[VIDEO] Harlan Charles Corvette Presentation at the 2019 Sebring Corvette Corral

Corvette Product Manager Harlan Charles was down in Florida last month for the Super Sebring Weekend. On Saturday morning before the green flag of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, Harlan spoke to the Corvette enthusiasts gathered in the Corvette Corral tent. Harlan was also joined by Wendy Miller who is a GM forecaster for the Corvette brand.

Harlan talks about the luxury sports car segment and how the Corvette Racing team competes against the same cars on the track that Chevrolet competes against in the showroom. Corvette currently leads the luxury sports car segment with about a 30% share. Harlan notes that the Corvette is usually the only American car in the segment.

The conversation then turns to the 2019 Corvette ZR1 and Harlan talks about the awards the 755-hp supercar has earned over the last year. According to Harlan, they have 2000 ZR1’s built and another 500 or so in the order bank.

Next up is the 2019 Corvette Grand Sport Drivers Series as Harlan talks about how the four full-time drivers for Corvette Racing were able to selectively design their own special edition Corvettes. Harlan goes through the four individual cars and how each driver wanted their cars spec’d out. The Driver Series Grand Sports are available in all three trim levels and is not limited to 3LT as usual. Buyers of these special editions will also receive an autographed photo of the race car driver whose car they purchased.

As Harlan opened up the floor for questions, he reminded everyone how much he likes his job and his house and so he might not be able to answer all the questions asked. Wendy then threw on a Sgt. Schultz shirt that read “I KNOW NOTHING” much to the delight of the crowd. And of course, the first question required Harlan to point to the shirt.

Harlan is asked about 2019 production and some of the colors and options. White, Red and Black are the top colors still. Harlan says they are seeing a lot more Stingray 1LTs cars which he says is a very good car for the price. Wendy tells us the Stingrays are trending to 1LTs, the Grand Sports are trending to 2LTs and the Z06 trends to the 3LZ package. As far as the ZR1, she says it’s about 97% with the 3ZR package and Harlan says about 60% of buyers are choosing the ZTK performance package with the high wing.

“We do plan a lot of things in the future, obviously, we have to, but things change too. I will say, you know again we can’t really talk about the future, I will just say the future is bright.” – Harlan Charles

A big thanks goes out to our friend Jake Drennon who recorded the presentation. It’s in two parts and you can them below:

Source:
Jake Drennon / YouTube

Related:
[VIDEO] Watch the Reveal of the 2019 Corvette Grand Sport Drivers Series
[VIDEO] Corvette Immersion Seminar at the 2019 Rolex 24
[VIDEO] Corvette Racing’s Tommy Milner Tours the Sebring Corvette Corral