The Mustang is a performance car made by Ford. It’s known for being a classic American muscle car and it comes in different versions. It’s often mentioned because it’s a major name in the U.S. performance car world.
The Buick Gran Sport is a performance version of a Buick model name. In the podcast, it’s brought up in connection with performance expectations and what Buick might be doing in that era. It’s essentially a name that signals a more sporty, performance-focused Buick.
The Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport is a sporty version of the Corvette. It’s designed to handle well on roads and tracks, and it gets wider tires and a wider look to help it grip better.
Downforce is the downward aerodynamic force that increases tire grip by effectively increasing the car’s load on the road. Higher downforce generally improves cornering performance, especially at speed, but it can also affect drag and efficiency.
Combined output is the total power figure when both the rear V8 and front electric drive contribute. This is important in electrified AWD cars because the performance is the sum of multiple power sources working together.
All-wheel drive means the car powers all four tires instead of just two. That usually helps it grip better when the road is slick, like in snow or heavy rain.
Tires and wheels are key wear-and-damage items on rough roads: potholes can damage wheels and accelerate tire wear or alignment issues. The speaker ties Michigan road quality to higher tire/wheel replacement costs.
Michelin is a major tire manufacturer, and the speaker references a Michelin winter tire option. Winter tires are designed with softer rubber compounds and tread patterns that improve grip in snow and cold temperatures.
A winter tire is a tire made for cold weather. It grips better in snow and icy conditions than regular tires, helping you stop and turn more confidently.
A refresh is a mid-life update to a car—usually small changes like new styling or updated features. It’s not a brand-new generation, but it keeps the car feeling current.
A wide-body setup means the car’s fenders are widened. That usually lets the car run wider tires for better grip, and it also makes the car look more aggressive.
GM (General Motors) is the company that makes Chevrolet and the Corvette. They’re saying GM’s engineers are passionate and keep finding ways to improve the car.
Corvette is Chevrolet’s famous performance sports car. The point here is that each new Corvette generation (and later updates) brings changes that make it feel like a step forward.
A “mid engine” means the engine sits more toward the middle of the car instead of the front. That can help the car feel more balanced and easier to handle in corners.
“GT” typically means “Grand Touring,” a category focused on comfortable high-speed cruising with performance. In the segment, the host uses GT to describe a potential front-engine Corvette direction that would complement the existing mid-engine sports car.
Le Mans is a super famous endurance race—cars race for about 24 hours. If a brand brings cars there, it’s a big deal for proving performance and reliability.
NASCAR is a major American race series. Teams race cars built to the rules of the series, so “replacing a car in NASCAR” means changing what model gets used for racing.
An appearance package is basically a set of cosmetic upgrades. It changes how the car looks—like colors, stitching, and decals—more than how it drives.
Denim upholstery means the seats are covered in a denim-like fabric. It’s mostly a style choice, but it can also change how easy the seats are to clean and how they age.
CES (Consumer Electronics Show) is a major annual tech conference in Las Vegas where automakers and tech companies often debut prototypes and future mobility tech. The segment uses CES as context for why this electric car and its features were being publicly shown.
Acura is Honda’s luxury car brand. The speaker is saying it would have made sense to sell the cars under Acura (or Honda) instead of doing something brand-new.
A pillar-to-pillar screen is a huge display across the front of the car, like one big screen instead of separate gauges and smaller displays. It’s meant to make the dashboard feel more modern and easier to read.
User experience is basically how easy and pleasant the car is to use. If the dashboard has big screens and lots of menus, that design changes how you interact with the car while driving.
Hyundai is a major global automaker that, like other brands, uses secrecy and timed reveals to build anticipation. The episode mentions Hyundai as an example of keeping an upcoming product “under wraps” until it’s ready to be unveiled.
An auto show is a big event where car companies bring cars for people to see in person. The New York one is especially important because lots of people go, so it’s a good place to get attention for new vehicles.
LIVE
Hello and welcome to a very internal combustion engine
edition of the gas.
I'm Gary Gasteloo.
This is the Gary and Alex show, the official podcast of American cars and racing editors
also and all American show this week with Corvettes, Mustangs, Ram trucks and Sony's.
Sony's?
What am I talking about?
Well, we'll get to that in a bit, but first, let me introduce my cohost, Alex Nunez.
Hello, sir.
Hello, Gary.
This is a fun show today.
All right.
So we're going to get right to it because we've got some big news today.
Chevrolet has a new Corvette model coming in 2027 and it's bringing a new V8 engine
to the Corvette family and with us to talk about it is the Corvette chief engineer himself,
Josh Holder.
Thanks for joining the show, Josh.
Thanks for having me, Gary.
All right.
For the first time in the mid-engine Corvette era, we're getting a Corvette Grand Sport.
The Grand Sport, of course, being one of the enthusiast favorite versions of the Corvette.
We're going to get into the details of that in a second, but first, let's talk about the
engine that's going to power this thing, a new six generation V8, 6.7 liters.
You call it the LS6.
Tell us what's new about this motor.
That's right, Gary.
We're super excited about this new engine.
It's only the sixth time we've done a version of small blocks since 1955, so it doesn't happen
often and everything about this engine is new.
As you said, 6.7 liters, we accomplish that mostly with a stroke increase and it makes
lots of torque, which certainly helps driving performance.
We got a significant power increase as well, 535 horsepower, 520 foot-pounds of torque,
makes for an awesome driving experience.
It's great that we get to bring it out with a Grand Sport.
That really is the sweet spot of the lineup.
It's a car that a lot of people wait for.
It's this approachable performance for a lot of people, but this engine is going to go
in the stingray as well.
It's the most powerful standard engine that we've ever offered in Corvette.
When you say new, is it 100% new, 95% new?
Is it an evolution or is it really a new engine?
It really is a new engine, much closer to 100% new.
We do share that the bore center spacing originally developed in 1955.
I should hope so.
I know the LS fans need that.
Yeah, 4.4-inch bore spacing, but everything about this engine is new.
New block, new heads, revised cooling system, new combustion chamber for efficiency.
It's got 13-to-1 compression, which is pretty amazing, enabled by a new fuel system.
We've had direct injection for a while on our V8s.
We've added port fuel injection to go with that system.
It helps us with emissions.
It helps with combustion stability and allows that massive compression ratio.
Why go bigger?
Why not go with a better 6.2 liter?
That's a great question.
Our philosophy here to go bigger was actually to help efficiency.
It sounds a little odd, but the longer stroke and increased torque along with that compression ratio
allow us to operate in four-cylinder modes a little bit longer for a little more authority,
a little more duration.
And that efficiency gain brought about with a power increase is a formula we're leaning
into very hard and always have, and certainly our customers and enthusiasts appreciate the
performance increase.
It's funny.
A lot of people don't realize that if something's efficient, it's better combustion and it
might bring some more power along with it, right?
Absolutely.
Yeah, the technology and the control space, as an example, to go along with the hardware
that I've explained has really enabled some things that even a few years ago would have
been unheard of, that much stroke with that much compression on pump fuel would have been
very difficult to control and monitor before, but we're again using it to not only help
with efficiency, but it helps with emissions, just makes the engine better overall, more
stable overall, and allows for us to push the limits of performance.
Now, you're swapping this into the stingray, but of course updating the suspension and
all that to go with it.
But let's talk about the Grand Sport.
What's the formula for this model?
The formula for Grand Sport is one we've used for a while, so we're going to use the wider
tires and wheels off the Z06, so that track width combination and performance tire bring
a lot of handling capability, a lot of lateral grip, and comes with the wide body work to
cover that package.
We take advantage of that body work for cooling and for aerodynamics, but let's face it, a
lot of people love the aggressive stance, that wide look, and Grand Sport slots into
the lineup very nicely, especially with the new engine.
So you're not just getting a car that looks the part, you're getting a car with a new
engine that performs as well as it looks.
Tell me what the differences are between this and the Z06, as far as the suspension and
the chassis setup.
The formula for suspension and chassis setup is similar to Z06, and we have a bunch of
choices in the Grand Sport lineup.
The standard Grand Sport, if you will, will have ride frequencies very similar to a standard
Z06, a little bit softer than a Z06.
We want to make it a little more approachable for most people that are going to use it,
not necessarily for every weekend track days like the Z06 was intended, but more for a
Canyon Carving Grand Touring, the way let's face it, a lot of people use their Corvette.
So that's standard with the Grand Sport.
You can option for a performance package, which will bring summer tires to the Grand
Sport along with a revised tuning suspension.
So a little stiffer ride frequency, that's a little closer to a standard Z06.
And then we offer another choice as well for a track performance package, which brings
the carbon ceramic brakes as available hardware and the aerodynamics that we brought out with
the Z06, the carbon-arrow package that provides a little over 700 pounds of downforce.
So even the base version of this is going to be a little sharper than a sting ride?
Yes.
Yeah.
If you think about the tire wheel package and the unsprung mass associated with that
performance, we by definition have to revise the chassis tuning, but we still want to keep
the standard Grand Sport approachable and comfortable for a lot of people, and it certainly
fits that bill.
Now along with being the first mid-engine Corvette Grand Sport, you're also rolling out the
first Grand Sport X all-wheel drive hybrid effectively replaces the e-ray in the Corvette
lineup.
But tell me, it's different than the e-ray though.
I know that as far as the performance is concerned.
It is different than the e-ray.
The e-ray built a foundation for which we are constantly evolving Corvette, especially
the electrified hardware in Corvette.
So e-ray was the pioneer of that system.
It's a modular 1.9 kilowatt hour, very small, but powerful battery pack nested in the center
tunnel of the chassis structure.
That battery is unchanged.
We're keeping that formula in that package space.
In the ZR1X, we increase the usable battery energy.
So we increase that by 26%.
So that's the bookends for where we'll use energy in the battery.
And the more energy we can use out of that battery, the more the voltage goes up.
Voltage and current is power.
And so in ZR1X, we upgraded the front drive unit to handle that power from 160 horsepower
to 186 horsepower.
Building up ZR1X, we're bringing that into Grand Sport X.
So Grand Sport X gets 186 horsepower on the front axle, the 535 horsepower LS6 in the
rear for a combined output of 721 horsepower.
It's a significant upgrade and one that customers are really going to love.
You still get the all-wheel drive dynamics, of course.
You get some stealth mode, the same features that we offer in the e-ray.
In fact, you go a little more stealth range if you want to operate an EV mode.
But the real reason people choose this car is the all-wheel drive dynamics.
Certainly tons of straight line performance, a lot of grip, four feet of contact patch
when you add the front axle to the equation.
So zero to 60s are going to be epic.
And of course, that driving dynamic of being able to pull out of a turn and the torque
immediacy is what we call it.
So that instant response underfoot LS6 already has a lot of torque.
The most torque we've ever had in a naturally aspirated V8, 520 foot-pounds of torque.
And then you get that front axle to supplement it.
It's just an incredible experience.
E-ray does, I think, 2.5 seconds, zero to 60, 10.5 quarter mile.
I expect this will be significantly quicker, a little quicker.
I know you haven't put the numbers out yet.
Yeah, we expect it to be quicker.
And we're still working on the final tuning stages of the car.
So stay tuned for those numbers.
But yeah, with the power output, you can expect some more performance.
All-wheel drive comes in with the acceleration, as you mentioned, even track performance coming
out of corners and all the different dynamics.
But also, it would seem to broaden the appeal to the snow belt states, especially for the
Corvette, which is an infamous summer car.
Have you found that with the E-ray or people buying it for that reason?
Or is it really more about the performance for the customers up till now?
We do have people that use it as an all-weather car.
But let's face it, most Corvette customers aren't radically changing their operating
behavior.
A Corvette's a fun car.
It's a pleasure car.
And so they tend to use it in that way.
But we do have customers using it the way we do.
We're based out of Michigan, and we're driving these cars all winter.
They're awesome capability for winter driving.
In fact, the only thing that really limits an all-wheel drive Corvette in the winter
is the height of the car.
You get to where you can literally plow snow from the splitter.
And when you can't see out of your windshield, because the snow's flying over the hood,
that's about your only limitation.
So we're proud to offer the package that allows customers not to use it maybe as extreme as
that example, but to have confidence for a long road trip, maybe early spring or late
fall, and you're not sure what the weather is going to be.
You might be going over a mountain pass.
That all-wheel drive capability certainly gives that kind of confidence to go along with the
driving dynamics.
Michigan definitely seems like a great real-world testing environment.
You must have a pretty big budget for tires and wheels getting busted on potholes up there.
Yeah, the roads aren't great here, but the cars are pretty resilient to even the bad
Michigan roads.
Michelin has a winter tire that's available to put on those cars for those that really
want to drive these in the winter.
It turns the Grantsport X into a snowmobile.
It's amazing.
Corvette lineup is pretty vast right now.
You got the Stingray that starts just over 70, the ZR1X that's over 200.
Are each of these buyers Stingray, now Grantsport, ZO6, obviously ZR1 and ZR1X just because
they cost so much more.
Are they very different customers or are they different levels of what a Corvette owner
would like and can afford?
It's a little bit of both, I would say.
Certainly everyone that buys a Corvette is a fan of the car.
ZR1 and ZR1X have brought new customers to Corvette that maybe hadn't considered a Corvette
before given the levels of performance.
We expected and we're hoping for that, which is great for us.
The bandwidth you mentioned in the Corvette lineup is super broad.
We have a car for just about everybody.
The performance can be tailored to the way our customers are going to use the Corvette,
which is the great part about having this bandwidth and the lineup.
It's not just the price point of the car, but how they plan to use it, the way they
want to generate their own personal choice.
Corvettes like a lot of sports cars are generally an expression of the owner's personality.
That brings a reason for purchase as well.
The Grand Sport and the Grand Sport X are going to slot nicely in the lineup for those
that are looking for that a little boost in performance.
Maybe don't want to hold out for a ZR1 or a ZR1X and can get something that's a little
more attainable and approachable.
The introduction of a Grand Sport usually heralds the coming end of a generation for
the Corvette.
I know you've shown a couple of potential C9 concepts already.
What can fans expect?
How many more years does this platform have in it?
And more important, how many more variants?
I know Tony Roma was talking about that the ZR1X is not the end of the story.
Is there a lot more to come from the C8?
I would say for now we're focused on the Grand Sport, which as you look at Corvette's history,
it's been introduced late in the lineup in the life cycle of a generation of Corvette.
And that's intentional.
We obviously strategize at how cars are going to do in the marketplace and when it's time
to refresh a generation of Corvette so you can expect that same formula.
I won't go into when the next generation of cars are going to come out, but of course
we're always working on the next Corvette.
And that would be why Tony made those comments.
It's hard to say that we're ever done, we're never completely done, we're always tweaking
and improving things.
But as far as a model lineup, the Grand Sport is going to round out the eighth generation
of Corvette for sure.
All right, Josh Holder, past Grand Sports are always my favorite version of the Corvette.
I love the balance of it.
Can't wait to get our hands on one of these.
Thanks so much for joining us today to talk about it.
Thank you, Gary.
So, Alex, you heard it there.
That's it.
This is the last new edition, last new version of the eighth generation Corvette.
I think they've had a pretty good run.
Don't know how many more years are left, I'm guessing another two years, but it's been
a pretty good run for this car.
It's been a great run.
I think there's more than two years, frankly.
I think you'll see this car through the end of the decade before you get a new one.
That's just my opinion and based on some stuff that I can't really corroborate that I have
heard, but you'll be able to get this car for, you know, I think a few years.
And I wouldn't be surprised to see some tweaks, maybe a more powerful ZR1XM like that, but
I think the model lineup is now complete.
Oh, it's set.
Yeah.
And I mean, yes, because we got the refresh.
We got the, effectively the mid-cycle for C8 was the interior refresh, right?
Because that was the big change.
So this, like I said, I think this will carry us through.
Grantsport, always awesome.
Always like best of all worlds as Corvettes go.
Like C6 Grantsport was really good.
C7 Grantsport, great.
This sounds like it's awesome.
I also think Grantsport X is a better branding exercise than E-Ray, that's better looking
than E-Ray.
You know, I know that it effectively E-Ray was a lot of the similar stuff, but this is,
I think this is just a better way to take this whole thing forward.
And I hope to drive this super stoked.
Again, the standard Grantsport that I know that, you know, Josh mentioned, although they're
going to have stuff from ZO6, you can make a crazy arrow package with the arrow package.
But the thing about Grantsport is that it really is the sort of just right mix of power,
style, and handling, like as the ultimate sort of all around daily driver sort of performance
Corvette.
This is it.
Yeah.
And I think the wide body really makes it stand out.
Also with the Grantsport X, I think these couple of steps above the E-Ray are going
to make a big difference.
I like the E-Ray a lot.
For the money though, I just don't think it makes a great argument against the Stingray.
I mean, you get the all wheel drive.
But like he said, people aren't using these in a winner.
The acceleration is better, but I mean, 2.9 seconds is pretty good.
I don't need 2.5 seconds and it's really not a better track car than a Stingray.
But I think this with the extra power, 721 horsepower, that's a lot.
And with the extra chassis tuning, I think this is going to be a more successful hybrid
model.
Yeah.
I mean, it's funny you're like, you know, 2.9 seconds is bad.
2.9 seconds is like a ridiculously quick car, you know, where everybody is so spoiled
by the dumb numbers that EVs have done.
In a sense, it's actually great.
I love that EVs have effectively made zero to 60 in a relevant stat because it's an
interesting number, but it's not everything.
Grantsport is about the all around experience.
And whether you do Grantsport or Grantsport X, you'll get all that quickness.
That's all table stakes, you know, for Corvettes.
But this like sort of all around package is just so attractive to me.
I can't believe it.
I don't know if it's because of COVID and all that, but it's just impossible for me
to conceptualize the fact that the Corvette, this generation Corvette has been on sale
for eight years now.
We're entering its eighth model year.
It still seems fresh.
It still seems like they just introduced it.
I don't know.
Maybe, maybe I'm just old and time seems quicker to me.
I'm not sure, but it's hard to grasp the idea that this has been around for eight years.
No, it is COVID has that effect, you know, it sort of erases a couple of years in the
middle of that stint.
You sort of forget what happened.
But this platform took a long time to come together, you know, came the C8 came later
than, you know, people expected it was, I think somewhat delayed.
But now that it's here, you're seeing exactly what GM can extract out of it.
And I think that before this is all said and done, whether it's two years from now or,
you know, you know, four years from now, whatever, however, much longer, you know, we've got with
this particular, you know, generation, you're still going to see GM squeeze more out of
it because the thing that came through in the interview with Josh is like these GM engineers,
they love Corvette.
Like, yeah, it is a passion project for the people that work on it.
And that's why it's really interesting because you get a new Corvette of any new generation
of Corvette, it's automatically sets itself apart from the previous.
So it's already a much better thing.
But what they're able to do incrementally through the course of the life cycle is amazing.
And I know that, you know, when they, when C8 came out, I had spoken to people who had seen,
you know, had been in the design center and everything before came out, they said, like,
yeah, the whole thing is all these sort of landmarks are there, you know, the product
cadence is decided well in advance, but they take their time to do it right.
And as they, as each variant comes out, it is introducing something that is distinctly
different and usually better that advances the cause.
And what you get now is a vehicle that has, it's a legitimate sports car that has mass appeal
across a, I would say this Corvette buyer is like a single demographic, but it's a broad
demographic.
Like Josh said, zero one and zero one X have clearly brought in some people that maybe didn't
consider Corvette before simply because the performance is so insane.
So I mean, you love to see it.
And I love that one of the swan songs almost always with every Corvette generation is not
like the ZR one.
It is something that is like a step back from that, you know, top end, but in many ways
is still the best all around Corvette.
It's going to be interesting to see what happens with the ninth generation car.
Obviously the, the eighth generation switch in the mid engine was a seismic shift.
I'm just wondering what they can do with that beyond evolving this one.
Like what is the next big thing?
And I mean, they've already more or less taken full electric off the table for the time being
just cause they don't think the customer wants it in the techs there for the Corvette
experience.
So I'm interested to see what that, what does, why even change a pretty good car now?
I'm not even sure what they need to do to take it to the next generation.
With the, what's the, the, the concept CX or whatever they're calling it or the one
that's in Gran Turismo.
Yeah.
And they've got a few that they put out there.
So you'll see exercises.
I think what you'll see is something, but I think that that's that stuff hints at where
the thinking is, you know, in terms of styling and everything else, you know, they can pretty
much do anything from an engineering perspective.
The, the C8 is now demonstrating the lengths to which GM is able to, you know, execute on
that end and deliver performance in all different ways.
Whether you're talking about an all motor, then naturally aspirated, you know, engine,
turbocharged engines, combination, you know, hybrids, all, all that stuff.
I think you just see the best of that get put into a body that, that takes the design
language forward and interior that takes that, you know, design, you know, forward.
And who knows what else they have up their sleeve.
I mean, you know, whatever the next Corvette is, it's well into development anyway.
It's not like, it's not like they don't know what they're doing.
They're always several years, you know, in, you know, whenever we're having this conversation.
This is obviously been selling really well.
It's a huge hit, but I do have to throw this one idea at you.
How much would it knock people socks off if the ninth generation car went back to a front
engine design?
And I bring that up as a possibility only because we've got that Toyota GR GT coming
out, which is a supercar like the Corvette.
And that's going to be front engine, even though they, they're going to be racing them
as well and probably should have gotten mid engine, but they decided to do a front
engine, high performance sports car.
It would be pretty wild if Chevy tried to pull that.
I think that something like that makes a lot of sense if you make Corvette its own
brand. And that lets you do, you know, a crossover, let you do a front engine sort
of GT, you know, and it lets you keep the mid engine sports car that's the access, the
halo for the brand.
I mean, what you're describing effectively is what Camaro was.
I mean, the problem with Camaro, with the Camaro and the C seven was that they were
stepping all over each other.
The high, the high end Camaros were stepping all over, you know, C seven Corvettes.
Particularly the seat, that six generation Camaro, because it was a lot smaller and it
was basically a two seater.
So it made sense to move Corvette up.
There's no Camaro now.
So I mean, if I were the product planner, that's what I would do.
I would embrace Corvette as a brand and, and then use that as the sort of performance
North Star for everything, you know, for Chevrolet and that lets you keep Chevy, you
know, mainstream Chevy for, you know, the stuff that, you know, people buy in, in, in
mass quantity, like the equinoxes and towels and that kind of stuff.
Corvette and Ford Mustang, there's always been some crossover over the years.
It's much different now with the mid engine Corvette.
However, you got the Mustang GTD, which is definitely competing against the zero one
and the zero one X on the high performance supercar end of the spectrum.
But Ford, interestingly, has been doing a lot with the Mustang on the low end.
They've got the Mustang RTR coming out soon.
That's a Mustang EcoBoost based car.
And now they've introduced a new special edition Mustang EcoBoost that's a
collaboration with motocross and BMX helmet and clothing design outfit.
Troy Lee designs, they've taken the GT front end, put it on the EcoBoost
premium Mustang, they're going to sell it in black with this wild, red,
orange, purple and yellow graphics package that looks very 2000s.
They're only going to make 550 of these.
It's a $3,000 option on top of the EcoBoost premium.
So call it $44,000 out the door.
Does the Mustang EcoBoost have the potential to finally become a cool car?
And I'm kind of out of touch, particularly with the youths.
I'll admit it.
I was watching Fast & Furious the other day.
I'm like, does this exist at all anymore?
Is there a car scene for young people anymore that are into fun, affordable cars
and particularly, you know, customizing them, throwing some graphics on there?
I'm not sure who this is for, but it's an interesting move by Ford.
I like the move.
I like the idea of having these sort of visual packages for performance cars in general.
Let's, the EcoBoost is a cool car.
It's the EcoBoost is a quick car, fun to drive.
This is the sort of fun that you want to see automakers try and have with their
performance name plates in general, in my opinion.
It was a V8 Mustang is not an inexpensive car anymore.
And the high-end EcoBoosts, you know, sort of, you know, fly a little close to that also.
I still think, you know, Ford should do something that is roughly equivalent to what
the LX Mustangs were, you know, in the nineties, you know, not five-liter LX, but
find a way to create, you know, a performance package that actually does
serve as a sort of a point of entry for the Mustang name plate that doesn't
make you go up to RTR, you know, level or spend an extra $3,000 on an appearance package.
I feel like there's a place for that.
And EcoBoost is the right place to do it.
That car is balanced, it's quick, it's all the things that you want, but you got to market it.
And Ford's been doing a lot of marketing, you know, it's got the Mustang Racing Series,
the Spec Racing Series, just launched one in Australia now.
And, you know, they brought the cars over to Le Mans last year.
Seems like they're finding an audience for the Mustang.
And obviously they've pushed it up market and soon we're going to have the Dark Horse SC coming out.
You know, they won't sell a lot of those, but they make a lot of money selling them
because that's going to be $100,000 and up to $170,000 version of the Mustang.
But they're clearly committed to keeping this car, the Mustang, alive.
Yeah. Well, and Ford Racing is the marketing program for Mustang, effectively.
Mustang is the racing name plate for Ford outside of off-road stuff, you know,
where you get various Bronco and or, you know, Raptor things.
But yeah, that's what it is.
I mean, I think I'm convinced that the Le Mans hypercar and eventual IMSA GTP
car will also have some sort of Mustang branding on it too.
Just kind of dawn to me the other day that right now when you look at the big three
legacy American automakers, you got Chevrolet, they've got the sports car segment covered
with the Corvette, Ford's got the pony car segment with the Mustang and Dodge has
staked its claim to the muscle car segment with the larger car with the charger.
No direct competition really there at the moment.
And I'm wondering when one of them is going to jump and go after somebody else.
Heard a rumor, which was mentioned during one of the NASCAR broadcast recently
that Chevrolet has been showing a new car to its dealers that's going to be
eventually replacing the Camaro in NASCAR.
No details on what that car might be.
My assumption is it's going to be a Chevy based on the Cadillac CT5 platform,
which we know is getting refreshed for 2027.
And there's no way GM can justify just building that one car in that factory.
So there's got to be a Chevy version of it on the way, whether or not that's a
new Camaro, two door or a four door of some sort yet to be seen.
But I guess that's probably the most likely candidate we're going to see for
competition among these vehicles.
Now the question is, you know, Ford sells about 50,000 Mustangs a year.
Can somebody come in and sell another 50,000 cars or does it have to steal Mustang
sales? Is there a market for sports cars to grow in the United States?
Or has it become a zero sum game?
And that's why we found this segmentation amongst the three brands.
I feel like there is room for Chevy to have some sort of sedan that has a
performance variant, you know, whether you'd call it Chevelle or the
Resurrect & Poglar or whatever.
Uh, I feel like there is a there there, they have, there's no cars.
So having a car becomes this very interesting thing all of a sudden because
that's the shiny object.
And, um, honestly, I mean, you need a car, a recent NASCAR.
So I'm very curious to see what they, what, what, what they come up with.
Speaking of the American car brands, you know, this is the 250th anniversary of
the United States, which we've discussed before, uh, Chevrolet a couple of weeks
ago unveiled the Stars and Steel collection of Corvettes and trucks with
commemorative appearance packages, uh, that it's going to be launching this year.
And now Ram's starting to roll out its America 250 edition.
Stellanus is actually an official partner of the America 250 organization.
And it's going to be putting out, uh, models across all of its brands.
The Rams were just released.
They're going to be doing a Laramie, a big horn and a rebel.
The big horn is the coolest.
It has denim upholstery with red, white and blue stitching.
Jeep just brought back denim upholstery in the new rock slide editions of
the Wrangler and Gladiator.
Uh, it's been far too long since we've seen denim in a vehicle.
And I'm really glad to see Ram and Jeep doing this for us now.
Yeah, it's fun to see.
I'm surprised we haven't seen even more, not to say outrageous, but more like
sort of visually adventurous, uh, America 250 packages.
The ones that, the ones that have come out so far are an
acknowledgement, uh, with like a tape package, but it's not like, you know,
the bicentennial 1976, we were in the salad days of like appearance,
like tape and striped packages and colorful and really interesting.
Whereas this is like everything now that today where it's like, okay,
we'll have this sort of flag motif, but it's going to be very muted and
understated.
Yeah.
I mean, go with the black flag motifs.
I don't really get that.
And I see people putting those decals on their cars already, but
they also see people driving around with custom cars with big giant red,
white and blue American flags on it.
I don't really understand why they wouldn't offer it.
I mean, the Corvette stars and steel is pretty cool because you can get it
white with blue seats and red seat belts.
But again, that decal in the hood is a black design and the same with
these Ram America 250 editions.
I mean, just the other day I'm driving behind a Toyota Tacoma and the
person that had the American flag decals thrown into the Tacoma, you know,
in Boston lettering it, yes, lettering in the tailgate.
I don't, and I mean, I think these companies even sell those things as
accessories, so I'm not sure why the American 250 editions aren't a little
more colorful.
I'm a little disappointed about that, but I'm glad at least they're on board
with this fun stuff.
I hope we see some more fun stuff before the year is out.
Unfortunately, we've lost some American cars, American built cars that were
supposed to be launching later this year.
A couple of weeks ago, Honda canceled its entire lineup of electric vehicles,
the zero series, the Acura RSX that were going to be built in Ohio.
This was a whole, they had an electric vehicle hub ready to go, three models,
and then many more in the years to come.
And they just entirely pulled a plug on this, kind of surprised that they went
that far and didn't just dial it back a little bit.
But one of the casualties of this is the startup company, Sony Honda Mobility,
which is kind of one of the most bizarre things we've seen the past few years.
They've been showing up at CES every year with this car as they've been rolling
out the information about it.
It was called the Afila.
It was the most generically styled vehicle I think I've seen since Saturn.
And the whole idea behind it was we're going to give you this electric car,
300 miles per charge and $90,000, which just seemed like a pretty tremendous
entry level price for something that didn't seem that distinctive.
But we're going to pack it with entertainment technology.
It's going to have PlayStation stuff in it and all sorts of other things.
And at some point it's going to have autonomous driving capability, although
when it was going to launch, it was going to have the same level two stuff
that everybody has right now.
That seemed like it was DOA anyway, but obviously, since it was based
on the Honda series, it had to go.
I mean, let's be honest, who cares?
I mean, nobody cares about this going away.
I don't know if you saw the Afila in person.
I was at the CES a couple of years ago where, you know, got driven on stage
with the PlayStation controller, supposedly.
And then they had a display and it's exactly what you said.
Alarmingly generic start styling.
Bizarrely so, like no brand identity.
Afila is a bad, really just dumb name for the car.
This was the shoe that everybody was waiting to drop, you know, once Honda
nuked the zero stuff, which again, nobody's going to miss any of those cars.
Nobody's going to miss any of these cars because the market didn't exist for them.
I mean, $90,000 for the Afila, give me a break.
I mean, it was something desperately in search of an audience that didn't exist.
You know, and then you read these like stories, it's like, oh, people have placed
orders, like what people?
Like, there was no, there was no big drive for any of this.
These, like many of the EV decisions that were made were driven by factors
that had nothing to do with consumer demand.
And we are now putting that era behind us.
And the EVs that remain are, we'll see, you know, if they survive on like
traditional, just market demand stuff.
There's a lot of interesting electric cars out now and on the way.
And that Afila was in no way one of those interesting cars.
Apart from it being this collaboration.
I think Apple was very smart to dip its toe in this and then say, no, we're
not going to do that.
No reason to get involved in that.
And I still don't understand why this outfit thought they needed to start a whole
new company.
Why not just collaborate with Honda, put the Sony tech into Honda branded
vehicles, Acura branded vehicles.
It seemed very bizarre all the way through, but the final product just, you know,
again, it didn't look like I had a chance anyway, but now with Honda dropping
out, that's the end of story.
Although technically Sony Honda mobility still does exist.
So maybe they'll do what I just said, maybe try to work it into an existing
car line at some point.
I mean, listen, there's a, there's a place for, you know, UX, you know,
innovation and things like that.
None of that's, none of that's ever going backwards.
If you see it, even it doesn't have to necessarily be electric cars,
combustion cars where you get in and it's a pillar to pillar screen.
Essentially, uh, now that dictates what the, what the user experience is.
So, um, there's always opportunity for stuff like that, but there really was
never an opportunity for a bland four door sedan whose party trick was that
you could run Gran Turismo on the grill of the car while it was parked.
Well, we're going to be seeing some new cars next week at the New York auto
show, which Alex, believe it or not, there's actually going to be new car
reveals at the show, Hyundai, Kia, Subaru, Dodge, all have press conferences.
And I know there's going to be new car reveals at the show or at least
public debuts for cars that are going to be, you know, revealed in the couple
of days before the show.
Uh, this is actually the most vibrant auto show that I've seen in the past
couple of years.
It seems like at least as far as new model reveals is concerned.
Well, at least as far as New York, well, listen, the Koreans always show up
with new product in New York.
They have always understood that if nobody else is going to do anything,
they can simply own the entire media cycle for the auto show by introducing
new vehicles.
Uh, that won't change.
Uh, you mentioned Hyundai's got something that is very, very hush hush
under wraps that they're going to unveil, but listen, it's smart.
The automakers that are going to be at the show should show new product
because the reality is the foot traffic for the New York auto show is
massive and it's a great opportunity to put new stuff in front of people who
want to look at it and touch it and sit in and all that fun stuff.
Well, we'll be at the show and we'll be bringing you a show from the show.
So if you haven't already, please subscribe and we will see you next week
from New York.
The gas is a production of a car, media and American cars and recent.
About this episode
Chevrolet’s Corvette chief engineer Josh Holder breaks down the 2027 Corvette Grand Sport, the first mid-engine Grand Sport, powered by a new 6.7L “LS6” V8 making 535 hp and 520 lb-ft. The discussion covers how the engine achieves high compression and efficiency with direct plus port fuel injection, plus Grand Sport’s Z06-derived widebody, tire, and cooling formula—tuned for more approachable canyon driving. The episode also spotlights the Grand Sport X hybrid AWD (721 hp total) replacing the e-Ray, and debates where it fits versus the Stingray. Later, the hosts pivot to American 250 editions, Honda canceling its EV “Zero” lineup (including Sony Honda Mobility’s Afeela), and what to watch at the New York auto show.
Chevrolet Corvette Chief Engineer Josh Holder joins Gary and Alex to talk about the 2027 Corvette Grand Sport and its all-new 6.7-liter V8; Ford reveals a new Mustang; Ram celebrates America's 250th anniversary and Honda pulls the plug on its U.S.-built EVs.
