REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN FOR THE 2025 ALL-CHEVY SHOW
The Chevrolet Blazer EV SS was the pace car for the Daytona 500, NASCAR's official start of the racing season.
THE UNTOLD STORY
Submitted By: Eli Zorich
From: justcoololdcars.com
December 20 , 2024
Chevrolet's Corvette—an iconic symbol of American automotive prowess—almost didn't make it past its early years. The C4 Crisis By the early 1990s, however, the Corvette faced another existential threat. The fourth-generation C4 was underperforming in sales, and General Motors (GM) was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. With the company’s financial woes mounting, GM executives made the tough decision to cancel the development of the next-generation C5 Corvette to allocate resources to higher-volume, more profitable vehicles like the Pontiac Bonneville and Buick LeSabre.
A Hero Steps In
Enter Joe Spielman, a dedicated Corvette enthusiast and head of GM's mid-size-car division at the time. Unwilling to let the Corvette die, Spielman rallied Chevrolet boss Jim Perkins to his cause. Perkins, another Corvette fan, approached GM President Lloyd Reuss with a plea to keep the Corvette alive. But Reuss, needing to allocate funds to other projects, refused. The Corvette seemed doomed. The Secret Mission Spielman refused to give up. He brought in Russ McLean, GM’s director of manufacturing in Mexico, to lead a covert mission to save the Corvette. McLean’s first challenge was that the C5 program had been officially axed. With little support from GM's upper management, McLean and his team faced a monumental task: how to develop a new Corvette with virtually no budget. Rogue Funding and a Risky Bet Undeterred, Perkins and Spielman got creative. Perkins quietly redirected $2.5 million from Chevrolet’s marketing budget to fund the development of a working prototype. This mule car, a Frankenstein's monster of sorts, combined a new hydroformed backbone structure with the rear transaxle, all hidden under the shell of an old C4 body.
When the prototype hit the test track in Arizona, it exceeded everyone’s expectations. The C5, even in its disguised form, outperformed its predecessor, convincing skeptics that the Corvette still had a future. The Fight for Approval Armed with their secret weapon, Perkins and Spielman went back to GM’s top brass. Perkins passionately argued that the Corvette was more than just a car—it was a symbol of American ingenuity and performance, an icon that GM had no right to cancel.
He even presented a staggering fact: the Corvette had graced more than 800 magazine covers since its debut in 1953.
Lory loved Corvettes and always dreamed about owning one. The dream came true with a 2024 C8 Convertible!
Hysteria Purple Metallic is one of the three new colors introduced to the 2025 Corvette palette, a darker color joining the bright Competition Yellow Tintcoat Metallic and Sebring Orange Tintcoat that were also added for the model year.
The colors indirectly replace the seven paints from the 2024 Chevy Corvette lineup omitted for the current year. Right now, we’re zooming in on the details of Hysteria Purple Bearing color code GXL and touch-up paint number WA-134H. Hysteria Purple is part of the lineup of ten exterior colors the 2025 Corvette can be ordered with.
Unlike the other two colors introduced for 2025, this purple hue is not an earlier Corvette color making a comeback, but a truly new addition to the paint lineup. A summary of the 2025 Chevy Corvette colors, including Hysteria Purple, is presented below (paint codes in parenthesis): • Arctic White (G8G) • Black (GBA) • Rapid Blue (GMO) • Red Mist Metallic Tintcoat (GPH) • Red Mist Metallic Tintcoat (GPH) • Riptide Blue Metallic (GJV) • Sea Wolf Gray Tricoat (GXA) • Torch Red (GKZ) • Competition Yellow Tintcoat Metallic (GBK – new for 2025) • Hysteria Purple Metallic (GXL – new for 2025) • Sebring Orange Tintcoat (G26 – new for 2025)
Hysteria Purple can be chosen free for any trim level or variant of the 2025 Corvette Stingray, E-Ray or Z06 as a no charge color option. The color can be ordered in conjunction with the Jet Black, Sky Cool Gray, Sky Cool Gray interior / Jet Black seats, Jet Black interior / Sky Cool Gray seats, Jet Black interior / Adrenaline Red seats, Natural, Natural Dipped, and Artemis interior colorways. Adrenaline Red, Adrenaline Red Dipped, Tension Blue / Twilight Blue Dipped, Adrenaline Red interior / Jet Black seats and Habanero are colorways that cannot ordinarily be combined with Hysteria Purple. If you want Hysteria Purple paired with one of these interior colors, it’s necessary to choose the Color Combination Override option (RPO code D30). At a cost of $695, this option enables bypassing Chevy recommended color combos and selecting any available colorway.
In summary, the interior colorways offered on the 2025 Corvette are listed below: • Jet Black • Sky Cool Gray • Sky Cool Gray interior / Jet Black seats • Jet Black interior / Sky Cool Gray seats • Jet Black interior / Adrenaline Red seats 25 | P a g e • Natural • Natural Dipped • Artemis • Habanero • Adrenaline Red • Adrenaline Red Dipped • Tension Blue / Twilight Blue Dipped • Adrenaline Red interior / Jet Black
The pricing of several 2025 Chevy Corvette variants, specifically the E-Ray and Z06, rose by $2,000 compared to the previous model year. The price of Stingray units of all trims remains the same, however. Starting MSRP ranges from $69,995 for the lower-end Corvette C8 Stingray 1LT Coupe up to a high of $134,345 for the Corvette C8 Z06 3LZ Convertible. These prices already have the $1,695 amount for destination freight charge figured in. The configurator is live online for the convenience of buyers.
The 2025 Corvette ZR1 will arrive later in the model year as the most powerful commercial production Vette model to date. The Stingray gets access to a restyled Z51 rear spoiler (RPO code T0A) for 2025, and the rated fuel economy of the Z06 gets revised to 12 mpg in the city, 20 mpg on the highway, and 14 mpg combined.
Powerplants for the mid-engine Corvette include the naturally aspirated 6.2L V8 LT2 gasoline engine. This engine is equipped as standard in the Stingray, where it provides 490 horsepower and 465 pound-feet of torque. The same engine, paired with a front-mounted electric motor, motivates the E-Ray, where, combined with the electric propulsion unit, it offers 655 horsepower.
The upper end of the Vette power curve was supplied until 2025 by the naturally aspirated 5.5L V8 LT6 gasoline engine, which still gives the Z06 670 horsepower and 460 pound-feet of torque. However, the upcoming C8 Corvette ZR1 will cradle the twin-turbocharged 5.5L V8 LT7 engine – which ups the ante to 1,064 horsepower and 828 pound-feet of torque.
The GM Y2 platform underpins the Chevy C8 Corvette in all its variants. The sports car rolls off the assembly line only at the well-known GM Bowling Green plant in Kentucky.
The Steel Town Corvette Club has added a page to the website for members who would like to post their Corvette for sale.
The Registration Form will be available after the holidays.
STCC attended the 30th Anniversary Celebration in August, 2024.
Plans included stops in Cincinnati and Nashville!
The 2023 All-Chevy Show attracted nearly 200 vehicles!
AND nearly 120 Corvettes were on hand!
Would you like to drive your Corvette at speed on a race track?
The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) conducts an event called Track Night in America at various race tracks across the country. Locally, there are events at Pittsburgh International Race Complex in Wampum PA.
Corvette is chosen again in 2023 to pace the Indianapolis 500
Corvette has been chosen many, many times over the years to pace the INDY 500!
NASCAR selected the Bowtie Brand to pace the race for the 15th time!
NASCAR selected the Bowtie Brand to pace the race for the 15th time!
The three pace vehicles at the start-finish line.
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A mid-engine Corvette seemed like a huge break from tradition when the C8 generation hit the market in late 2019, and Chevy further modernized the sports car with the introduction of the 2024 E-Ray hybrid model. But already the Corvette is set to go through another permutation when a fully electric version is added.