[VIDEO] YouTuber Blows Up Her Twin Turbo C8 Corvette

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[VIDEO] YouTuber Blows Up Her Twin Turbo C8 Corvette


Emelia Hartford, a popular youtuber with a ton of followers, had been building out her 2020 Corvette with the most major mod being the twin-turbo set-up added to the car over the course of the last month. I’ve been trying to nail down exactly how much power the car was making and in one of her recent videos where it was being dyno tested, the car was making 609 ft-lb of torque and 539 hp at 2700 rpm.

I’m no engine tuner and I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn last night, but I have found some of these builds to be suspect as it appears they are just throwing more power at the car either through adding a Nitrous system or twin-turbos without building out some of the internals of the engine to handle it, let alone being able to access the computer to give it a proper tune.

We’ve seen Nitrous-powered cars twisting the half-shafts, while the twin-turbo build from Late Model Racecraft was generating too much power and was slipping the clutch. LMR backed down the boost and that appeared to help the issue, but it was only a matter of time before someone grenaded their LT2 V8.

And now we have a winner as Emelia Hartford took to YouTube today with the bad news about her car. The video started out about getting the car ready for a road rally, and during a quick pull on the road (skip to 11:26), the engine picked up a noticeable ticking sound. After some investigation, a borescope inspection revealed that a piston was literally missing from the engine.


She does talk about building out the engine to now handle the power, but it’s not like she has a choice at this point…


Source:
Emelia Hartford / YouTube

Related:
[VIDEO] YouTuber Turns Her 2020 Corvette Stingray Into a Burnout Machine
[VIDEO] Late Model Racecraft Wraps Up Its Twin-Turbo C8 Corvette Build with a Test Drive
[VIDEO] John Hennessey Takes His Twin-Turbo C8 Corvette for a Test Drive

 



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21 COMMENTS

  1. This is an example of illegitimate ownership of a Corvette, one that so many are on a waiting list for, that would take care of it. These YouTube morons are NOT entertaining.

  2. She made the comment during the video she was going to leave it stock, and proceed to mod it with the addition of twin turbos on a stock motor. What does she expect. As Chuck already said….”A fool and her money”

  3. I made it about half way through, she’s really a little hard to listen to. Obviously hooked up with someone with money who doesn’t mind looking at her big nose.

  4. For all time, why do these fools think they know more than the automotive design engineers that do this type of analyses for a living?
    Duh!!

  5. Some people to stupid to have children and others are to stupid to have a corvette. Obviously some deep pocketed daddy will cover the rebuild.

  6. At first blush, Ivan, K.G., Ronnie, Snakeman, Marty G., Chuck and Brian all seem to have excellent points which really can’t be challenged. And this is reflective of conventional thinking. I’m a C8 owner. I also have researched the car as extensively as I’ve been able to for a guy sheltering in place and wearing a mask.

    The key here, is that her bio which is on the Internet mentions that she is an actress who has spent some time in front of the camera in other pursuits. She has a following on other social media. If you take a look at her Internet following, she has a whole lot of subscribers and gets a very high “thumbs up,” ratings. Pretty much, she appeals to a specific audience which is likely approximately age 15 through age 38. This is totally a guess of mine based upon my observational skills which have always been good and then were developed as a sworn peace office, during a 37 year career. On at least two, if not more occasions, I myself suggested on her Vlog comments that she build her engine one step at a time. That would included strengthening the internals of the engine such as adding Carillo Rods; stronger wrist pins; forged pistons and crank and premium valve train. Race bearings would more or less top it off. She might also do port matching on the exhaust side and have the ports check for potential material removal where needed – generally checking for hot spots and any untoward material that could have occurred during the casting process. Lastly, it is noted that the quality and type of gas would be come an issue with the addition of the mirror facing or twin scroll turbo chargers. I never heard back through the “bell system.”

    All of the above said, she has done her share to promote Corvette sales. She also has promoted the after market. Kids these days want their sports cars to, Look good (i.e. a subjective view of “sinister,” “super car,” etc.) perform phenom-like performance…essentially they want it to be bad a$$ and to be No.. ! on the street, track and in their “club.” Given her, “clout,” she gets a pass from me. However, it is hoped that she has learned a valuable lesson from this experience. She did upgrade her half shafts and drive shafts and some other components. But the critical components? Actually, she’s pretty bright and I’m sure she saw this coming. She alluded to it. In America, if you’ve got the coin and get into it early enough, you are going to get yourself a C8. Clearly, she’s no Jay Leno. But then, she doesn’t want to nor purport to be. AF

  7. It’s sad how many are just jealous of this young lady. At least she is driving her C8 and having fun with it. With all the comments about her breaking her car, I guess none of you ever got into racing. If she isn’t crying about having to fix her C8 why are you. It’s because of people like her that we find the weak points of a car so we’re aware of them and know where to upgrade. As for Ronnie with your comments about her looks, I just could imagine what your wife or husband looks like.

  8. Gives Corvette a bad name. Never found her entertaining. Heck I can handle Chevy Dude better than her.

  9. Given the scarcity of the C8, videos like this have terrible optics and epitomize the general lack of empathy in the world these days. It is like throwing away food while the hungry watch; it has the appeal of S & M or a snuff film. She took something valuable and trashed it for the amusement of the basest of us. Please join me and refuse to watch.

  10. Many of these comments make no sense. It’s her car and she can do what she wants with it. She clearly knew the risks and probably doesn’t even care all that much. Good for her. If you are mad at her for “ruining” a good car, go buy one yourself and keep it safe for the good of humanity.

  11. I just want Blogger to follow up better on past articles. Couldn’t tell where to comment about it, so I threw it in on this article. Unless I missed it, I believe some dealer or ? ? ? someone was auctioning a C8 last week, and I ASSUMED we’d hear what it auctioned for. If you’re going to write the article, then let us know when the auction is over, just how much it went for. Those of us with new C8’s coming in have an interest in how the auction market is going. For those who might have similar interest, the one at Mecum last week went for about $97K when it had an original $68K sticker.

  12. Swissrick, a Sebring Orange 2LT Z51 Coupe with a $73290 sticker sold for $100000 last weekend at GAA Classic Cars auction.

  13. You’re welcome. I realized that this was the C8 from the previous article on here that you were referring to. I wanted to check out this Corvette and all the other cars at GAA Classic Cars but they didn’t allow spectators this time because of the pandemic.

  14. When i was 8 yrs old i saw my first corvette from the rear window of my dad’s impala. I asked my father if i saved 25 cents each week for a year could i buy a corvette? Dad said NO. I have been working since i was 14. I spent 32 and 1/2 yrs of my now 64 working as an RN. I am presently reading articles and trying to decide which options for my long anticipated vette would be best for me. This is the only thing on my bucket list. I relate this story in that it is so hard to comprehend the nonchalant attitude of this young girl literally blowing up a dream.

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