What Is New In The Brand New C8 Corvette ZR1? | 2025 Corvette ZR1 CORVETTE TODAY

Name: What Is New In The Brand New C8 Corvette ZR1? | 2025 Corvette ZR1 CORVETTE TODAY | Open Video
Uploaded: 2025-05-08T23:50:45+00:00
Duration: 12 min 10 s

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[Music]
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welcome to Corvette today the show that
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talks about everything Corvette with
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your host Steve Garrett lifetime member
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of the National Corvette Museum
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president of the Corvette club of Kansas
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City Missouri and radio disc jockey at
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the number one radio station in Kansas
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City for over 45
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years here's Steve
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Garrett thanks for listening and
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watching Corvette today the show that
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talks about everything Corvette and the
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only current podcast dedicated to
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Corvette I'm your host Steve Garrett I
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appreciate you tuning in this is a
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special edition of Corvette today this
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is a Corvette today extra my buddy Keith
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cornette from Corvette blogger.com is
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here we are going to talk about the new
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ZR1 that was just released Keith welcome
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back to the show the numbers are
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mindboggling for the ZR1 well now we
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know what Unthinkable means right
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because I certainly wasn't thinking 1,64
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horsepower neither was I buddy that's
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amazing an 828 pound feet of torque yeah
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that thing's goingon to be a torque
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monster it's just mindboggling to see
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what they put together here yeah it's
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amazing why don't you go through some of
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the numbers that we got from Chevrolet
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and we'll start off with that and kind
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of go from there all right well
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obviously we're talking about the
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fastest most powerful Corvette ever the
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Corvette ZR1 features a 5.5 L twin turbo
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doc flat plane crank V8 they call it the
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lt7 it produces 1,64 horsepower at 7,000
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RPM and 828 foot pounds of torque at
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6,000 RPM like I said it's the most
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powerful engine ever produced by
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Chevrolet and it's the most powerful V8
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ever produced in America by any auto
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manufacturer that's right and as a
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matter of fact I saw somewhere where the
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lt7 engine was developed right next to
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the lt6 from the Z06 engine but it's not
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a Z06 engine base yeah it's like they
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started it up and they said okay this
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one's going to be naturally aspirated so
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we'll put the lt6 over here and we've
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got the twin turbo here and because it's
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going to make so much horsep we've got
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to really build it up so there was
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definitely twin tracks there and if you
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look closely at any of the photos of the
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engine you'll see the little lt6 rockets
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on them so definitely part of that same
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Gemini engine small block family that's
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true and it's nice because what they've
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done is with turbos there's always a lag
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and I think they've taken care of that
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lag so there won't be any yeah they're
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probably using some software on it that
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really is toned to the driver and so it
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actually showed that there's like some
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sensing technology so it reacts to how
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you're driving at the times I mean if
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you're probably on a track it's going to
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do things that eliminate any kind of
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Turbo lag and again with the amount of
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power that this thing's got you know
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even a little bit of lag you're still
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going to get up and go and with the ztk
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package it creates 1,200 pounds of
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downforce it's just unbelievable yeah
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the two Arrow packages are great and the
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nice thing is that you can even get that
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Arrow even though you don't have the ztk
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package itself you can get that carbon
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Arrow kit on the base ZR1 as well nice
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also in the front we have lost the frun
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because we have an air scoop in the
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front kind of like an S scoop that we've
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seen and a gurnie lip as well yeah you
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know we also wondered about how that was
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going to handle I know a lot of people
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will be disappointed that the front is
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gone again you got increased downforce
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in the front increased cooling because
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you got radiators where that air flow
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goes through some people say okay I have
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no problem losing the frun if I'm
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getting this kind of downforce and this
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kind of performance yeah and we've got a
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coupe and a convertible the interior is
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really nice it looks about the same as
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we have from everybody else you know
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that's the one thing about the Corvette
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that's both great and a little bit
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disappointing because F I'm sitting in
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the ZR1 it basically looks like a
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stingray it might be an upper level
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Stingray depending on the trim level
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that you get but you do have ZR1 badging
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on the steering wheel you got ZR1
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badging on the plaque behind you and
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then of course the door cills will also
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have ZR1 there is the little things and
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then they're also talking about we're
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going to get the blue calipers for the
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brakes right and it sounds like we're
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going to get a matching blue seat belt
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so it might be like a dark blue seat
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belt as opposed to the light blue that
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we currently have and we also have some
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unique ZR1 stitching on the door panels
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as well which will look really really
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nice those door cards look fantastic I'm
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like wait a second let me go back and
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look at that so that's been my whole day
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let me go back and look at that there
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you go yeah absolutely now let's talk
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about the wheels because we have a brand
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new carbon fiber wheel and we have a
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brand new ceramic disc brake too yeah
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you know and in fact the wheels don't
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really show well in any of the pictures
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that they shared with the media I'm
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anxious to see some of the photos that
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maybe coming out of the Live party down
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in Miami I guess you could say it looks
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like a really great carbon Revolution
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wheel it's got some additional spokes on
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it it looks like the old kind of cup
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tires but again I haven't really been
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able to get a real clear look at those
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and then on the the alloy wheels there's
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four different finishes and one of
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them's I think Edge blue is what they're
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calling it nice yeah that's kick back to
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the old ZR1 days from the C6 ZR1 isn't
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it yeah but to have Chevrolet do a blue
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wheel who would have thought that you
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know just five or six years ago yeah
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that's it was pretty amazing I mean
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they're not making Chrome but they're
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making Edge blue wheels again there's so
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much out there with this release that
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really boggles the mind and I don't want
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to keep saying Unthinkable but I mean
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you got of really just see it to believe
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it and top speed tell them about top
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speed buddy okay so top speed is
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estimated to be over 215 miles hour and
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I like that because I think it was the
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C6 ZR1 that was 205 and then who got up
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to 214 215 that was the C7 ZR1 I think
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so and now you've got greater than 215
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in fact if you go to Car and Driver
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their video out they actually show on
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the Milford Proving Grounds they're
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running upwards of 206 miles an hour I
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believe they did that in a span of just
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30 seconds 20 seconds or so in fact I I
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got a stat on that the ZR1 can go from
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80 to 200 miles an hour and then back to
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80 miles an hour in just 24.5 seconds
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wow and they say that's 22% faster than
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the C7 ZR1 and 53% faster than the C6
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ZR1 so it definitely has got the ability
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I mean you're looking at the speedometer
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on the PDR on this car and driver video
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and how fast it's moving through the
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160s 170s 180s you know before it always
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kind of like creep up sure you're just
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blowing past those boom boom boom it's
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just an incredible car yeah have we left
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anything out oh I'm sure they say that
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on the very first lap at the mil for
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Proving Ground so you know they break up
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the car like okay let's go see what they
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do so go take it out to the test track
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it already clocked faster than the
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production C7 ZR1 so right of the box
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they're faster than the previous
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generation cr1 and of course we've heard
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that the quarter mile time is a sub 10
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seconds so very quick and then all four
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test drivers that were driving over at
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the nerber ring clocked over 200 miles
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per hour Peak speed on their very first
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lap so to see that kind of traction and
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that kind of speed on the track is just
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again mindboggling and then they said
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that the lt7 produces more power than
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two LS7 engines the legendary 7 L V8
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from the sixth generation Corvette Z
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wow you seen those custom cars where
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they'll put like two V8s together this
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engine's more powerful than two of those
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there's all these crazy stupid stats
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like that Steve and I guess that's what
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we've been waiting to hear absolutely
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right buddy and this is really cool too
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they paid homage to the 63 split window
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Corvette yeah so we got the very first
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split window and that had to be a hard
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decision you know I know when C7 came
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along they were talking about bringing
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back the stingray name and there's such
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a discussion of not only is it time to
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bring it back but is the car that we're
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building worthy of that name right in
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this case is this car worthy of having
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the very first split window design since
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1963 of course it was only a one-year
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design you know I got in a conversation
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with a friend he said you know I thought
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that was going to be on the Zora I'm
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like well technically Zora hated the
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split window but with the rear view
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camera you know it doesn't really matter
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anyways and not only that but the way
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they built in the split window it's very
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functional it's got vents in it so it's
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adding to the cooling aspects of the car
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where it can let that heat out it comes
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in two different finishes you can get
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visible carbon fiber or you get body
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color we're going to see some really
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neat things that are people doing back
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there with it the split window is very
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Lamborghini esque it looks really good
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and it does help with the cooling it
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looks really nice so if you're a 63
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split window fan like me you'll see this
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homage paid to that car and it's really
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pretty cool to have on there yeah and
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speaking of homages you know we had the
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Zora head that's featured on the
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windshield right the icon of the very
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first Corvette chief engineer well
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Chevrolet to honor Tad's Jer he's just
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retiring Corvette chief engineer after 4
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7 years 31 years at Corvette they're
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going to put a tad head on the top of
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the left hand side of the split window
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and the back so you'll have zor in the
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front and then Taj in the rear and again
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just a great way to celebrate taj's
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amazing career and another one of these
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Easter eggs that we're gonna I'm sure
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find on this car we've got like I said
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the lt6 Rockets got the Tad head I'm
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sure there's going to be a lot more yeah
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that's a great way to pay homage to Tad
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that's really really cool we still got a
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little bit extra cooling as well on the
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ztk package we we've got cooling on the
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wishbone and then a vent on top that
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kind of reminds me of the C7 Stingray
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yeah it's very reminiscent of that and
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that's for cooling the turbos and stuff
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inside there and then the side bent that
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goes straight to the brakes and the
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brakes let's talk about the brakes for a
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second these are the largest bro brakes
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ever to appear on the Corvette the front
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rotors are 15.7 in wow and the rears are
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15.4 amazing stopping power out of this
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car and I guess you would need it if you
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got that much power and also Keith this
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is cool because it's still going to be a
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2025 car yeah they definitely said 2025
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they said it'll be available in 2025
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it's going to be interesting to see how
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they do the model year switch over last
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couple years we've seen September as our
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breako now which I kind of like better
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than the July it's a little bit closer
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to the end of the year makes a little
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bit more sense when are we going to see
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this thing it's already we're placing
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orders right now for September first
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orders went in on Thursday for the 2025
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is this kind of going to be like we've
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seen how they start building eays in
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January this year even though it was in
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the middle of the model year that's
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probably what's going to happen January
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February March will start to see them
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start to trickle out yeah again very low
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production I'm guessing very hard to get
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the price we have no idea what do you
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actually think this is going to be
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priced at Steve well now that we're at
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1,64 horsepower Keith I would think
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maybe 185 175 185 maybe so I was
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thinking you know the the base price for
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the Z6 is what 113 115 or so right I
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know it just changed so I'm thinking the
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base price for this car is probably I'm
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going to be a little bit more optimistic
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I'm going to say in the 140s I hope I
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hope you're right you know it could go
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to 150 but you know what'll happen is
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like people did on the Z6 they'll just
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be able to load it up with options so we
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will definitely have some $200,000 zr1's
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out there I'm certain of it absolutely
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well buddy thanks for being back on
10:47
Corvette today for this Corvette today
10:49
extra I can't wait to see this ZR1 in
10:51
person well that was a lot of fun Steve
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we've got content up on Corvette blogger
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of course there's content everywhere I
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think what we're going to do we're going
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to have a link Festival where have one
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page that's got like all the different
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videos in there because they did invite
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all these influencers obviously up to
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Detroit first to do some of their own
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previews so there's going to be some
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good stuff there so we're going to pick
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through the better ones and have them
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posted and I don't see myself sleeping
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for the next couple days me neither
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buddy thanks for everything thank you
11:16
Steve we see you out there keep waving
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thanks again for listening and watching
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Corvette today and be sure to tell your
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family friends and other Corvette
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enthusiasts about the Corvette Today
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Show thanks for checking out Corvette
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today on podcast and YouTube if you'd
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like to contact Steve with ideas for
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thanks again for listen listening and
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[Music]

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