy had in mind back in the day when they started rolling out these different models. So
4:59
the -ray production has actually kicked up into a higher gear. It's not the highest gear, but to provide some examples, I just went back and wrote
5:05
down the daily quantities build over the last week. So those numbers are 24, 33, 26, 25, 26, 21, 37. It's just very
5:14
strong. It's not like we've had the days before where we see some single digits. They're all in that 20 or low 30 number.
5:20
I think that's been pretty good. Yeah. As of last week, we had a total of 5,750
5:25
Stingrays, 230 Z06s, and 579 E-rays for a total of 8,358
5:32
events produced so far for 2025. Some good stuff happening there. Of course, we do like to see the higher models
5:38
going out because Chevy's making money off of those. I know there's some weight list still on those Z06s and the E-rays
5:43
as well, right? There's also some discounts happening depending on who gets those allocations. It's not like before where, you know, oh yeah, we've
5:50
seen these cars being produced, but everybody's freaking out about pricing and stuff like that. There's really been a realignment in the marketplace and so
5:56
we'll talk a little about that coming up, but good stuff happening so far for the 2025 model year. We're off to a good start for 2025.
6:02
That's for sure. Also, Bowling Green Assembly is making some plans for Christmas and New Year's production, too.
6:08
Yeah. So, workers at the Corvette assembly plant will have an extended holiday break. We learned this from our friends over at the Midian Corvette
6:13
Forum that there will be three weeks of vacation time. Actually, they're going to start that vacation after Friday
6:18
shift on December 13th. And then workers will return on Monday, January 6th. Normally, we've seen workers get one
6:24
week off or two weeks off around the holidays. Of course, it was a lot different when there was a lot more demand for the car and people were they
6:31
were really working through that. But this 3-we closure kind of makes us wonder if there's a little bit more to the story. Of course, our belief is that
6:37
this extra week of closure is directly attributable to some of the excess numbers of the C8 Stingrays that we've seen piling up on dealer lots across the
6:44
country. And then perhaps this extended holiday will allow dealers to sell off some of that excess on those in stock
6:50
C8s. Every little bit helps. Of course, we like I said, the production numbers, we've seen C8 numbers kind of come down
6:55
just a little bit and then the combined wide bodies are actually doing very well. So, it could just be part of that. They're kind of moving some stuff around
7:01
and of course the holiday gives it a little bit of time to take a pause on all production. Kind of let the market
7:07
hopefully pick up some of that slack over those three weeks. Yeah, that sounds good. And it's probably right, too. Also, we did get
7:13
allocations and constraints for the November order cycle. What do those look like? Yeah. So, we're just wrapping up the
7:18
order cycle this week and we had some interesting things happening. You know, we never get a full look at what Chevy's up to when they allocate these numbers
7:24
to dealers, but we did talk to several ones, big dealers, small dealers. And one of the things that we kind of learned for November is that the
7:30
stingray numbers were slightly down while -ray allocations were up. Again, that directly goes back to the
7:35
production numbers that we saw. As far as constraints go, one of the big stories is we had zero constraints on
7:41
the Stingray for November. I can't remember the last time we saw that. We always had something going on there. Of course, that means the Q9i gloss black
7:48
wheels are fully available and there's no splits either in production for either the 1LTS or the Z-51s versus the
7:55
nonZ51s either. That's really great news there. Hopefully, they can keep that up. Of course, they're building less Stingrays, so that's one of the stories
8:01
and dealers are getting some less stingrays. So, for ordering, that just might be a wash there. For -ray, the
8:07
constraints are just a carbon fiber front splitter, either invisible carbon fiber or carbon flash. And then the Z06,
8:12
we have availabilities for Z06 arrow and ground effects, while the painted spire wheels in black are also being limited,
8:19
but they're available in a lot of quantities. Looks like things are actually voting well for November order
8:24
cycle. And then one of the also things that we learned is that Chevy, they only did one order cycle November and they're
8:30
going to continue that by doing one round of orders in December and then another round of orders in January. Looking ahead to February is where
8:37
things might get interesting because that's the rumor of when we're expecting ZR1 to start production. Of course, that
8:42
rumor comes from Chevy itself. We're going to talk about that a little bit later as well. But good things happening on the allocation and constraint front
8:48
and hopefully they can continue to keep those high options off that list for sure. That sounds good. Keith, let's
8:53
talk about some of the accolades that we've gotten. The C8 ZR1 was Top Gear's best performance car of 2024 and it
9:00
hasn't even come out yet. I know it does seem a bit premature to be giving awards to a car that isn't officially begun
9:06
production yet. But this award actually comes from the readers of Top Gear who selected the ZR1 as 2024's best
9:13
performance car. And in fact, I got a quote here from what one of the Top Gear reader said about the ZR1. He says, "V8
9:20
Thunder, not a drop of EV nonsense and over a,000 horsepower. It's hypercar
9:25
fast at 233 mph. And if you decide if you want to spec it with or without that goofy aero package, unlike the previous
9:32
gen, you can do that. There's no limited production or guest list requirement either. So Chevrolet can build as many
9:37
as people want. It doesn't get any better at that, especially in 2024. Being that they're not making them yet, that's still great news for the Corvette
9:44
team on the ZR1's first award. And like I said, I'm sure there's going to be many more to follow with that one. Wait, hold it. Goofy a package. I love
9:51
the big wing. Yeah, I think that's what he's talking about. Some people like the wings and some people are like, whoa, that's too
9:56
much. You know, I don't need a park bench on the back of my car. You know, in Texas they say go big or go home. In Corvette world, I say go big
10:03
wing or go home. That's what There you go. Absolutely. Also, Chevy finished really
10:08
strong in the JD Power 2024 satisfaction index, which I was really excited to see.
10:13
Yeah. So, this is a study that looks at brand satisfaction as well. JD Power sampled nearly 35,000 customers and
10:20
determined their satisfaction with their sales experience this year and how it relates to the brand. So GM actually had
10:26
three brands among the top six in the study. Buick was second, GMC was fifth, and then Chevrolet came in sixth place.
10:33
Part of the satisfaction comes from the fact that dealers do have more inventory and more customers are actually paying
10:38
closer to MSRP than over as we saw previously. I think in 2023 that number was almost like 23% over MSRP, but last
10:47
year it was only about 8% over. So yeah, you'd be much more satisfied if you're paying less money at the dealership
10:52
anyways. And of course, Chevy's making some great cars, not just the Corvette. Some good stuff happening there. And just got to keep up with production, but
10:59
not too much because obviously any customer that pays MSRP or even gets a discount, it's going to feel like they
11:05
were successful in their car buying experience. Definitely. And also, GM really wants us to follow the maintenance schedule for
11:11
our C8 transmission. This is funny when I saw it, but I get it. I get it. I get it. I get it.
11:16
Yeah. because there still seems to be some confusion among owners of C8s about this transmission maintenance schedule,
11:22
what they entail, and how they might apply to earlier C8s versus newer models because there was a couple changes in
11:27
that transmission. We know the big one came right before the 2024s. So, it's mostly focused on the 2024, but there
11:33
are some 2023s that kind of fall into it. This maintenance schedule is really important to follow as GM will reject
11:39
warranty claims on transmissions if this criteria isn't met. And so what they've done is they actually sent out a letter
11:46
this week to C8 Corvette owners saying that this is the maintenance schedule for the DCT transmission. The key point
11:52
to remember is that GM wants to see all transmission oil filters replaced between 7,000 and 8,000 mi. The owner's
11:59
manual actually states 7,500 mi, but GM gives us a leeway of 500 miles before and after that mark. The next change
12:05
comes at 22,500 mi and then every additional 22,5 mi afterwards. If you've
12:10
had your transmission filter replaced prior to 7,500 miles, it still needs to be done again between 7,000 and 8,000
12:17
mi, no matter what. That's the Bible. That's what you got to go with. And finally, GM reminds us that even if you had your transmission replaced, you need
12:24
to follow these guidelines so that the filter is replaced at 7,500 miles from when you receive that replacement.
12:29
That's the big thing. And again, GM, we've heard somebody bought a used car and the previous owner didn't follow the
12:35
guidelines correctly and then actually GM rejected that warranty claim when something did happen to his
12:40
transmission. And we're hearing transmissions, new ones, cost around $20,000. So, it could be a big expense
12:45
for somebody. The other thing about this story is that we believe that some of this confusion also comes with the transmission service is the question of
12:52
who pays for it because GM initially promised to cover that during that quote first maintenance visit. However, it's
12:58
changed somewhat over the years just because motor oil needs to be changed every 12 months or 7,500 miles, but the
13:04
transmission filters just every 7500 miles. So, people were getting their motor oil changed, but not that changed.
13:10
And so, there's when do I do this again and all that stuff. Again, GM clarified this with the 2024 Corvettes that they
13:15
will cover the cost of the transmission filter if it's within 3 years of when you put your car into service. And of course, you need to be at the 7,000 mi.
13:22
If you want to change your filter prior to 7,000 mi, you can, but you're the one that's going to pay for it. It's your
13:28
responsibility. And then if it takes you more than 3 years to reach 7,000 mi, it's also your responsibility for the
13:35
replacement of that transmission filter. No matter who pays for it, just make sure that you get your car into service
13:40
between 7,000 and 8,000 mi so that that transmission filter change is documented on your Corvette service history. That's
13:46
the biggest thing that you want. And I think that if you just kind of think about that and kind of forget about who's paying for it, just focus on that
13:52
7,000 8,000 miles, you should be fine. That sounds good. All right, buddy. Time for our first break. When we come back,
13:58
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with coupon code corvette today. And now back to Corvette Today with your
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I'm your host Steve Garrett. With me is Keith Cornet from Corvette Blogger. We keep you current and up to date on what's happening with America's sports
17:41
car every other week. In segment number two, we always cover Corvette racing and Corvette rumors. Keith, let's start with
17:48
racing first. It looks like we have a new team coming to Corvette Racing next year, don't we? Yeah, this is interesting. So, this is a
17:54
British racing team named Stellar Motorsports, and they are the latest to add the new Corvette Z06 GT3R to their
18:00
racing stable. And they're actually actually looking at GT3 racing programs to participate over in Europe and in
18:07
Britain, including the British GT as well as the European Lemon Series. They might race in the Michelin Lemons Cup or
18:13
the GT World Challenge Europe Series. They're actually expected to receive two Corvettes in January. They have yet to
18:19
announce any drivers, but again, more Corvettes to see on the track is always very exciting. We're starting to fill in
18:24
some of the gaps of some of the racing series that the Corvettes currently are not racing in. So, more Corvettes out
18:29
there to root for. Also, our falsacing have announced their drivers for IMSA's
18:34
Michelin Endurance Series next year. Yeah, that's right. So, they're taking one of their Z06 GT3RS and adding it to
18:40
the IMSA GTD class in January. They announced their lineup for the five Michelin Endurance Cup races for 2025.
18:46
They include Corvette racing drivers Charlie Eastwood and Alec Udell. And also will be welcoming newcomers Cela
18:52
Ulik who is Turkish I believe. Wow. And they have a fourth driver still yet to be announced here. I actually had
18:59
lunch with Wes Wong. He was down in Tampa two weeks ago. Wes Wong is one of the ambassadors for the Corvette racing
19:04
team and of course he was a board member at the NCM. As we were talking I didn't know this but the DXDT racing team is
19:11
actually managed by Tommy Milner Cisker. Wow. And now that all makes sense as to how they got Tommy to drive in the GT
19:16
World Challenge America this summer. Miller and Udell finished second in points in 2024 after winning eight
19:22
straight races during the season, but they missed the first two races and that was just enough to give whoever came in
19:27
first. Tommy Milner comes from a racing family and I always wondered if he had a brother or sister out there that was doing something. And of course, we find
19:33
out that that is the case. Expecting some good things for DXDT racing. They're actually the most successful
19:39
Corvette Z06 GT3R program that's out there. And of course, they're going to be competing against AWA Racing, which
19:45
is also running a single Z06 GT3R in GTD. So again, more Corvettes to root for now. We'll have some Corvettes
19:51
fighting against each other for that same podium. That's always makes things a little bit more interesting, I think.
19:56
Very cool. Also, we always like Nurburgring Times. That seems to be the watermark for every car. Sport Auto from
20:03
Germany has revealed the C806 Nurburgring Time. That was pretty cool.
20:08
Yeah. So we knew they headed over there and then we were just waiting for the magazine to come out which generally takes you know 6 to 8 weeks or so. Sport
20:14
auto is a German automotive magazine and they regularly run cars at the Nurburg Ring as part of their on the ring
20:20
series. They actually tested a US spec Corvette Z06. It had the Z07 performance package and their ring time for that car
20:27
was officially 7 minutes and 10 seconds. Of course Corvette fans were really hoping for a sub 7 minute run and so we
20:34
actually did see some hand ringing over that time in the Corvette nation and we get it. We understand people were really
20:39
hoping that this would be the one to to break that sub7minute barrier. The magazine says that they believe the
20:45
reason why the Z06 wasn't faster is due to a longer fifth gear and they said it missed out hitting those top speed areas
20:52
on the circuit. What I think is interesting is that they were actually shown an unpublished video by Corvette
20:58
team driver Aaron Link showing Chevy drivers also running 710 at the Nurburg R. So, we're not exactly sure why the
21:05
Z06 wasn't faster. if it was due to that longer fifth gear or if it was maybe some software or something else that was
21:10
limiting it. The thing that I got in the back of my mind is yeah, you know, the Z06 is a track focused car in the C8
21:16
lineup, but it's really developed to run on the streets. You know, it's really a street car and so maybe there are some
21:22
concessions of that, not a dedicated track car like a Porsche GT3. Yeah, I guess we're going to have to wait for
21:27
the ZR1's time to see if we can finally get an American sports car to break that 7minute barrier at the Nurburg Rain.
21:33
Really was hoping though it'd be the Z06. This was a driver that wasn't really familiar with the car. Although
21:38
Aaron Link is probably the most familiar with it, especially the most familiar with it on the Nurburg Rings. Chevy drivers are doing 710 and then they can
21:45
bring in a magazine and also do 710. Obviously, that's pretty good for the magazine, but I know we want to see
21:50
faster times. Faster times would be good, especially under 7 minutes. That's for sure. In the rumors category, Keith, we thought we
21:56
saw five identical Z06 hardtop convertibles being built and then sent to Detroit. What's going on with that?
22:03
This is one of my favorite stories over the last two weeks because it's just like makes you kind of wonder the things that make you go hm. Right. So, a reader
22:10
at the mid-enine Corvette forum was reviewing some of the data at c8racker.com window stickers and you can see all the
22:16
cars being built. He actually found that once they started building the Sebring Metallics, Chevrolet had five identical
22:22
Corvette Z06 convertibles built and they were all shipped to Warren, Michigan at their location there. Our thinking is
22:28
that maybe this is a new special edition that Chevy's working on. All these Z06s were convertibles. They were well
22:33
optioned with Sebring orange metallic and they all had habanero interiors. All five were optioned exactly the same way
22:40
with $183,000 price tag. Each of these five cars had $49,340
22:46
in optional equipment on them. Wow. I pulled up one of the window stickers. Actually, I pulled up all five window stickers. All exactly the same. They're
22:52
option Z07 performance package. Visible carbon fiber air. Visible carbon fiber wheels with the orange brake calipers.
22:59
carbon flashels and roof, front lift, engine appearance package, and black exhaust tips. Inside, of course, we had
23:04
GT2 seats in habanero, and they all have the level two carbon fiber inside with stealth interior as well. One of our
23:11
dealer friends tells us that actually these cars were ordered as part of the product evaluation program or special
23:16
events, which means either they're going out to different events and auto shows or they've been going to product evaluation program, which is for senior
23:23
level GM managers to drive and evaluate these cars. My feeling is when they do that with the driver evaluations, I know
23:29
they tend to order different cars in different configurations. The fact that there's five with all same similar
23:35
options makes me really think that these are special editions or maybe they'll end up on a show circuit somewhere. As soon as I saw Hab and Arero, I thought
23:41
somebody's going to turn this into a special edition. Maybe that's what we're seeing here. We'll just have to wait and see. And then the other thing with this,
23:47
I have not verified this, but I did have a reader send me an email a couple days after we set this post up. Actually, he
23:53
thought there were seven cars. There might be a two additional in that C8 tracker that we missed. Oh, pretty interesting. With that many
23:59
options, $49,000 in optional equipment, that's a4 million for just these five cars. Yeah.
24:04
For executives just to drive around in. I think there's a different purpose here. And I can't wait to find out what it is.
24:09
Well, I like the spec. If they need someone to drive, give me a call. Shoot. I mean, that's right up your alley.
24:15
Carbon fiber. Absolutely right. Our final rumor, Keith, and this is a big one. It's a juicy one. The 2025 ZR1 ordering will
24:22
start in February 2025. I find that interesting because we don't even have
24:27
pricing yet. Exactly. Chevrolet when they first revealed the 2025 Corvette CR1, it was always accompanied by disclaimer saying
24:33
the car will be available in 2025. Yeah, we are waiting on pricing, but this information comes from Chevrolet
24:40
directly in their latest dealer memo. They put out there that they're going to start the ordering process in February
24:45
of 2025. So, that hopefully means ZR1 production will probably kick off a few weeks later, maybe in March. We still
24:52
haven't seen the team do a final sign off on the pre-production cars. We know that they have yet to build any 2025
24:58
ZR1s that are quote salailable units, meaning that they can test them and then when they're done, they can put them back into their dealer network as a
25:04
pre-owned car. Currently, I think there's close to about 50 experimental ZR1s driving around the country at this
25:10
time. So, there's going to be a lot of things happening very quickly. First, they got to go to the salailable units
25:15
and then they've got to set up the pricing and then we'll go into the ordering and all that stuff and of course all the other stuff that comes
25:21
along with it. We haven't seen an order guide yet for the ZR1. So, there's a lot of stuff that's going to happen in these next two months or so if we are actually
25:27
going to see ordering in February. Well, I like it in February. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything falls
25:33
into place and we can actually start doing that in February. Well, buddy, let's take our final break. When we come
25:38
back, it's the fun side, the lighter side of Corvette. Up next here on Corvette Today.
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And now back to the only current podcast on Corvettes, Corvette Today with your host, Steve Garrett. Hey, thanks once
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again 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 pal Keith Cornet from corvette blogger.com. If you want a deeper dive
29:25
into any of the stories we talk about, you can always go to corvette blogger.com. In this final segment, we
29:31
talk about the fun side, the lighter side of Corvette. Keith, there were two brothers that detailed 119 years of
29:38
Corvette ownership. Oh my gosh. Yeah, that's pretty cool. I mean, talk about goals, right? This is a video that comes
29:44
from a YouTube channel called Heart and Horsepower, and it features two brothers, William and Glenn Smith, who
29:50
owned their C1 Corvettes for a combined 119 years. So, William was first. He purchased his 1960 Corvette in 1962,
29:57
paid a whopping $2,800 for it. And then his brother Glenn, he had a 1960 Corvette, but then he bought a 62
30:04
Corvette in 1970. He paid 1,200 for it. Wow. And they still own both of these
30:10
Corvettes today. The brothers tell some fun stories, and if you're looking for something to watch on YouTube, this
30:15
would be a really good one. Again, that YouTube channel is called Heart and Horsepower. Really good stuff there. Nice. Also, we had a really good video
30:22
about an airbox Corvette. I know what an airbox Corvette is. I bet some of our listeners and viewers don't, though.
30:28
Yeah. In fact, I wrote about this specific 1957 Corvette way back in 2007,
30:33
and I remember going over to the Corvette forum and asking me, "Please, someone educate me on exactly how these airbox Corvettes are and what they did."
30:39
The story goes that Zora was working on a race ready options pack for the 57 Corvette. They already had the fuel
30:46
injection and the four-speed manual transmission, but as fuelies do better with cooler air, Zor and his team rigged
30:51
up what is basically a cold air intake that grabs air moving over the fender. There was a little vent there. That air
30:57
then was routed to the Rochester fuel injection unit. Only 43 of these Corvettes were built with this option.
31:02
This black 1957 Corvette in the video was actually the pilot car, meaning it was the very first to have this option.
31:08
The story of this car is really cool because it was originally raced by a small town Chevy dealer for a year or so
31:14
before it was sold and then it went through a couple owners and eventually it ended up in pieces in a farmer's barn
31:19
in Ohio. Some people knew about the car eventually as they were looking over it.
31:24
I mean they basically had to climb over it on top of it looking down. A knowledgeable guy believed it was one of
31:29
these 43 airbox Corvettes. This video that goes into this story legend of the airbox Corvette talks about how it was
31:35
pulled out and restored. They have some pictures of it from when it was in pieces and then finished today. It's a
31:40
very well-known Corvette today, so you probably recognize it. We do know that the car went for sale a couple years
31:46
ago. They were asking 900,000 for it. Wow. Not sure if it ever sold or not, but some really great Corvette history here.
31:52
If you want to learn about the airbox Corvette, we have these stuff on the C7s. Remember when GM came out with
31:58
their cold air intakes with the Jake logos on them for the ZR1 and the Z06? Yep. It's same concept, you know, to cool the
32:04
air as it goes into the engine. Yeah. Really good stuff there. This was Zora at probably his height of engineering for the cars and some great
32:11
Corvette history here. Very cool. Very cool. Something else very cool, Peter Brock is the man who
32:16
designed and developed the look of the C2 Corvette. He was on Corvette today number 30 in year number one. Peter
32:23
Brock is still going strong and he unveiled his new studio concept Corvette at SEMA recently. Yeah, this is pretty
32:29
cool because the idea behind the studio concept is it's kind of the way Peter envisioned the car back in the day while
32:35
also kind of giving it some updates with some modern design elements. So, what he did was they took a donor car, they did
32:41
all kinds of updates on it. So, bigger rear windows, which look really nice on it. All the vents are functional. You
32:47
know, the 63s had those vents on the hood, but they were just indentations with a overlay on it. They weren't real
32:52
vents. Right now, the Star has fully functional vents all the way around. The cool thing is we're actually hearing that this could
32:58
actually be turned into a series of resto mods, kind of a studio concept Corvette series designed by Peter Brock.
33:04
So again, some really strong creds there in the design department. He unveiled this car at SEMA and you can see the
33:10
video of the split window being unveiled there and he's doing the talking. I think it's his wife on the camera. You hear her in the background doing, hey,
33:16
mention this or mention that. It's kind of a cute video. But when you see the rear windows on this car, that was one
33:22
of the things that Zora really disliked about the split window was because he said that split in the middle blocked
33:27
the view. But if you had bigger windows around it, that then kind of negates that criticism. So it's wondering if
33:33
they had these bigger windows in the back to start with had it been that Zora would have said, "Hey, we're cool with that."
33:38
Yeah, that's really cool. Go watch that video and then go listen to Corvette Today number 30. That was the week of
33:44
November 9th of 2020 and hear the entire Peter Brock story. It's really, really cool. Also, Keith, this is really weird.
33:51
I'm going to argue with you on this one. IC cars has a new study that shows the Corvette is the second most dangerous
33:58
card on the road. What's going on with that? Yeah, this is pretty crazy, Steve. This
34:03
might be my most read article for 2024, as we currently have about a quarter million page views on it. Wow.
34:08
People see this, that obviously grabs some eyeballs. Yeah. The study comes from IC cars and they analyze the
34:13
fatality data of model years 2018 through 2022 vehicles and then they list the Corvette is second behind the
34:19
Hyundai Venue whatever that is, you know. Yeah, the Porsche 911 was fourth and the
34:24
Camaro is 13th on this list. These are really safe cars. Most of them are crash tested, but IC cars actually says some
34:30
of these safety features in sports cars like the Corvette and the Porsche are kind of being countered by distractive
34:35
driving and higher rates of speed leading to rising accidents and death rates in recent years. I think this is
34:41
an interesting exercise. The Corvette rank comes from an average of 13.6 deaths per billion vehicle miles or 4.8
34:49
times the overall average. But, you know, I don't know anybody that's driven their car a billion miles or whether they've even averaged a billion miles in
34:55
Corvettes anyway, right? Some of this data is kind of being presented in a way to grab some headlines whether the car is truly
35:02
dangerous or whether it's just because you feel like Superman in it, you go out and do some stupid stuff. I think that's
35:08
probably the major cause there. But still, it's an interesting exercise. And if you take the way they did the data and apply it across the spectrum of
35:14
cars, you can see those cars at Corvette Blogger what they are. Again, I'd like to go look up a Hyundai venue and see
35:20
what that's all about. Yeah, you know, I call BS on this. I think it's all clickbait, but you know what? It does grab some headlines, and
35:27
we're talking about it on Corvette today. There you go. And again, this is a reputable company that does do a lot of
35:33
this stuff. Yeah. But again, I think this one was designed to just grab some headlines. It doesn't really say, you know, the Corvette's a dangerous car.
35:39
just sitting there in front of you. Yeah. Oh well, let's move on, buddy.
35:45
The 2024 hardtop convertible Corvette took home the strategic vision 2024 top
35:50
quality award. The CA Corvette just keeps on winning. This was the winner of the premium convertible roadster
35:56
category. They did a survey based on 77,000 new vehicle buyers during their first 90 days of ownership. And it
36:02
actually combines both emotional and rational evaluations of quality and vehicle performance. It's done right
36:08
after people get it. So, of course, you know, when you get a new Corvette, I'm over the moon over mine. Of course, I'm excited. So, if somebody was to call me
36:14
up and say, "Hey, what do you think about your new car?" I'd be like, "Yeah, it's the best car ever."
36:19
That's right. I think there's a lot of that when it comes to Corvette and these kinds of surveys because we just love our cars so
36:24
much. And for most of us, it's not just we went down and said, "Oh, I'm going to buy a Corvette today and just go pick one off the lot." It's something that
36:30
we've dreamt about. We've spent night after night on the visualizers and configurators. So, there's a little bit more of an emotional attachment to when
36:36
we do buy a car than other models and vans. Great to see owners stepping up and saying, "Yeah, they do love their Corvettes." And the convertibles, I
36:43
mean, let's face it, you press a button, 16 seconds later, you're top down or top up. So, you can't beat that. Got to love it. Got to love it. Well,
36:50
buddy, thanks for being back on Corvette today. Happy Thanksgiving and we'll see you after the Thanksgiving break.
36:55
Sounds good, Steve. Looking forward to it. Everybody, have a happy Thanksgiving. Have a safe Thanksgiving and we'll see you back in December.
37:00
Thanks again for listening and watching Corvette Today. And be sure to tell your family, friends, and other Corvette
37:06
enthusiasts about the Corvette Today Show. And thanks to our sponsors, Wheelcraft. Want to dress up your
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and Hendrickk Chevrolet in Kansas City at cheviusa.com. Thanks for checking out Corvette Today
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