The future of Corvette

[Adam43]

Below is a comparison of the Corvette drivers at Le Mans.

Driver	Grade	Fastest Lap		Ave. Top 10		Ave. Top 50
Antonio GARCIA	p	3:48.465	0.964	3:49.224	0.636	3:50.399	0.000
Jordan TAYLOR	p	3:48.857	1.356	3:49.728	1.140	3:51.743	1.344
Nicky CATSBURG	p	3:47.716	0.215	3:48.756	0.168	3:50.551	0.152
Tommy MILNER	p	3:48.640	1.139	3:49.674	1.086	3:51.692	1.293
Nicholas TANDY	p	3:48.024	0.523	3:48.588	0.000	3:50.534	0.135
Alexander SIMS	p	3:47.501	0.000	3:49.114	0.526	3:50.649	0.250

Sims had the fastest lap, Tandy the best top 10 laps and Garcia the best top 50. Throw in Catsburg and those four pretty evenly matched.

Milner and Taylor are evenly matched between them, but a 1.3s behind the main 4.

Obviously, there are slow zones, FCY and SC which reduce the opportunity to get a decent lap. Running in the wet and drying conditions early on reduces the opportunity too.

Below gives an idea of whether they had decent stints and when they occurred.

Driver	Total	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24
Alexander SIMS	110						16	4	15	15					15	15						15	15
Antonio GARCIA	136	9	15	13					17	12						15	14						15	13	13
Jordan TAYLOR	90				15	15					15	15						15	15

Garcia did well to get the fastest top 50 laps as he did a lot of running early in the race with the worse conditions.

[WyldStallion]

In honor of the #4 Corvette "winning" Laguna Seca...with 3 cars. It was overdue for Nick Tandy who is a fantastic driver. He is hampered by his overrated driving partner of Tommy Milner, the #4 will never be as good as the #3 until Milner is gone.

The primary grey with yellow trim stinks too. I would rather them just go back to being a full yellow car again. Or take the #3 dark grey/red Sebring livery and use that.

[Pandamasque]

The grey was probably supported by the same soulless bunch within GM who killed the Corvette as we know it: the looks, the dynamic character and the sound. Now it's just a generic supercar with the very tip of the nose resembling a vette.
Honestly, looking from the outside, the yellow on the #3 is the last connection to what Corvette Racing used to be. Paint both of them grey and who would even recognise them?

If I were one of the Acura NSX teams in GTD I'd be so tempted to wrap the car in yellow just for Sebring 12h just to troll Corvette Racing

[WyldStallion]

Originally Posted by Pandamasque

The grey was probably supported by the same soulless bunch within GM who killed the Corvette as we know it: the looks, the dynamic character and the sound. Now it's just a generic supercar with the very tip of the nose resembling a vette.
Honestly, looking from the outside, the yellow on the #3 is the last connection to what Corvette Racing used to be. Paint both of them grey and who would even recognise them?

If I were one of the Acura NSX teams in GTD I'd be so tempted to wrap the car in yellow just for Sebring 12h just to troll Corvette Racing

Yes would love to see the #4 go back to yellow. Got no issues with multiple cars having identical liveries if its awesome.

I call for Sims to replace Milner for full time seat. Would make the #4 an instant regular for wins in 2022.

One thing I disagree with is about the C8. Anybody on the street I see with a C8 is an eye opener right away. The car has grown on me big time.

[WyldStallion]

Interesting that Corvette did ABS breaking tests at the Detroit race, but did not use GTD tires.

[broadrun96]

The C8 is UGLY AF, and it is not a Corvette. Call it a Duntov or anything else but it's an abomination. And the colors for the street cars are horrendous, I see probably a dozen a day in my driving through Atlanta and dear god they're bad. Weirdly the few I've seen in almost McLaren orange look the best, hmmmm

But they are not designing it for me at all, and I can tell you the ownership makeup has MASSIVELY swung from the C6 to the C8s, very very very different drivers in them. And they're getting 100k for them most every day so

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

The C8 is UGLY AF, and it is not a Corvette.

[WyldStallion]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

But they are not designing it for me at all, and I can tell you the ownership makeup has MASSIVELY swung from the C6 to the C8s, very very very different drivers in them. And they're getting 100k for them most every day so

Interesting comment. Can you clarify further. Curious in what way?

[broadrun96]

No fat old guys with jorts and white sneakers in the C8s

[Pandamasque]

Young guys in shorts, "chrome" sneakers and fake tan over hieroglyphic tattoos?

[broadrun96]

It appears to be replacing the Dodge twins for some consumers

[WyldStallion]

https://gmauthority.com/blog/2021/09...personic-gray/

Pretty neat, although if I was a buyer the mirrors should be red. Why anybody would choose the primary gray over the yellow. I don't know.

[broadrun96]

I think both colors make the street car look better than the race versions. The yellow actually looks better than the race version (for this car) while the street grey has a different top coat, or is less busy and is also better.

I would be torn on the red mirrors if only because there's no other red to pull out. But with the right trim lines or highlights, yeah, if you're gonna make a race copy. The back to back pictures show how much insanely smaller the race mirror is relative the street car, think the red would make it look even worse but a red lower maybe??

[WyldStallion]

One thing I always found interesting is that the red mirrors are obviously mandated by IMSA for the GTLM category but the Corvette team always kept them when running the cars in WEC.

[Pandamasque]

Originally Posted by WyldStallion

https://gmauthority.com/blog/2021/09...personic-gray/

Pretty neat, although if I was a buyer the mirrors should be red. Why anybody would choose the primary gray over the yellow. I don't know.

Switching to ByKolles colours for the street version is an interesting choice.

[Damian S.]

The redesign of the 2020 Corvette is brilliant imho. It demonstrates that GM can build a car with the performance of a $250,000 supercar for just $60,000.

They could have kept the Corvette as a nostalgia brand, a car whose performance range was limited by a mid-1950s layout.

But they choose to characterize the brand's heritage as the fastest car American engineering could ever produce. That was the vision for the C2, the version that made the Corvette a high-performance car.

In other words, they choose the future, not the past.

The result is a stunning car at a price that even most young people can afford. Its a brilliant branding move, as it ensures a buyer base for decades to come.

That's inspiring, isn't it? Wouldn't we like to see more companies display this kind of courage and leadership? Compare this to Harley-Davidson's heritage-focused strategy, which I predict will have catastrophic effects on their brand.

[canaglia]

Originally Posted by Damian S.

even most young people can afford.

such a shame I'm not young anymore then
anyway 60.000$ is the price in USA, in europe a C8 may cost twice as much.
Consider also that purchasing the car is just the beginning... real expenses come soon after.

I don't dislike new mid-rear layout corvette, but I can understand if more than someone thinks that corvette lost part of its identity to adapt to a more european supercar style.

Happened something similiar also 10 years ago with 458 italia that had an unconventional style for a ferrari v8 sport berlinetta, infact many renamed it 458 abu dhabi.

[broadrun96]

60k???? Ummmm, where? You can barely find one and when you can the mark ups bring most Vettes up to much closer to 100k.

[WyldStallion]

Has Callaway built a C8 GT3 car? Or are they deferring to GM this time?

[broadrun96]

I would imagine GM has decided to not renew the homologation deal for the C8 with them as they will be testing "GT3" ideas this month at a couple tests at Road Atlanta. I would venture more GTD down conversion parts but likely useful GT3 knowledge as well

[chernaudi]

In addition to GM and Pratt & Miller having a say on it (the latter this time around), I wonder if the ACO, SRO, and maybe the FIA and IMSA have a say on homologation on two different versions of the C8 from two different manufacturers/OEMs? I know that this was a problem for some in the past.

[Speed-King]

I'm kind of hoping for a Callaway C8 GT2.

[Mike E]

Factory GT3 announced with a customer racing focus

https://www.dailysportscar.com/2021/...-for-2024.html

[WyldStallion]

Originally Posted by Mike E

Factory GT3 announced with a customer racing focus

https://www.dailysportscar.com/2021/...-for-2024.html

I can see a C8 GT3 being a very very popular car as long as GM provides that customer support needed. That is where they will have to work to match Audi and Mercedes.

[NaBUru38]

A big downside of the C8 over the C7 is the reduced trunk capacity.