[VIDEO] Behind the Scenes of How the Corvette Team Pulled Off its E-Ray’s on Ice Stunt

If you talked to attendees of this year’s 2023 NCM Bash and asked them about their favorite seminar, most would say that Cody Bulkley’s “E-Rays on Ice” discussion was hands-down the best from the event! It was certainly our favorite and we are glad to be able to share it here for you today.

Cody Bulkley is one of the ride and handling development engineers on the E-Ray project and is credited for discovering the E-Ray’s ability to “cyclone,” which is what Cody named it when he figured out what happens when you turn off the traction control and put the car into a spin. With the front wheel drive capability, the car begins spinning on its axis and the Cyclone was born. Cody says after that moment, he was always looking for a new place to try the maneuver.

Chevrolet first revealed the 2024 Corvette E-Ray on January 17th, 2023 which was also the 70th anniversary of the Corvette’s original reveal at the GM Motorama in New York City. The Corvette Team had an E-Ray in New York City as a display for the big media to come in and check it out, and they also reached out to the Today Show about featuring the new performance hybrid Corvette on the morning news program.

Somehow or another, someone came up with the idea to put the Corvette E-Rays on the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center for the Today Show segment. To pull off this stunt correctly, the team practiced on a similar size patch of ice in Michigan and confirmed it could be done, and of course we saw the moment that captured the E-Ray doing 20 total rotations on the ice following the show.

But it wasn’t as easy as just getting the cars to NYC and then driving them on the ice as there is no access from the streets above. So how did they pull it off?

In this seminar put on by Cody, he walks us through the complete time-line and everything that was done so that he would have the opportunity to “Cyclone” the E-Ray on the ice in New York City. Cody was very fun to listen to and his excitement about the stunt was over the top. We told members of the Corvette Team that a new rock star was born as after the seminar we witnessed Cody shaking hands with owners and we bet he signed a Corvette or two during the event.

I’ve already watched this seminar twice and it gets better with each telling. If you are able to watch anything from the NCM Bash, it’s this video!

Source:
National Corvette Museum / YouTube

Related:
[VIDEO] Corvette Assembly Plant Update with Kai Spande from the 2023 NCM Bash
[VIDEO] Watch the Full Corvette Team Presentation from the 2023 NCM Bash
[VIDEO] Tadge Walks Us Through the 2024 Corvette E-Ray’s Gauges and Screen Displays