Welcome to another fun-filled 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 Corvette Racing history, Fox C8 review, new sports cars from Maserati and Nissan, a “super” comparison test, Edmunds buys a C8, and more!
FIRST GEAR:
We open with a bittersweet look back at the past 20 years of Corvette Racing at Le Mans. The 88th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans kicks off today and for the first time since 1999, there are no Corvettes to be found in the spotter guide. Fortunately, the C8.R and its new screaming flat-plane crank V8 should make a return performance at the 89th edition of the race. Until then, Motor Trend has compiled a historical gallery of GM’s factory-backed efforts at Le Mans; what a run it has been for the American in France!
SECOND GEAR:
Even though the red-hot C8 racing program is on a bit of a hiatus right now, the roadgoing version continues to give fans reasons to smile! Fox News Autos was the latest group to test the newest member of the crossed flags family and, you guessed it, they think it rocks! The test is more of a photo gallery with blurbs attached but more mid-engine Corvette content is always a good thing. We especially enjoyed how they wrapped this piece up, “The reimagined Stingray now nearly exists in a class by itself. The cars closest to it on price and execution are the mid-engine Porsche 718 and the rear-engine Porsche 911, but neither are quite the same thing. As far as six-figure, mid-engine cars like the Audi R8, Acura NSX and Lamborghini Huracan are concerned, despite their power advantage and all-wheel-drive, I’d be hard-pressed to give you a truly good reason to spend triple your money on one.” We couldn’t agree more.
THIRD GEAR:
While we are on the topic of cars that are going to have a hard time convincing people that they are worth any premium over America’s sports car, Maserati unveiled a new mid-engined supercar last week. It is called the MC20 and it will go on sale next year for “under $200,000” with a 3.0 liter twin-turbo V6 and 621 horsepower. It is a pretty good-looking thing but it is difficult to imagine it finding many takers, especially when a Z06 with a naturally-aspirated V8 hits the market at a 50% discount!
This week’s big reveal came from Nissan. They took the cover off of the “Z Proto,” a near production ready glimpse at their upcoming replacement for the 370Z, likely to be called 400Z. Like the Maserati (and the Toyota Supra with which it will compete), the new Z features a 3.0L twin-turbo V6 that will likely produce around 400 horsepower. Unlike the expensive Italian and the Supra, the 400Z will be available with a six-speed manual transmission, hallelujah! Along with the introductory link above, Road & Track broke down the Z’s Easter egg-intensive design.
That design (mostly the blocky grille) and the fact that it rides on a recycled platform have brought the internet’s usual brigade of party poopers out en masse but R&T alum, Sam Smith has the perfect take on this gift of a vehicle in his weekly column, Smithology at Hagerty.com.
FOURTH GEAR:
If you are one of the few readers who chuckled at the thought of $200k being “expensive,” our friends from across the pond ran the perfect comparison test for you this week. If you are able to spend roughly 75% more than the plebeian Maserati customer, you’ll find yourself in a segment where displacement and cylinder count don’t enter the engineer’s minds. Which Super-GT would you have; the 715 HP, Twin-Turbo V12 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera (meaning “super light”, even though the car tips the scales at more than 3,700 lbs.), or the Ferrari 812 Superfast (100% earns its “super” name!)? See which way Jethro Bovingdon went here and don’t miss EVO’s drive of the Two-Million GBP ‘60s Ferrari that gave the 812 its name, here.
FIFTH GEAR:
Back to reality for our shift to fifth, but Motor Trend’s look at a once in a lifetime collection of Camaros is no less awesome than any assemblage of snooty Europeans. Which of these 27 Camaros is your favorite?
SIXTH GEAR:
We have come to the other Corvette bun in this Quick Shift burger. Edmunds purchased a C8! See their spec and follow along with the long-term blog and vlog of their experiences with the latest plastic fantastic on their site.
REVERSE:
We are headed back to the end of the Mayan Calendar for a throwback to an internal dispute between Corvette Racing and its supercharged production sibling. Enjoy ZR1 vs. C6.R and thank you for reading CorvetteBlogger! Have a wonderful weekend!
Previous Quick Shifts:
Base C8 Review, C8 Luggage Test, C3 Love, EV News, Continuations, Corvette’s First Rivalry
C8 vs Porsche Cayman, Spending $80K, MB Revealed, C8.R in iRacing, Autoblog Review, and More!
C8 Corvette Z06 Rumors, Ram Hellcat Pickup, Blackwing Steering Wheel, a Flyin’ Miata, and More!
-
![[STOLEN] Car Thefts Surged Nationwide in 2023](https://www.corvetteblogger.com/images/content/uploads/2024/04/042324_19-218x150.jpg "[STOLEN] Car Thefts Surged Nationwide in 2023")
![[PICS] 2024 NCM Bash Shows Off New Wheel Design for the Z06](https://www.corvetteblogger.com/images/content/uploads/2024/04/042424_6-218x150.jpg "[PICS] 2024 NCM Bash Shows Off New Wheel Design for the Z06")
The C8 video inferred the Corvette Team was wigging it but they retained several mid engine and rear engine sports cars to dissect and find the best way to arrive at a successful mid engine car. In addition Corvette has built several prototype middle engine cars and had the history of a Pontiac miss engine production car to help avoid pitfalls in short cuts to a production Sports Car. This car was in developed as far back as when the C7 was developed!
Quite a bit of C8 content is a replay. At the same time, for those waiting for their C8’s or who have just gotten them, the C8 content is apropos. The interesting thing is that the new so-called 400Z (name/badging makes absolutely no sense at all, despite the comments from some who like it). The throwback to the 240Z looked fine with the Fairlady designation on the back. It should be designated the DZ300, since it’s a three liter, is a throw back to Datsun and is a Z. An alternative would be DZT300. That would be a tirbute to Datsun, a Z and Twin turbos. And extra T would be too long of a designation. The most important thing, though, is the future is here with the Corvette and the nostalgia of this 400Z (how totally unimaginative!) isn’t enough to chose the Z over the Z51. Not to mention the BMW Motorcycle company offering a throw back model that makes no sense: Am 1800 CC horizontally opposed boxer engine with a bunch of chrome where it mostly doesn’t belong, and weighing double the motorcycle it claims to emulate. Passion and style and a lot more that will be the best use of fossil fuels and the internal combustion engine for years to come: The Corvette mid-engine C8 Stingray. (When my Z51 is floored in the standard touring choice and reaches 75 mph, my eyeballs are being pressed into the back of my head and he acceleration presses me into the racing seats and I realize that 100 miles per hour will arrive in just over a second. I get on the brake. That’s when I wonder just what it is that I would do with a Z06 or a ZR1 or a Zora or a Grand Sport, even. By the time I got my foot on the brake, I’d be having a rendezvous with the International Space Station. AF
First of all.. it’s a totally new concept and design. And having the engine in the rear.. and keeping the cost factor down.. they did a good job.. but I day they should have put a supercharger on it.. with good ported heads. And out of the box make it 800 horse at two wheels.. make a real statement..G.M. and also they got those ugly rear tail lights on the vet and Camaro are the same. They should have done a better job there.. Rick’s transmission..
Comments are closed.