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CORVETTE TODAY #255 - Corvette News & Headlines, Early March 2025
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Jul 12, 2025
CORVETTE TODAY #255 - Corvette News & Headlines, Early March 2025 With the ending of February and the beginning of March, hope springs eternal for Springtime! And, as we start looking towards the beginning of car show season, we have important Corvette new for you with this show. Keith Cornett from CorvetteBlogger joins your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett, to cover these stories and more… 1. Corvette ranks first in JD Power’s 2025 Vehicle Dependability Study 2. GM delays ZR1 orders in hopes of sourcing hight wings 3. Costco members can get up to $3,000 off Stingray and E-Ray 4. Is the C8 Zora 1,400 horsepower? 5. The National Corvette Museum is restoring Zora’s Corvette Listen to the podcast, watch the show on YouTube, join the Facebook Group, sign up for email notifications, follow the show on social media and shop in the newly updated CORVETTE TODAY Merchandise Store at: www.CorvetteToday.com (about:invalid#zCSafez)
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[Music] Welcome to Corvette Today, the show that
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talks about everything Corvette with your host Steve Garrett, lifetime member of the National Corvette Museum,
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president of the Corvette Club of Kansas City, Missouri, and radio disc jockey at the number one radio station in Kansas
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City for over 45 years. Here's Steve Garrett.
0:28
Thanks for listening and watching Corvette Today, the show that talks about everything Corvette and the only
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current podcast dedicated to Corvette. I'm your host, Steve Garrett. I appreciate you tuning in. Corvette Today
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is brought to you by Wheelcraft. Want to dress up your Corvette with bright chrome or black chrome wheels? Visit
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everybody, it's time to bring you the latest Corvette news and headlines with my buddy Keith Cornet from corvette
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blogger.com. Keith with me every other week. We keep you current and uptodate on what's happening with America Sports
3:59
Car. Keith, welcome back to the show. It feels like Tampa weather here in Kansas City. It's sunny and 70, buddy. Finally.
4:05
You know, I love to share our weather with others that are less fortunate than we are usually. if it continues to be
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like it's been down here. Sebring is just going to be fantastic. You know, we've had 78 degrees and sunny for the last couple weeks. So, let's hope it
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holds out for Sebring and moves across the country for the other people out there that want to get their Corvettes out on those first drives.
4:23
Yeah, I actually got my 70th anniversary Stingray Coupe out a few times already, so I'm really happy and excited about
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that. I had it covered up and plugged in. Hadn't seen it for a couple months, but I was glad to get it back out.
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Yeah, that'd be hard putting away your friend that long. So, I'm glad you're out and driving again. Yep. Absolutely. All right, buddy. Let's
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get going. Let's get a Corvette production update from the Bowling Green assembly plant. Absolutely. So, our last kind of
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Corvettes produced for the 2025 model year, we're at 16,191.
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Really a nice solid number there. That breaks down to 10,57 Stingrays, 4533
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Z06s, and 1,601 E-rays. We've actually seen over the last few weeks that
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stingray production has dropped just a little bit more. I know we talked about this one or two weeks ago that we were
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together, but it's been interesting to kind of watch. So like the week of January 10th, there were 443 stingrays
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produced during that week. While February 10th, we saw 387 and then the week after that it was 341. Now, there
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might have been a snow day in there on that 341 week, but you're definitely seeing less stingrays being built.
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That's something there. We're going to talk about that a little bit up here. The other thing interesting I found was as for the -ays, we finally exceeded
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last year's total. Last year they built 1,417 and now we've got the 1,600. So, a
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little over 3,000 - out there now. Not enough in my count. You guys are really missing out if you're not trying one.
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Yeah, I know. Our friend Jeremy Wellbborne had a Z06 and he sold it and got an -ay. He likes the -ay better than
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the Z06. Well, our friend Mike Ferman also just traded in his Z06 for an as well.
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Yeah, it's a trend. There you go. Also, speaking of Bowling Green, Keith,
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I know that the plant is going to be shut down for a few weeks here and there, aren't they? Yeah. So, again, this goes back to that
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rumor we had a few weeks back about the Corvette assembly plant possibly undergoing some changes that would help
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increase their production of widebody Corvettes. Right now, it's like the focus is on the Stingrays, and we've heard that they can run only so many
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wide bodies, maybe only back to back or there's got to be some separation there because just things take a little bit longer on them. We've actually heard
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there might be some reconfiguration and that looks to be true because the plan announced four weeks of closures, not
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altogether. The first closure actually happened last week and then the next closures are March 17th, the week of
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March 24th. So there's going to be two weeks off there and then again May 19th to the 23rd it'll be closed there. Now a
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spokesperson confirmed with motor one that these pauses are for project improvements and manufacturing updates.
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So it certainly sounds like some work that's being done on the line. Our only thoughts are is that this could only
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help increase the ability to produce the wide bodies. You know, we've got the Z06, we've got the -ay, we've got the
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ZR1 coming online sometime in second quarter. And then, of course, there's the rumored Grand Sport, which might be
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coming next year, might be a year after. So, it just have to see where that is, but it looks like the trend is happening
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towards the wide bodies now. And that's where GM wants to put the focus on. That's good. That's really good. Also,
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you can now order a Z06 in the UK. That's pretty exciting. Yeah. So, you know, Corvette enthusiasts
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in Great Britain could already get a 2024 Z06, but we believe that this is the first time that they can actually
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order the car that they want. You know, they don't have to choose from some predetermined specs that make it easier
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to get those countries first in there. So, there's three dealers in the country that handle Corvette sales, and the
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price for the right-hand drive Corvettes in Great Britain start at 179,000,
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which is about the equivalent of £188,000. Pretty steep price there, but it is an
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export car. And I know that there are some Z06 enthusiasts in Great Britain and UK that cannot wait to get it.
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That's really cool. Also, Corvette was ranked first in JD Powers 2025 vehicle
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dependability study. Another accolade for Corvette. Absolutely. Okay, so this is interesting. Corvette took first place
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in the premium sport car category in this 36th annual study by JD Power. So, what they do is they actually measure
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long-term vehicle reliability based on responses. So, they're looking actually at the 2022 model year. They reached out
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to the 34,175 original owners of that car and did a survey with those. And the study ran in
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2024 covered 184 specific problem areas across nine major vehicle categories
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like driving assistance, driving experience, exterior, the infotainment system, powertrain, seats, and more. We
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often hear, oh, you know, it's so unreliable and there's so many transmission problems and such. But is it really? Was there really that many
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transmission problems or is it just the fact that we tend to focus on the negatives? And so when somebody goes on Facebook or one of the forums and says,
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"Oh, my transmission's bricked." We think that they're all that way. And that's not the case at all. These are owner surveys and the owners are saying
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that they had a good experience. We like to hear that. And I think they kind of need to be made out there so people understand what they're saying.
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And you bring up a good point, buddy, because when you see those on the forums, you think, "Oh gosh, the sky is falling." That's one person out of
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thousands and thousands of Corvettes, whether it be Stingray, Z06, or -ay,
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right? Exactly. Yeah. I mean, they talked to 34,000 original owners in the survey. They put the responses of those surveys.
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So, that's how they kind of got it. Yeah. Yeah. And I was glad to hear this actually. GM is delaying the ZR1 orders
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because they're trying to get a source on High Wings, which I think is smart. It was smart, Steve, if they would have
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done it before the order started. Right. Right. This is the first order cycle for the ZR1. It happened a week ago. GM
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obviously wasn't ready for it because they had no available high wings for the cars. They also didn't have any visible carbon fiber wheels. And you know,
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understand this is GM supercar, a Corvette capable of running 233 miles an hour. They told us how important that
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rear wing and the aerodynamics of a car, you know, it generates 1,200 lb of downforce, right?
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And for them to start orders without having any supply of high wings is just unfathomable. And I guess the people
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inside GM finally figured that out after the order cycle was done because what happened was order cycle was done last
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Tuesday. When you submit an order, it went to 3,000, which you know is getting ready for sequencing. And then all of a
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sudden, all these orders started jumping all around, all these different codes, and they all got moved back to 2,000 again. There was a statement, some guy
10:17
found it and put it up on Corvette forum that basically said they're working to find these high wings, but no dealer
10:23
that we talked to got that message. And so dealers had no ideas why their orders are changing, doing that until we
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started bringing attention to it. Others, like on the mini Corvette forum, they were all over the story. We actually ended up reaching out to
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someone close to the matter. And when I say close to the matter, that's GM speak for don't use my name. But we were told
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that they recognize the enthusiasm for the Highwing and that they're making efforts to get them to customers. But there's still no time frame for all this
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to when it's going to happen. All we know is that when it does, dealers are going to be contacted. It's going to kind of be like another round of
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constraints where the dealers will then say, "Oh, I've got X amount of high wings I might be able to get." And then they will be told that they can order
11:01
those. But again, the problem is exasperated because they're doing this after that order cycle was complete. So
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basically, if you were on a dealer's list and you said, "No, I don't want the car. I don't want this allocation
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because it doesn't have the Highwing. I'll wait." And then somebody skipped over me. What do you do then? Does that person then get the Highwing if they
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want it? What about me? And then what about those customers whose orders didn't want the Highwing? Now they're
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all being held up as well. So it's a big mess. It's a mess of their own making because there's no way they should have
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moved forward without having a supply of high wings for this car, let alone zero high wings. We're in a holding pattern.
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Dealers don't know anything. Customers don't know anything. And here we are. Yep. Here we are. Is exactly right.
11:39
Well, buddy, let's take our first break. When we come back, it's Corvette racing and Corvette rumors on deck next here on
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You're enjoying the only current podcast on Corvettes. Corvette Today. Thanks for listening and watching
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I'm your host Steve Garrett. With me is my buddy Keith Cornet. He's here every other week. We keep you current and up
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to date on what's happening with America Sports Car. In the second segment, we always cover Corvette racing and
15:38
Corvette rumors. We got a lot of stuff here, Keith. First of all, Corvette Racing is in Carter for the WEC.
15:45
Yeah, we're talking about TF Sport and the two Corvette Z06 GT3RS that they have. This is the 1812 kmter race that
15:52
opens the season for the World Endurance Championship Series. Now, we know that the Corvettes did pretty well in their prologue. They call it the prologue,
15:58
which is kind of like our roar before the 24 for the IPSO series. So they had a prologue which was like their first
16:03
official practices and then they just had the qualifying in which case the two Corvettes qualified I believe 8th and
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11th. Not as great as we wanted. We're waiting to see what they do. Of course the race is going to be held over the weekend and we'll have those race
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results next time we get together. As far as Corvette Racing's next grind in IMSA that'll happen at the 12 hours of
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Sebring on March 15th. So just a couple weeks away from that as well. That sounds good. Also, this is really
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cool to see. AWA Racing is going to retire its Rolex 24 GTD winning car.
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That's the number 13 car. Are they going to replace that car once they retire it? Yeah. So, they had a number 17 car that
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they were prepping for Le Man's. What they did was they moved that over. They're going to spec that for IMSA. And
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they've got actually another car coming in. That'll be their Le Man's car. They got the Le Man's car because of having a
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top rated bronze driver doing well, I think, last season. And that got him into it. Now, we've got this car being
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retired. It's going to be retired in that post-race condition. So, you can see how dirty it was. You know, it's a
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small team, so they're obviously real proud of that effort. They want to keep that car for prosperity. Last year, AWA
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had a really tough going at the beginning of the season, but when you look at the end of the season, they had four top six finishes and then, you
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know, to turn around and win the Rolex 24 round of the game for 2025, I'd say things are moving up for AWA Racing and
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their Z06 GT3RS. That's really cool. Let's turn to rumors now, Keith. Is the Zora gonna be 1,400
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horsepower? That'd be awesome. Yeah, this is pretty interesting. So, our friend Mike Brink over at the Break of Speed YouTube channel, he found a
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clip from Doug Deo, who's one of the big YouTube reviewers out there. Doug was talking in a podcast about the
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performance hybrid version of the ZR1, which we've been calling the Zora. If you take the ZR1's,
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164 horsepower and add the E-Ray's 160 horsepower front motor to the car, that's 1,224
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horsepower combined. Doug is saying he's hearing up to 1,400 horsepower on the Zora. Might be one of those things. Is
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he just saying that or not? You know, he's already had access to the ZR14 review. And maybe it's possible there
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were some conversations behind the scenes from those that kind of gave Doug that info, but he talked about it on that podcast with some authority. So, it
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kind of makes you wonder if they're going to be able to get more horsepower out of the Zora version than they do out
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of the -ay version. Boy, that's a juicy rumor, buddy. That's pretty cool. Also, we've heard that the Rapid Blue and the two-tone blue
18:19
interior may be going away for 2026. Say it isn't. So, now I think the word on the street is
18:25
that Rapid Blue is on its way out. You know, it's been on the car now for six model years, but for 2025, it's actually
18:32
the slowest selling color right now. We did a comparison of all the colors just a month ago, and it was second to last
18:39
only by Sebring Orange, which got a late start. So once Sebring Orange came on, it's to be rapid blue every week of
18:46
production. We'll see what's happening there, but it looks like rapid blue is gone. The other rumor now is that the
18:51
two-tone blue interior will be gone as well. That interior was only on 3% of all Corvettes built in 2024. You know,
18:57
it's a level three interior color. It looks great, but yet our color palette has changed on the exterior. So maybe
19:04
they're changing the interior color to match that. Will there be another blue? We're not really sure. We don't even
19:09
have what the exterior color will be replaced with. We are hearing that these two colors are gone, but nothing that's going to replace them yet. We should
19:15
have that information soon because, you know, the first order sessions for the 2026s were set for April. So, I'm
19:22
thinking we should be getting a Corvette order guide and some additional information about those 26es coming up pretty shortly.
19:27
Yeah, that's true. And I'm really surprised because Rapid Blue when it came out, it was really hot. It was very
19:32
popular. Yeah, it was at least in the top four, five, six colors for a couple years. Yeah.
19:37
But, you know, every manufacturer has this color now. And so I think, you know, after a while your eyes get tired
19:42
of seeing them. Rick Kiy has two of them now. He loves the color. Would do it again. Our friend John had the blue
19:48
interior in his cars. Looks great in black and a couple other colors. Hopefully they'll come up with some new
19:53
ideas and keep refreshing these cars so that, you know, gives people an opportunity to get something different.
19:58
Yeah. I guess the Rapid Blue has run its course along with the two-tone interior. We've seen some ZR1's doing some winter
20:04
testing in Kentucky, haven't we? Yeah. So over the last few weeks, we've got engineering teams going all over the
20:09
place. We've got the 25 ZR1s being tested in Northern Michigan. Tons of snow up there. They don't measure snow
20:15
by inches, they measure it by feet up there. We actually saw some -ays as well in the group. So you have to wonder, are
20:21
they testing the hybrids and the all-wheel drive cars with the ZR1s? Many of those been Zora models that they were
20:27
testing up there. So they had the Zora hybrid and then the -ray hybrid together. We really don't know that yet,
20:32
but it's just something that we see there. But then we also have some pics of the engineering team driving a group of ZR1s south through Kentucky. They
20:39
stopped at a Cheddar restaurant and I had a nice little group shot. We also have photos of them on the tail of the dragon as well. So I actually went and
20:46
bought some of those photos so we could show them on the website. If you go to Corvette Blogger, you can see those there. Nice. That's awesome. I can't believe
20:52
you bought somebody else's pictures. That's really cool. That's right. All right, buddy. Let's take our final break. When we come back, it's the fun
20:58
side of Corvette on deck next here on Corvette Today.
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vision, I got you covered. Search the retirement income hour podcast wherever
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literally. Investment advisory services offered through Mid-American Wealth Advisory Group, an SEC registered
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investment advisory firm. This is the Corvette Today podcast with
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Steve Garrett. Thanks once again for checking out Corvette Today on podcast and YouTube.
24:02
It's the only current podcast dedicated to Corvette. Corvette Today is brought to you by Wheelcraft. Look, I know you
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want your Corvette looking its best. We can finally get them out. Dress it up with bright chrome or black chrome
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wheels. Visit wheelcraft.com and learn about their advanced PVD chrome finishing. They can refinish your wheels
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or do a wheel exchange. And you also get a 5-year warranty. So visit wheelcraft.com today or just give him a
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call 833-639-4231. I'm your host Steve Garrett. With me is
24:32
my pal Keith Cornet from Corvette Blogger. If you want a deeper dive into any of the stories that Keith and I
24:37
cover, you can always go to corvette blogger.com. In this final segment, we cover the lighter side, the fun side of
24:44
Corvette. Keith, this is kind of interesting. It probably ought to go in the news category, but GM has issued a
24:49
TSB for 2025 Corvettes. They might need a body control module reprogrammed.
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What's up with that? Yeah, so this is a technical service bulletin. And what happens is cars come in for service for reasons after so many
25:03
cars have come in for the same reason. They say, "Aha, this is what's going on." So, we issue a technical service bulletin. This one is specifically for
25:10
2025 Corvettes and it has to do with the body control module is presenting a diagnostic trouble code which is causing
25:16
a check engine light. The owner is probably only seeing the check engine light when they take it in. If it matches up to the diagnostic code
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matches up to the TSB, then the tech realizes, oh, all I have to do is reprogram the body control module and
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it'll be all set. Again, 2025s only. We don't have any idea how many cars it affects, but you get a check engine
25:34
light. You take it to the dealer and they fix it at no charge as they should. Easy peasy, I guess. Right. I guess so.
25:40
That sounds good. All right. Also, this is kind of weird with Car and Driver. They had no ZR1 at their Lightning Lap
25:46
this year. Why not? Yeah. So, the production of the car just didn't start in time for the ZR1 to be
25:51
included in Car and Driver's Lightning Lap. They do their testing out at Virginia International Raceway every year. And it's got to be a new
25:57
production car that's out. You obviously saw the pre-production cars do their thing with the GM drivers. We're
26:03
actually going to have to wait till next year before the ZR1 will be available for the Lightning Lap test. We did have
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another GM vehicle this year. It was the Cadillac CT5V Blackwing. Of course, that's powered by the C706's
26:15
supercharged LT4 V8. With this refresh, it actually finished 2 seconds faster than the previous model. The 2022 model
26:22
did the time in 2 minutes 49 seconds.4, while that this new car, the 2025, did it in 247. That time actually put it
26:30
faster than the C8 Corvette Stingray. bigger engine, you know, that that actually puts the power to the pavement and gets the car going. Good to see. But
26:36
yeah, we're all waiting for the ZR1. So, it was kind of antilimactic this year for us. Yeah, definitely. I'm sure it'll be in
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next year's Lightning Lab. Also, Keith, if you're a Costco member, you're in luck, my friend, because you can get up
26:47
to $3,000 in rebates on a Stingray or an That's right. So, this is a new
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incentive. They've done this before. And of course, Costco has an automotive website where you can go and buy your car. You can actually build it out the
26:59
way you want to and stuff like that. It's pretty crazy. Wow. For Costco members who are a gold star or a business membership, they can get
27:06
up to $2,750 off the purchase of a 2024, 2025 Corvette, Stingray, or Ray. And then
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those who have the executive membership can get a rebate incentive of up to $3,000 on the purchase of the car. The
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good news is that these are stackable on top of other discounts and incentives that GM offers. To score these rebates,
27:24
you want to visit costcoauto.com, register to receive your certificate with that unique promotion code. And
27:31
then you go to your Chevrolet dealership and present that certificate to get your incentive there to count towards your
27:36
purchase price. It sounds pretty easy. And of course, I'm sure that dealers would love to move some stock. And so if
27:42
Costco can help do that, then even better. That's really cool. I'm going to have to go check and see what kind of membership I've got for Costco. That's really
27:48
slick. Our final story, Keith, and this is really cool. The National Corvette Museum is restoring Zora's only Corvette
27:55
that he ever owned. Yeah, it was a 1974 coupe. It was donated to the National Corvette Museum shortly after his death in 1996. And of
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course, if you've been there, they have this whole nice little section on Zora. His remains and the wife of hiselfie remains are stored there as well. It's a
28:09
very nice presentation. So, he had the car that always sat there. They decided that, you know, now is the time to do some refreshing on it. They're not doing
28:15
a full-blown restoration we think about where it restores it back to new. What they're doing is they're keeping it up
28:21
to date. Just making sure that it's being mechanically cared for, but they're not putting it back to new. Of course, it's got a custom paint job on
28:27
it. Zora's initials Z A D are painted on the doors. So, what they've done is they've got the body off, they've got
28:33
the engine out of the car, and they're doing that work on it. They said that project is expected to be completed by
28:38
August. So, those going to the NCM Bash in April will be able to see that latest work on the car. Speaking of the NCM
28:44
Bash, the Corvette Museum does have registration now open for the event. Go register. We're going to be there. A
28:49
whole bunch of friends of us are going to be there. It's going to be a little bit different this year with no Kirk and Harland and maybe some other people, but
28:54
it's still the Corvette Museum. It's still the Bash. We're going to be there. Looking forward to it. Absolutely right. Well, buddy, thanks
29:00
for being back on Corvette today. We will see you in two weeks. Thank you, Steve, so much. And we see you out on the streets. Throw that hand
29:06
up and keep waving. Thanks again for listening and watching Corvette Today. And be sure to tell your family, friends, and other Corvette
29:12
enthusiasts about the Corvette Today Show. And thanks to our sponsors, Wheelcraft. Want to dress up your
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Corvette with bright chrome or black chrome wheels? Visit wheelcraft.com to learn about their advanced PVD chrome
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finishing. They can refinish your wheels or offer a wheel exchange for most models and it comes with a 5-year
29:28
warranty. Visit wheelcraft.com today or call 833639-4231.
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Also, Aerolari wheels. Get $100 off your purchase with the promo code CT111 at
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aerolari.com. Mark Walter with the Retirement Income Hour podcast and Hendrickk Chevrolet in Kansas City at
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Chevyusa.com. Thanks for checking out Corvette Today on podcast and YouTube. If you'd like to
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contact Steve with ideas for Corvette today, you can email him at stevegared djgmail.com.
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Garrett has two Rs and two T's. That's stevegared djgmail.com.
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Also, sign up for email notifications at corvette.k.page.
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DJ. Thanks again for listening and watching Corvette today. [Music]