Quick Shifts: Unwrapping Rapid Blue, Miata ‘Midyear’ Tributes, Top Corvette Engines, Hooning the Electric Mustang, Classic C5 Review

Welcome to an abbreviated, four-speed edition of Quick Shifts! Quick Shifts is a content feature here at CorvetteBlogger featuring links to Corvette and automotive-related stories of interest. The content that we have hand-selected for you this week includes an unwrapping of 90 C8s, Japanese car customizer Mitsouka makes a Midyear, the Top 10 Most Significant Corvette Engines of All Time, Ken Block hoons the electric Mustang Mach E, and a throwback review of the C5 Corvette from Motor Trend.

FIRST GEAR:

Our pal, Morgan Crosbie recently had a fever (hat tip to Hagerty for educating us about the name of a group of Stingrays!) of 2020 Corvettes arrive at his dealership. As a part of this Christmas in July, he put together a massive unwrapping video. Out of so many great color combos, it is the Rapid Blue over Tension Blue (sans stripes) that has us the most smitten. After a year of staring at C8s, what have you settled on as your choice for the car’s best look?

SECOND GEAR:

A confusing shift to second takes a look at some funky, Miata-based “Midyear Corvettes.” This week, Autoevolution brought us the story of Mitsouka, a company in Japan that is converting MX-5s into small C2 lookalikes. Check out the story here but, bargain hunters, don’t get any funny ideas, it doesn’t seem possible to bring one of these faux-vettes to America.

THIRD GEAR:

We do love a good listacle (that’s an article in list form that bloggers utilize to entertain while also keep you cycling through pages) and our friends over at the Corvette Forum have put together a list of the Top 10 Most Significant Corvette Engines of all time. One thing I like about this list is that it doesn’t dwell on the very low-quantity special engines we are all familiar with like the L88 or the ZL1. Instead, the list starts at 1953 with the Blue Flame 6 (you can’t have 68 years of Corvettes without the first one) and ends with the LT5 found in the 2019 Corvette ZR1. Along the way, you see the evolution of the Corvette that includes small blocks, fuelies, big blogs, DOHC’s, and the aforementioned supercharged V8s.

FOURTH GEAR:

This week’s even gears deal with varying degrees of blasphemy but the largest offender of the year in that category is none other than the Ford Motor Company. If you are one of the lucky ones who forgot about their heinous desecration of the legendary Mustang name, here is a quick reminder of the electric crossover that will silently wander the streets with an undeserved wild horse badge next year.

Well, the Blue Oval isn’t letting die-hard fans, stickers, or haters deter them from trying to make their heresy cool (and profitable). Here is their roadmap to do just that: Step 1. build a seven (7!) motor version of the Mach E that makes 1,400 horsepower, step 2. pull the strings of an endorsement contract to get someone with cachet behind the wheel.

They followed that playbook to a T, and the result is very promising. Check out the video below of Ken Block “hooning” the specially prepped Mach E, but don’t do it around a dog, the noise this thing makes drives them nuts!

Will this ingenious marketing make the Mach E the first successful EV without a Tesla badge? It is tough to say as even Porsche has struggled to move Taycans during a difficult 2020 model year, but it can only help their chances!

REVERSE:

We have our sights set on 1997 and some sweet C5 action for this week’s edition of Reverse.

Remember the time that Motor Trend called the, then new, C5 Corvette, “Inside and out: The best sports car America has ever produced” much to the chagrin of classic Corvette fans and preceded to challenge a ’67 427/435 to a duel? We do, and it is fantastic! See which example of America’s sports car outperformed the other in this classic test and have an outstanding weekend, Corvette Nation!

Previous Quick Shifts:
Angelyne, Corvette Racing, 5 Rarest Corvettes, Bronco Revealed, AMG GT, Porsche 911 Rivals, and More!
Car and Driver’s GOAT, Cruising Ohio, Syracuse Show, New Dodge’s Previewed, C8 Review, and More!
Track Set-Up Video, Living with a C8, 1000+ HP Crate Motors, Electric Trucks, and a Homeless C6 Z06.