QUICK SHIFTS: C8 Convertible Review, R&T’s PCOTY, RAM 1500 TRX Wins Truck of the Year, and More.

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QUICK SHIFTS: C8 Convertible Review, R&T's PCOTY, RAM 1500 TRX Wins Truck of the Year, and More.


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.

It’s a big post this week so let’s get to the stories!

FIRST GEAR:

As our readers have come to expect, our first gear sprint to 60 will be all about the newest member of the Corvette family. Motor Authority and Slash Gear have both had a go in the hard-top convertible Stingray in the weeks since the last running of this column. They each bring different perspectives to the table, making them outstanding complementary pieces. See the MA writeup here and click this link for SG’s take. The more we see/read about the Nacelle’d C8, the more we fall for it!

2020 Corvette Convertible First Drive

Photo Credit: MotorAuthority.com


SECOND GEAR:

Speaking of C8s, now, even more than before, we are feeling like Monday morning quarterbacks when we look back at GM’s decision to send a pre-production mid-engine Corvette to Road&Track’s Performance Car of the Year (PCOTY) last Fall. Knowing what we know now, this year would have been an ideal time for a fully-baked C8 to shine in R&T’s biggest annual test!

As we previewed in the last edition of QS, this year’s PCOTY line-up is severely lacking when compared to previous iterations. Having read the 2021 version, now we know why. A COVID-related reschedule made some of the test’s heaviest hitters become unavailable. Ferrari had to pull the 488 GTB’s (not yet a household name) successor, the 710 HP F8 Tributo out of contention. It was a similar story for McLaren’s bonkers new 765 LT, and the Porsche Cayman GT4 that just took PCOTY honors from our favorite overseas automotive publication, EVO, had to be replaced with the lack-luster four-banger T model. This all left a relatively uncontested path to victory for the only true performance vehicle in the entire field (which we won’t spoil, except to take a second to gloat about correctly calling the winner two weeks ago!).

We aren’t 100% sure that the C8 would have won its third PCOTY trophy in just eight-years of the event, but it would have given the champ a lot better run for its money than any of the assembled cars this year! Read the whole piece for yourself here and we think you’ll agree!

Road & Track Performance Car of the Year

Photo Credit: Road & Track


THIRD GEAR:

Keeping with the awards theme, Motor Trend named the awesome, Hellcat-powered RAM 1500 TRX its Truck of the Year this week, giving an unprecedented hat-trick to the RAM brand. As always, the award came with an impressive payload of extra content! Our favorite has to be this article about what a historic accomplishment an MT three-peat is for RAM. It is full of what we called “game notes” in my time in the media wing of a collegiate Athletic Department. This is the first time that one brand has ever scored the Golden Calipers in three consecutive years. On the car side, only Chevrolet has ever even won back to back awards (a feat they have accomplished two separate times (the Corvette even helped!)). Back to backs have only happened twice on the SUV side (though those winners were the Forester and Outback which we don’t qualify as real SUVs). And finally, in trucks (where there are much fewer brands competing, Ford went back to back in ’17 and ’18, Chevrolet has notched two straight wins three times (’95-’96, ’01-’02, and ’15-’16) and, prior to their current dynasty, RAM had taken consecutive calipers once between ’13 and ’14.

The four-minute video of the TRX that is embedded in the first link of this gear is definitely worth a look, as are this interview with the head of the RAM brand, Mike Koval Jr. and this adjacent review of the Airstream Flying Cloud that was used for truck of the year towing tests.

While GM fans have been driven completely up a wall by their favorite company’s refusal to field a money-printing Raptor (and now TRX), competitor. We do have the much-hyped Hummer EV on its way which will kind-of, sort-of act as the General’s answer to the factory trophy trucks out there. If you have a reborn Hummer reserved and like the way it looks, we warn you, don’t look at the early design sketches below! GM Design took to Instagram with a much edgier design that was on the table early in the process and now it is all we want the real thing to be! The hypothetical Hummer is, in a word, stunning!

MotorTrend Car of the Year

Photo Credit: MotorTrend


FOURTH GEAR:

More than a month ago, this column reported on the rumors of the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series setting a new production car Nürburgring record. Well, a manufacturer video released last week made it official, the $325,000, big-winged, 720 HP Merc is the new King of the ‘Ring with a scorching 6:43.616 time which edges the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ by 1.354 seconds and gapping the bonkers 911 GT2 RS by nearly 4 ticks on the all-time leaderboard.

Seeing a vehicle with the classic Corvette proportions mixing it up with and beating the exotic mid and rear-engined cars of the world brings up a lot of unresolved feelings in this blogger/C7 ZR1 fanatic!

I wish the parent company would have given the front-engine swansong a bit more effort, especially when it came to setting (admittedly irrelevant, but extremely fun) lap times. Even if it didn’t get into the 6:40s with the cars who are on their home turf at the ‘Ring, the bat-winged C7 absolutely had a sub 7:00 in it! The ZR1 deserved to be the first American to break that barrier. We know all about the string of bad luck during that befell the Corvette team in Germany during the C7 years but after getting used to claiming the Green Hell’s crown in 2009 and 2012, not to mention the success of the racing program, the current dry spell from the street-cars doesn’t sit well with the members of Corvette Nation who care about such things. The Crossed Flags put the foreign competition on notice a decade ago and now they take their laps extremely seriously and we would like to see GM do the same from now on! The stratospherically priced AMG and Porsche both set their records on Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tires with a factory racing driver at the helm.

Michelin claims that the Cup 2 R is capable of shaving .8 of a second per mile on track vs. the “standard” Cup 2s that the ZR1 wore. Over the N’Ring’s 12.9 miles, this small equipment upgrade (a no-brainer for the group that has led the way in super-sticky tires since the previously mentioned 2012 Z07 and PDE packages debuted) would have moved the C7’s one-year wonder from an unofficial 7:04, to around 6:53 (pretty close to the Huracan Performante’s former record and better than the mark set by the GT3 RS and the 918 Spyder)! I think we all could have held our heads high if it made that mark! But it could have been even better! We all know that former ride and handling engineer, Jim Mero is a phenomenal (and ballsy!) driver but we always wonder what someone like Jordan Taylor might be capable of if Chevrolet went the way of their competition and put a pro racer behind the wheel for record runs. I guess it is time to let this go and start to look forward to the C8 variants that will make the 720 HP Black Series look like child’s play!


FIFTH GEAR:

The days of high-revving, naturally aspirated engines seem to be numbered, but, before they go out, they are going to have a glorious finale! On our side of the pond will be the upcoming, like a Ferrari, only better, Z06, and Porsche just showed what they have up their sleeves for what will likely be the final NA 911. The 992-generation 911 GT3 is on its way with a 4.0L flat-six that will rev to 9,000 RPM and make 500ish HP while paring with the perfect sporting combination of manual transmission and rear-wheel drive. The full specs are fascinating but we are especially liking the swan-neck wing supports that look great while allowing the wing to create more downforce! We can’t wait for the “Last of the Breed” comparison tests between this, the C8Z, the final version of the V10 Lambo, and the Ferrari 812 GTS!

While we are on this topic, we would like to acknowledge how difficult the team behind our favorite car has it. The upcoming Z06, for instance, has to be as extreme and gratifying to drive as this GT3 while also offering the straight-line thrills and grand touring ability of the 911 Turbo S (Top Gear has a great read about how the new 640 HP version stacks up against the air-cooled benchmark, 993 Turbo). The car that they come up with has to achieve both of those conflicting goal posts while also costing a fraction of what the competition does while also dealing with the notorious GM “bean counters” and millions of rabid fans who each have their own strong opinions about what America’s sports car should be (as evidenced by this entire column)! Hats off to Tadge and Co. for even getting out of bed in the morning!

992-generation 911 GT3

Photo Credit: Evo


SIXTH GEAR:

Finally, raise your hand if you would be interested in a McLaren with a V6. Now, all three of you, keep your hand in the air if you would want one at a colossal MSRP when you could a) go to any high-end purveyor of used automobiles and get your hands on a lightly used V8 model for pennies on the dollar, or b) call our guy, Mike Furman and get the new, NA Z06 that we keep going on about for even cheaper. Nobody? That is what we figured.

This is the reality facing a McLaren company that has already struggled mightily in the financial department in 2020. Their cars that are famous for being light, as well as fast, will be dropping the otherworldly twin-turbo 4.0L V8 for a V6 strapped with heavy hybrid tech. The first of these cars will be called the Artura and we don’t see a world where many people want to buy it even with a snazzy new non-alphanumeric name.

On top of all of that, the government of McLaren’s home country has pulled a California and banned the sale of “petrol” powered cars after the next nine model years! It is going to be difficult for a company like McLaren to survive this social shift along with everything else that they have been going through but if they do end up going under, they had an excellent run!

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Photo Credit: McLaren


Reverse

At the SEMA 2010 show held a little over 10 years ago in Las Vegas, Chevrolet unveiled a very special concept car at the show. Introduced was the 2011 Corvette Z06X Track Car Concept and we’ve been begging GM to build a version of the car ever since.

Chevy teamed up with racing partner’s Pratt & Miller to create the Z06X concept and the car features a number of track-oriented performance parts including an adjustable carbon fiber rear wing, a polycarbonate rear window, roll cage, racing seat, and safety harness, racing wheels, suspension enhancements – including coil-over struts with fully adjustable camber plates – racing-spec cooling system and more. The radio, carpeting, and sound-deadening material are also removed. The Z06X was also outfitted with the “all-new” Z07 Performance Package and CFZ Carbon Fiber package that was found on both the 2011 Z06 Carbon Edition the ZR1.

Check out the CorvetteBlogger archives for more on the 2011 Corvette Z06X.

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Photo Credit: Chevrolet


Previous Quick Shifts:
New C8 Corvette Reviews, Manual C8s, Price Comparisons, Awards Season, and More!
C8 Convertible Reviewed, SEMA360 Engine Debuts, Magnesium Wheels for the Blackwing, and More!
C8 Convertible, More Reviews, C7 ZR1, New Hummer, and More!

 



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