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CORVETTE TODAY #253 - Corvette News & Headlines, Mid February 2025
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Jul 12, 2025
CORVETTE TODAY #253 - CORVETTE NEWS & HEADLINES, MID FEBRUARY 2025 Wow, you would think that because it's the middle of winter that Corvette news would be relegated to a small trickle. Nope...we have a full show of news and headlines for you next week! Keith Cornett from CorvetteBlogger is back with your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett, to bring you these Corvette headlines and more….
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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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833-84-5334. You can listen to Corvette Today on all
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everybody. It's time to bring you the latest Corvette news and headlines with my pal Keith Cornet from corvette
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blogger.com. Keith's with me every other week. We keep you current and uptodate on what's happening with America's
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sports car. Keith, welcome back to the show. Man, we got a lot of ZR1 news, buddy. It's been crazy. But you know
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what? We've been working on this for about 5 years. I actually went back and looked to see when my very first ZR1 story was and it was November of 2019.
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There was a Motor Trend article. Motor Trend actually said the ZR1 is going to be a twin turbo hybrid with 900
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horsepower. They were almost right. It was kind of close. I think they actually ended up describing the Zora there with
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a little less horsepower than what we think it will have. But again, it's just that speculation that was so huge back
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before the C8s all came out and then what that next C8s were going to be. Pretty exciting that finally the car is
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here. People are ordering it this week. Maybe by the NCM Bash. We might actually see a couple. I don't know. That might
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be a little early for customers, but definitely by Carlile. There'll be 01's in customer hands. Yeah, that's true. Well, we'll keep our
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fingers crossed. But before we get to all that, let's start off the show like we usually do and get a production
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update from the Corvette assembly plant in Bowling Green. Yeah, absolutely. So, for our latest production report, as always, we visited
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Roger Ke's daily production tracker on Facebook, and we're currently seeing about 9,553
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Stingrays have been produced along with 4,150 Z06s and 1,464
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E-rays. So, Steve, that's a total of 15,67 Corvettes produced so far for the 2025
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model year. And I always like to pull out one little stat here. And I think one of the things that we saw this week happen was that the -ray just surpassed
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the total number of -ays produced during the whole 2024 model year. Of course, that was their ramp up year, but more
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than 100 are being built each week. And there's a lot of optimism around this car, I think, as we continue to move forward with it.
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That's great. Also, Keith, February 6th was ZR1 allocation day, and then February 13th was ordering day. That's
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when it all started. How did everything go? I think it went pretty smoothly. Well, mostly smoothly. How about we say that
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the GM order bank opened for the ZR1 last Thursday, and we heard that the top dealers in the country actually received
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multiple allocations for the 1,64 horsepower supercar. It was really good to see that. We talked to some smaller
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dealers. Some got one, some got none, but I mean, that was kind of the case that we were expecting. Unfortunately,
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there are constraints on the ZR1's visible carbon fiber wheels. Those are being called late availability. But even
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more distressing is the fact that there was zero availability for the ZR1's visible carbon fiber aero package, which
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is that big wing and then the front dive planes. Right, Steve, we've been talking about carbon fiber issues with GM for
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years now, and it looks like we're going to have to continue that because they just don't seem to have the suppliers ready to go once again. And it's really
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sad because many of these first order allocations are going to some very passionate Corvette enthusiasts and they're not going to be able to order
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the car with the signature wing. I kind of likened in my blog post about this is Chevy wouldn't sell the car without an
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engine. For many people, that rear wing is the all end all of why you want this
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car. Of course, you've got that 1,64 horsepower engine, but it's just something about that wing and the look.
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And we know from the C7 ZR1's that it's the big wing cars that have retain their values and in fact cause their values to
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skyrocket. Pretty crazy there. I don't know what else to say about it. It's just like people are really kind of fed up about it. But anyways, we are also
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hearing rumors that ZR1 production will start sometime in midappril. Hopefully that'll be the case there. As for the
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other three Corvettes in the lineup, we did have order cycle for them as well. The Stingray was actually free of constraints, so no Q9i gloss black
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wheels or anything like that. It was free and clear. Great. -ay was limited ground effects, which again is carbon fiber. And the Z06 was
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limited on both ground effects and the big wing as well. So 3 years into Z06 production, we still can't get a decent
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supplies on that big wing. Hopefully things will straighten out at some point. One last point, that target production for the Stingrays, Z06s, and
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E-Rays for this last order cycle will be March 10th through March 16th. Okay. Still good stuff happening
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production-wise. It's just kind of mind-blowing that we can't get carbon fiber wings for our signature cars.
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Yeah. And especially for a guy like me who just is a freak about carbon fiber, that's really, really sad. I hope they
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get it because you are right. That big wing, it screams ZR1. So hopefully that won't be unconstrained too long. Well,
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the other thing too, Steve, is that you have no idea how many cars are going to be produced. So, if you say, "No, I'm
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going to wait." You're most likely looking at a 2026. You know, there might be a price increase. There might be
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further delays. So, you're almost forced to say, "I'll take the car. It's not what I wanted, but I'll take it if you
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want it that bad." Yeah. Again, it's just an unfortunate situation that buyers are being forced into. I hate to say this out loud, but
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you know, the aftermarket does do a good job of producing replica wings for like the Z06, Z07, and it'll probably happen
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with the ZR1 as well. Yeah. And that may be the way to go, but again, you know, it's not on that factory build sheet that is part of the
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thing that helps boost the Corvette's pricing, especially after the run has ended. It's a sad moment for something
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that should be a spectacular moment for GM. Definitely. Also, another big story, Keith. General Motors ended its 100-year
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relationship with Jack Cooper Transport. That was shocking. It was. In fact, we got the news that GM
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had pulled off Corvettes from Transporters. We wrote about that, Steve. It actually was my biggest story ever on the blog.
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Wow. In 3 days, we did 300,000 pages viewed on that one story.
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Amazing. What had happened was Jack Cooper obviously is a transport company. GM's been using them to ship vehicles from
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assembly plants to dealers across the country for I think it was 98 years is their relationship. GM was Jack Cooper's
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largest customer and Ford was their second largest customer. And what triggered all this was Ford was able to
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exercise a clause to end their contract. So Jack Cooper turned around and told GM they wanted to renegotiate to cover
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their losses after Ford left. Well, GM obviously didn't take that situation very well. We learned that they were
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pulling cars off of transporters because they didn't want Jack Cooper to use them as hostages. I mean, that's the kind of
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conversations they were having. Crazy. After multiple rounds of contract talks, GM finally said no to all of them and
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walked away from Jack Cooper. The good news is that they did have contingency plans in place and we confirmed that the
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Corvette assembly plant did begin shipping on other carriers almost immediately. I think the downtime was
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only 2 to 3 days at the most. It looks like the case is resolved. They are shipping Corvettes. It's sad that these
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drivers for Jack Cooper are kind of left out in the cold. I think they've had bankruptcy issues in the past as well,
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but they're also trying to buy some additional carriers to increase their supply that way. Who knows what's going
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to happen. We are shipping Corvettes and so that's all we can really be concerned about. Bottom line is we are shipping Corvettes
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and that's good. I'm sorry to hear about the Jack Cooper situation, but at least we are shipping Corvettes. Probably the
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biggest story that we've had in the last couple weeks, Keith. Harlon Charles and Kirk Benyan, both from the Corvette
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team, were forced into retirement by General Motors. Yeah, the Corvette Nation was stunned to learn that both Harlon Charles and Kirk
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Benyan forced into retirement. They actually joined a number of senior employees that were let go at the end of January from the automaker. What makes
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it so hard to fathom for Corvette enthusiasts is we knew these guys. These guys were part of the core of the Corvette team. They've been part of the
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team since before I was blogging and been doing this for 20 years. You know, they were already well entrenched into what they were doing. So, they've always
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been there for us, you know, answering our questions. Haron actually helped me on my Corvette order. When I first put
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my order together, I was showing a D30 color override for my Hysteria Purple and Sky Cool Gray, which the order guide
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all said that I talked to him about it at Carlile last year. He said, "Send me the details." Within two days after I
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sent him the details, he said, "Everything should be set." And of course, it was. So, it fixed my problem. And that's how he was. He was always
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fixing problems for people. He was always listening for ideas. It's just really sad. You know, he was on the team
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hard on 24 of his 37 years. And his accomplishments were everything from bringing back the Grand Sport and Z1
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names, creating special editions like the Centennial Edition, Lemon's commemorative edition, the Ronfellows AL
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championship editions, and the Z06 Carbon. He invented the performance data recorder, which he got that idea
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actually from playing a video game. All that institutional knowledge about Corvette and its history have now been
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basically severed from the Corvette team. I'm sure other Corvette members know their Corvette history, but he was a real student of it. Kirk Benion worked
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for GM for 41 years, was on the Corvette team since 1986. He was an amateur racer. He also worked on other cars. He
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was lead designer of Camaro and he worked on Tahoe, Trailblazer, and even Chevy's 15 passenger van, which I just
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find to be crazy. Wow. But it was his work on Corvette that really made him indispensable. He would spend hours in the wind tunnel with
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various Corvette designs and models figuring out where the air flow went on the cars, how it affected them and how
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they could improve the car and its air flow by using that computational fluid dynamic stuff and all that
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computerenerated. You know, you see the air coming off the cars off the sides and stuff really amazing and using that
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airflow to your advantage. What a thing to have in your toolkit. It really comes down to why were these two legends let
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go? Part of it, I believe, is just looking to reduce cost. There was a lot of senior executives that appeared to
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get the boot without regard to their experience or discussing kind of what they bring to their respective projects.
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I'm going to go a little bit deeper here. What I believe, and this is just my opinion, Steve, is that we think of Corvette as a Chevrolet product, but
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it's actually not. It's really these groups of teams that work together. The Corvette is now under a luxury and
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performance cars segment, and we know that we're really only talking about Corvettes and Cadillacs and even the Cadillac V series, if we want to be more
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specific. I know for a fact that Harland's boss was a Cadillac man. It always seemed to me that there was some
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friction between the two teams. I remember the head of Cadillac saying when the Blackwing came out that no Corvette would ever get the Blackwing,
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which is kind of funny today because it's the Escalade is running the LT4 supercharged engine that was in the Z06,
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right? And we're going to do this whole thing and then it just kind of fell apart. But it's my belief that some have been jealous of Corvette success and kind of
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the way that Corvette people look at their GM members. Corvette team is kind of up on this pedestal. I don't want to
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say it's time for a little bit of payback, but the opportunity came and they got to put some of their own people into those positions and I think that's
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a real shame. Both Mary Barah and Mark Royce didn't appear to know about this, but I know that they know about it now
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because I've seen some of the letters sent their way and they were perfect. They were spoton. This is a real shame for the Corvette team. Hoping that we
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can see Harlon and Kirk again at some shows. I know they always be treated by Corvette enthusiasts as the rock stars that they are. It's a sad time for
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Corvette, Steve, and I'm somewhat fearful about what might come next. Yeah, I was stunned and shocked, Keith, when this news came out last week, and I
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just couldn't believe it. But I do have good news for everybody that listens and watches Corvette Today. Harlon Charles
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will be on the show next week. We are going to celebrate his career with General Motors and with Corvette. I will
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do the same thing with Kirk Ben, but I had access immediately to Harlon Charles. That show will be on next week
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right after this news and headline show. Well, I think that's probably going to be one of your highest rated shows, Steve. I know. I'd be interested to hear
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it. It kind of encapsulates his career and what he's done and what he's meant for us. And he does know, he knows that
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the outpouring of love and affection that he felt from the Corvette team probably got him through this moment. He
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was kind of like known as Mr. Corvette. I know a few people have worn that moniker over the years like Taj. Taj
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retired on his own terms. Why couldn't Harland retire on his own terms? It's kind of sad there, right? We will get that whole story next
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week. Harland did a great job. It's about a 45minute show. The celebration of Harlland's career with General Motors
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and Corvette will be on next week on Corvette Today. Buddy, let's take our first break. When we come back, Corvette
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You're listening and watching Corvette Today with Steve Garrett. Thanks for checking out Corvette Today
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call 833639-4231. I'm your host Steve Garrett. With me is
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my buddy Keith Cornet from Corvette Blogger. We keep you current and up to date on what's happening in the world of Corvette every other week. In segment
18:45
two, we always cover Corvette racing and Corvette rumors. Keith, in the racing segment, a GT3R test driver did hand
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controls for Robert Wiccans, and he was with DXDT Racing. What happened with that? So, I think this is actually one
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of the inspiring stories that we're going to be hearing about for the 2025 MSA Racing season. Obviously, DXDT
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Racing has got a Corvette Z06 GT3R. They're going to be in the GTD class.
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One of their drivers is Robert Wickens, who is a parapolgic following a devastating indie car crash at 2018 at
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Pocono. Over the last few years, he's been working his way back up. He uses a Bosch hand control system, which also
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controls acceleration and braking right on the steering wheel. Tommy Milner, who was the Z06 GT3R's main test driver,
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actually tested that Bosch hand control system in the Corvette over the two days between the Roar and the Rolex 24 at
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Daytona. So, he was testing at Daytona International Speedway. They made actually a hotlap video from inside the
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cockpit showing Tommy using the hand control system. So, Robert Wickkins will be using this car when he makes his
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racing debut at the Long Beach Grand Prix on April 11th and 12th. Pretty cool story. He's very fast. He worked one of
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the ancillary series working back his way into IMSA. Like seven podiums, I think his last year there. So, I mean,
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he was really moving up fast. Wow. Glad to have him in a Corvette again. Just another opportunity to keep racing
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with that Bosch hand control system. Glad to have him behind the wheel of a Corvette. Also, speaking of racing, just
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a couple dates here, that World Endurance Championship will actually return to Cutter for their 1,812 km
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race. I think that's over 1,000 miles or so. But that race, I think it's probably like a 12 or 15 hour race, is going to
20:22
be February 28th. And then the Corvette racing teams, IMSA, they return to the grid for the 12 hours of Sebring on
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March 15th. We've got some racing coming up here in the next four to six weeks or so. That's cool. And that is a great story.
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That's really, really cool about Robert Wickens. Also, Keith, this is awesome. This is fantastic. The C8 ZR1 set five
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track lap records. We just are wiping everybody off the map. They really are. So, the same day that the ZR1
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configurator went live, GM released a video about the ZR1 setting five new track records across the USA. They had
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four test drivers that included Bill Weise, the lead performance engineer for chassis controls, Brian Wallace, lead
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vehicle dynamics engineer, Chris Barber, the ZR1 lead developer engineer, and then Aaron Link, the global vehicle
21:07
performance manager. Together, these drivers have a combined 65 years of GM level six driving experience. That's
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their highest certification for GM drivers. And all four are also certified to drive at the Nurburg Ring. So, these
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are the top GM test drivers. They took one car, a pre-production ZR1, took it to these five tracks across the US and
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set these records. The records are Watkins Glenn the long course. Bill Wise did it in 1 minute and 52.7 seconds. At
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Road America, Brian Wallace did the drive at 2 minutes and 8 seconds. At Road Atlanta, it was Chris Barber at 1
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minute and 22 seconds. And then Aaron Link did the last two at Virginia International Raceway. The full course,
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he did it in 1 minute and 47.7 seconds. And then on the Grand Course, that's the
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same course that they use for the car and driver lightning lap, he did that time in 2 minutes and 32.3 seconds.
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Wow. One of the biggest records to fall for the ZR1 was at that grand course at VIR.
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It was the McLaren Senna's 2 minute 34 seconds. It been there in the book since 2019 when they ran the car drivers
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lightning lap series. The ZR1 destroyed that time by 2.6 in 6 seconds. And it
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was also faster than the Mercedes AMG GT Black Series and the twin turbo Porsche 991.2 GT2 RS. Really just smoking times
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there. Again, everybody's saying, "Where's the Nurburg Ring time?" I've heard some rumors that they might be going back to the Nurburg Ring and
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whether or not they're going to be doing it for a time lap. They should with this car. They absolutely should. I mean,
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spend your marketing dollars on that. And then know the other thing I want to mention about this is when we posted the story actually got a comment from former
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GM test driver Jim Mero. He was hugely impressed. Left us a comment saying these are very good times. Something I
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expected when I compare them to the C7 ZR1. The C8 is about 1.3 seconds faster
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per 100 horsepower. Wow. Not taking into account much better tires, the DCT transmission, downforce,
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and the evolution of the PTM systems. Jim Marrow is telling you it's fast. You can take that to the bank. Absolutely.
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You know, Jim Mero has been on Corvette Today three times. I think it was episode number 18, episode number 42,
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and then episode number 78. So, if you want to hear some of Jim Miro's stories, you can go back and listen to those at
23:18
Corvette today. Also, this is a pretty big rumor. I know you're a real big proponent of getting a C8 Grand Sport.
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Do you think Chevrolet is really preparing for production of one? It's been one of the more persistent rumors and they're coming from multiple
23:30
calls from inside the house, is the old saying goes. We're hearing different people and all of a sudden something comes up and then you kind of connect
23:36
the dots to something you heard like three or four months ago. Let's talk Grand Sports real quick. You know, previously the C6 and the C7 Grand
23:43
Sports were essentially part Corvettes. Base engine med into a widebody chassis also featuring free flow options like
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brakes and suspension from Z06. Right. This year with the LT2 already installed in the wide body for the -ay, we think
23:56
development of this car could actually be pretty straightforward. And it's also our belief that the Grand Sport would slot into that segment between the
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Stingray and the -ray. That's a pretty widespread there without having a car. We always had something in that area
24:08
before. Put it at like $87,600. That medium price between the starting price of the Stingray at 68,300 and the
24:16
$106,000 MSRP of the -ay. Obviously having a Grand Sport in the lineup offers previous Stingrays an attractive
24:22
widebody model to upgrade to without the extra all-wheel drive system. And it would also help us reduce the quantities
24:28
of stingrays being produced which are obviously piling up on dealers lots and being offered for huge discounts. This
24:33
last rumor actually comes from our friend Rick Corvette Ki who talked about a rumor about the production line. What
24:39
he's hearing is that it might be reconfigured to optimize the production of widebody Corvettes versus the Stingray. Actually, right now the
24:46
Stingray is a little bit more the optimized car because that's what they produce the most of, right? But now with
24:51
four different cars and three of those being wide bodies, we're hearing that it might actually be sort of accommodated
24:57
the more complex building of the widebody cars. It's gonna be interesting to see what happens. I don't know if that means downtime or what, but we are
25:03
actually hearing that there could be some sort of changes at the plant and then everything will be in place when
25:08
ZR1 production starts in quarter 2. That's kind of like the latest rumor we're hearing. But again, it's coming
25:14
from multiple sources and different people. So, I'm feeling confident that this is something that's probably going to happen. Very interesting, buddy.
25:20
We'll wait and see what happens on that. We'll keep everybody up to date for sure. Also, the ZR1 build and buy
25:26
configurator is now up and running. And did it reveal a future Corvette? Well, Steve, I love this story. This might be
25:32
my favorite story of our get together this two weeks period. Of course, ZR1 build and buy configurator just came out
25:37
last week. I build a bunch of dream Corvettes that'll never see my garage, but it's been fun and that's what we do.
25:43
We build these cars. One of the things that people spotted right away was this piece of visible carbon fiber mounted to
25:49
the front wheel wells and it kind of reminded us of the spats or the flares that the C7 Grand Sport and Z06 had.
25:55
They had that little piece of trim that kind of stood out. Yeah. You know, I ended up writing a story saying, "Wow, we never saw this before."
26:00
I actually went back and looked at old spy photos and my pictures from the NCM 30th anniversary where they had the
26:06
ZR1's on display and they weren't on those cars. Huh, that's crazy. So, I, you know, I wrote up the story and then kind of went on with my day later in the
26:13
day. It's like around 5:30, 6:00, I get a call and I look at my caller ID. It's General Motors in Detroit.
26:19
I'm like, "Oh, oh god, what did I do?" Yes. And they actually said, "Hey, you know what? You found an error. It's not
26:24
supposed to be there. But if we were to fix it, it would mean taking down the configurator and they didn't want to do
26:30
that because they're right in the middle of an order cycle." And it's really the only way that sales reps are getting the
26:35
build information from ZR1 buyers is through this build and buy configurator. Yeah. They said, "We just got to leave
26:40
it up and then we'll fix it on one of our next updates." Okay. I said, "Okay." So, I'm going to go back in the story and I was typing it up and
26:46
I got to a picture where I was flipping through the configurator and Steve, it's right there in front of us. Not only is
26:51
that piece of carbon fiber there, but if you look at the driver side radiator, you will see that vertical -ay cooler
26:58
Oh, that we've seen only on the -ay, but it's also on the rumored Zora edition, which we've seen spy photos of the Zoras
27:06
with that radiator mounted right there. Pretty incredible that the configurator was hiding the Zor in plain sight. So
27:12
maybe they were working on both the cars meant to cover some stuff up, but yet here it is in plain sight. The funny
27:18
thing is, Steve, that if Chevy hadn't called me, I don't know if I would have seen it. Yeah, that's true. I wrote that the Stray Sand effect was
27:24
in full display. Well, you know, they should thank you, Keith, because you're finding things that they need to fix. I don't know what
27:30
that's worth to them, but you know, they have so many different people working on so many different things. These things happen, but it always seems
27:36
to happen to the configurator because if you remember a couple years back, we got the full load up of -ray info like a
27:42
month and a half before the car was released and it was because the visualizer went live inadvertently and
27:48
there was enough people there to grab screenshots before it was shut down. When these things flip on sometimes they'll say, "Oh yeah, it's going to
27:54
come on a Monday." They'll flip it on like on a Friday night and there'll be something weird or wrong with it. But yeah, good news for Corvette enthusiasts
28:00
is it does appear to be another future Corvette in the making. I love it. You know, we've always heard
28:05
that the Zora will be there at some point in time. Maybe this is it for sure. All right, buddy. Let's take our
28:10
final break. When we come back, it's the fun side. The lighter side of Corvette is on deck next here on Corvette today.
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Hi, I'm Mark Falter, host of the Retirement Income Hour podcast and Corvette enthusiast. I know when I
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literally. Investment advisory services offered through Mid-Americ wealth advisory group, an SEC registered
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investment advisory firm. This is the Corvette Today podcast with
31:11
Steve Garrett. Hey, thanks once again for listening and watching Corvette Today, the show that
31:16
talks about everything Corvette. Corvette Today is brought to you by Wheelcraft. You want your Corvette
31:21
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I'm your host Steve Garrett. With me is Keith Cornet from Corvette Blogger. If you want a deeper dive into any of the
31:48
stories that Keith and I cover, you can always go to corvette blogger.com. In this final segment, we always cover the
31:54
fun side, the lighter side of Corvette. Keith, I thought this was really cool because he's a fellow podcaster. Joe
32:00
Rogan feels like the C8 ZR1 is the greatest American car ever built.
32:06
Yeah. You know, I set up this story as saying, you know, the world's most popular podcaster, unfortunately, isn't my friend Steve Garrett.
32:11
Oh, no. But it is another Corvette enthusiast and an owner, and his name is Joe Rogan. And you'll like this, too. On episode
32:18
number 2,266, Joe got into the subject of the Corvette ZR1. And of course, he called it the
32:25
greatest American car ever by a long shot. And he goes on to say that it's literally a race car that you can buy.
32:31
It has 1,064 horsepower. And this is not even tuned. These things are insanely fast and insanely capable. And he goes
32:38
on, he drops a few fbombs and full support of the Corvette. It's just an amazing five-minute conversation there.
32:44
We had the video up on Corvette Blogger and you can also find it on YouTube as well. I think it's like 33 minutes into the interview, but we do have it queued
32:51
up at Corvette Blogger if you want to watch it there. He has a 65 resto mod that I know. Oh, I think he's got like
32:56
15 or 20 other cars, so he's definitely into the hobby and I think he got onto the conversation. They were talking about the Ford GTS back in the day.
33:03
Pretty fun conversation there. But he immediately switched to the Corvette and then just said how great it was. Fun conversation.
33:08
That's cool. I won't drop any fbombs, but I will listen to Joe's. Also, Keith, give me a current model
33:14
breakout for Corvette. I know that was kind of a hot topic for you. Yeah. So, I see people say things on the
33:20
internet and I sometimes wonder, is that true? And in this case, it was somebody saying that the -ray wasn't selling
33:25
well. And I was like, okay, I got to go look this up. So now, Steve, I I just watched the movie Speed last night with
33:30
Dennis Hopper and Canoe Reeves. Wow. So, not putting you on the spotlight, but pop quiz hot shot.
33:35
Okay. Do you know what the current model breakdown of the three cars is? No, I don't. All right. So, good news is Stingray is
33:42
at 63.3% of production. All right. The Z06 is at 27.2%
33:47
and the -ray is now at 9.5%. And I actually did compare those numbers to 2024's production numbers. And the
33:54
Stingray was at 72. So it went from 72 down to 63. The Z06 went from 24.6 up to
34:00
27.2. And of course the -ay which was in its ramp up phase and did that 3.3% which is what that guy was talking about
34:07
is now at that 9.5% and almost reached that 10% goal of order so far. Things are really moving I think pretty good
34:13
and then of course we're going to have another model fit in there. Hopefully, it'll change things even more and again we'll see a little bit more emphasis on
34:20
the wide bodies. Yeah, definitely. It's important to note that these are the percentages that GM
34:25
wanted to hit with these cars. So, we're right in line and on track, aren't we? It feels like again the Stingray is just
34:32
a little too high based on just how many numbers they are producing. Obviously, we can kind of look back and see that
34:37
now. If they were still selling like hotcakes, we'd be saying, "See, see, look how good they did." Yeah. Each of these models that comes out
34:43
successfully is going to take from that number. The Stingray did its job. It cemented its place as a fantastic,
34:49
cost-effective, and really a wonderful car to drive, but now the focus is on higher performance and doing the fun
34:55
stuff, and that's with the Z06, ZR1, and E-Ray. Pretty interesting model lineup we've got here for the CA Corvette.
35:01
And it's going to be growing here very, very soon, too, isn't it? Yeah. All right, buddy. How about Zora? We
35:06
want to talk about Zora. Is there some evidence that he was working on a supercharged FY C1 engine? Well, I'd
35:13
never heard this story before that he was interested in supercharging, although it really shouldn't surprise us because I mean, he was looking at all
35:19
kinds of ways to make the Corvette faster and better. And obviously back in the mid50s to save it from being
35:24
cancelled. You know, his passion for speed brought us things like that fuel injection, manual transmissions, and a
35:29
V8 powered Corvette in 55. It was in the late 50s that Duntop participated in a
35:34
secret project to make a Rochester fuel injection unit with a Detroit diesel 451
35:40
supercharger. Huh. We have this video now years later. David Crane and Larry Hoffer get together. Two old school guys that
35:46
really know their stuff. They've been researching these unique engines for years. They actually have old engineering images, dino charts, and
35:53
even the original shop order from General Motors. Wow. And the amazing thing is Dunto charged
35:58
it to piston durability. That's how he got the the funds to do this by through the dyno shop and piston durability.
36:05
Nice. Supposedly about 20 of these supercharged fuely engines were built. These two guys have the only known
36:12
complete units which they actually installed in C1 Corvettes themselves. The top of the unit says GM. It's
36:17
stamped on there. Pretty cool stuff. And so if you like Corvette history and you want to hear a story that's never really
36:22
been told before, definitely go check out that video on Zora supercharging the Corvette. I'm going to have to check that out for
36:28
sure. Our final story, Keith, this is pretty cool. We saw a ZR1 being exported
36:33
at Port Delaware. Where was it going? Yeah, so our friend Jeff Zippity Dooah, he works at Sioka Corvette Atlantic
36:39
City. He emailed me a weekend ago saying, "Hey, check out these photos. A transporter was dropping off new C8 at
36:45
the dealership, and one of those was a Big Wing ZR1." Of course, it's got its white Transport covers over it. But, you
36:50
know, that wing on the back, it could only be the ZR1, right? He actually got video of the car being
36:56
started up. He got pictures from inside the cockpit and all around the car as well, even though it was wearing its
37:01
transport cover. It did say export car on it and it's our belief that it was most likely headed to the Middle East as
37:07
a show car or promotional vehicle for GM. Some people have asked how could this car be built when Rick Hendrick
37:12
bought the first one. Again, I always have to remind people there's basically three stages of Corvette production. There's the experimental cars. Those get
37:19
crushed when they're done. Then there's the pre-production cars. These are all GM's test fleet cars that get tested and
37:25
then they're built to a standard that they can be sold back to dealers and sold as a pre-owned car once they're
37:30
done with that testing. are the executives driving them. And that's what this car is. I think it was the number 18 car. And we've heard that maybe close
37:38
to 30 cars have been built as part of that second stage. Okay. And then the third stage is like the Rick Hendrick,
37:43
the retail production when he'll get his VIN 001 car. That'll happen again when production starts up in the second
37:49
quarter. But that's the retail that's for all of us. So just always remember that, you know, when we see these cars coming out before they're supposed to
37:55
be, most likely they're test cars are owned by GM, and that's what we have here. Pretty cool that this car was actually headed to the port of Delaware.
38:01
We had a few months ago, maybe a car stopped at Criswell Chevrolet, Mike Ferman, and it was an export car that
38:08
was right-hand drive. It had a steering wheel on the right hand side that was going to the port of Baltimore to be shipped. It's just amazing that Deputy
38:14
Duda was there to capture this car as it came off the truck and just another part of the life cycle of Corvettes as they
38:20
get spread out and get shown across the world. That's awesome. Thank you, Jeff Duda. That was awesome stuff. Well, Keith,
38:25
thanks for being back on Corvette Today. And everybody, make sure you listen and watch next week. We will celebrate the
38:31
career of Harlon Charles coming up next week on Corvette Today. Sounds great. Everybody, appreciate you
38:36
guys. Check out all the stories on Corvette Blogger. And if we see you on the road, keep waving. Thanks again for listening and watching
38:42
Corvette Today. And be sure to tell your family, friends, and other Corvette enthusiasts about the Corvette Today
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Show. And thanks to our sponsors, Wheelcraft. Want to dress up your Corvette with bright chrome or black
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