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Post by truenorth on Jun 13, 2019 8:12:42 GMT -8
Say no more
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Post by truenorth on Jun 17, 2019 16:11:12 GMT -8
Autoweek June 16, 2019 HEARTBREAK FOR CORVETTE RACING IN THE 24 HOURS OF LE MANS Chevrolets suffer crash damage and finish out of the running in GTE Pro The No. 63 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R of Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller finished ninth in the GTE Pro category. Corvette Racing’s hopes for a magical victory in its 20th straight appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans didn’t come to pass, but the effort of the program was never stronger than what the team displayed Saturday and Sunday in the world’s biggest endurance race. The No. 63 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R of Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller finished ninth in the GTE Pro category on a day where the trio was firmly in contention for the first 20 hours. Three unlucky safety car periods and an untimely late trip to the garage for repairs following a spin put a dent in the plans for a ninth class victory in 20 years. Le Mans struck hard at both Corvette Racing entries. The No. 64 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Corvette C7.R retired following a heavy crash for Marcel Fässler near the six-hour mark. The incident happened in the lightning quick Porsche Curves toward the end of the lap. Fässler, driving with Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner, was hit from behind after making a pass on a slower car, with the impact sending the Corvette hard into the wall on the driver’s right. The damage was too extensive to repair and return the car to the race. Fässler was evaluated at the track medical center and was sent to a local hospital for a CT scan, which came back normal. The No. 64 Corvette was up and down the order early, with Gavin climbing from 11th at the start to fourth in class during his opening two stints. Debris on his tires made it challenging for him to maintain his early pace but he and Milner had relatively calm stints before handing over to Fässler, who was matching the pace of his teammates before the incident. The No. 63 led early and often. Garcia began the race from the third position but needed less than 20 minutes to move to the point in a frantic start. All three drivers of the No. 63 Corvette took turns in the lead early. The first safety car period of the race during the sixth hour brought the top nine GTE Pro entries to within 15 seconds of each other. Another safety car near the 10 hours running split the two lead cars from the rest of the GTE Pro field, effectively taking what had been a nine-car battle down to two, with the Corvette part of the second group. The early-morning period saw the leading GTE Pro entry run into trouble, allowing the remaining Corvette, which had chipped away on the lead pack for a number of hours, to move back into contention. By the 16-hour mark, the C7.R had moved back into the lead and a strategic game of chess developed between the No. 63 Corvette and the eventual winning Ferrari. The momentum seemed like it was swinging permanently toward the side of the Corvette when disaster struck with three and a half hours to go. Rockenfeller pitted for fuel, tires and a driver change to Magnussen during a safety car period. The pit stop was excellent -- as they had been all race -- but the pit exit was closed, which once again prevented the Corvette from catching the safety car queue that included the GTE Pro leader. Once under way, Magnussen spun late in the lap at the Porsche Curves on cold tires and contacted the outside wall with the front-left of the Corvette. The crew repaired the suspension on that corner of the Corvette, losing just six minutes but two costly laps. A final late-race visit to the garage thwarted any hopes of gaining additional positions.
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Post by Carlo_Carrera on Jun 17, 2019 17:29:46 GMT -8
The new C8 will probably be eligible for the new Hypercar class.
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Post by truenorth on Jun 24, 2019 8:50:38 GMT -8
June 21, 2019 01:00 PM RACING CORVETTE: LELDON BLACKWELL'S NO. 94 CAR IS AN IMSA LEGEND Over 50 years old now, this Corvette has more than a few stories to tell JAY RAMEY Car #94 received a restoration a few years ago by Kevin Mackay's Corvette Repair, Inc., Valley Stream, New York, later appearing at a number of concours events. These days it's not easy to come across a vintage Corvette that has IMSA racing history, but the 1968 Leldon Blackwell Corvette is just such a car. And we spent some time around it a few years ago. In the late 1960s, Leldon Blackwell was best known for having built the No. 57 L88 "Rebel Corvette" along with Bob Trent while working at Ferman Chevrolet in Tampa, Florida. The car took the GT class at the 24 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Daytona, rolling away with the first IMSA championship to top it all off. Raced by Don Yenko, Dave Heinz and others, that car was even turned into a popular plastic model kit in the 1970s in 1:24 scale by Revell. Five years ago, the real thing sold at auction for $2.86 million. But it was by no means the last car Blackwell and his crew had built. A short time later, Blackwell and his team turned this 1968 Corvette into the No. 94 car, as it is known today, which was campaigned under Leldon Blackwell Racing. The car finished second at the Daytona Presidential 250 in 1972 and 16th at the 24 Hours of Sebring in 1973, hitting 217 mph at Daytona during a qualifying run with Bill Bean behind the wheel. "Normally a driver definitely does not want to blow up the engine for their owner," John Sloane, one of the latest owners of the No. 94 car wrote a few years ago. "Apparently, qualifying was going so well that Leldon instructed Bill to go for it, no matter what, rather than stick to an rpm limit." We last saw car #94 at Greenwich Concours, where it appeared following its restoration to 1973 Sebring configuration. During those years, the car was also piloted by drivers including Gene Felton, Tony DeLorenzo and Mo Carter, among others. The car's success at Daytona did not go unnoticed by Chevrolet and Zora Arkus-Duntov, who worked with Blackwell to test transmission prototypes, with the car serving as a testbed. The high speed achieved by the car at Daytona is said to have prompted Chevrolet engineers to take notice. Blackwell himself died in 2016, at age 80. A Facebook page run by daughter Candice Blackwell contains a number of period photos of the No. 94 car and others from his racing team days. The No. 94 car's racing career in IMSA ended in the 1970s, but the car itself did not perish, as so many others did. The car was restored to its 1973 Sebring appearance by Kevin Mackay's Corvette Repair Inc. in Valley Stream, New York, several years ago. Since its restoration, the car has appeared at numerous concours events -- including Greenwich Concours, where we saw it last, as well as Amelia Island and the Simeone Museum. The 94 car drew plenty of admirers at Greenwich, moving alongside a number of other early Corvette race cars from several generations. Car #94 remains an important piece of early IMSA history, and has appeared at several major classic events in the U.S. in recent years.
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Post by truenorth on Jun 27, 2019 7:47:56 GMT -8
June 27, 2019 2020 C8 CHEVROLET CORVETTE: WHY MIDENGINE, WHY NOW? Corvette godfather Zora Arkus-Duntov's dream will be finally realized JAKE LINGEMAN Any discussion of the midengine Chevrolet Corvette has to start with engineer, race car driver and Corvette legend Zora Arkus-Duntov. By the time he started at General Motors in 1953, Arkus-Duntov already founded the Ardun engineering firm. Ardun, a portmanteau of Arkus and Duntov, supplied parts to the military and manufactured aluminum overhead valve, hemispheric combustion chamber heads for the flathead Ford V8. Arkus-Duntov saw the Corvette at GM’s Motorama in New York in January 1953 and wrote chief engineer Ed Cole, saying that he wanted to work on the car. He began May 1 of the same year. Soon after, Arkus-Duntov was promoted to director of high-performance and paved the way for the Corvette to become the giant killer it is today, challenging the best in the world for sports car supremacy. And Arkus-Duntov wanted to go midengine Midengine cars fascinated Arkus-Duntov since 1957 when a prepped Corvette cooked racing legend John Fitch’s feet at the 12 Hours of Sebring. Putting the engine behind the driver solves that problem. At one point, GM worked on a new transaxle that would have allowed the second-generation Corvette to be midengine, but technical problems ensued and the project was canceled. Despite the interest, Corvettes continued on with engines in front. CERV I was unveiled in 1960. Then came CERV in 1960, the Chevrolet Engineering Research Vehicle. CERV featured a 500-hp V8 and independent rear suspension. It was even tested at Sebring and Daytona, among other places. But since GM was against racing at the time, that concept was mothballed, too, and eventually sold. The IRS setup did make it to production on the C2, but still no midengine. CERV III is playable in "Test Drive 3" for PC. The 214-mph CERV II midengine concept followed as a response to the Ford GT40 racing effort but also withered when GM decided to support the Chaparral cars instead. Then in 1967, as a response to Ford’s Mach 2, Chevy introduced the XP-880 Astro II at the Chicago Auto Show. That was followed by the Holden Hurricane in 1969 and another Corvette midengine prototype in 1970. In ’72, we saw an aluminum prototype built with help from Reynolds Metals (as in, Reynolds Wrap), then a rotary-powered concept called the XP-897GT. That car was later given a standard V8 and became the Aerovette. In 1975, Arkus-Duntov left GM, but the midengine dream lived on in more concepts, including the CERV III. The last thing Arkus-Duntov told new chief engineer Dave McLellan was, “You must do the midengine Corvette.” Sixty years, countless concepts. Finally, we’re here.
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Post by truenorth on Jul 1, 2019 7:44:44 GMT -8
June 30, 2019 Autoweek IMSA WEATHERTECH RACE AT WATKINS GLEN A MIXED BAG FOR CORVETTE RACING Runner-up finish puts the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R on the podium for third consecutive race at Watkins Glen The No. 3 Corvette Racing C7.R finished second in class on Sunday in New York. Corvette Racing’s Antonio García and Jan Magnussen finished on the podium for the fourth consecutive race in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GT Le Mans class Sunday with a runner-up finish in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen. The Corvette Racing duo in the No. 3 Mobil 1/Sirius XM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R finished less than half a second behind the Porsche 911 RSR of Patrick Pilet and Nick Tandy. For García and Magnussen, it was their third consecutive podium at Watkins Glen International. “I can’t be super, super happy about the result," García said. "I think we had this race. We have such a strong field. We took one part of the strategy away thinking there would be a yellow when one didn’t come. The race was split then between half of the field and us. We could gain back some spots but when we restarted after the last yellow, we didn’t have track position." As for Corvette Racing's other entry, Tommy Milner suffered contact and crashed on the opening lap in the No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Corvette C7.R, ending the day for him and teammate Oliver Gavin. The damage to the Corvette was extensive but the team will have the No. 4 entry repaired for the July 7 Mobil 1 Sports Car Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The Corvette Racing crew faced a similar rush job after a heavy crash at the 24 Hours of Le Mans forced the team to switch chassis for the No. 4 Corvette ahead of Watkins Glen. “It’s not a cliché, it’s how I feel… it’s disappointing and unnecessary," Milner said. "It was the first lap of the race and going side-by-side which should have been and is possible. Hindsight is 20-20. Knowing the Porsche didn’t check up enough to allow us to go two-wide… he said he gave some consideration but it wasn’t enough. I’d love to say we could rewind it, I’d give up the position and we’re still racing." Down to one entry, the Corvette Racing team soldiered on and very nearly pulled off a storybook ending. García and Magnussen led Sunday’s race four times but a call to pit ahead of a full-course yellow that never came seemingly put the No. 3 Corvette on the back foot to the end. Magnussen, making his 150th start for Corvette Racing, drove the middle three stints and gave the Corvette back to García for the final two hours and 40 minutes. A final full-course yellow set the stage for the late-race charge from seventh to very nearly a long-awaited victory.
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Post by truenorth on Jul 2, 2019 15:35:57 GMT -8
We’re only weeks away from knowing everything there is to know about the next-generation Chevrolet Corvette. The upcoming eighth-gen 'Vette will finally move the engine behind the passengers and give the Bowtie badge a chance to show the world what a mid-engine 'Vette can do. Despite this being one of the biggest deals in the automotive world in 2019, the team at GM has kept the 'Vette's secrets well hidden from the public.
Still, there’s no shortage of footage and audio from the new Corvette testing around the world. Taking advantage of this footage, YouTube genius Chris Brian stitched together a supercut of the new Corvette testing and driving around, letting us piece together as much as possible about the new car.
The video shows that the various 'Vettes tested have distinctly different exhaust notes. That could be because of wildly different exhaust systems being tested for development, different engine tunes or, like with the current Corvette family, different engines. Of course, it’s probably a combination of all of those that results in the different sounds you hear in the video above.
With the new Corvette debuting in July, all of the world’s questions will be answered soon enough. Until then, we’re just going to have to sit back, obsess over what’s been released to the public and wildly speculate about Chevy’s next sports car.
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Post by truenorth on Jul 14, 2019 8:25:38 GMT -8
July 08, 2019 11:00 AM 2020 C8 CORVETTE REAR END PIC LEAKS ONLINE DAYS BEFORE DEBUT Just a few pieces of the midengine Corvette remain unseen at this point JAY RAMEY A photo of the rear fascia of the 2020 Corvette surfaced on Facebook over the weekend. The midengine 2020 Chevrolet Corvette, scheduled to be revealed in a matter of days, is slowly leaking out piece by piece, and the latest bit is a photo of the rear fascia that was first published by Corvette Blogger. Though we can't confirm it, the photo does look like the real thing based on other glimpses of the spoiler and taillights we've seen. But what new details can we glean from this photo? Interesting design details are just how concave the rear deck lid is and how high the spoiler sits in relation to the roof itself. In this photo, the car is pointed down a bit, but it's still remarkable just how high the tail will be. The quad pipes were expected, as were the large rear vents, but we didn't expect the look of the taillights to be so close to that of current Chevy cars. The indented license plate niche appears to play a very prominent role rather than being an afterthought, and you'll also notice that it's a unified design created to hold both North American and European format plates. Overall, the rear fascia is a pretty busy design -- there is a lot going on -- with a lot of stacked horizontal lines and rhomboid shapes. We count at least six prominent horizontal lines, from the spoiler itself down to the bottom of the rear diffuser. Just about the only major detail we can't see here are the prominent side inlets just behind the doors that are thought to be incorporated into the doors to some extent. That design detail is helpfully obscured here by a yellow blur on the right side of the photo. It remains to be seen if the inlets will appear as shown in teaser photos, or if Chevrolet has been hiding their true design all this time with a fake surface of some sort. We'll see the C8 Corvette unveiled in the metal in just 10 days, on July 18. And we wouldn't be surprised if more photos of the exterior leak before now and then, so stay tuned.
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Post by Pistola on Jul 14, 2019 11:24:14 GMT -8
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Post by Spin on Aug 19, 2019 17:42:58 GMT -8
Jordan Taylor's '76 IMSA Greenwood Corvette tour
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Post by truenorth on Aug 20, 2019 8:20:58 GMT -8
^general awesomeness, to be sure
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Post by truenorth on Aug 27, 2019 15:46:54 GMT -8
The battered and bruised No. 6 Owens/Corning Fiberglas 427 L88 Corvette driven by Tony DeLorenzo and Dick Lang heads for the finish in the Daytona 24 Hours in 1970.
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Post by truenorth on Sept 2, 2019 9:55:34 GMT -8
The No. 11 Owens/Corning Fiberglas Corvette driven by Tony DeLorenzo (at wheel)/Don Yenko/John Mahler avoided on-track carnage, electrical issues and a "mystery" explosion to finish fourth overall in the 1971 Daytona 24 Hour.
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Post by speeddemon787 on Sept 2, 2019 17:36:17 GMT -8
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Post by truenorth on Sept 4, 2019 14:46:04 GMT -8
Elkhart Lake, Sept., 1959. The '59 Corvette Sting Ray racer in its original red livery at tech for the Road America 500. Bill Mitchell bought the "mule" chassis for the '57 Corvette SS and he a hand-picked team of designers - including Peter Brock - came up with the iconic shape.
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Post by truenorth on Sept 4, 2019 15:43:37 GMT -8
1976 Chevrolet Corvette Widebody IMSA 'Spirit of Le Mans'
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Post by truenorth on Sept 6, 2019 16:19:51 GMT -8
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Post by truenorth on Sept 11, 2019 18:01:12 GMT -8
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Post by truenorth on Sept 20, 2019 17:27:19 GMT -8
2001 Chevrolet Corvette C5R
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Post by truenorth on Oct 2, 2019 16:28:59 GMT -8
The CorvetteRacing C8.R is alive and real. Debuting at the 2020 Rolex24Hours
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