GM said you'd want to "grab a hot drink" for reading details about this car. You rebels can try it without.Now with the LS3 small-block.
'08 Corvette
The big news is an all-new LS3 6.2L V-8 spitting out 430 hp and 424 lb-ft of torque. Or get the optional two-mode exhaust (low-load versus high-Load) for 436 hp and 428 lb-ft of torque. There's a high-flow intake manifold and cylinder heads, a mo' better valvetrain, a larger-bore cylinder block, and new and bigger-diameter pistons. The bore-and-stroke is 4.06 by 3.62 inches (the stroke is unchanged). Both six-speed transmissions have also been also updated, and a 2.73:1 axle ratio is now available with the paddle automatic and standard for the Z51 package. The rack-and-pinion steering has also been improved for 2008. Other stuff you'll care less about, like new sill plates and a standard compass on the auto-dimming mirrors. And, yes, the Z06 returns.
General Lee eBay Fraud
P.T. Barnum is associated with the famous quote "There's a sucker born every minute," and it seems that television star John Schneider thought he had landed the biggest one in history with the now-infamous eBay bid of $9,900,500 for the '69 Dodge Charger car Schneider built as his personal General Lee and raced at the Silver State with Hemi power. Bidder Charles Fisher of Laguna Hills, California, won the online auction, but it still took a couple of days for reality to filter through the instant-gratification news media and drive home the truth that all the buzz about a $10 million car was as worthless as the intellectual content of the Dukes of HazzardTV show. Apparently no one checked Fisher's qualifications as a legit buyer. Our investigation took about three seconds when Fisher's buyer history revealed that his previous eBay purchase was a simple pocketknife. That tells you everything you need to know. -Jeff Smith
Car Craft's Stupid Question for an Automaker, Vol. 7
Do computers really name vehicles? "Probably all manufacturers would like to blame computers for one name or another, but ultimately it remains the job of humans to decide on names for their offspring," explains Dee Allen, staff director of global product and brand communications for GM.
Yeah, we could have left it at that, but we rarely get to use our cattle prod. So is there some dude (or primate) sitting at a computer all day randomly pushing keys until letters like a-z-t-e-k show up? "It is true that computers are sometimes used to generate names and variants of names, synonyms, and homonyms, and occasionally archaic spellings. There have even been instances when a manufacturing or marketing order code has taken on a life of its own and moved mainstream." Specifically, he means the Corvette Z06.
Buick got on a train kick (Century and Roadmaster) while Chevrolet went geographical (Malibu, Colorado, and Bel Air). But "there isn't anyone in charge of this mess. It's a creative cacophony of ideas that get bandied about by the designers and divisions. It's probably best that way because if there was a single person involved, it would probably be a short-lived career." The dictionary defines cacophony as a "discordant and meaningless mixture of sounds," in case you wondered.
Allen points out that sometimes a name used for a concept vehicle will make it to the production model (Firebird) and sometimes not (Evoq), "and it's even happened that a production car name has been resurrected for a concept car." That's the Riviera, if you're playing along at home. "Some of the most successful product names would probably be rejected if they were presented in a vacuum," he notes. "Ultimately, it's the product that makes the name, not the other way around." We're thinking the word "porn" may be the exception.
Car Craft Street Race Class
It's the third year since Street Race's inception, and according to the off-season smack-talk, it's going to be the class' most exciting season to date. For those who don't know, the NMCA Car Craft Street Race is much different from most heads-up classes. At each event, the overall winner of Street Race is required to carry 20 additional pounds at the next NMCA event, and the runner-up is required to carry an additional 10 pounds. This weight-adder will be cumulative throughout the racing season. For example, if a racer won the first six events, he would carry an additional 120 pounds at the seventh Car Craft Street Race event. It makes the whole season in this crazy class like one big strategic chess match.