[VIDEO] Speed Phenom Turns to a Ferrari Dealer for Help with His Z06 Carbon Fiber Wheels

By
Keith Cornett
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16
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[VIDEO] Speed Phenom Turns to a Ferrari Dealer For Help With His Z06 Carbon Fiber Wheels


YouTuber Speed Phenom is back with the third video in his series of trying to find a solution for safely changing the Michelin tires on the carbon fiber wheels of his Z06. I was hoping that he would find a resolution to his issue, but that’s not the case. This is very embarrassing for Chevrolet as dealer after dealer has refused to work on the new Corvette Z06.

If you’ve been following along Speed’s ownership of his 2023 Corvette Z06, you will know that after driving the Michelin Cup2 R spec tires across country after picking up the car at the NCM, and then taking part in a couple of track events, his original tires were pretty worn. So he purchased a new set of four tires back in November and had a Chevy dealer change them out. After a few more track events, the tires were worn again, so he purchased another set of four tires and had those changed out.

The problem that Speed was first addressing is that the process for changing the tires on his carbon fiber wheels requires a special $50K tire changing machine that most Chevrolet dealerships do not have. The two sets of tire changes Speed had done were completed on a standard tire changing machine and, in the process, he found that it damaged the finish of his visible carbon wheels. Speed received a warranty replacement set of visible carbon fiber wheels, but the dealership then refused to do the work as they didn’t want to subject these new wheels to the same machine. So now he has new tires and a set of new carbon fiber wheels, but no Chevrolet dealer that he contacted in Southern California is willing to do the work.

After two weeks of having his car on jackstands, Speed then takes his tires and wheels to a Ferrari dealership, but they have trouble with the mounting as well. As the Michelin Cup2Rs are runflats, they have a very small sidewall that is super-stiff and we’ve been hearing stories about just how hard it is to get these mounted and inflated. After two separate attempts, the Ferrari guys throw in the towel.

[VIDEO] Speed Phenom Turns to a Ferrari Dealer for Help with His Z06 Carbon Fiber Wheels


So now it’s three weeks of being without his brand new Corvette Z06, and all the Chevy dealers are refusing to work on it. The solution may be to take the wheels and tires to a third party shop, but Austin is worried about the liability of doing that as well, and so he remains stuck with no solutions available.

Speed makes the comment that the dealers are the issue here and we totally agree with his sentiments. They want to take a $50,000 to $100,000 ADM over MSRP to sell these cars, but then don’t put any money to have the special equipment to safely work on them. And Chevrolet should be requiring their dealers to fork over the money to have the right equipment for servicing them or they don’t get the allocations. It should be that simple. At the end, Speed is discussing all this and he says:

“You should have the peace of mind that Chevy could work on it. When I was buying this car and spec out the carbon wheels, I was told by everyone that Chevy dealers will be able to work on this car. What I’m learning is that none of the Chevy dealers I’m talking to want to invest money to improve their service with the the tools they use.”

I guess we’ll stay tuned for the fourth video and hope that it all works out for him.


Source:
Speed Phenom / YouTube

Related:
[VIDEO] Chevrolet Responds to Speed Phenom’s Denial of 500K Rewards Points for Not Flipping His Z06
[VIDEO] More Z06 On-Track Racing Action with Speed Phenom at COTA
[VIDEO] Speed Phenom Takes on COTA in his 2023 Corvette Z06

 



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16 COMMENTS

  1. I sympathize with Austin.

    My Chevy dealer has sold 3 or 4 Corvettes and yet they have no one qualified to work on them. So they will sell you the car, but they will not so much as change the oil in the car. I can travel an hour and find a dealer that will work on them.

    Austin has no such option.

    All the Cadillac dealers near me have Blackwings, however, the nearest V-Series certified dealer is 3 hours away.

    It seems reasonable that a dealer should have the equipment on hand to repair/maintain any new vehicles that they sell.

  2. G.M. Should not allocate vehicles to dealers who can’t or won’t service them – period. G.M. is as responsible as the dealer.

  4. Think Chevrolet is sweating this… Nope, thousands are lined up to buy the Z06, more than they’ll ever be able to sell. I don’t believe customers will exit the Z06 line for what’s an anecdotal experience by one customer. Over the years, I’ve been very pleased with the Chevrolet dealerships that my Corvettes were repaired and/or serviced and have seen them bend over backwards to take care of any issues… I wonder if Austin’s YT reporting has resulted in his local dealerships deciding not to change his tires…we don’t know the full story. However, there’s always three sides to a story and currently we’re only hearing one; Austin’s. Although, it does make for good YT content for Austin…which results in revenue.

  5. John Belk – Watch the three videos and you’ll see Speed Phenom is being pretty reasonable. The story seems entirely straightforward based on his experience. Few dealers want the risk of damaging $20K of wheels at a pop. Hunter and Carbon Revolution have weighed in on how to do the job properly, but now the issue seems to be with Michelin. The run-flat Cup2 R is a very tough tire to mount, especially given the Gigantor size of the rears.

  6. Yes…Chevrolet is sweating this. Selling cars beyond what the mechanics have been trained to work on. Think a dealer will invest in a high dollar machine and cost of training mechanics or a mechanic when “maybe” they will have a couple customers with this cars? Chevy should subsidize the cost of training and equipment to a larger dealer in the “area”. Could you expect a Ford dealer who sells mostly F150’s to work on Ford GT’s if they happened to get one allocation? About the carbon fiber wheels, how did the factory get the run flats onto the wheels and what is specific about the equipment they used…what are the tricks if there are some? They should have created a document of how this is done…they or someone IS doing it. If nothing else, they should find sources that can deal with the wheels in areas where these cars and wheels are sold and let the dealers know of that option. Why leave the loyal customer flailing and searching for an answer and maybe choosing the wrong one…and posting complaints?

  7. The low profile run flat tires do need a special touchless machine to mount on the carbon fibre wheels. While this is special it is not that exotic. (Ford mustang GT350R) Corghi makes a nice machine. While the run flat tires are a PITA. This is not that crazy. Good high end tire dealers that work on sports cars will have the necessary equipment. I think that Speed Phenom is making this out to be a bigger issue to get more clicks.

  8. The problem seems to be getting the tire to seat. Several shots of the tire in the rim. I think Austin is being very calm about this. I would be screaming at the top of my lungs.
    I agree with others that say, Chevrolet dealers that refuse to service any car they sell, should not be allowed to sell that car, period.

  10. I feel sooooo sorry for this little turd. He never should have optioned the carbon fiber wheels. And how did he wear out three sets of tires so soon? One more thing, he’s really dumb for putting run-flats back on the car.

  11. For multiple reasons, you are being way too dismissive and harsh (and maybe jealous). Tadge Juechter and company offer the CF wheels because they drop 41 lbs. of unsprung weight and the car works better on track with them. (It’s even tuned a bit differently with CF wheels.) You can certainly pass if you can’t feel or value the improvement for the big upcharge. Would you say the same thing to everyone who has the money and interest in having the CF wheels?

    Speed Phenom tracks his cars a lot; you should respect a guy who does so, since that’s what a maxed-out Z06/Z07 is all about. Lots of track time means more sets of tires. (Treadwear rating on the Cup 2 R is 140, so they get used up fast.) It doesn’t look like the Z06/Z07-specific Michelin fitments are even available in the non-ZP versions. The car came with them, so GM certainly recommends their use, and should make sure Mr. Goodwrench can change them. I know the Michelin guys who develop all the Corvette tires, and Lee and Jeff are world-class at what they do, so there’s no reason to use anyone else’s rubber.

    It’s too easy for keyboard warriors to take shots at a guy who’s just being earnest and passionate, if a little geeky about his ownership experience. Watch all three videos, and you can see he’s being more than reasonable in looking at this situation.

  14. My local dealer recently spent the extra money and got the tire changer needed for the bigger, wider tires for the C7 – and the run-flat tires for the C7 tires are a PITA to mount. I just got the rears done on my C7 GS and it took them easily an hour on each wheel to mount it correctly with the small sidewall/lip. I can only imagine the effort and care it should take to mount the big tires on the Z06 with carbon fiber wheels. It should be GM’s restrictions on who gets the allocations if they can’t service ALL the Corvettes they get allocation for. It’s nice that GM will at least give all of the Chevy dealers at least 1 of the Z06s to sell, but they need to follow through and make sure the dealers will follow through also.

  15. @john Ether works, done it hundreds of times over 40 years on sizes from 24.5 truck to 6″ mower tires, you just need to know what you’re doing (like anything else). Run-flats are for cars with no practical way to carry a spare and jack and apparently what most people want even though they can’t remember the last time they had a flat. Conventional tires will always perform better and ride better than run-flats. Little Austin just makes my skin crawl, last person I’d trade places with.

  16. It’s not a given that, “conventional tires will always perform better and ride better than run-flats” at this extreme size and low profile. Though it’s unlikely, would you want a regular tire that failed at speed to cost you one of those CF wheels? Hopefully the run-flat also significantly ups the chance that if a tire does fail, take an impact, or a puncture while tracking your Z07, you’ll be much better able to avoid more serious trouble and limp back to the pits.

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