[VIDEO] Harlan Charles Offers a Corvette Team Update from the National Corvette Museum

We had the opportunity to attend the National Corvette Museum’s 27th Anniversary Celebration that was held over the weekend and it was great to be around friends both old and new during the three-day event. The show offered a number of guest speakers who educate and entertain us, and the museum records them all both for their virtual members but also to share on their YouTube channel. Today the NCM offered up the first full seminar from the event featuring a Corvette Team update.

Representing the Corvette Design/Engineering Team was Corvette Product Marketing Manager Harlan Charles and his seminar on Friday afternoon covered a recap of all the great news surrounding America’s Favorite Sports Car before diving into the latest production and sales statistics. The seminar then turns to what’s new for the ’22 model year as well as some big news coming for a certain car that has “one letter and two numbers.”

As the final 2021 Corvettes have been scheduled for production, Harlan tells us that 26,216 Corvettes will be produced for the 2021 model year and offers a breakdown on the most popular options. We see that the top chassis is the Z51 with Magnetic Selective Ride Control (FE4) at 46%, NPP Exhaust has a take rate of 87% and the E60 Front Lift is at 61%. Inside the car, the GT2 seats account for 60% while the Competition seats are 7%. The top wheel choice is the Carbon Flash Open-Spoke wheels (Q8Q) at 39% while the Silver versions (Q8P) are at 38%:

Next up was the color chart assembled by Corvette’s forecaster Wendy Miller. The chart details the interior/exterior combinations that show the most popular combinations as well as those “rare” combinations that were selected the least. Torch Red was the top color for the model year at 19.7% (5,171) followed by Arctic White at 14.3% (3,769) and Red Mist at 13.3% (3,476). Not surprising anyone is Zeus Bronze coming in last at 1.9% (509), Accelerate Yellow at 3.2% (890), and Shadow Gray at 4.2% (1,111):

In the “What’s New for 2022” portion of the seminar, Harlan talks about the three new colors which we had the opportunity to see outside the NCM under the sun. Harlan also shows off the 2022 IMSA GTLM Championship C8.R Editions and played a video from the special edition’s debut earlier this year on Detroit’s Belle Isle. Three of the four versions were also on display at the NCM over the weekend

Finally, Harlan shares the two video teasers that have been released so far. “Crank It Up” was released in July and it featured just the sound of the car with the words “The street will never sound the same.” The second video teaser “Save the Date” shows the Z06 driving from the Nurburgring to Le Mans where it ends up parked next to Corvette Racing’s C8.R. Words on the screen say “The street will never look the same” and then it ends with a reveal date of 10.26.2021 displayed.

“We’re very excited about that, the next chapter of the 8th generation Corvette to be revealed. We’ve been working hard on that as you can see. Testing going on, not only in Europe but all over America. Being able to show these Street and Track videos is very exciting, and we’re really going to set the super car world on notice with this one. We’re all very excited about it.”

During the Q&A, Harlan was asked where the Z06’s reveal would be held, and he said that he didn’t yet know the location and that it will hopefully be announced in a few weeks.

Source:
National Corvette Museum / YouTube

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