Ep. 314: Europeans Believe The Chevy Corvette Isn’t World Class - These Three Generations Prove Them Wrong!

League One Volleyball is coming to Minnesota in 2027, the world's best players together on

American soil.

This is volleyball like you've never seen before.

Huge swings, massive blocks, jaw-dropping digs, a sport where every play is a highlight.

To learn more and get first access, visit lovbminnesota.com slash iHeart.

This isn't just a game, it's a once-in-a-generation event.

The Harlem Globetrotters 100-Year Tour.

Celebrate 100 years of high-flying dunks, 100 years of show-stopping moves, and 100 years

of changing the game.

Bring the whole family and be part of the legacy.

This game is once in a century.

Be there at MotorCenter on January 24th.

Go to HarlemGlobetrotters.com for your tickets to the 100-Year Tour.

Hey guys, welcome to this very special TFL car chat because I've got Case and Case.

What else do we got?

We've got all kinds of American muscle, so of all the episodes for me to be taking

Tommy's seat to talk about mostly Corvettes.

This is the one that I'm happy to be on.

Yeah, if you're listening to this on your favorite podcast platform, we are standing

in front of $220,000 worth of American sports slash muscle slash sporty cars, I guess?

V8s and 1V10 that we'll talk about as well.

Although it's funny, the majority of that $220,000 is in one car specifically.

And even if you combine all these cars, it's still less than a modern 911.

Yeah, but we do have some pretty affordable muscle in here.

We've also got the newest, most cutting edge that you can get.

So we're really going to talk about a pretty broad range of some awesome cars, really some

of our favorite cars we've ever owned.

Yeah, this is really a Corvette special because we have owned pretty much every Corvette

except for the C1 and the C2.

And if you're listening to this, I am standing next to the 1968 C3 and we're going to

go through and walk it and show you everything around it and show you all the cool

features.

Next to it is the C4 Corvette, but this one special isn't the case.

It's not any C4, it's the ZR1.

So arguably I would argue the top of the food chain because the Grand Sport was also

really cool.

So there's maybe a debate to be had there, but the ZR1 was the most expensive of the

C4s.

So very impressive.

And then behind it, we have the natural competitor to the C4 ZR1.

And by the way, the four, if you guys are new to Corvette, just means fourth generation.

So C is Corvette and four is fourth generation.

But this would have competed directly with the ZR1 and what is this?

It's a 1994 Dodge Viper and as much of a Corvette guy as I am, I will admit this

is one of, if not my single favorite vehicle the company has owned since I've been

here for the last six years.

Yeah, this is the quintessential American muscle car, all attitude and all crap interior.

But we'll get to that in a second.

And then finally we have our newest purchase, which we just traded in for our 2020 Chevy

C8, the eighth generation Corvette.

And this is the new 2025 C8 Z06.

And this is a much different beast.

Actually, there's one bit of interesting information that the ZR1 and the Z06 share

over all the decades.

And that is case that there has not been an overhead cam Corvette since the ZR1,

since you until you get to the Z06.

Yeah, so this C4 ZR1 was pretty revolutionary being a dual overhead

cam V8 that we'll talk about because this is a very interesting engine.

So it's pretty cool.

We get to look at the progression of these cars over quite a broad range of time.

Like you said, we haven't had a C1 and a C2.

We also haven't had a C7.

But we've owned more generations of Corvettes than ones that we haven't had.

Yeah, we've had a C5, we've had a C6.

Of course, like I said, I went on the launch of the C7.

So I'm very familiar with that.

And now we have what I think is the ultimate, the most balanced of the

current new Corvettes, which is the Z06.

Of course, there's a ZR1 and a ZR1X and an E-Rate.

But I think this is the one you want and we'll get to that.

But let's start with not the C1, not the C2, because I got a tight case.

I don't know a lot about those two cars.

I have sat in the C1 and I don't fit.

Yeah, which is a bit of a problem.

It's very upright.

And of course, C stands for Corvette and Corvette stands for, well,

it's a type of military boat.

And that's how the Corvette was named, a class of military boat, the Corvettes.

A lot of the C1s as they were getting the car going weren't

necessarily hot rods when the car first started out.

And then of course, the C2 is an absolutely beautiful car,

but it's not mechanically sophisticated.

I wouldn't say the split window is gorgeous.

Yeah. Oh, 63.

Yeah. Stunning.

One of the best looking cars on the road period.

This C3 is a really nice combination because you can find some pretty

affordable C3s out there.

This one we got for around about 20,000, but you can find,

especially later model C3s for even less because these cars went from

what, 68 all the way to 82.

So it was a long production run and the car changed a lot over that time.

This being a first year, I actually like it a little better

because it's got the classic chrome bumpers.

That's what they're known for.

These are called the chrome bumper cars.

And in this video slash podcast, we're also going to start all of them up.

So it's really interesting.

And then at the end, we should start all of them up.

At the same time.

Yeah. How many gallons of fuel per minute do you think that would be a lot?

But let's go back to this.

So I've got a hot take on the C3.

This is my favorite of all the Corvettes from a style perspective.

Now, a lot of people would disagree with that, but I love the classic

big, haunches, Coke bottle shape.

This is just a classic American muscle slash sports car, depending

on how you want to look at it.

And we were lucky enough to get the first year or maybe unlucky enough.

There's a story that car and driver tells about this car.

So when I think it was car and driver, when Chevy built this car,

they delivered it to car and driver for review.

A week later, car and driver gave it back and said, give it to us when it's done.

Yeah, which was a harsh, but possibly fair critique because there are some strange things

like the door handle set up on this car.

So on later C3 Corvettes, that's all you do.

Push that down and that pops open the door on this car.

You've got to push this additional little lever.

So there's kind of two levers built into the door and it's a slightly strange

operation. I've got to say, we'll show the other strange thing.

We'll show the windshield wipers.

Yeah, the windshield wipers are at least strange in a cool way.

Yeah. So this is the only.

This is the only year of the C3 where the windshield wipers actually

completely retract behind this little cow and will show you will demonstrate.

It's it's a bit of give and take.

This one is kind of a cool feature.

I might have to get the ignition on.

By the way, let's start up and let's listen to it.

And then let's see if we can show them the wipers.

So getting into this car is a good way to to tear or dislocate your hip flexor

if you're not prepared for it.

Look, as much as I would like to think I am, I'm not actually that massive of a dude.

You're not. My my legs could be bigger.

And look at look at the issue with sliding my leg under the steering wheel.

You know why that is?

First of all, that is the smaller steering wheel.

So the previous owner actually put on a smaller one.

Don't start it up yet.

So imagine if you had the full size one.

But this is the complete bean can of Corvette, a C3.

So there is only one option on this car and you could have gotten an option

where that steering wheel actually tilted up so you can get in.

Which would have been lovely, which would have been lovely.

But the only option we got and this is also, you know,

how like Corvette guys like to talk about like this is one of that's

yellow and you know, this is only one of 200 C368 Corvettes

with a three speed manual, which is not necessarily an option that you want.

No, you're not the four speed manual.

It was not a particularly expensive upgrade to get a four speed.

This instead is a three speed.

So genuinely a pretty rarely seen feature,

although not a desirable rare feature.

This might be a one of one in terms of bean can Corvette.

So the only option this came with the only it didn't even have no power

steering, no AC. There's there's no if you look over there,

there were like little pockets on the front where you could like have.

They didn't have a glove box,

but there was like a little pocket there to hold things that that is a crazy thing.

We don't even have the pocket, but what we do have is a convertible top.

So one option, one option only because the three speed was the base.

Yeah, the three speed manual, I should say, but we do have the convertible.

So this car came with one option as a convertible.

So start up and listen to it. Sounds glorious.

Tell you what, even a base car, it's still got a V8 Roman.

Yeah, now that is a Chevy 350 V8, the way God intended.

OK, now watch the way the wipers work.

Yeah, so check this out.

It's really cool when you flip the wiper on a panel moves out of the way.

The wipers come up from behind the hood.

So it's a really neat operation and it cleans up the front end of the car a little bit.

And then do it again.

I want to show him something cold.

Come over here and show him the way the mechanism works.

It's really cool when you watch it from this side,

you'll see the mechanism and how it moves the wipers beneath the wiper.

You see that little spinny arm?

Is that how cool is that?

Which is a tough thing for podcast listeners.

But I'd say if you're just listening, it's worth looking up a video of how these wipers work.

It is a very neat thing.

And those are vacuum operated, I believe, which means that they usually don't work.

So find a car with working ones.

You want to pop the hood while you're down there?

Yeah.

And we can show him what's under the hood.

So of course, this came with a 350 and the big block was a 427, which we don't have.

Well, and even some cars that had 454s, this one's a 327 and they're claiming on the air cleaner,

at least 300 horsepower.

That would have been 300 gross horsepower.

Yes.

So if you were to put this on a dyno to the rear wheels, it would be not 300.

I want to say like in front of you Corvette, hardcore Corvette enthusiasts, you'll know this,

but I want to say like in the early 70s Chevy actually started not doing gross horsepower

about wheel horsepower.

And that's of course, when the horsepower went down significantly.

Now, the C3 generation is unique in that it really is split into two parts.

Pre, let's call it 73 and post 73.

Or in other words, the chrome bumper cars versus the...

The urethane bumper, the older cars.

Yeah, look dramatically different also as emissions came into play.

Yes.

The powertrains were pretty different.

And you said the magic word emissions.

Basically, you get into the malaise era of the 70s.

So what happened?

And I was a young lad at this point.

The OPEC nations had a boycott and we started rationing fuel in America.

And that led to us also rationing horsepower eventually.

And so cars became choked with emissions equipment.

Yeah.

And they also became much slower.

And that happened about 73 or 74.

And those cars are dirt cheap.

You want to show them the headlights?

Yeah.

What they still had, even in that era, were some fantastic pop-up headlights,

which I might need to flip the key on again for.

Which I don't want to do if I'm not making sure it's not going to go flying at coal.

Oh, come on.

Come on.

Now you can start.

All right.

Pop the headlights.

Look at that.

Oh, they were coming up.

Zee.

There they go.

Oh, yeah.

Pop-up headlights.

One of them is a little bit of a lazy eye.

Yeah.

It comes up slower than the other.

And goes down slower.

They must be vacuum operated, same thing.

But it's still very cool.

Very cool.

I agree with you that I really do think the shape and the design of this car

is among the best, not only of Corvettes of all time,

but of just cars, period.

Yeah.

The Coke bottle shape is incredible.

And interestingly, value-wise, the chrome bumper cars are a lot more valuable

than the urethane bumper cars.

Which makes sense.

So this car we bought for $22,000.

If this were a urethane bumper, let's say if this was a $75,000 or even an anniversary,

those cars are between $5,000 and $20,000 all day long.

Yeah.

And more likely, they're like a $10,000 car.

And honestly, as much as I prefer these earlier C3s in their styling,

for $10,000, you can't knock it.

Yes.

That's potentially a very fun car for the money.

Yeah, it is.

And since we bought that car, we need to say goodbye to some of these.

So if you guys are interested.

Are you selling the C3?

Yeah.

This is news to me.

Yeah.

I'm ready to move this on because I think we've done about everything we

can do with it right now.

Fair enough.

I think it's time for it to go.

So if you're interested, shoot us an email at infoattflcar.

And I haven't decided on the price yet, but we did pay $22,000 for it.

I think it's worth in the mid-20 range.

It's a driver.

It's mechanically sorted.

But it's one of those 20-foot cars where it looks good from 20 feet away,

but the paint job is not grand.

This was an original Colorado car that sat for a long time.

Yeah.

I think it sat from like 92 until now, where it was taken out of the barn.

It was repainted.

I don't know why they did it yellow, but they did.

This is originally this beautiful rust copper red color, which I would have

liked better.

Yeah.

But it is what it is.

Somebody kind of did a yellow paint job on it.

The other thing that's unique about these, I think this is the last year

of real fiberglass.

Yeah.

When we get to the C4, people think that those are fiberglass,

but they actually composite.

But I think this was still fiberglass.

Yeah.

And speaking of fiberglass vehicles, this driving it to me has as much

in common in the driving experience with a criss-craft as it does with

later Corvettes like the C4.

Well, tell me about that.

What's it like to drive?

Yeah.

Since the seating position is not necessarily friendly to taller

bigger guys, the steering wheel is right in your lap.

Yeah.

I have a hard time shifting it because the steering wheel is right in my

lap and I can't lift my foot.

Well, yeah.

Because I can't lift my leg to actually shift it.

It's hard.

The ergonomics of it are ridiculous.

Also, where you sit in the car, it's true of the majority of these

vehicles that we're talking about today, but you are right in

front of the rear wheels.

So it's something to get used to.

There's a lot of hood, a lot of front end in front of you.

So your seating position is kind of weird.

And that's the fun part, isn't it?

It's seen that long, like hood.

Yeah.

And I love the tail of this car too.

Look at the back of this.

There's two exhausts popping out the back.

Those four iconic round Corvette headlights, right?

Yeah.

It's stunning.

This is just a really good design.

It looks like one of our exhausts is going off a little bit sideways.

Yeah, which could be factory original.

No in the way that, again, these cars were constructed.

No shade being thrown at the car either because we absolutely

love these.

I love Corvettes as much as anybody out there.

And this is just a rockin' good time.

But you've got to appreciate it also for what it is.

Yeah.

And ironically, these Corvettes became known as old man cars,

cars that you would take to the golf club with your buddies

to go golfing.

Where do you put your golf clubs in this?

Yeah, especially being a convertible.

You're a little out of luck.

One thing I do love about a lot of Corvettes, though,

is the fuel fill in the center here.

Yeah, it's cool.

At times it could be a little bit stressful because you've

got to walk the hose all the way over your bodywork to

what this means you could pull up to a pump on either side,

which I actually like a lot.

So the only storage in this car is the space behind the,

right back here, behind the seats.

So I guess you could perhaps, that's where the

battery lives too.

Yeah.

You could perhaps squeeze, I guess, a set of golf clubs

back there if you had to.

Or if you were by yourself, I guess you could squeeze

them in the passenger compartment.

Yeah.

But that's about it.

I do like the little plaque on the Corvette that

tells you the way the gears go.

I think that's kind of cool.

And all those kind of old school dials and gauges feel,

not only retro, but feel really cool.

Yeah.

The shape of the dash on a C3 Corvette feels very cockpit-like.

It's angled backward.

The gauges are deep set into that dash.

So it's got a very unique appearance.

I think you could pick it out of a lineup of any other

dash on any other car.

You wouldn't mistake a C3 Corvette dash for anything.

Yeah.

And there's just some classic design features like the

shark gills on the side.

Yeah.

You know, you'll see those carried over into the C4.

Unfortunately, they didn't carry the Coke bottle shape.

And what size are these tires?

Because we're going to be talking about tires in a second

because we're going to get extremely wide.

Yeah.

Well, we're going to get wider.

We're also going to get much bigger in diameter.

Yeah.

So these are 15-inch wheels.

And my rear tire here is a 225.

A 225.

15.

Wow.

So not an especially wide tire.

Can you show it from behind?

Because that's really where you can see how wide that tire is.

And so it's not all that wide.

No.

It doesn't look out of place on a C3 because C3 is an older car

and that's more of a period correct tire size.

But as we kind of transition onward,

let's just look at a comparison between the width of a C3

rear tire and the width of especially our C4 ZR1,

which is wider than a base C4.

This is a 315.

315.

This is a 17.

How big is it?

Yeah.

These are 17-inch wheels on a C4 ZR1 315.

Even my base C4 that I used to have,

as I owned it, not necessarily the factory tire size,

maybe 10 millimeters wider,

but I believe mine was a 285.

This isn't just a game.

It's a once in a generation event.

The Harlem Globetrotters 100-year tour.

Celebrate 100 years of high-flying dunks.

100 years of showstopping moves.

And 100 years of changing the game.

Bring the whole family and be part of the legacy.

This game is once in a century.

Be there at Motor Center on January 24th.

Go to HarlemGlobetrotters.com for your tickets

to the 100-year tour.

You can get the guidance that you need

to kick off your home remodel with confidence.

Replace months of research with one focused hour

of expert advice.

Space is limited, so get your spot today

for the Mountainwood Homes free expert hour,

January 10th.

Reserve your spot now at mountainwoodhomes.com

slash events.

So let's transition to the next generation.

Like I said, you lost the Coke bottle shape.

This became composite instead of fiberglass.

And it turned into a little bit more of a wedge car,

but I actually like.

I know I'm kind of, for the most part, alone in this,

especially like you listen to Doug DeMiro's podcast

or something, they as well as most people

don't like C4s.

I love C4s.

This is crazy enough.

I've owned a C4, and this is my favorite

generation of Corvette.

So feel free to make fun of me.

Well, it's certainly, I mean,

you take a magnificent step toward modernity

when you go from the C3 to the C4.

You could consider this a modern sports car.

Yeah.

This was kind of a tweener between the C2, right?

Which is still pretty old school,

whereas this is very modern.

I think one of the biggest things to the C4's credit

that you can't get really from looking at pictures

and necessarily watching videos of them

is how much more modern to your point

and how much better this car drives

than a C3.

This is so much more modern.

This feels like a car, and this is a car

that in this day and age, you could stick on a track,

you could put sticky rubber on it.

Even if you have a base C4 Corvette,

you can massage the engine a little bit

and make it a fun and pretty competitive track day car.

Now, one of the great things about the C401

that we have here is I think it's,

some people, you know, the youngsters would say

it's been slept on.

I would say the market has undervalued this car

because this was kind of Chevy's moonshot at the time.

So it had just a lot of cutting edge technology.

Like I said, first overhead cam.

And this is something that most people don't know

before we get to the powertrain,

which is really cool.

This car was, I think, also three inches wider.

And this is where the problem came in

than a regular C4.

Now, your C4 was how much when you bought it?

You had a black one.

You bought a black one in good shape,

less than 50,000 miles for 10,000.

So we paid 30,000.

And I think you get a hell of a lot more car.

You do.

Yeah.

Four, you know, basically $20,000 more.

Now, the way you can tell a ZR1 from a regular C4

is two ways.

First, the little chimsel up there, right?

The little third brake light.

That stays up there because the car,

like I said, what GM did basically was

they didn't just widen the car.

They cut the car in half.

So they did the engineering.

Not like he just made the body work wider.

You actually cut the car in half and they added

three inches of width to the whole car.

And then the other way you can tell is

a ZR1's have this flag surround because

obviously this is where you can tell the three inches, right?

This is where the license plate

would normally be tucked up against a rear backup light.

Yeah.

But one of the issues that this car had

is it was significantly more expensive,

whereas a base C4 Corvette like mine

back in the day would have been around $30,000.

I think this would have been more like $50,000.

No, no, no, no.

You are way off.

So the original buyer of this car

paid well over sticker.

Oh yeah, but at least if I can find the sticker.

The sticker on this car, if I remember,

oh shoot, where is the...

Is it the glove box up top?

Yeah, but I think it's in the back.

It's in here.

Here it is.

I kept all the paperwork.

So we're showing the ergonomics of reaching

into the back of the C4 Corvette right now.

Yeah, we've got the sticker.

We've got a lot of documents on this car.

This one's fully documented.

So keep in mind the original owner

paid $10,000 over the sticker price.

But look at the sticker.

$60,000.

Yeah.

So and he paid, I think,

we've got the bill of sale here.

I think I want to say he paid like $70,000

for this car.

So this is a crazy thing.

Standard vehicle price,

about $32,000 here in 1990.

ZR1 Special Performance Package

an additional $27,000.

And this one has a few extras.

But wow.

Look how much he paid.

He paid $80,000.

$80,000.

Oh, no.

He paid $20,000.

Well, look.

He paid $20,000.

So yeah, $20,000 over the sticker.

Which in 1990.

He paid $85,000 for this one.

$80,000 in 1990.

Yeah.

Is a shocking amount.

By today's money, that's like $10,000.

And the other issue, yeah, right.

And the other issue with that

is that this car,

at a glance, it doesn't,

even though it is that much wider,

like you said,

and they put so much effort into that,

this car doesn't look that different

from a standard C4 Corvette.

I mean, how much would it cost

to actually cut a car in half

the long way and then widen it?

I mean, think about the engineering

to do that.

The amount of money,

engineering and development

that went into this engine.

So here's another myth

that people get wrong.

We'll show you guys,

we'll start off and show you

the cool headlights,

because I think it's the only

generation of Corvette where

the lights actually do like a 180.

They come up.

They don't go up like this.

So the C3 lights just pop straight up.

These ones do a little flip.

They spin around.

It's really cool.

So people think that,

and this is true,

that this engine was engineered by Lotus.

And so the misconception

is that basically GM

panned out the engineering of it

to Lotus,

and so then it was basically

a British design.

Except people forget that

at that time GM owned Lotus.

So if you own the company

that's doing the four-camp,

32-valve powertrain,

then it's really GM doing it.

And then, of course,

this is also all aluminum

versus an iron block.

And GM, at that time,

didn't have a lot of experience

with building all aluminum powertrains.

And so what they did

was they went to Mercury Marine.

And they had them manufactured,

especially because it was

a smaller volume engine.

And they were better equipped for that.

And GM made this a big challenge,

unnecessarily so for Lotus,

because if I remember right,

I think they wanted the same

bore spacing as a regular 5.7 small block Chevy,

which was just kind of

an unnecessary design limitation,

if you ask me.

So when Lotus first came out,

the bore spacing was a little different.

Yeah.

And GM said, no.

And then they had to redo

the entire engine at a cost

of probably tens of millions

to get the exact same bore spacing

as the traditional...

So they made it very difficult.

But 375 horsepower on these early cars,

later on, like 405 horsepower.

This one, 370 pound-feet of torque.

So for its day, a very potent engine.

With the key.

Why don't you show them that while we're at it?

Show them the key,

because that's the cool part.

This is the one before

the red key came along

in the Hellcats.

Yeah.

So this is a neat little party trick.

You have this additional key

that lives in the dash

and it's got two settings,

normal and full.

So if you stick this

in the full power mode,

that's how you get,

at least on this car,

the full 375 horsepower once again

on some later ZR1s, 405.

And these ZR1s in 1990

had this updated interior

that a lot of people

like more than early C4 Corvette interiors.

I don't think this one

is as retro and fun,

looking as early C4 Corvette interiors.

But it's maybe,

you could argue, better executed.

Well, let's do this.

Here, you start it up.

And I'll get the exhaust note

and you can show them

the instrument cluster.

Yeah.

I've got this key in my pocket.

This car,

we might need to do a little

top end work on,

because it does blow some oil.

And a little belt squeal.

But,

the other funny thing

about this car

is that

for this being a halo

car,

an insane performance vehicle,

they really didn't make it very loud.

No, it's not that loud.

It's super quiet.

What they did,

at least in this version,

is they made it very uncomfortable

and that's why you're sitting in it.

Because my big American ass

will not fit in between those two bolsters.

There are several different seats

you could get in C4 Corvettes.

This is one that

I think they paid extra for.

It was a more aggressive seat.

It does have some pretty tight bolsters.

And, yeah, I agree.

Even as narrow as I am.

And to show them that little switch

below the gear shift lever

and between the armrest right there,

this is one of the first versions

of basically ride control.

So you can change the way the vehicle rides.

And what are the different options?

Tour, sport, and performance,

which is cool.

Because that means when it's time

to replace your shocks,

you can spend more money.

Yeah, because they're more expensive.

But you'll see that also in the Z06.

The other thing that's,

I think, really cool about it

is that, of course,

most Corvettes come as either

Targas or convertibles.

And this one particularly

has both the glass roof

which we have on.

And then we'll show the back end

in a second.

It's also got the regular roof.

Yeah, so I can make eye contact

with you through a transparent roof,

which you can't do in every car.

And you can remove this panel.

So even though this isn't

a traditional convertible,

like you said, it's more like a Targa.

So you can pull the top off

and still have it be

like a convertible,

which I think is really neat.

Now, let me close

the hood real quick

so we can show the wonderful headlights.

Before you do that,

let me talk about another.

You remember we were talking about

ergonomic issues with the C3?

Well, this one has a horrible

ergonomic issue,

and that is the sill size.

Oh, it's not that bad.

What they did,

it's like four inches, dude.

You just fall into it.

It's fine.

Look at that sill.

What they did was they wanted

to have incredible structural rigidity.

And because it is a Targa,

to get that,

they put all that rigidity in this.

No, it's like a six inch sill.

And it succeeded.

This car, very stiff.

Very stiff.

Good handling.

Very hard to get any out of.

These stills, totally worth it.

It's easier than your BMW i8.

You got to admit.

That's a low bar.

That is a low bar.

All right.

You want to show them the lights?

Yeah, we got to show the pop-up lights.

Show them the pop-up lights.

Yeah, they're cool.

This on a lot of C4 Corvettes,

if you're ever shopping around

for a C4 Corvette

and you look at one

and both of the lights

pop up exactly how they're supposed to,

then you're probably looking

at one in decent shape.

Yeah.

It is far from impossible

for these to fail.

Like on my C4,

those lights originally,

they came with plastic gears.

Whose idea that was.

You can replace them with brass gears,

which is good and you should do.

But it's such a fun operation

with these headlights.

So with this car,

it is our 9-11,

which we're also selling by the way.

The 87, 9-11,

we're also selling that.

We just bought a whole bunch.

We bought this.

We bought a Bentley

and we bought a Defender.

So we're selling a lot of cars

to help pay for those.

But that one was my problem child previously

because the convertible didn't work.

This is our new problem child

because first gear,

the synchro, I think is...

Yeah.

And I think the engine's got some issues.

Yeah, we brought this over to a buddy of ours

that does a lot of dyno tuning.

So we actually ran this

on the dyno

as well as the Viper

and had him go through it

because he owns a ZR1.

He had even another ZR1 before that one.

So he's definitely pretty well-versed

in these cars

and he feels like this one

throughout its life

has been driven pretty hard.

Yeah, how many miles in it?

That's like...

I'll say something.

It's not a lot.

No, not that many miles,

but in those amount of miles,

it seems like this car

lived a rough life.

Or somebody did a lot of hard starts.

Yeah.

So we're going to try to put this back.

We might have to swap out the transmission,

which isn't going to be cheap.

Also, another thing that I'm looking at it is,

you see this right there?

Yeah.

So that is a little cutout

because these are actually very rare.

So if you're looking at a C40 R1,

finding one with an original windshield

is very hard

and you know that

because you've got this cutout right there.

And what GM did at that time

is they put this film on the windshield,

which helped with the solar radiation.

But at that time

was a big deal,

was of course speeding

and getting speeding tickets.

And because of this film,

radio detectors would not function.

So GM cut out a little section of the film

where you could place your radio detector

and actually have it function

so that if you were driving a little more spirited

than the law would allow,

you could have a fuzz buster.

And back then they were fuzz busters

that would function.

Yeah.

And these windshields are cool,

but they're also like you said,

very expensive

because there's not that many of them out there.

Yeah, they don't make them anymore.

They sell for quite a bit of money.

And this is especially scary

because we live in Colorado.

If this windshield were to get cracked.

We couldn't replace it

or it would be very expensive to replace.

Yeah, that would be.

At least with the original cutout.

You could replace it.

Excuse the bummer.

Yeah.

And so I think this car is worth

hopefully putting some money into

because it does have...

Well, let's show them the back.

Let's pop it.

It does have both tops.

It does have the original windshield.

Now on my...

It is low mileage.

C4, yeah.

There we go.

That's the same.

Nope.

Oh.

Did not quite do it.

No, try again.

Yeah, there we go.

It just doesn't have...

So in this one you could obviously...

Oh, it's got the bad struts.

Of course it does.

It does have enough room

for golf clubs

and we do also have the hard top

which slots in

like kind of unlike the 06.

Exactly.

So you can actually latch

the hard top here in the trunk,

which is cool.

There's a place to store it

if you want to pop it off,

which I like.

And once again,

center mounted gas cap,

which is pretty cool.

Yeah, exactly.

So you can fill up on either side.

I love that.

Now before we move into

the modern era...

We're going to have to jump over

to the natural competitor.

But let me finish up on this car.

So in case you guys are wondering

because, you know,

we like to bring you along

on these journeys.

Like I said,

like we do everybody

who is expert at these.

When you put it on the dyno,

what was it putting out?

I think people would be curious

about it.

Yeah, so I can't remember

the exact number.

It was in the 300s.

So the dyno is measuring

wheel horsepower,

not crank horsepower.

And this,

you would expect to be in

maybe the,

well, I don't know,

10, 15%, whatever,

drivetrain loss

for 375 horsepower.

You would expect it to be...

Like 320, 325.

Yeah, maybe even

a little higher than that.

Yeah.

And we were,

if I remember right,

around 300.

So it didn't,

on the dyno,

seemed like this car

was necessarily underperforming,

but then getting out,

it out on the streets,

compared to Jordan's

ZR1 he felt like

on the road,

it wasn't performing as well.

So the plan with this car is

hopefully we'll sell the yellow one

and help finance the repairs

on this car.

So, I mean,

the first gear synchro

is just driving me crazy.

Yeah.

Don't like every time

you put it in first gear,

if you don't double clutch,

you get that.

Yeah.

So we want to get that sorted

and we want to get the engine back

to where it should be.

Otherwise, the car is in great shape.

Yeah, especially cosmetically.

Cosmetically, it's fantastic,

which I think is

as important as anything

because paint,

especially original paint,

is tough.

Doing some maintenance

on the drive line,

to me,

that's not a huge deal.

It is what it is.

You've been working

hard buying your first home

for years,

saving, watching the market,

wondering if it's possible.

The holidays remind us

what home really means,

where traditions start

and memories are made.

Your first home

isn't just a milestone,

it's a space

that's truly yours.

At Holt Homes,

we designed homes

for real life,

thoughtfully laid out,

honestly priced,

built for people

ready for what's next.

Your first home

should feel

like the beginning

you've earned.

Visit bit.ly

slash

new Holt Home

to see what's possible.

League One volleyball

is back.

The world's best players

together on American soil.

This is volleyball

like you've never seen before.

Huge swings,

massive blocks,

jaw dropping digs.

A sport where

every play

is a highlight.

League One volleyball

returns January 7th, 2026,

with teams in Atlanta,

Austin, Houston,

Madison, Nebraska,

and Salt Lake.

To buy tickets,

visit lobb.com

slash iHeart.

And this year

we also purchased

this car,

which would have been

the natural competitor

to the zero one

back in the 90s.

And of course,

this is the first generation

Dodge Viper.

And this was a vehicle

that was basically

meant as an,

I don't know,

competitor homage,

whatever you want to call it

to the Cobra.

So Bob Lutz did this

when he was at Chrysler.

And this is about as raw

as you can get.

I mean, back in the day,

this was known as

a widow maker

because there are

no driver aids.

If you want an analog car,

this is it.

No airbags,

no traction control,

no ABS,

nothing.

It's just you

and an eight liter

V10 with 400 horsepower,

460 pound feet of torque.

So even this car

being over 30 years old,

it still feels quick.

And it puts down

some decent quarter mile times.

Even here,

a mile above sea level,

we've gone under 14 seconds

in the quarter mile,

which is not that far off

of the times that these

were putting down

when they were brand new

at sea level

on a prepped surface.

So this is a beast.

And when we put this

on the dyno,

this exceeded,

kind of well exceeded

what we were expecting it

to put down.

So this is a great example

because the two are

very diametrically opposed.

So this was

GM's moonshot

in terms of technology, right?

The Corvette, yeah.

The Corvette, the 01 Corvette.

I mean, like I said,

there was not an overhead

cam Corvette until

the 06 came along.

That's how many years.

Yeah.

40 years, right?

No overhead cam Corvette.

This, on the other hand,

is the exact opposite.

So there's also a myth

that we needed this fall.

You want to pop the hood

and show them how that's done?

Yeah.

So it's an interesting process

because you start out

at the very front

of the Viper.

So not that I recommend

doing this,

but technically,

if you walk up to any

first gen Viper,

you can pop the hood.

Also, the doors don't

have door locks,

so that helps.

But there's also

a second latch.

Yeah, yeah.

So you initially

do the latch.

And then you've got to

come over here

and you need two people

because this hood is

one of the biggest hoods

in the automotive business.

And then it opens up

like this.

And of course,

that is what the Viper

is known for.

Is it a

how many liters?

Six?

Eight.

Eight liters.

That's right.

Eight liter V10.

Yeah, it's a big one.

And it's a beast.

The funny thing

about this engine

is that a lot of people,

especially on the internet,

say they don't think

this car sounds good.

I've got to say

in person

at the driver's seat

when you ring it out,

it's not bad.

Yeah, I think it

sounds really cool.

Yeah, so the issue there

is it doesn't have

a cross pipe.

And so we're hearing

only five of the cylinders

because of course

the exhaust comes out

the side.

It doesn't like

five cylinders.

Yeah, and what you're

hearing is only half

of the firing order,

basically.

And so people assume

and this is the

biggest myth of the Viper

that this is a

truck engine.

Because of course,

now at that time

it was Ram.

I mean Dodge now

you build truck engines.

Yeah.

But the story behind it

is exactly the opposite.

So when this car

was developed once again

Chrysler at the time

didn't have expertise

in building aluminum

powertrains.

And they wanted,

basically they wanted

what the Corvette had.

They wanted this

very advanced

dynamic 10 cylinder.

And at that time

they owned Lamborghini.

Yeah.

So they actually

went to Lamborghini

which had been

building 12 cylinders forever.

Yeah.

And they said,

can you design a 10 cylinder

and can you make it

an overhead cam

and of course

being Chrysler about halfway

through the process

they ran out of money.

Yeah.

And so instead of

getting this very

sophisticated engine

they got a push rod V10.

Yeah.

So it still shares

there's a lot of similarities

between the design

of this V10

and the V10s

that you would find

in similar era.

Right.

Because this

eventually became

a truck engine.

So this came first

and then eventually

they incorporated

the design of this

into a truck engine

but the truck engine

was an iron block.

Oh yeah.

No.

So this.

It's massively different.

Yeah.

So this is what the

truck engine was based on

but this is not a

truck engine.

This was designed

by Lamborghini

for this car

as a Viber engine.

This is also

not a Lamborghini V10

because Lamborghini's

V10s are very different.

They're not push rod motors.

Exactly.

But this being a

push rod engine

they are actually

pretty durable

and I gotta say

I love about this car

you can be

very rough with it.

You can launch it

it's tough.

The driveline of this car

is very tough.

I mean you said it.

Durable.

These are almost unbreakable.

They're about as reliable

as any sports car ever made.

And since we're talking

about how they sound

I might as well go ahead

and fire it up.

Fire it up.

I'm gonna preface

that there's a check valve

on the

in the fuel system on these

that

fails.

is a pretty common issue.

So it might take

a little bit of cranking

but when it starts up

it's great.

Oh, not bad.

Oh, wait, wait, wait.

Oh, one more.

It's got it.

Yeah, now that is

that is music to my ears

as the cliche goes Pace.

I love that.

Now, if you're

at all concerned

we did let these cars

warm up before starting

this podcast.

Yes, yes, don't worry.

We drove them here.

They're not,

they're not cold

as we're starting them up

and revving them.

But one of the funny things

about these vehicles

are these exhaust pipes.

There's a little caution,

a warning here on the door jam

that tells you

be careful

because the exhaust gets

very hot.

You can very easily

burn yourself.

Generally here at work

we always wear pants.

So it's not

as much of an issue

but you can get

a little round tattoo

off that exhaust pipe

if you were to

like, you know,

back of your leg

up into it.

Which is easy to do

because this,

you were talking about

the ZR-1 sill.

Look at that.

It's not as tall

but it's wide.

It's wide.

Yeah.

Now the thing about

Vipers is of course

there's three generations.

Well, there's five

but really two of them

are kind of mid-generation.

Yeah.

So the mid-generation

the G,

this first generation,

the mid-gen refresh

it brought out the exhaust

out the back.

Yeah.

I like the side pipes.

I think the side pipes

are cooler.

Now the craziest thing

about this car of course

was that it was meant

to, like I said,

compete with the original

Cobra which, you know,

Shelby did, right?

Or at least

have a similar

philosophy to it.

Yeah.

And the interior

is,

if you're being kind

it's the most

basic interior

of any vehicle

that I've ever owned

or we've ever owned.

It's hilarious.

There are

essentially exposed

basically wood screws

holding the dash together

and it does not age well.

The

our glove box,

for example,

a lot of this finish

on the plastic

is scraped off

and you would think,

wow, this car's pretty old.

It's also got,

what, 18 or so

thousand miles.

So that

happens in

that short of a time.

It's just not

an interior that

holds up well.

Look at the steering wheel

too.

It looks like it's out

of an arcade game.

Yeah.

There's certainly no

airbag there to

you know,

your driving performance.

I gotta say,

if you're buying a

Viper because you want

a nice interior,

probably buying it.

Look elsewhere.

Yeah, look elsewhere.

This is all about

the driving experience.

Once again,

if you think the C3's

analog,

this is

this is beyond analog.

Because this

this car was

really designed,

it was

initially designed

not even to have

a top.

So this top was

kind of an afterthought

and you can tell

by the way it sits

it looks like a baseball cap.

It looks like a

hat turned backwards

because

the gap at the back

is

ridiculous.

I love

one of Tommy's

things that we talked about

when

comparing this car

to the C4

ZR1

was

if you want

cup holders,

get a Corvette.

You want a roof,

get a Corvette.

Now also the back window

comes out

and luckily we bought this

for $40,000

from a used

police officer

and he had all

the bells and whistles.

So we have

the soft top,

we have the soft windows,

we have the hard windows

that just slot in.

The problem is

once you put the windows in

you can lock yourself

out very easily

because there's

no door handles.

Yeah, so there's

no exterior door handles.

Generally,

you just reach in

and grab the door handle

on the inside

of the door.

But if you do have

the windows in

what you can do

is you can

double press the key fob

and it pops the door out

but as we were

finding this morning

it doesn't

necessarily work

that well.

So we just had to take

the windows out

because once again

you don't want to

lock yourself out.

The other thing

that this did not come with

which is the money

that we did put into it

let's show them on the other side

because it's a little nice

on the other side.

Don't look over here.

We did

find the original

wheels for it.

This one had

the next generation

chrome wheels.

It was like that

more than any time.

Maybe even a later

wheel than that.

Yeah, where they

were chrome

and I just

hate that

generation of wheels.

So these were

Chrysler wheels

and

this is what the car

would look like

when it came out of the

factory.

And you'll notice

the wheels

and the whole

rest of the car

are very dirty

which may bother you

but ultimately

all of these vehicles

these are not

museum pieces

they're not

show cars.

These are drivers

we drive them

go long distances

we take them

drag racing

so that we can

make videos for people

to watch

because there are

plenty of these sitting

in museums

of these

kind of throwing

star style wheels

but they are very

correct to the car

and to the era

in an iconic part

of the original design.

And of course

the tire size is crazy.

Yeah.

Here on the rear

it's a 335

on a 17 inch wheel

which is an

insanely difficult

tire to find.

Yeah and show them

coming back again

because that's

where you get the real

view.

Yeah there are

very few companies

that make these

tires.

Michelin is one of them

and they sent us

these tires

this car

so thank you Michelin

because you can't get them

any other way.

Which we also really

appreciate because

like you said

these have

a reputation for

being dangerous

for being

poorly made

like we said

and all of these

things that we're

laughing about

with the interior

and everything is

not to the detriment

of this car

because it all adds

to the experience

and the lore

and the history of it

but it is so nice

having fresh rubber

on this car

because we drag

race it a lot

bad combo.

So I have to say

I've driven it a lot

it likes

drag racing

it likes

it likes cruising

Have you tried

cornering it?

I haven't

I haven't tried cornering it

very hard

because of its reputation

but it doesn't scare me

I just drive it straight

I've taken it

around a corner

I had pretty good speed

but I think the

Widowmaker

was probably

in its time

a fair assessment

of the car

but yesterday

I drove a Rivian

with a thousand horsepower

in today's modern world

where we're

seeing cars

in excess of

not just a thousand

but fifteen hundred

maybe even two thousand

horsepower

this doesn't seem

as frightening as it did

back in the nineties

Genuinely a straight line

this is to your point

a very friendly car

you can launch it hard

you can wrang it out

you can go as fast

as you want

in a straight line

no problem there

what

to my understanding

gives this

a lot of that

Widowmaker

reputation

that's still true of it

is if you exceed

traction

around a corner

it's not like

you've got a

nice little window

that you can

operate in

step out the back end

and keep it under control

it sounds like

if you're cornering this

hard

and it goes

it goes

it's gone

yeah I was talking to

somebody who actually

tracks them

and they said

what ends up happening is

you know

it goes right

let's say on a track

and the back end

starts to go

typically what happens

with these

is you correct

and then it pendulates

back the other way

and that's where you lose it

so it goes one way

you correct

and then it goes

exactly the other way

and then you're done

and this not being in my car

I don't want to find out

I don't want to find that out

because this car

does have to pay for itself

like you said

one of the reasons

we're selling that car

we're kind of done with it

we've done as many videos

as we can

and so it's time

for it to move on

and we're not going to

make any money

crashing that

no

we're not that

kind of channel

we're going to Minnesota

in 2027

the world's best players

together on American soil

this is volleyball

like you've never seen before

huge swings

massive blocks

jaw dropping digs

a sport where

every play

is a highlight

to learn more

and get first access

visit

lovbinosota.com

slash iHeart

the Harlem Globetrotters

100 year tour

celebrate 100 years

of high flying dunks

100 years of showstopping moves

and 100 years of

changing the game

bring the whole family

and be part of the legacy

this game is once in a century

be there

at Motor Center

on January 24th

go to HarlemGlobetrotters.com

for your tickets

to the 100 year tour

now we're missing

we're missing two cars here

yeah that's true

three cars

we're missing a C5, C6 and a C7

now we've owned the C5 and the C6

I think the C5

is an awesome hot rod

platform for making a fast car

for not that much money

C6 is a great two

especially 0-1s and 0-6s

in the C6

are way badass

we had a base model C6

it's still a fun

quick car

with an aftermarket exhaust

which sounded well

but the one rub against

probably starting with

actually that one

is the interiors

were always a little plastic

they weren't quite world class

yeah the C7 is not too bad

the C7 got much better

but let's talk about this

when you get to this car

of course the biggest difference

you know this case

is that the engine moved

from the front

for the first time

I was going to say back

but it's really middle

it means there's no manual

what's going on

the only automatic car here

yeah the C7 was

the last manual

even though I did not

love that 7 speed

in the C7

same thing with the 911

7 speed

I always found that 7th gear

to be extraneous

I don't know why

we went with 7

but that's a whole

another story

but let's talk about

you know a car

that now is world class

because there are actually

what five cars

in the current

C5 lineup

so there's the base

Stingray

yep

and that starts

at about 70,000

and if you go to the

3LT

you get up to about

100,000

yeah there's the e-ray

there's an e-ray

which has the same power train

as the base car

but it has an electric motor

in the front

yeah so it makes some more power

it's one of the quicker

accelerating

yeah because it's the only one

that's all wheel drive

yep

and then I think you've got

the one that is

the most track worthy

the sweet spot

and that is the Z06

so with this car

this one was

138,000

but because everybody

wants a ZR1

dealers start discounting them

and these

this was discounted

by 8,000

so it was 130

so we actually traded in

our C8

which was a 3LT

got 65,000 for it

and then we got a substantial

discount on this car

yeah

and so that's why we decided

to do it

because we wanted to experience

what I think

is the sweet spot

and the best

Corvette of them all

and there's a big difference

between the e-ray

and the Stingray

to the Z06

ZR1

and ZR1X

now the ZR1X

of course

ZR1 has twin turbos

on this engine

the ZR1X

you get up to 1200

because then you get

the electric all-wheel drive

yeah

so the ZR1X

kind of throws in everything

in the kitchen sink

which is cool

but to your point

I actually think

for most people

this would

the Z06

would probably be the more

fun car

to have

because already

670 horsepower

460 pound-feet of torque

this is a

this is a fast car

yeah this is an incredibly

fast car

we've just drag-raced it once

we're going to do

a lot more drag racing

with it now

it's sort of kind of broken in

and of course

this being a Corvette

it is also

incredibly practical

so not only do you have

room behind the engine

yeah I wouldn't use it

to move

you know to your next

house

or anything

but

I got my camera bag

in the back here

and there's still some more space

and then you can also

put it in the roof

it's a Targa

so it also slots in here

so there is room for it

and then

you also have

actually a pretty deep

front

trunk

which

you know is surprisingly

yeah

yeah so

you lose that in the

ZR1

that becomes basically

a giant

fan

to cool off the engine

I like that they've got

a little button

in here

for you to escape

just in case somebody

sticks you

unwillingly in the front

of their C8 Corvette

do you know Jill

she's a manila

yeah

automotive journalist

she's like 5

maybe 4, 9, 4, 10

I don't know

sorry Jill

but she always jumps

in the back

sitting here

and then pops

something you've pondered

that's what she does

Nathan used to do it

that was his stick right

Nathan would not

fit in the front of the C8

no like half of Nathan

would not fit in there

yeah I think that's

that's a little

ambitious potentially

but Jill started doing it

so I'm just

I'm just mentioning the fact

that she might

now the styling of this

has been somewhat controversial

obviously it's

jet fighter inspired

yeah

some people say it's

overwrought

they think that there's

too many sharp angles

too many lines

intersecting in too many

surfaces

I kind of like it

and difference of course

between the base

Corvette

Stingray

and the Z06

is that it's wider

yeah much wider

noticeably so

which makes it

a better looking car

I think it's a much better

looking car

it's got a better stance

also our base C8 Corvette

that we had

2020 so the year

that that car

came out

the base

Corvette

had exhaust

in the corners

this one has

the four

pipes in the center

which also looks

and then

a pretty massive

345

width

tire

21 inch wheel

in front

20 inch wheel in the front

yeah 345

that's a lot of power

well you gotta get

you know

600 and

70 horsepower

down

and I have to be

you know

completely fair

I have not driven

the ZR1

or the ZR1X

but I do have a rule

that like

600 horsepower

in a road going car

is about as much

as you want

I worry

that

there's a lot of people

say there's no such thing as

you know

there's no replacement

for displacement

there's no such thing

as too much horsepower

1000 horsepower

going to the rear wheels

it might be too much

case

yeah well so

like we have said

many times

and many other people

have said it's

more fun to drive

a slow car

fast in a fast car

slow

this is not a slow car

I don't

in the

world of diminishing

returns

I'm not sure

how much more

fun you have

with a

06

because it's just that

less

often that you can

actually

lean into the pedal

so

I think that this is

about as aggressive

as a car you're going to

drive on the street

needs to be

and then some

you figure

a ZR1's going to cost

at least 200k

so like I said

this was 130

after discount

that's $70,000 more

if you can get one

I've heard of dealers

now charging

$100,000 over sticker

on the ZR1s

these were going

at 30,000

over sticker initially

I think

2023 was the first year

for the 06

so this is now

we're three years

into it

and

because everybody

wanted the ZR1

the 06

has became affordable

so that's why we thought

let's jump on it

while we can do it

now you'll note that

this does not have

the giant spoiler

so we don't have

the track package

in this car

which I'm actually

happy about

because it has a lot

more aerodynamic

I'm not a big

aero guy

so I think this

looks better

it's slightly

more subtle

it's not subtle

but it's more subtle

and there was also

a stop sale that went on

for a long time

because what would happen

is these would burn

the ground

the reason for that

is these have

these giant

coolers

coolers right there

behind the doors

in the base

Corvette

the Stingray

when you stopped

it the fans would

turn off

and the 06

0100

the fans stay on

and when you're

fueling the car

right here

what could have happened

you could get fuel

into that

vapors yeah

vapors

and that would get

into the engine compartment

which would ignite

and burn the car down

and so there was like

a three month

stop sale on these

were GM engineer

to fix so that

because the fan stays on

even when you turn

the engine off

it doesn't

necessarily suck the air

and burn down the car

you want to show

the interior

I think this is

world class

the Europeans don't

think so

but they're a little

snooty

yeah I think

there you go

you're going to want this

fine interior

this has the old interior

so some people

don't like that waterfall

switches I love it

I just

I love real buttons

so what they did

for 2026

is they got rid of that

waterfall

they gave you bigger

cup holders

and then over here

they put a third screen

right there

so a lot of that

is on an extra screen

I love those buttons

I'm a big fan

I think

that they are

very distinctive

I can

understand how

some people

think it's intuitive

because there's a lot

going on right here

but it's a very

driver centric interior

definitely

I don't think it's at all

a bad interior

we've got

as square

of a square

steering wheel

as

square gets

these carbon paddles

for the 8 speed

carbon fiber up here

yeah

and that's also

different

from the 06 now

three drive modes

so you have

tour

sport

and track

and then

of course

we've got

a very different engine

being a flat

plain crank

so this is more

let's compare

let's say

this is more of a Ferrari

than a

Corvette

at least in the way it sounds

you want to start up

and listen to it

yeah yeah let's do it

it's limiting my revs

yeah it does that

yeah we got it

I jumped like

three feet

when you started it

it's a little

like Lamborghini obnoxious

when it does that

the start up tells you

everything that you need to know

you know yeah

and it does that

every single time

the first time I started

this car

I looked down at my

big boots and I thought

did I

did it was a part of my boot

up against

the throttle pedal

that's just how it cranks up

every single time

yeah it's a little obnoxious

it is but it's

it's cool because

this 06

genuinely has such a different

character and personality

to it

than the base C8 Corvette

it's so different

they feel like two different cars

they are exact

they are two different cars

the base one which we own

until we got this one

that is much more

traditional Corvette

if you want to call it

an old man car

it's much more relaxed

you kind of cruise down the road

the engine is turning

over at a much lower RPM

yeah torquey 6.2

versus this very high strung 5.5

yeah this car is like

let's go let's go

I'm gonna go on and go

the steering is much sharper

on this car as well

it kind of tends to follow

grooves which is not great

but this is definitely a car

that wants to be exercised

and not a car that necessarily

you just want to kind of

take a nice day

take the top down

and kind of go

for a leisurely ice cream

this is let's go to the track

let's go on the Autobahn

and ironically

the base Corvette

actually has a higher

top end than this one

so I think I want to say

the top end on this one

is like 190

or 95

whereas on the base one

it's like 205

so if you're going to get

an Autobahn cruiser

and you want to go 205

get the base sting rate

not that I'm sure anyone's

really going to take advantage of that

but even though this car

is so much more expensive

than the other older cars

that we've talked about so far

as far as performance is concerned

this is still not a bad deal

as well

ZR1, ZR1X

it's a lot of car

for the money

I mean you know

you could compare

let's say you compare this

to like a GT

not a GT RS

but a 911

GT3 right?

yeah

this car at $130,000

is probably

$200,000 less than the GT3

and forget about the GT3 RS

it's not to say that this has

everything going for it

that a 911 does

I think it does

I'm going to go there

I'm going to say it's got

everything that a 911 does

I think there's some

refinements

some engineering

some build quality things

that's what the Europeans

would say

but you know

we've owned a 911

the last current one

911 Targa S

and this car to me

that was $158,000

and that was before prices

went through the roof today

that'd be a $200,000 car

this car to me

is just

of course the Targa

is the heaviest

and the least sporty

of all of the 911s

but still

to me this car

is much more fun

and much more

we've certainly

come a long way

from the C3

and the C4

so the build quality

and the interior materials

fit and finish

refinement

on a brand new Corvette

is not going to be as different

as it was

in those days

yes

maybe not

as noticeably so

but yeah

I mean the 911

still got a lot going for it

I still think those are

fantastic cars

not that I get to spend

a ton of time

I'm not just a 911

the issue I had with ours

and the reason we

ended up selling it

was which is stupid

because we should have

held on to it

because prices of 911s

have gone through the roof

right now

the reason we got rid of

it is I just didn't

have any $60,000

of company money in it

when it wasn't

making any more money

so it was time for it

to move on

and the same thing will

happen with this

you can put all these

three together

and still you don't

get to this

and from a content

point of view

that's more interesting

but these are

epic cars

even for the money

even this being

much more expensive

than the others

like we said

and if you want

to get a base

C8 Corvette

you can find some

pretty solid deals

on those

yeah

and that's a lot of

car for $60,000

you know even like

a 2LT right now

that's a lot of car

and I think

part of that problem

is because there is

this mystique behind

the Ferrari

and behind the 911

that the Corvette

is always considered

and has been considered

I think like

the old man car

or the every man car

whatever you want to call it

but I think with

this C8 Corvette

has taken the next step

where you could go

and you could put

this head to head

against a Ferrari

or a 911

and not be ashamed

to show up with this

you know

feel like you've got a vehicle

that is world class

versus something

that is you know

American plastic

the way that the Europeans

would describe it

but what they've maintained

throughout all the generations

and even in their competitor

that is the Viper

is that you can have

a lot of fun

for whatever amount of money

whatever price bracket

you might be shopping

around for

whether it's

$10,000

or $200,000

these are so much fun

all these cars

a lot of muscle

each one of them

is like an American flag

on wheels

well the one that I would

think is a bargain

is the first generation

Viper

so Viper's are weird

the older they are

the cheaper they are

if you got

the last generation

ACR

the one that was

yeah

yeah it was ACR right

those are now

like $300,000 cars

yeah

which seems

crazy to me

but the first generation

you know

yeah and

10 cylinders

8 liters

$40,000

maybe a little bit more now

that is a lot of car

I think you can say

say the same thing

about the ZR1

yeah

just a lot of car

for $30,000

and if you want

you know

a Corvette that isn't

in that Malaysia

73 to 80

whatever it is too

then those early Corvettes

are also a hoot

yeah

I think you're

exactly the right case

you nailed it

and by the way

case

let's show

what we're wearing here

yeah absolutely

we've got our

TFL Studios hoodies on

even Andre's

wearing one today

and I'm going to be doing

a podcast with him later

we didn't call each other

no we did not

it's not coordinated

but if you're looking

for a stocking stuffer

we're selling those

at our merch store

so if you want a hoody

with TFL Studios on it

or a cup

or a sticker

just click

on the link below

to our little

store

and get yourself one

for the holidays

and we promise

we'll put

that money

into some silly sports car

or truck

that's going to happen

immediately

of all of these vehicles though

this first gen Viper

even

up against the 06

this is

the most

the biggest experience

this is the one

that sticks with you

the most

yeah I think

you know

I mean

a giveaway is that

three of these cars

are managerial

one isn't

yeah

and you know

if you want something

and I think people

are longing for that

now with

how cars have become

autonomy

cars have become toasters

let's put it

let's be honest about it

and these are

as far away from a toaster

as you can get

yeah and especially

some of these older

analog vehicles

I like a lot

and I would say

the ZR1 is definitely

a better car

than the Viper

but the Viper is

more of a fun car

oh yeah

100%

way more of an experience

so if you start them all up

we promise to

sure

which one

here I've got a lot

of the keys

I'll start

that's a C8

we'll do the slas

Viper

let's do it in order

yeah

we'll start with the C3

yeah

start with the C3

I'll let you do the work

yeah

the C3

being it

as old as it is

and as cold

as it is today

has been

a little temperamental

a little grumpy

but

since it's got some

look at that

now it's warmed up

yeah

since it's got some

temp in it

no problems

alright

let's go next

oh it sounds awesome

the C4

had a much easier time

this morning

cranking up

very quiet car

it is

I don't think we're going to

hear it among

the competition

yeah

except for the belt

yeah

we do hear that

it's a little smoky

yeah a little bit

a little bit

do you want the Viper next

or the

the Viper

yeah let's see the Viper

let's see if

we don't have enough

people to rev them

so

we're just going to have

to idle them

if it

cranks up

any easier

I bet you it'll start

up

right away

maybe I was wrong

there you go

oh no

oh

oh come on Viper

yeah the Viper is not

quiet huh

alright

last one

finally

I'll stand in the middle here

you can hear the glory

the aggressive Z06

ha ha

yeah

and that

is the noisiest end

to a podcast

we've ever filmed

yeah

and as always guys

head over to all TFL

for all of our videos

and cakes

this is a lot of fun

we'll see you next time

yeah we'll see you next time

ciao

so you're planning

a new kitchen

or a new bathroom

and you're just trying

to budget

how much is it going to cost

is having a design

build team

right for you

mountain wood homes

free expert hour

is coming up

January 10th

where you can get

the guidance that you need

to kick off your

home remodel

with confidence

replace months

of research

with one

focused hour

of expert advice

space is limited

so get

your spot today

for the

mountain wood homes

free expert hour

January 10th

reserve your spot

now at

mountainwoodhomes.com

slash events

just go directly to

the source

lenovo.com

it's your last chance

to get exclusive deals

on the PCs

you want for your business

like the think pad

x914 aura edition

and yoga 7i 2 in 1

so avoid all that

shopping chaos

and price comparing

and just go

directly to the source

lenovo.com

where PCs

are up to 35% off

that's lenovo.com

lenovo

Ep. 314: Europeans Believe The Chevy Corvette Isn’t World Class - These Three Generations Prove Them Wrong!

About this episode

Chevy 350 V8

Chevrolet 427

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

Help improve this episode

More from TFL Car Chat