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Is The C8 ZR1 Build and Buy Configurator Live? | Harlan Charles Retirement | CORVETTE TODAY #253
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May 8, 2025
To learn more about is the C8 ZR1 build and buy configurator live and Harlan Charles retirement, please feel free to visit our YouTube channel. This video covers is the C8 ZR1 build and buy configurator live, along with the following topics: - C8 ZR1 performance - Why did GM force Harlan Charles to retire? - Corvette ZR1 sets five lap records in the U.S. ********************** 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…. 1. GM forces Harlan Charles and Kirk Bennion to retire 2. GM ends its 100 year relationship with Jack Cooper Transport 3. The C8 ZR1 Build & Buy configurator is now live 4. The C8 ZR1 sets 5 lap records at prominent tracks around the US
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0:00
[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
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Garrett thanks for listening and watching Corvette today the show that talks about everything Corvette and the
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only 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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from around the world all right everybody it's time to bring you the latest Corvette news and headlines with
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my pal Keith cornette from Corvette blogger.com ke with me every other week we keep you current and up toate on
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what's happening with America Sports Keith welcome back to the show man we got a lot of ZR1 news buddy it's been
4:04
crazy but you know what we've been working on this for about 5 years I actually went back and look to see when my very first ZR1 story was and it was
4:11
November of 2019 there was a Motor Trend article Motor Trend actually said that ZR1 is going to be a Twin Turbo Hybrid
4:18
with 900 horsepower they were almost right it was kind of close I think they actually ended up describing the Zora
4:24
there with a little less horsepower than what we think it will have but again it's just that speculation that was so
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huge back before the c8s all came out and then what that next c8s were going to be pretty exciting that finally the
4:36
car is here people are ordering it this week maybe by the NCM bash we might actually see a couple I don't know that
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might be a little early for customers but definitely by Carlile there'll be z1es in customer hands yeah that's true
4:48
well we'll keep our fingers crossed but before we get to all that let's start off the show like we usually do and get
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a production update from the Corvette assembly plant in Bowling Green yeah absolutely so for our latest production report as always we visited ke's daily
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production tracker on Facebook and we are currently seeing about 9,553 stingrays have been produced along
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with 4,150 z6s and 1,464 e-rays so Steve that's a total of
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15,167 Corvettes produced so far for the 2025 model year and I always like to pull out one little stat here and I
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think one of the things that we saw this week happen was that the eay just surpassed the total number of e-rays
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produced during the whole 2024 model year of course that was their r up year but more than 100 are being built each
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week and there's a lot of optimism around this car I think as we continue to move forward with it that's great also Keith February 6th was ZR1
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allocation day and then February 13th was ordering day that's when it all started how did everything go I think it
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went pretty smoothly well mostly smoothly how about we say that the GM order Bank opened for the ZR1 last
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Thursday and we heard that the top dealers in the country actually received multiple allocations for the 1,64
5:58
horsepower superar it was really good to see that we talked to some smaller dealers some got one some got none but I
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mean that was kind of the case that we were expecting unfortunately there are constraints on the zr1's visible carbon
6:09
fiber Wheels those are being called late availability but even more distressing is the fact that there was Zero
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availability for the zr1's visible carbon fiber Arrow package which is that big wing and then the front dive planes
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right Steve we've been talking about carbon fiber issues with GM for years now and it looks like we're going to have to continue that because they just
6:28
don't seem to have the suppliers ready to go once again and it's really sad because many of these first order allocations are going to some very
6:34
passionate Corvette enthusiasts and they're not going to be able to order the car with a signature Wing I kind of lik into my blog post about this is
6:41
Chevy wouldn't sell the car without an engine for many people that rear wing is the all end all of why you want this car
6:48
of course you've got that 1064 horsepower engine but it's just something about that wing and the look and we know from the C7 z1es that it's
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the big Wing cars that have retained their values and in fact caused their value used to Skyrocket pretty crazy
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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 hearing rumors that
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ZR1 production will start sometime in mid April hopefully that'll be the case there as for the other three Corvettes
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in the lineup we did have order cycle for them as well the stingray was actually free of constraint so no q9i
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gloss black wheels or anything like that it was free and clear great eay was limited ground effects which again is
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carbon fiber and the Z06 was limited on both ground effects and the big Wing as well so three years into Z06 production
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we still can't get any decent supplies on that big Wing hopefully things will straighten out at some point one last
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point that Target production for the Stingrays z6s and e-rays for this last
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order cycle will be March 10th through March 16th okay still good stuff happening production wise it's just kind
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of mind-blowing that we can't get carbon fiber wings for our signature cars yeah and especially for a guy like me who
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just is a freak about carbon fiber that's really really sad I hope they get it because you are right that big Wing
7:57
It screams ZR1 so hopefully that won't be unconstrained too long well the other thing too Steve is that you have no idea
8:04
how many cars are going to be produced so if you say no I'm going to wait you're most likely looking at a 2026 you
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know there might be a price increase there might be further delays so you're almost forced to say I'll take the car
8:15
it's not what I wanted but I'll take it if you want it that bad yeah again it's just an unfortunate situation that
8:21
buyers are being forced into I hate to say this out loud but you know the aftermarket does do a good job of
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producing replica wings for like the ZO6 zo7 and it'll probably happen with the ZR1
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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 is 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 had pulled off
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Corvettes from Transporters we wrote about that that Steve it actually was my biggest story ever on the blog wow in 3
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days we did 300,000 Pages viewed on that one story amazing what had happened was
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Jack Cooper obviously is a Transport company JM has been using them to ship vehicles from assembly plants to dealers across the country for I think it was 98
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years as their relationship GM was Jack Cooper's largest customer and Ford was their second largest customer and what
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triggered all this was Ford was able to exercise a clause to end their contract so Jack Cooper turned around and told GM
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they wanted to renegotiate to cover their losses after Ford left well GM obviously didn't take that situation
9:35
very well we learned that they were pulling cars off of Transporters because they didn't want Jack Cooper to use them
9:40
as hostages I mean that's the kind of conversations they were having crazy after multiple rounds of contract talks
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GM finally said no to all of them and walked away from Jack Cooper the good news is that they did have contingency
9:52
plans in place and we confirmed that the Corvette assembly plant did begin shipping on other carriers almost
9:57
immediately I think the downtime was only two to 3 days at the most it looks like the case is resolved they are shipping Corvettes it's sad that these
10:04
drivers for Jack Cooper are kind of left out in the cold I think they've had bankruptcy issues in the past as well
10:09
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
10:20
Corvettes and that's good I'm sorry to hear about the Jack Cooper situation but at least we are shipping Corvettes
10:26
probably the biggest story that we've had in the last couple weeks Keith Harlem Charles and Kirk benan both from
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the Corvette team were forced into retirement by General Motors yeah the Corvette nation was stunned to learn
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that both Harland Charles and Kirk benyan forced into retirement they actually joined a number of senior employees that were let go at the end of
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January from the automaker what makes it so hard to Fathom for Corvette en is we knew These Guys these guys were part of
10:49
the core of the Corvette team they've been part of the team since before I was blogging and been doing this for 20 years you know they were already well
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entrenched into what they were doing so they've always been there for us you know answering our question
10:59
Harland actually helped me on my Corvette order when I first put my order together I was showing a D30 color
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override for my hysteria purple and Guy Cool Gray which the order guide all said that I talked to him about it at Carlile
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last year he said send me the details within two days after I sent him the details he said everything should be set and of course it was so it fixed my
11:18
problem and that's how he was he was always fixing problems for people he was always listening for ideas it's just
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really sad you know he was on the team harl on 24 of his 37 years and his accomplishments were everything from
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bringing back the Grand Sport and Z1 names creating special editions like the Centennial Edition L man's Commemorative
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Edition the Ron Fellows Championship editions and the Z6 carbon he invented the performance data recorder which he
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got that idea actually from playing a video game all that institutional knowledge about Corvette and its history have now been basically severed from the
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Corvette team I'm sure other Corvette members know their Corvette history but he was a real student of it Kirk benyan
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worked for GM for 41 years was on the Corvette team since 1986 he was an an amateur racer he also worked on other
12:01
cars he 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 crazy wow but it was his work on Corvette that really made him indispensable he would spend hours in
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the Wind Tunnel with various Corvette designs and models figuring out where the air flow went on the cars how it
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affected them and how they could improve the car and its air flow by using that computational fluid Dynamic stuff and
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all that computer generated you know you see the air coming off the cars off the sides and stuff really amazing and using
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that airf flow to your advantage what a thing to have in your toolkit it really comes down to why were these two legends
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Let 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 it's
12:53
actually not it's really these groups of teams that work together the Corvette is now under a luxury performance cars
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segment and we know that we're really only talking about Corvettes and Cadillacs and even the Cadillac vs series if we want to be more specific I
13:06
know for a fact that harland's boss was a Cadillac Man it always seemed to me that there was some friction between the
13:11
two teams I remember the head of Cadillac saying when the Blackwing came out that no Corvette would ever get the Black Wing which is kind of funny today
13:18
because it's the Escalade is running the lt4 supercharged engine that was in the Z06 right they were going to do this
13:24
whole thing and then it just kind of fell apart but it's my belief that some have been jealous of Corvette 6 uccess
13:29
and kind of the way that Corvette people look at their GM members Corvette team is kind of up on this pedestal I don't
13:35
want to 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
13:42
a real shame both Mary Bara and Mark Roy didn't appear to know about this but I know that they know about it now because
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I've seen some of the letter sent their way and they were perfect they're spoton this is a real shame for the Corvette
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team hoping that we can see Haron and Kirk again at some shows I know they always be treated by Corvette Enthusiast
13:58
as The Rock STS that they are it's a sad time for Corvette Steve and I'm somewhat fearful about what might come next yeah
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I was stunned and shocked Keith when this news came out last week and I just couldn't believe it but I do have good
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news for everybody that listens and watches Corvette today Haron Charles will be on the show next week we are
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going to celebrate his career with General Motors and with Corvette I will do the same thing with Kirk benan but I
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had access immediately to Haron Charles that show will be on next week right after this news and headline show well I
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think that's probably going to be one of your highest rated shows Steve I know I'd be interested to hear it it kind of encapsulates his career and what he's
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done and what he's meant for us and he does know he knows that the outpouring of love and affection that he felt from
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the Corvette team probably got him through this moment he was kind of like known as Mr Corvette I know a few people
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have worn that moniker over the years like Taj Taj retired on his own terms why couldn't Harin retire on his own
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terms it's kind of sad there right we will get that whole story next week Harland did a great job it's about a 45
14:58
minute show the celebration of harland's career with General Motors and Corvette will be on next week on Corvette today
15:05
buddy let's take our first break when we come back Corvette racing and Corvette rumors are on Deck here on Corvette
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you're listening and watching Corvette today with Steve Garrett thanks for checking out Corvette today on podcast
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and YouTube it's the only current podcast dedicated to Corvette Corvette today is brought to you by wheelcraft
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look I know you want your Corvette looking its best I do too dress it up with bright Chrome or black chrome
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or do a wheel exchange and you also get a 5-year warranty so visit wheelcraft
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today or just give them a call 833 639 4231 I'm your host Steve Garrett with me
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is my buddy Keith cornette from Corvette blogger we keep you current and up toate on what's happening in the world of
18:43
Corvette every other week in segment two we always cover Corvette racing and Corvette rumors Keith in the racing
18:49
segment a gt3r test driver did hand controls for Robert wickens and he was with dxdt racing what happened with that
18:56
so I think this is actually one of the inspiring stories that we're going to be hearing about for the 2025 IMA racing
19:01
season obviously dxdt racing has got a Corvette Z06 gt3r they're going to be in
19:07
the GTD class one of their drivers is Robert wickens who is a paraplegic
19:12
following a devastating indie car crash at 2018 at Pocono over the last few years he's been working his way back up
19:18
and he uses a Bosch hand control system which also controls acceleration and braking right on the steering wheel
19:25
Tommy Milner who was the Z6 GT3 R's main test driver actually tested that Bosch
19:30
hand control system in the Corvette over the two days between the Roar and the Rolex 24 Daytona so he was testing at
19:36
Dayton International Speedway they made actually a hotlap video from inside the cockpit showing Tommy using the hand
19:42
control system so Robert wickens will be using this car when he makes his racing debut at the Long Beach Grand Prix on
19:48
April 11th and 12th pretty cool story he's very fast he worked one of the incer series working back his way into
19:55
imsa like seven podiums I think his last year there so I mean he was really moving up fast wow glad to have him in a
20:01
Corvette again just another opportunity to keep racing with that Bosch hand control system glad to have him behind
20:07
the wheel of a Corvette also speaking of racing just a couple dates here that World Endurance Championship will
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actually return to cutter for their 1,812 kmet race I think that's over a th000 miles or so but that race I think
20:20
it's probably like a 12 or 15 hour race is going to be February 28th and then the Corvette racing teams in impsa they
20:26
return to the grid for the 12 hours of Sebring on March 15 we've got some racing coming up here in the next four to six weeks or so that's cool and that
20:33
is a great story that's really really cool about Robert wickens also Keith this is awesome this is fantastic the C8
20:39
ZR run set five track lap records we just are wiping everybody off the map
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they really are so the same day that the ZR1 configurator went live GM released a video about the ZR1 setting five new
20:52
track records across the USA they had four test drivers that included Bill wise the lead performance engineer for
20:58
chassis controls Brian Wallace lead vehicle Dynamics engineer Chris Barber
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the ZR1 lead developer engineer and then Aaron link the global vehicle performance manager together these
21:09
drivers have a combined 65 years of GM level six Driving Experience that's their highest certification for GM
21:15
drivers and all four are also certified to drive at the nurburg ring so these are the top GM test drivers they took
21:21
one car a pre-production ZR1 took it to these five tracks across the US and set these records the records are Watkins
21:28
the long course Bill wise did it in 1 minute and 52.7 seconds at Road America
21:34
Brian Wallace did the drive at 2 minutes and 8 seconds at rhod Atlanta it was Chris Barber 1 minute and 22 seconds and
21:42
then Aaron link did the last two at Virginia International Raceway the full course he did it in 1 minute and 47.7
21:48
seconds and then on the grand course that's the same course that they used for the car and driver lightning lap he
21:53
did that time in 2 minutes and 32.3 seconds wow one of the biggest records to fall for the ZR1 was at that grand
22:01
course at VIR it was the McLaren sena's 2 minute 34 seconds it been there in the
22:06
book since 2019 when they ran the car drivers lightning lap series The ZR1 destroyed that time by 2.6 seconds and
22:14
it was also faster than the Mercedes AMG GT Black Series and the Twin Turbo Porsche 991.2 GT2 RS really just smoking
22:22
times there again everybody saying where's the nerur green time I've heard some rumors that they might be going back to the nerur r whether or not
22:29
they're going to be doing it for a Time lap they should with this car they absolutely should I mean spend your
22:34
marketing dollars on that and then the other thing I want to mention about this is when we posted the story I actually
22:39
got a comment from former GM test driver Jim Maro he was hugely impressed left us a comment saying these are very good
22:46
times something I expected when I compare them to the C7 ZR1 the C8 is
22:51
about 1.3 seconds faster per 100 horsepower wow not taking into account
22:56
much better tires the DCT transmission downforce and the evolution of the PTM systems Jim maro's telling you it's fast
23:03
you can take that to the bank absolutely you know Jim Maro has been on Corvette today three times I think it was episode
23:09
number 18 episode number 42 and then episode number 78 so if you want to hear
23:14
some of Jim miro's stories you can go back and listen to those at Corvette today also this is a pretty big rumor I
23:21
know you're a real big proponent of getting a C8 Grand Sport do you think Chevrolet is really preparing for
23:26
production of one it's been one of the persistent rumors and they're coming from multiple calls from inside the
23:31
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 the dots to something
23:37
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 Parts spin Corvettes base engine mited into a widebody chassis also featuring free
23:49
flow options like brakes and suspension from ZO6 right this year with the lt2 already installed in the widebody for
23:55
the eay we think development of this car could actually pretty straightforward and it's also our belief that the Grand
24:01
Sport would slot into that segment between the stingray and the eay that's a pretty wide spread there without
24:06
having a car we always had something in that area before put it at like $887,500 that median price between the starting
24:13
price of the stingray at 68300 and the 106,000 MSRP of the eay
24:18
obviously having a Grand Sport in the lineup offers previous Stingrays and attractive widebody model to upgrade to
24:24
without the extra all-wheel drive system and it would also help us reduce the Quant The Stingers being produced which
24:29
are obviously piling up on dealers lots and being offered for huge discounts this last rumor actually comes from our
24:34
friend Rick Corvette Conti who talked about a rumor about the production line what he's hearing is that it might be
24:40
reconfigured to optimize the production of widebody Corvettes versus the stingray actually right now the stingray
24:46
is a little bit more the optimized car because that's what they produce the most of right but now with four different cars and three of those being
24:53
widebodies were're hearing that it might actually be sort of accommodated the more complex building the white body
24:59
cars it's going to beting to see what happens I don't know if that means downtime or what but we are actually hearing that there could be some sort of
25:05
changes at the plant and then everything will be in place when ZR1 production starts in quarter 2 that's kind of like
25:11
the latest rumor we're hearing but again it's coming from multiple sources and different people so I'm feeling confident that this is something that's
25:18
probably going to happen very interesting buddy we'll wait and see what happens on that we'll keep everybody up today for sure also the ZR1
25:25
build and buy configurator is now up and running and did it reveal a future Corvette well Steve I love this story
25:31
this might be my favorite story of our get together this two weeks period of course ZR1 build and buy configurator
25:37
just came out last week know I built a bunch of dream Corvettes that'll never see my garage but it's been fun and
25:42
that's what we do we go these cars one of the things that people spotted right away was this piece of visible carbon
25:48
fiber mounted to the front wheel wells and it kind of reminded us of the spats or the flares that the C7 Grand Sport
25:54
and Z06 had they had that little piece of trim that kind of stood out yeah you know I end up writing a story saying wow
25:59
we never saw this before I actually went back and looked at Old spy photos and my pictures from the NCM 30th Anniversary
26:05
where they had the zr1's on display and they weren't on those cars huh that's crazy so you know I wrote up the story
26:10
and then kind of went on with my day later in the day it's like around 5:36 o'clock I get a call and I look at my
26:16
caller ID it's General Motors in Detroit like oh God what did I do yes and they
26:22
actually said hey you know what you found an error it's not supposed to be there but if we were to fix it it would
26:27
mean taking down the conf configurator and they didn't want to do that because they're right in the middle of an order cycle and it's really the only way that
26:33
sales reps are getting the build information from ZR1 buyers is through this build and buy configurator yeah
26:39
they said we just got to leave 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
26:46
up and 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 that piece of carbon fiber
26:52
there but if you look at the driver side radiator you will see that vertical eay
26:58
cooler oh that we've seen only on the eay but it's also on the rumored Zora Edition which we've seen Spy photos of
27:05
the Zoras with that radiator mounted right there pretty incredible that the configurator was hiding the zor in plain
27:11
sight so maybe they were working on both the cars meant to cover some stuff up but yet here it is in plain sight the
27:17
funny 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 St S effect was in full display
27:25
well you know they should thank you Keith because you're finding things that they need to fix I don't know what that's worth to them but you know they
27:31
have so many different people working on so many different things these things happen but it always seems to happened to the configurator because if you
27:37
remember a couple years back we got the full load up of eay info like a month
27:42
and a half before the car was released and it was because the visualizer went live inadvertently and there was enough
27:48
people there to grab screenshots before it was shut down so these things flip on sometimes they'll say oh yeah it's going to come on a Monday they'll flip it on
27:55
like on a Friday night 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 makings I love it you know we've always heard that the zor
28:06
will be there at some point in time maybe this is it for sure all right buddy let's take our final break when we
28:11
come back it's the fun side the lighter side of Corvette is on Deck next here on Corvette
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today are you ready for a better insurance policy without the Corvette tax with agreed value protection the
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value of your collector vehicle will never change plus you'll save money get a quick quote at NCM
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insurance.com the National Corvette restorage Society is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year 50 years of
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affirming and promoting the preservation and restoration of the Corvette 50 years is the foremost Corvette collector car
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Organization for building value with its prestigious Awards have you ever considered joining ncrs over 70,000
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people have were so much more than just the nuts and bolts the ncrs flight judging program can and often does in
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increase the value of America's sports car by researching and Publishing the leading Tech manuals and judging guides
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for the 1953 through 207 Corvettes by training the best judges and by hosting
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local Regional and National judging events and when you join you'll get award-winning magazines like Corvette
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restore and drive line all throughout the year joining is simple and easy just go to ncrs.org and sign up there are
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ncrs chapters all throughout the US and all around the world chances are there's a local chapter near you so join ncrs
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today at ncrs.org we come for the Corvettes we stay for the friendships
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made along the way when you want to buy a Corvette or any Chevrolet for that matter get yours from Hendrick Chevrolet
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Shaunie Mission located in Kansas City Hendrick Chevrolet is the largest Corvette dealership and showroom in the
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Department with over 24,000 parts and $2 million in inventory Hendrick Chevrolet is well equipped to take care of your
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every need from sales to service to Collision Repair Hendrick Chevrolet has you covered visit Chevy usa.com or call
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913 3841 1550 hi I'm Mark falter host of the retirement income Hour podcast and
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Corvette Enthusiast I know when I bought my Z06 I was thinking two things these
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cars are fabulous and wow are they expensive owning a Corvette isn't just
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about driving fast it's about living life in the fast length but are your finances keeping up on my podcast I make
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wealth management as smooth as your Corvette on the open road whether it's planning your retirement building your
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Investments or how to get enough income from your retirement to pay for your Corvette Vision I got you covered search
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see you on on the open road financially and literally investment advisory services offered through MidAmerican
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wealth Advisory Group an SEC registered investment advisory
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firm this is the Corvette Today podcast with Steve Garrett hey thanks once again
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for listening and watching Corvette today the show that talks about everything Corvette Corvette today is
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brought to you by wheelcraft you want your Corvette looking its best I do too so dress it up with bright Chrome or
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docomo Steve Garrett with me is Keith cornette from Corvette blogger if you want a deeper dive into any of the
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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 yeah
32:06
you know I set up this story of saying you know the world's most popular podcaster unfortunately isn't my friend Steve Garrett oh no but it is another
32:13
corvet Enthusiast and an owner and his name is Joe Rogan and you'll like this too on episode number
32:20
2,266 oops Joe got into the subject of the Corvette ZR1 and of course he called it the greatest American car ever by a
32:26
long shot he goes on to say that it's literally a race car that you can buy it has 1,64 horsepower and this is not even
32:34
tuned these things are insanely fast and insanely capable and he goes on drops a
32:39
few F bombs and total support of the Corvette it's just an amazing five minute conversation there we had the
32:45
video up on Corvette blogger you can also find it on YouTube as well I think it's like 33 minutes into the interview but we do have it cute up at Corvette
32:51
blogger if you want to watch it there he has a 65 Resto mod that I know oh I think he's got like 15 or 20 other cars
32:57
so he's definitely into the Hobby and I think he got onto the conversation they were talking about the Ford CTS back in the day pretty fun conversation there
33:04
but he immediately switched to the Corvette and then just said how great it was fun conversation that's cool I won't
33:09
drop any F bombs 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 internet
33:20
and I sometimes wonder is that true and in this case it was somebody saying that the eay wasn't selling well and I like
33:26
okay I got to go look this up so know Steve I I just watched the movie Speed last night with Dennis Hopper and Cane
33:31
Reeves wow so not putting you on the spotlight but Pop Quiz Hot Shot okay do you know what the current model
33:37
breakdown of the three cars is no I don't all right so good news is stingray is at 63.3% of production all right the
33:44
Z6 is at 27.2% and the eay is now at 99.5% and I
33:50
actually did compare those numbers to 2024's production numbers and the stingray was at 72 so it went from 72
33:56
down to 63 the Z06 went from 24.6 up to 27.2 and of course the eay which was in
34:03
its ramp up phase and did that 3.3% which is what that guy was talking about is now at that 99.5% and almost reached
34:09
that 10% goal of order so far things are really moving I think pretty good and then of course we're going to have
34:15
another model fit in there hopefully it'll change things even more and again we'll see a little bit more emphasis on the wide bodies yeah definitely it's
34:22
important to note that these are the percentages that GM wanted to hit with these cars so we're right in line and on
34:28
track aren't we it feels like again the stingray is just a little too high based on just how many numbers they are
34:34
producing obviously we can kind of look back and see that now if they were still selling like hotc case would be saying see see look how good they did yeah each
34:41
of these models that comes out successfully is going to take from that number the stingray did its job it
34:46
cemented this place as a fantastic cost effective and really a wonderful car to drive but now the focus is on higher
34:53
performance and doing the fun stuff and that's with the Z6 ZR1 e pretty interesting model lineup we've got here
35:00
for the C8 Corvette 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 fuy C1 engine well I never
35:13
heard the story before that he was interested in supercharging although it really shouldn't surprise us because I mean he was looking at all kinds of ways
35:19
to make the Corvette faster and better and obviously back in the mid-50s to save it from being cancelled you know
35:25
his passion for Speed brought us things like that fuel in manual transmissions and a V8 powered
35:30
Corvette in 55 it was in the late 50s that dunp participated in a secret project to made a Rochester fuel
35:37
injection unit with a Detroit Diesel 451 supercharger huh we have this video now
35:42
years later David Crane and Larry Hofer get together two old school guys that really know their stuff they've been
35:48
researching these unique engines for years they actually have old engineering images Dino charts and even the original
35:54
shop order from General Motors wow and the amazing thing is charged it till piston durability that's how he got the
36:01
the funds to do this by through the dino shop and piston durability nice supposedly about 20 of these
36:07
supercharged Fu engines were built these two guys have the only known complete units which they actually installed in
36:13
C1 Corvettes themselves the top of the unit says GM it's stamped on there pretty cool stuff and so if you like
36:20
Corvette history and you want to hear a story that's never really been told before definitely go check out that video on Zora supercharging the Corvette
36:26
I'm going to have to check that out for 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 Zipp dudah he works at sioka Corvette Atlantic City he
36:40
emailed me a weekend ago saying hey check out these photos that transporter was dropping off new CH at the dealership and one of those was a big wi
36:47
ZR1 of course it's got its white transport covers over it but you know that wing on the back it could only be
36:52
the ZR1 right he actually got video of the car being started up he got pictures
36:57
from inside the cockpit and all around the car as well even though it was wearing its transport cover it did say
37:02
export car on it and it's our belief that it was most likely headed to the Middle East as a show car or promotional
37:08
vehicle for GM some people have asked how could this car be built when Rick hendrik bought the first one again I
37:13
always have to remind people there's basically three stages of Corvette production there's the experimental cars
37:18
those get crushed when they're done then there's the pre-production cars these are all GM's test fleet cars that get
37:24
tested and then they're built to a standard that they can be sold back to dealers and sold as a pre-owned car once
37:30
they're done with that testing or the executives driving them and that's what this car is I think it was the number 18
37:36
car and we've heard that maybe close to 30 cars have been built as part of that second stage okay and then the third
37:42
stage is like the Rick hendrik the retail production when he'll get his Vin 001 car that'll happen again when
37:48
production starts up in second 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
37:54
they're supposed to be most likely their test cars are on by GM and that's what we have here pretty cool that this car
38:00
was actually headed to the port of Delaware we had a few months ago maybe a car stopped at Criswell Chevrolet Mike
38:06
Ferman and it was an export car that was right-hand Drive had a steering wheel on the right hand side that was going to
38:11
the Port of Baltimore to be shipped it's just amazing that dippy dudah was there to capture this car as it came off the
38:16
truck and just another part of the life cycle of Corvettes is they get spread out and get shown across the world
38:22
that's awesome thank you Jeff Duda that was awesome stuff well Keith thanks for being back on Corvette today and
38:27
everybody make sure you listen and watch next week we will celebrate the career of Harland Charles coming up next week
38:33
on Corvette today sounds great everybody appreciate you guys check out all the stories on Corvette blogger if we see
38:39
you on the road keep waving thanks again for listening and watching Corvette today and be sure to tell your family
38:44
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