C8 CORVETTE

They do it out of habit. Especially those C7 wheels that bend real easy. Wheel choices are pretty lame but it is a mass produced vehicle.

 

I did some research before I bought my C6 (also a Z51, 3LT).
Seems more people buy 3LT, Z51 because the car will be a 2nd or weekend car, and the well optioned cars tend to sell faster and hold more value later on as used cars.
I hardly ever see "base" C6's for sale. The ones I have seen are track rats and modified for a purpose.

Realize the C6 was a long run and those production number are not an apt comparison to the rarity of the C8, but the demand and sales number have some interesting correlations.

I wanted a jet stream blue C6 3LT Z51 and could not find a used one I could afford 2 years ago when I was looking. I must sell my yellow C6 now due to my no job situation and yellow is a love it / hate it color.

The blue has become sought after. Go figure. I still think zeus bronze is my fave color on the C8, though I have not seen one in person yet.

 

OK, now I understand! Misunderstood your initial comment. Thought you were questioning the aftermkt wheels.
Couldn't agree more regarding the factory wheels. Not a big fan either.
Having said that, I will say that wheel design is a very difficult and very personal endeavor. Much criteria for safety and weight considerations. For those of us that used to wear ties, choosing a wheel is like choosing a tie. No wrong answers. Just personal choice. Black vs. Silver vs. Chrome. Complex vs. simple. Size, etc.

 

it seems almost any wheel is an improvement. keep posting the car porn pix. great stuff.

 

I find many new complex wheels a pita to clean.

Minimal spokes without thin gaps is a favorite for me. The classic telephone dial wheels on my gulia are also another favorite, real easy to clean, no small gaps, you and even reach through to caliper or inside of wheel with a rag.

Personaly I dont like the look of chrome at all, but I hear its popular on vettes with a certain age demographic. Shiney wire wheels on an apropriate classic are nice though

Black or satin finish so brake dust not obvious are favorites of mine. It also depends a lot on exterior color. That brown gold color on 365 daytonas and 512S race cars works.

I guess another consideration in wheel design is whether you clean your own cars or not, I find it a cathartic experience and you pick up lots of subtlties, but cleanign overly complex wheels is just a pita. Given modern material, excess design and spokes is uncessary anyway.

 

I like the silver wheels coming on my Elkhart Lake Blue C8. With the choices you have when ordering, I find it hard to believe people are spending another $5-8k on new wheels.

I do admit I put Cragar's on my 66 Buick Gran Sport back in the 60's.
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Wheels can make or break a car design. Period.

 

Good news there is light At the end off the tunnell. Dealer called today. They got 3 allocations. Dec,Jan,Feb. Mine will go in with a January allocation with a possible build in March!

 

To add to Mr. Mayor's stats:

WHAT A YEAR….WHAT A CAR!
1.)Torch Red – 5,137 (25%)
2.)Arctic White – 3,098 (15%)
3.)Black – 2,383 (11.7%)
4.)Sebring Orange – 1,377 (6.8%)
5.)Elkhart Lake Blue – 1,369 (6.7%)
6.)Rapid Blue – 1,243 (6%)
7.)Ceramic Matrix Gray – 1,216(5.97%)
8.)Blade Silver – 1,130 (5.55%)
9.)Shadow Gray – 1,111(5.45%)
10.)Long Beach Red – 1,068 (5.25%)
11.)Accelerate Yellow – 688 (3.38%)
12.)Zeus Bronze – 548 (2.69%)
The 3LT package was the most popular which always is the case during the initial new model rollouts. A total of 46.8% of buyers went with the 3LT across both models with 39.1% choosing the 2LT and only 14.4% selecting the base 1LT trim package.
The breakdown of the 2020 models was 82.4% Coupe (16,787) and 17.6% Convertible (3,581) and the Z51 Performance Package accounted for 76% (15,476) of all Corvettes produced.
FULL PRODUCTION STATS;
2020my_corvette_finalyearend11172020.pdf (corvetteconti.com)
2020 CORVETTE COLOR BREAKDOWN
2020MY CORVETTE Volume by colors matrix 11 12 2020.xlsx (corvetteconti.com)
Thank-you Chevrolet & The National Corvette Museum
#2020corvetteproductionfinalstats #whatweretopcolorsforc8corvette
#c8corvetteproductionstats #2020corvettetopcolors
#corvetteconti #chevroletcorvette #corvettemuesuem

 

I crossed 100 miles, only 400 more miles of boring driving to go

 

First annoyance of the car for me is the camera style rear view mirror. I find there’s a pretty narrow set of lighting conditions that it works well. Mostly it creates a weird double vision where I can’t actually tell what’s behind me at all unless I focus on the screen, taking my eyes off the road for too long.

 

At first I didn't like the camera rear view mirror either on my Caddy. But after using it for awhile, now I prefer it, particularly when backing up as the field of view is much wider than the normal mirror. It just takes awhile to get used to using it.

 

I’m assuming it’s your daily though, right? I just worry I won’t actually drive the Corvette regularly enough to get used to it. Kind of long when I jump back in my Ferrari and need to recalibrate to the steering wheel.

 

Yes, correct, it is my daily driver. I just know how much I like it when I'm backing up without a clear view.
But you're right, ya gotta be comfortable with it.

 

Agree. I don't use while driving. Too distracting. But the convertible has pretty good rear visibility for a mid engine car so it's not a big loss.

 

Nice weather so I did about 80 miles today mostly top down. Cant comment at all on performance except the gearbox is fast as lightning and the paddles have a beautiful action to them. So nice to have a convertible again. The cars ride quality is so good!

 

I have 800 miles on it now and I bet only 2 are with the top up. Yes, its good to have a convertible again. In fact if the C8 did not come with a power hardtop I would not have bought it.

This car makes a darn good daily driver. The ride and seats are comfortable, the creature comfort stuff excellent, and its quite a bit of fun to just putter around town. Visibility is OK but the sensor stuff helps. I really like the front cameras. Helps you park it like a normal car.

Now just stick a twin cam flat plane crank V8 behind my head and you might have something close to perfect.

 

I love the rear view mirror camera in my C8 and have no lighting or double vision issues at all and just use it like its a normal rear view mirror.
My C8 is my daily so maybe I am just used to it as you mentioned but I don't recall it ever being an issue and I have over 5k miles on the car and drove it to Texas and back to LA.

 

Some pics, you can see how great the paint flec is. I love it.
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Glad to hear about the ride quality of the C8 as the earlier Vets I drove in the past gave me a big back problem and it was a major put off. But I haven't driven a new Vet is a few years so maybe I need a test drive in a C8 to reconsider Vets.

 

Got word mine got built yesterday. Hoping my 12-15 Museum Delivery is still on. Have to wait to finish Quality Control area and move to shipping before they will give me a firm date.

 

Ferrari may be selling 10,000 cars a year but that is a world wide number not a number imported to the US. We get about 25 percent of total production and that would be split between all models. Chevy builds on the average 30,000 corvettes a year and 95 percent stay in the US. If a person is looking for exclusivity in what they drive Ferrari is going to be far more rare on the street than a corvette.
That being said the corvette, especially when the Z-06 debuts, is a heck of a car for the dollar spent.

 

But if you care not one whit for "exclusivity" but very much care and appreciate how a car drives goes and feels, ferrari is still the fast road car yardstick.
So far what we can say of certain vettes is objectively in short bursts they put down some impressive numbers in some quadrants of measure. That is a long way from being the compete package. Thats why vettes are considered bang for the buck and not something more.

The current C8 shows promise for somehting more, and maybe the z06 will enter that club. Given the volumes produced and resultant economies of scale, not to mention areas of cost savings a vette should by defintion be able to offer more for less evenb gete to what do what a ferrai does for a lower price. Besides 0-60 the current C8 It hasn't gotten there yet but its under 100k, Yet to be released versions at over 100k may get close enough, or they may be too heavy too big and too lackign in oter areas, so theyre just a faster vette, time will tell..
The c5-7 simply because of architecture, components and materials never could be the more complete package even though it could put down some spectacular numbers, but some verisons of the c8 maybe can be the compete package or close enough. Then yes the ferrari usp will be primarily exclusvity.

 

Sorry I still don't think an F8 is "exclusive". The reason to own an F8 is not to get an exclusive car. Its to get the most modestly priced Mid-engine car Ferrari makes -- which is a pretty excellent machine. But if anyone wants to spend the money, anyone can get one. That's not "exclusive". Its just expensive.

For a GT / DD, I don't want exclusivity. If this car gets totalled from a moron in a Hyundai, I don't want to cry over it. Its not a work of art. Its just "a car". I'll pick out another.

And I think that's what makes the C8 a great reason to own. Its worry free fun. No worry about depreciation, lost value, if its been modified, diminished value in a fender bender, how many miles it has, if the front bumper has been repainted, and so on.

A C8 is not a Ferrari. Its just a mass produced car. It happens to be a pretty good one for the money and a pretty good alternative to a Porsche or Audi -- whose owners also don't care about "exclusivity" either.

 

Today I did something different. I wanted to see what it was like just as "a normal car". I've been driving it almost entirely with the top down, in paddle shift mode, and in sport or track mode after the first 500 miles of break-in. Today I wanted just to drive it like any other automatic car with the top up. I put it in "tour" mode, left it in "auto mode", and just drove around town like it was a Honda.

And, its pretty surprising. It really transforms into a kitty cat. And it works really well if that's what you want to do. The car is quiet and the gearbox changes are almost impossible to detect unless you are looking for them. Very smooth changes. You see the tach changing but you don't feel or hear anything with the car itself. It shifts pretty low about about 1800 -2000 rpm if you don't put your foot into it.

It also goes into V4 mode this way and you cannot tell at all when it happens other than the V4 symbol lights up. In other cars I've had in V4 mode you can hear the exhaust change or feel something in the drivetrain. Its pretty annoying. In the C8 you can't feel or hear anything. And in V4 mode the C8 can also accelerate slowly if you want to. In the C7 as soon as you moved the throttle any bit it would jump into V8 mode. So it would do this back and forth all the time.

Once again, as a luxury GT this car hits the mark really well. Could save some gas on a long trip without any downside.