Among second- and early third-generation Corvettes, big-block cars tend to dominate any debate about which spec of America’s sports car is king. There are some exceptions, though: The L84 “Fuelie” in the early cars is a favorite, though the small-block Chevy that’s perhaps in the best position to fight for the prize is the 350-cubic inch mill that came with the Regular Production Option (RPO) LT1.

LT1-equipped third-generation Corvettes delivered a balanced blend of power, higher-revving personality, and handling that contrasted with the brute force of the big-block cars. Today, they remain among the most sought-after C3 Corvettes, though their prices haven’t gone through the roof.

By 1970, the Mako Shark II-concept-inspired design of the third generation was in its third year, and Chevy decided to perform some subtle stylistic updates and improvements. The fender flares were widened to reduce rock chips, while the front end got an egg-crate grille and treatment to the side vents similar to those on Bill Mitchell’s Aero Coupe styling exercise from 1969. Side markers front and rear grew in size.

Inside, high-backed seats integrated the headrest, and the Corvette was now available with a “custom interior” option that offered better touch points all around—leather seats and shift boot, woodgrain dash, and improved carpeting. This may have been appreciated, but the real cause for conversation was what was available—and not available—beneath the Corvette’s forward-tilting hood.

Before getting too far, let’s take a brief pause for clarification of references. LT1 is, as mentioned above, an RPO code. The engine it came with is commonly—though not always—referred to as the LT-1 (dash included), not to be confused with the 5.7-liter LT1 (no dash) that powered Corvettes, F-bodies, and select full-size GM cars in the ’90s. You will see the RPO and the engine designation in this piece in their appropriate circumstances.

Coming from the L88 427-cubic inch big blocks of 1967-69, and with the 450-horse, 454-cubic inch LS6 headed for use in the Chevelle, there was a good deal of anticipation for a high-output 454 in the Corvette. Chevy did intend to provide one—RPO LS7 was rated at 460 horsepower, and though early ’70 Corvette brochures did include this beast, the engine was unfortunately never put in a Corvette that was sold to the public.

That left the 390-horse LS5 454 as the only big block option for that year. In offering a massive 500 lb-ft of torque, the LS5 confidently got the job done, but was neither a wind-it-out screamer nor the outright monster that the L88 had become known as.

All this created a lot of context for the new-for-1970 LT-1. When comparing the LT-1 to the LS5 and the 270-horse engine in the base Corvette, Car and Driver in-period characterized the differences bluntly: “But those powerplants are of little interest to the Corvette purist, the man who remembers the soul and vitality of the high-winding fuel-injected 283 when it was the only street engine in the country that put out one horsepower per cubic inch. Today’s equivalent is the LT1…” High praise indeed, and truly highlighting the LT-1’s position in the lineup.

At its core, the LT-1 represented a thorough hot-rodding of Chevy’s proven small-block formula. It’s often characterized as a more hardcore version of the potent hydraulic-lifter 350-horse L46 that debuted the prior year, and the two did share a number of parts, including the same block and cylinder heads, along with the same 11.0:1 compression ratio in 1970.

The LT-1 traded those hydraulic lifters for a set of solid ones that responded to a more aggressive cam. Lighter, TRW forged aluminum pistons with revised rings were added to help put up with more abuse, while stronger connecting rods and wrist pins along with a forged, balanced crankshaft rounded out changes to the rotating assembly. Four-bolt mains held the crank to the block, and improved rod and main bearings, a gear-driven oil pump and a different oil pan design helped ensure proper lubrication. Up top, 2.02-inch intake valves and 1.60-inch exhaust valves made for freer-breathing heads over the base 350, and a Winters aluminum high-rise manifold wearing an 800-cfm Holley carburetor voraciously mixed the fuel.

The result was 370 horsepower at 6000 rpm—the LT-1 would keep pulling to a then-heady 6500 rpm—and 380 lb.-ft. of torque at 4000. Peak power was up by 20 over the L46, and it was made a full 400 rpm higher in the power band. Torque figures were the same, though again there was a 400-rpm difference in the peak. Backed by a standard four-speed manual or a more assertively-geared Muncie M-22 “rock crusher” gearbox, and optional performance gear sets, Chevy had built an engine and drivetrain that wanted to go.

And go it did, on the straights, and through the corners. Those who have driven both big- and small-block examples note that the balance of the car is markedly more even, with the small block weighing as much as 300 pounds less than the 454-powered cars. Though the big block cars wore a rear anti-sway bar to help offset their nose-heavy manners, the lighter front end of the small block-powered cars was effective in improving steering feel and overall agility.

Whether it was as easy to live with every day was a different question. The LT-1’s ability to run at higher rpms coincided with a tendency in testing to throw air conditioning compressor belts, and as a result, AC wasn’t immediately available on the model. The L46 or even the LS5 may have been the more sound, if less dynamically pleasing, choices for drivers who wanted power in everyday driving scenarios, but it was the LT-1 that pulled at the enthusiast’s heartstrings. Of the 17,316 Corvettes that would sell in 1970, 1287 were LT1s.

1971 brought about more changes, two of which weren’t good for the LT1. The first and most notable was a drop in compression to 9.0:1. That two-point drop trimmed horsepower to 330—still a solid figure, but the wrong direction nonetheless. The second was the late arrival of the LS6. Though compression neutered it somewhat to 425 horses, down 25 from its rating in the 1970 Chevelle, the LS6 still had plenty of character. “It’s like the LT1 only bigger,” beamed Car and Driver. That was a boon for the go-fast crowd, but maybe not for the future of the LT-1. The availability of a raw, rowdy LS6 with nearly 100 more horsepower, along with the LS5, which was more relaxed but still faster than the LT-1, begged the question: Did buyers really want a high-strung small block, too?

The answer to that question was mixed. Sales did improve for 1971, with 1949 buyers choosing the LT1. (It should be noted that 1970 was a short model year, with cars debuting in February, so sales figures between years aren’t truly apples to apples.) The LS5, though, sold significantly more, at 5097. Also, the L46 was no longer available, likely steering buyers who wanted more livable power over the base car to the LS5.

Those who know this era well can easily recite what’s coming next. 1972, the final year for the LT-1, GM switched its horsepower rating from gross to net, and power “went down” to 255 hp. The good news was that this was a paper number—the engine remained essentially unchanged from 1971. On the upside, Chevy figured out how to keep the AC belt from flying off the engine, so cool interior air was available as an option in ’72. Even though the power wasn’t the same as the LT-1 that wowed small-block fans in ’70, it maintained the personality that it debuted with, and a 4.11 gear swap did wonders to help wake up the performance of the later cars. That said, sales dipped to 1741 LT1s out of more than 27,000 total Corvettes.

Come 1973, the LT1 disappeared from the order form, leaving the base 200-horse L48 350, the 250-horsepower L82, and the lumbering 275-horse LS4 454 to carry on. The days of the screaming small block were done, at least for the moment.

It’s worth rewinding the tape a bit and highlighting an even more performance-oriented Corvette where the LT-1 engine found a home. Chevy had an inkling that buyers ordering a high-strung small block were a different breed, many of whom were seeking more of a sports car feel from their Corvette. So, to complement the LT-1’s personality, RPO ZR1 helped transform the rest of the car.

Possessing the LT-1 engine but going by its ZR1 RPO code, these first Corvettes to bear the ZR1 designation made the M-22 transmission standard, added an aluminum radiator, heavier-duty springs, shocks and sway bars, more powerful brakes, and a different fan shroud. Several options were unavailable on the ZR1, including air conditioning, a defroster, radio, and power steering. This truly was the hardcore option, and as you might expect, sales reflected that. Just 25 ZR1s were sold in ’70, eight in ’71, and another 20 made it out the door in 1972. It stands as the most potent and capable small-block C3 Corvette package, and among the most collectible as well.

“Looking back, the LT1 is one of the most admired Corvettes and ‘Vette engines in history,” says Don Sherman, a marque expert and regular Hagerty contributor. “There were two camps: Big block and small block. But the character built into the LT-1 would be very important for future Corvettes, and the LT-1 remains much loved to this very day for its performance and its historical impact.”

This reverence is generally reflected in the LT1’s values: Setting aside the ultra-rare ZR1, RPO LT1 commands a solid premium over the other third-gen small block-equipped Corvettes. And, among 1970 Corvettes, the LT1 is the most valuable, regardless of displacement—a #2 (excellent) condition LS5 454 is $9000 cheaper while the tamer L46 comes in 12 grand beneath the LT1. Naturally, the most potent 1970 LT1s are also the most valuable, but it’s also worth noting that solid driver-quality examples can be had for less than $40,000.

The slight premium the LT1 carries over those other ‘Vettes pales in comparison, though, to the value delta between the top-flight big blocks and the rest. Number 2 condition values for L88 cars from ’68 and ’69 come in north of $400,000, and a same-condition 1971 LS6 is valued $188,000, more than double a ’70 LT1. In that light, the LT1 delivers quite a bit of attitude per dollar.

Perhaps surprisingly, given its place in Corvette history, the LT1’s allure does not appear to have been picked up on by younger generations of enthusiasts. Boomers make up the overwhelming majority of quotes sought for LT1 Corvettes at 62 percent. Gen X and younger generations each make up shares markedly less than their overall market stakes. That said, we don’t think the LT1 will be forgotten anytime soon—rather, it may continue to represent a solid entry point to a high-performance, third-generation Corvette experience.

Its three-year lifespan may have been fleeting, but the LT1 effectively put a capstone on early small-block performance in the Corvette and served as an inspiration as the model returned to a powerful era again in the ’90s. For modern enthusiasts who are looking for the right mix of history and capability at a non-stratospheric price, the LT1 makes perfect sense.

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If any car deserves a cheerful color palette, it’s the Mazda Miata, introduced in the U.S. for 1990 in your choice of bright red, white, or blue.

Now, muted variations on that original red, white, and blue are still offered, but so are four additional colors: black, two shades of gray, and Zircon Sand Metallic, which Mazda says is an “earthy tone.”

It’s kind of a funeral, this trend toward neutral car colors. That was not overlooked in our review last week of a 2024 Mazda Miata Club that Andrew Newton drove: The Miata’s color options are “bland as a bowl of sawdust,” he wrote. “If you’ve been praying for a handsome British Racing Green or a nice bright blue, keep praying, because Mazda has ignored you yet again. There is a new shade for 2024 but it’s… another shade of gray.” His test car was Zircon Sand, which he described as a “sort of muddy sand color, with some green in it.”

Turns out that it isn’t just the Miata—the entire industry has been steering away from colorful cars, according to a study by the website iSeeCars.com. Grayscale colors (white, black, gray, and silver) made up 80 percent of cars in 2023 compared to 60.3 percent in 2004, the study said. This despite the fact that there were nearly the same number of colors offered in 2023 as there were in 2004, with an average of 6.7 colors per model today compared to 7.1 colors per model 20 years ago.

iSeeCars analyzed the colors of over 20 million used cars from model years 2004 to 2023 sold from January 2023 to April 2024. The share of each color within each model year was calculated, as was the difference in share between model years 2004 and 2023.

“Colorful cars appear to be an endangered species,” said Karl Brauer, iSeeCars executive analyst. “Despite a diverse palette being offered by automakers, there are far fewer non-grayscale cars sold today. They’ve lost half their market share over the past 20 years, and they could become even rarer in another 20 years.”

Colors like gold, purple, brown, and beige have each lost more than 80 percent of their share over this period, and even mainstream colors like green, red, and blue gave up some ground. Interestingly, green has made a small comeback in the last few years as the only non-grayscale color to gain some market share back since 2020.

And it isn’t just cars. “Trucks followed the overall market trend, though some primary colors, like red, lost far more share than others, like blue,” said Brauer. Red is down 57 percent in the truck segment, while blue lost less than one percent.

“If drivers think they’re seeing less color on the roads these days, they are,” he said. “Every non-grayscale color lost ground over the past 20 years.”

It should not come as a surprise, then, that color affects resale value, but it doesn’t necessarily follow the grayscale-dominant formula. Hagerty Valuation Analytics Director John Wiley wrote a year ago that cars “slathered in eye-catching colors never fail to garner attention. The degree to which those colors impact value, however, can vary wildly from model to model.”

For vehicles with relatively few trim choices or minimal differences, color can be a much more important consideration, Wiley said. The 2012–13 Ford Mustang Boss 302 didn’t offer a lot of options, but it did allow buyers to select from 10 colors: Black, Competition Orange, Gotta Have It Green, Grabber Blue, High Performance White, Ingot Silver, Kona Blue, Race Red, School Bus Yellow, and Yellow Blaze.

Three of those colors—Black, Kona Blue, and Yellow Blaze—can mean a discount of up to 11 percent (sorry, Yellow Blaze) on the average value, while three other colors, High Performance White, Competition Orange, and Gotta Have It Green can provide owners a premium of about 17 percent.

Wiley wrote another story in 2021 about how color affects the value of Chevrolet Corvettes. Comparing apples to apples, the research was applied to 1700 sales. “The median premium for each major color group reveals white as the most valuable [adding 8.9 percent], followed by yellow, purple, and red. At the other extreme are earth tones like copper, green, bronze, and brown [down 10.2 percent].”

Still another story from that year explored what color does to Porsche 911 values. “The winner? Yellow. Porsches painted that color tended to sell for nearly $3000 more than average.” At the other end of the (color) spectrum, “black Porsches tended to earn $1385 below average.”

If you’re talking about a pure, mainstream, just-transportation car like a Toyota Camry or Honda Accord, the exclusively-grayscale palette may be a good rule of thumb to help bring solid resale values. But for sportier cars, the answer may lie somewhere over the rainbow.

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Say you just bought a fine-looking, Rally Red 1967 Corvette convertible. Naturally, you take it to a car show. As you’re backing into your assigned spot, a number of people gather around. You shut down the engine, and the bystanders ask you to open the hood of the Vette.

Then it dawns on you why they are anxious to see the engine. The “stinger” hood of your Corvette says the engine beneath it is a big-block 427. Your car’s exhaust note says otherwise. The attendees see the car—and you—as a fraud. And they are correct: Your Corvette’s engine is a slightly hopped-up small-block 327, but a previous owner bolted on that super-cool stinger hood and “off-road” side pipes. The car sure looks like a 427, but it is, in fact, a faux big-block … which is why you got the car for an affordable price.

This was me the first time—and every time after that—I entered my newly acquired ’67 ‘Vette in a collector-car show. I loved the look of that stinger hood but was uncomfortable with the unintended deception. I would jump out, pop the hood, and explain that it had been installed by a previous owner. I wasn’t trying to fool anyone … as if I could. That small-block ran well and sounded good—but it didn’t sound like a muscular big-block. Show-goers would nod, not saying much, and walk away, pleased to have detected and exposed fraud on the show field. Corvette collectors, I soon learned, take authenticity very seriously. As they should.

At that stage of my life, I thought I was done with the old-car hobby. I hadn’t owned an old car since the gorgeous ’67 Cadillac Eldorado I had for a while in the late ‘70s and the beautiful ’70 1/2 Chevy Camaro I had bought new, kept, and driven aggressively until I got married in 1982 and moved to California, with its high home prices (both good stories for other times). I had no more time, money, or energy for old cars and had grown tired of maintaining and working on them.

That ’67 was my second Corvette after the well-used ’57 I drove during my senior year in high school (another good story). As a busy auto writer and part-time racer, I reviewed new Corvettes and enjoyed more than a few adventures road-racing them. I sure didn’t need to own a Corvette, especially an old one.

In 1998, I founded a car show at Michigan State University that evolved the following year into the “Cars on Campus” (COC) invitational concours d’elegance. I attended shows all over Michigan looking for cars to invite to the growing event. After recruiting for most of the summer, I decided that talking to proud collector-car owners and inviting them to show their special cars at our event would be easier if I were an entrant rather than simply a spectator.

I started looking for a good collector car, and I found this relatively low-mileage, fairly good-condition ’67 (alleged) 427 ‘Vette roadster in the “For Sale” lot at a big show at the old Packard Proving Grounds in Shelby Township, Michigan. (The C2 has always been my favorite old Corvette and, for multiple reasons, the five-gill ’67 my favorite C2.)

I got the owner’s contact info and hurried home to discuss the purchase with my wife Jill, a long-time Corvette lover who happened to have a 2000 C5 convertible, wearing Michigan State University green, in our garage at the time. I was hoping she would go with me to take a good look at and drive the ’67, and, if we decided to buy it, agree to split the price and co-own the car. And she did! I can’t recall or locate any record of how much we paid for that car in June 2000, but I think it was something under $30K.

We joined the Michigan chapter of a national Corvette club and drove the ’67 up to one of the club’s events in Traverse City. While there, we enjoyed a rocking George Thorogood & the Destroyers concert at a hotel/casino and each happily pocketed the $20 the casino gave us to gamble. (We figured that driving a newly acquired 33-year-old Corvette there and back would be enough of a thrill.)

The Corvette performed well but showed some rough edges along the way. For starters, it was annoyingly noisy at freeway speeds. Yes, it was delicious, small-block, side-exhaust-V-8 noise, but the volume got old after a while. Water leaked into the cabin between the top and windshield when we encountered rain, and we had to manually pop up the headlamps at night. The brakes were barely there, the manual steering built some muscle, the window cranks were clunky, and the four-speed manual shifter was loose and cranky. At least the vertically mounted aftermarket AM/FM radio I had installed—with great difficulty—to replace the dysfunctional original unit worked fine!

Though she loves Corvettes, Jill quickly lost interest in driving the ’67. I took it to some other shows, including Cars on Campus at Michigan State, where I would park it, then busy myself running the event, thus avoiding the need to explain its faux 427 status. I decided to get its many flaws attended to by fellow journalist and friend Don Sherman. He had just restored his own (real) big-block ’67, a former drag car, and had written an excellent book about it, and he had volunteered to fix everything he could on ours for a reasonable hourly rate. I purchased a set of spiffy, cast-aluminum wheels that looked like the ’67 optional originals, along with replica redline radial tires to greatly improve the car’s look, ride, and handling, and delivered the car to Sherman’s house.

Don proved to be as good a Corvette mechanic as he was a writer. It’s too much detail to recount here, but he provided a running record of everything he did, from fixing the backup light, the pop-up-headlamps, and the door latches to adjusting the parking brake, steering, and shift linkages to installing my new wheels and tires and a new fuel tank (the original leaked), refurbishing the inside door panels, and resealing the engine oil pan to resolve some minor oil leakage.

Sherman also discovered that the car had some repaired crash damage on the driver’s side, and he communicated with the guy we bought it from to research its non-stock engine. It turned out that the car had been built with the base, 300-hp 327, but a previous owner had installed valve covers, an intake manifold, a higher-redline tach, and maybe a camshaft from an optional 350-hp engine, plus an aftermarket reproduction Edelbrock carburetor, to make it look like an L29 350. Happily, Don found that the engine block was original and its insides “fastidiously clean.”

The following May, ace auction announcer, historic car appraiser, and friend Ed Lucas, “after thoroughly examining this restored automobile and subsequently researching the information provided,” estimated our ’67 Corvette’s replacement value between $42,500 and $45,000. “It is obvious from inspecting this vehicle that it has received excellent care and maintenance and is in overall very good condition with low total mileage,” he wrote in his appraisal. “There is little or no evidence of wear or abuse.”

“Overall,” the report concluded, “the engine compartment is very clean, the exterior chrome and paint are in very good condition, and there is no evidence of underside rust… In fact, the undercarriage has been detailed… As a final point, it should be considered that this is a numbers-matching vehicle showing only 38,680 miles on the odometer.”

By then, “Cars on Campus” Concours had grown (with a great deal of work) into a very nice 200-car show on a field next to the president’s house on MSU’s beautiful campus. The event ended after 2002 when the university wanted more money and reduced its support. I was keeping the ’67 in a farmer’s barn (along with my 1991 Buick Reatta ragtop, another good story) a few miles from our home and took it out only occasionally.

One of those occasions each year was the “Rolling Sculpture” car show in downtown Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Sherman (who worked there for Automobile magazine at the time) saved a place for ours next to his beautifully restored big-block ’67 ‘Vette. They were chromatic opposites—ours red with black on its stinger hood, his black with red—and attracted a lot of attention parked there side-by-side.

We finally sold the ’67 in 2006 when we bought an early-build “captured fleet” Pontiac Solstice for a very friendly price. Hardly an appropriate substitution, I know, but I had just written a book on that model, my wife had fallen in love with it, and we were a little tired (again) of the hassle and expense of old-car ownership. Besides being a beautiful, fine-handling, fun-to-drive, and affordable little sports car, the Solstice also came with a full factory warranty.

I have no high-speed, hard-driving, or close-call experiences to relate from my time with that ’67 Corvette. Unlike in my youth, as a highly responsible adult uninterested in taking chances or collecting tickets, I drove it like the valuable collectible it was. I also can’t find or recall how much we sold it for, but (given Lucas’ appraisal), I think it was something over $40K. Not bad for a six-year run with a really cool classic Corvette, even if it was a faux 427.

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Five men, heroes all to the automotive culture in general and the Corvette community in particular: Zora Arkus-Duntov, Dave McLellan, Dave Hill, Tom Wallace, and Tadge Juechter.

The Chevrolet Corvette has only had five chief engineers, and Tadge Juechter, the current one, announced his retirement today. It will take place later this summer.

Juechter, 63, will leave behind a 43-year career working for General Motors. He started with GM in 1977, at the Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant.

He transferred to Corvette in 1993. “It’s been the honor of a lifetime to work at this company, leading the men and women who have brought to life one of the most iconic and recognizable vehicles in recent American history,” Juechter said in a statement. “Their tenacity and ability to push what is possible with every variant and generation of Corvette was inspiring to see. I know the future of the nameplate is in the right hands.”

Juechter worked for chief engineers Dave Hill and Tom Wallace before being named to the job himself. Juechter did not bring as strong of a motorsports background to the job as some of the chief engineers he succeeded, but he’s responsible for the biggest change in Corvette history—moving the platform from front-engine to mid-engine—and seamlessly dovetailing that into the Corvette C8.R mid-engine race car.

After launching the C5 and C6, Juechter was appointed to what he described as “the promotion of a lifetime,” as executive chief engineer for Corvette. In this role, he led the development of the 7th- and mid-engine 8th- generation cars, including the Corvette E-Ray hybrid.

“His most recent involvement will be reflected in the upcoming ZR1, which Chevy teased earlier this month and is expected to be revealed this summer,” said Chevrolet, but you can be certain that when the C9 Corvette debuts, it will have Juechter’s fingerprints on it.

Chevrolet has not named Juechter’s successor, and it may be a bit complicated, as Josh Holder was named Corvette chief engineer in 2020, while the retiring Juechter is, as mentioned above, executive chief engineer. Whether Holder gets Juechter’s job, and his title, remains to be seen.

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We blame the weather. While the staff of this website calls many places in the United States (and overseas) home, the lion’s share of our editors are located somewhere in the Midwest. And right now, dear reader, the Midwest weather is volatile as hell.

Naturally, we turned to internal discussions about cars to cope with a week where temperatures fluctuated by as much as 50 degrees and weather patterns swung from rain to sun to snow and back again.

This time around, we got to talking about the ’60s, one of our hobby’s indisputable golden eras. That led to discussions about front-end design, and how radically different it was from automaker to automaker. In short order, many of us began campaigning for certain cars with front ends that stuck in our hearts and minds, for one reason or another.

Compiled here is a list of eight such cars. Beneath each nominee is a brief summary of why it warrants appreciation, made by each car’s loudest proponent in the (chat)room.

Rules? Delightfully few. The car had to be built at some point in the ’60s, and beyond that, it was up to each of us to make the case. Naturally, such a loose mission brief will have let many great cars slip through the cracks. Got one that should have made this list? Let fly in the comments below!

1968 Chevrolet El Camino

If your first thought was that the face of the ’68 ElCo is virtually the same as that of the Chevelle, allow our own Cameron Neveu to offer the most compelling—if a bit unorthodox—case for picking the former:

“Why the El Camino over the identical appearing 1968 Chevelle? Well, the ElCo front end looks even sweeter knowing you’ve got a bed out back.”

An open and shut case, in our eyes. The 1968 model’s four round headlights make it extra distinct, and while the performance fan in us enjoys the SS badge between those four eyes, there’s something about the long, horizontal Chevy emblem that we can’t resist.

1968 Citroën DS

The DS pops up in all sorts of design lists, and for good reason. Those swooping body lines were quite brave for the era, and who could forget the high-tech hydraulic suspension that gave the car a magic carpet-like ride, helping to accentuate the design details that seemed to float over the blacktop? But the nose is worth celebrating on its own. As U.K. correspondent Nik Berg reminded us, if you sound out the DS title with a thick enough French accent, you’ll hear “Deésse,” which just happens to be French for “goddess.”

The big, wide headlights at either corner, contrasted with the waterfall of the hood in the middle, the exceedingly convex chrome bumper, and the lack of a grille make this front end as striking as they come.

1965 Buick Riviera

If the front end of a car were to be described as “very Teddy Roosevelt-esque,” could you picture it? In a single sentence, Eddy Eckart swayed the jury in his favor: “Simple, and formal in a means business kind of way, all without being too assertive.”

Gaze upon the forward cant of those headlamps; marvel at the buttresses flanking the massive hood. “The Riviera looks like a concept car that actually made it to production,” added Brandan Gillogly. There’s a reason this car is a popular choice for custom builders and restomod specialists, and it has everything to do with how the Riv’ manages to speak softly, while … well, you know the rest.

1966 Alfa Romeo Giulia Duetto Spider

If the Riviera is an American sledgehammer, Stefan Lombard nominated a delicate Italian pickaxe to contrast it. While it’s hard to find a bad angle of the Giulia Duetto Spider, the car’s clean, simple face manages to avoid the “mouth-agape fish” look that so many small cars of the time suffered from.

He also noted that while many cars look great from a front 3/4 angle, it can be harder to make the head-on view sing. In the Duetto’s case, Lombard had this to say: “The sloping nose and covered headlights lead into that delicate V grille, which flows back beneath the car. I love it.” Hard to argue with that!

1969 Chevrolet Corvette

The chrome front bumper the third-gen Corvette stuck around through 1972, but since the design debuted in 1968, it counts. Resident Corvette fanatic Grace Houghton opted to shout out the 1969 model, and we didn’t need any additional convincing. Two beautifully high fenders dip down to a broad chrome bar that spans the width of the car’s face. Below the bumper, two rectangular inlets, each housing a round turn signal bulb. The look, as Houghton so eloquently put it, “manages to look muscular and delicate at the same time … So Mako Shark, and so good.”

Bonus points if we’re looking at a ’69 L88, with its massive hood bulge shrouding a 427 big-block.

1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1

Though it’s easy to blur the lines, it bears repeating that “muscle cars” and “pony cars” were not always the same things. When it debuted in April of 1964, the Mustang was a relatively docile thing. The front end might be famous now, but that has more to do with what the Mustang has become in automotive culture than it does with how it looks on its own.

That look began to change almost immediately, as our resident Ford guru Sajeev Mehta reminded us. By 1969, the Mustang’s face had gone from cheerful companion to something far more sinister. As Mehta put it: “The 1969 Mustang took the hum-drum front end of the 1965 model and made it deeper, more aggressive, and far more angry. It became half muscle car and half pony car.”

1963 Studebaker Avanti

Though I’ll admit it’s not my favorite front end from the 1960s, there’s something distinctive and instantly recognizable about the Studebaker Avanti that warrants respect. Those perfectly round headlights seem like they should flank a broad grille, but instead, it’s just solid bodywork. That decision highlights the offset futuristic-script “Avanti” emblem that proudly proclaims the model’s identity. The fenders end in sharp corners, framing the simplicity of the grille-less countenance. You can’t help but appreciate designer Raymond Loewy’s flair for the dramatic.

“Counter-point, there should be a grille between this headlights and this nominee is actually bad.” – Stefan Lombard

Well, that’s just like, your opinion, man.

1968 Dodge Charger R/T

Fret not, Mopar fans, our site’s executive editor has you covered. Eric Weiner was swift and decisive with his nominee, the ’68 Charger. That broad, mail-slot rectangle of a grille is immediately recognizable. Hidden headlights add a menacing tone to the front end, and this is one of the few cars that makes a large front overhang look attractive.

This rectangular motif also carries over onto the new Dodge Charger. Anytime a front end’s design elements can look attractive in two distinctly different eras, you know you’ve got a winner in your hands.

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The top story of the 2024 Rolex 24 at Daytona, the season-opening race for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in late January, was the nicely executed win by the No. 7 Penske Porsche 963. That victory notched team owner Roger Penske his first overall victory in the Rolex 24 in 55 years. At the second race of the season, Saturday’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours at Sebring, the Penske Porsches certainly figured into the race, with the No. 7 coming in third.

This time, however, the lead story was the intense GTP battle in the closing stages between the Acura ARX-06 of Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti, and the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R.

Acura’s Louis Deletraz and Cadillac pilot Sebastien Bourdais put on a racing driver’s seminar, fighting the very rough, dark track, slower-lapped cars, and each other. Deletraz made a brilliant move with just five minutes left to squeeze by Bourdais and drive on to a victory margin of just 0.981 seconds.

That was sort of the story of all four classes in the race: LMP2 was decided by 1.127 seconds; GTD Pro by 0.121 seconds, and GTD by 0.646 seconds: incredibly tight finishes before what IMSA said was, like Daytona, a record crowd, though IMSA, owned by NASCAR, quit announcing crowd sizes in 2013. The complete results are available here.

Deletraz, just starting his first full IMSA season, co-drove with Jordan Taylor and IndyCar star Colton Herta, while Bourdais co-drove with Renger van der Zande and IndyCar’s Scott Dixon. It’s worth noting that a week ago, Chip Ganassi and Cadillac announced they’d be ending their partnership at the end of 2024. No real reason was given.

The race was, according to Bourdais, a little too physical, with multiple contacts between him and Deletraz. “Definitely, that was way too many contacts,” Bourdais said. “Both sides of the floor, toward the rear, are significantly damaged. I think we were both be pretty lucky it didn’t rip a stem off a wheel because we probably could have picked up a puncture four or five times during the last few laps there. I’m not really accustomed to that and not a big fan of it. To be honest, I don’t think he needed it because he had so much pace. Hats off to them anyhow. They had the package at the end to make the difference. We just had to settle for second.”

The LMP2 winner was, like Daytona, the Era Motorsport Oreca. In GTD Pro, it was the Vasser-Sullivan Lexus RCF GT3, after a very disappointing Daytona. And in GTD, it was a repeat for the Rolex 24 winner, the Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.

What else did we learn at Sebring? Read on:

1: Two spectacular crashes, no injuries: If any one driver has owned Sebring the last 10 years, it’s probably Pipo Derani, currently a driver for the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac. He won in 2023 and set a fast time in qualifying this year. In the seventh hour, leading by a whopping 12 seconds, he was passing a slower car, a Ferrari 296 GT3 driven by Miguel Molina; they made contact. It was enough to upset Derani’s Cadillac and send the car onto the grass and head-on into the tire wall, and then the Cadillac flipped and landed upside-down atop that tire wall. Just like that, the favorite was done.

The other crash occurred on the final turn leading to the front straight. Katherine Legge, driving the Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3, was making the right turn when Fred Makowiecki, driving a Penske Porsche 963, took the turn to Legge’s inside rather than wait and make the pass on the straightaway, and appeared to boot the Acura into the wall, hard. She walked away, but the car was done.

2: Once again, the Corvettes and the Mustangs have teething pains: We expected it at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, where the highest-finishing Mustang came in sixth in class and 31st overall, in a 59-car field. The top Corvette finished fifth in class and 30th overall. And while the new-this-year Ford Mustang GT3 and Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT.R benefitted from another seven weeks of testing and development time, the 12 Hours of Sebring finish saw the two Multimatic Mustangs finish seventh and eighth in class, but the Corvettes didn’t have much to show for a hard-fought day.

The top-finishing Corvette was ninth in the 22-car GTD class—one of the AWA-backed cars, not one of the favored Pratt Miller Corvettes, which finished tenth and 11th in GTD Pro, a class that only had 12 cars. The GTD Pro finishes don’t tell the story, as the No. 3 car was hit from behind and spun in the closing minutes of the race while running second. “It was very hectic out there and people were acting over-aggressive,” said the victimized Corvette driver, Dani Juncadella. “It gets dark here and there’s not much (camera) footage, so people start believing there are no rules.” The number 4 sister car battled clutch problems all day, with the crew eventually choosing to change the clutch, which cost multiple laps. The other AWA Corvette made it only two laps before being sidelined with electrical issues.

3: The dreaded BOP: No one much likes IMSA’s “Balance of Performance,” a formula the sanctioning body uses to level the playing field among the cars in each class, as well as level out the class itself. Let’s get to that one first: BOP ensures that the GTP class is the fastest, followed by the LMP2 class, followed by the GTD Pro and GTD classes, which use the same cars, but GTD Pro allows for additional professional drivers.

In the race itself, GTP cars averaged lap times of about mid-1 minute, 49 seconds, up to 1:50 or so. That kept them well ahead of the LMP2 cars, which are limited to spec-500-horsepower V-8s, and lap around mid-1:51s, up to 1.53. GTD and GTD Pro lapped in the low 2:01 range, up to 2:02.

It’s still remarkable that the rules allow such a wide variety of makes and models to fit in such narrow windows. It’s a combination of regulating horsepower, fuel flow, airflow, weight, aerodynamics, and other sophisticated factors. But balancing V-8s against V-6s, naturally-aspirated vs. turbocharged, and front-engine vs. mid-engine is a science, and sports car racing has it down.

4: The Lamborghini cometh. We initially saw the all-new Lamborghini SC63 the first week of last December at an IMSA open test at Daytona International Speedway, sort of a quieter Roar before the mandatory Roar Before the 24. Since the Lamborghini wasn’t racing at Daytona, it didn’t show for the official test but did for the preliminary one. There, surprisingly, it was the fastest GTP on the track.

We aren’t sure what happened between December and March, when the Lamborghini formally debuted at the 12 Hours of Sebring. It was now slower than most of the field. BOP, we’d guess. But it was a good day for the Lambo, finishing seventh out of 11 GTP cars and on the lead lap, thanks in part to an all-star driver lineup, including Romain Grosjean. Well done.

5: Youth is served, part 2: As it was at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in the LMP2 class, the winning Era Motorsport Oreca LMP2 07 featured 17-year-old Connor Zilisch, teamed with Era regular-season drivers Dwight Merriman and Ryan Dalziel. But this time, Zilisch was tasked with finishing the race, taking over with about 90 minutes left. He drove like a veteran. If Connor Zilisch were on the stock market, I’d buy some shares. Zilisch spent most of his young pro racing career in the Trans Am Series, winning 10 times in the TA2 class, and winning his debut race in the top TA class. It was the first time in Trans Am history that one driver had won both the TA and TA2 race in the same weekend.

Zilisch signed a NASCAR development deal with Trackhouse Racing, and he makes his NASCAR Craftsman Truck debut this weekend with Spire Motorsports at Circuit of the Americas. Said IMSA co-driver Dalziel, himself an overall winner at the Rolex 24, on Zilisch’s final stint at Sebring: “You look at the list of drivers that were behind Connor on that restart—the talent and the guys with experience—and the kid just kept his head cool and brought it home.”

6: The Michelin Pilot Challenge series is healthy, too: Friday’s opening act for both the Twelve Hours of Sebring and the Rolex 24 at Daytona is the dual-class Michelin Pilot Challenge, a four-hour race at Daytona, and two hours at Sebring. The Alan Jay Automotive Network 120 at Sebring was the usual rough-and-tumble affair, with 40 cars total in the GS class (such as the Aston Martin Vantage GT4, Ford Mustang GT4, Toyota Supra GT4), and the less powerful TCR class (Hyundai Elantra N TCR, Honda Civic FK7 TCR, Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR).

First taking the checkered flag were Frank DePew and Robin Liddell in the Rebel Rock Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo, 1.8 seconds ahead of the van der Steur Racing Aston Martin. In TCR, the winner was the JDC-Miller Motorsports Audi RS3 LMS TCR of Chris Miller and Mikey Taylor, over the Star-Com Racing Hyundai Elantra, which was elevated from third after the second-place Hyundai failed post-race inspection.

7. Two races in, two record crowds and large fields: Only IMSA starts its season with what are, by far, its two biggest races. Race three is pretty important, though: the 100-minute Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, April 19-20. Eight more races follow, ending with the 10-hour Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. In a surprise move, IMSA announced its 2025 schedule at the Sebring weekend, and it looks pretty much like this year’s. With 18 manufacturers paying to compete in it, pound for pound, IMSA may be America’s healthiest race series.

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Wolves howl in the forest while on the hunt. So do car guys when they sense they may make a killing. That could explain why, during the run-up of classic Corvette values in the early 2000s, my friend Scott Young and I bought this 1964 convertible sight unseen. Reportedly built by a Milwaukee enthusiast in 1968, the “Executioner” competed at the strip and in regional International Show Car Association (ISCA) shows. Ultimately, however, the radical customizing turned a low-mileage 300-hp, four-speed Sting Ray into a nearly unsaleable oddity. We just didn’t know it yet.

Popular in the early 1960s, straight-axle drag conversions meant surgically altering the frame, and so began the journey of this genial Daytona Blue roadster into a medieval menace. Sawed off and discarded was the independent front suspension—a real value loss. In showboat tradition, chromed parts included the requisite tubular axle, steering box, and control arms. Revealing the brightwork were 12-spoke American Racing spindle-mount mags. Chrome likewise found the traction bars, the rear transverse spring, the driveshafts and control arms, the wheelie bars, and the push-bar (fashioned like an executioner’s axe).

Over the stock Daytona Blue, Milwaukee painter Butch Brinza applied a candy blue finish, which used fish scales to create a shimmery pop. The Corvette’s original blue vinyl interior ceded to diamond-tufted navy seats, floormats, door panels, and hardtop, which also sported a ventilated Plexiglas backlight. Still more chrome graced the rollbar, fire bottle, and butterfly steering wheel. All in for the win!

The once-mellow 327 had been stroked to 370 cubic inches and wore a chromed side-by-side manifold topped by dual quads and chromed scoops. Early in our stewardship, it vehemently resisted starting; something was afoul with cam and/or ignition timing. You’d swat the pedal and turn the key, and the engine would backfire dramatically. The predicament broke three starter motors, and once, a flame-front bigger than Krakatoa nearly torched the ceiling. Ultimately, a visiting friend requested a 9/16-inch wrench and reset the distributor. Thereafter, the Executioner started fine.

Driving that thing anywhere was another matter. Every couple of miles, the engine surged and stopped, then mulishly refused to restart. Looking back, I suspect the root was a clogged fuel line or filter, a tired pump, a plugged gas-cap vent, or some similarly easy issue. But when you don’t have a clue, you’re clueless. Ultimately, after nursing the Executioner to 20,458 miles, we tapped out. Naturally, selling that car was equally difficult. “We were the only ones who didn’t make money on a Corvette!” Scott joked. Yep, we were those guys.

No wonder—our execution was fatally flawed.

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At his first overall victory in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, car owner Roger Penske confounded the highly-favored factory Porsches by snatching a win in his Chevrolet-powered Lola T70 Mk. 3B driven by Mark Donohue and Chuck Parsons. That was in 1969, 55 years ago.

On a cool, sunny Sunday, this time with Penske leading the Porsche factory effort, Porsche Penske Motorsports won a second overall victory at Daytona over the Whelen Engineering Cadillac, which was leading until 45 minutes from the end, when a caution flag flew and the GTP cars peeled off to get enough fuel to finish the race. The #7 Penske Porsche 963 beat the #31 Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R back onto the track, and Felipe Nasr, driving the final stint in the Porsche, never looked back.

“I’ll tell you, this goes down as one of the biggest wins we’ve had,” said Penske, who turns 87 in February. “When you think about 1969, when we won here with a Lola, things were a lot different in those days. Just to see the competitiveness now, where six- or seven-tenths of a second was the difference after 24 hours of racing, it’s unbelievable.”

Roger Penske Racing won by 30 laps, something that will never happen again at the Rolex 24, given the current level of competition. Of course, this occurred in an era when a Chevrolet Camaro entered by Randy’s Auto Body could finish 12th overall.

Yesterday, Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti’s Acura ARX-06 finished third, breaking Acura’s three-race winning streak at Daytona. Porsche 963s finished fourth, fifth and sixth. It’s a far cry from 2023, when the top Porsche, also a Penske entry, finished 14th, 34 laps off the pace.

In LMP2, the Era Motorsports Oreca/Gibson took the win—more about that victory in a moment.

In GT Daytona Pro, the Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 beat out AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R for the win. And in GTD (unlike in GTD Pro, the driver lineup of each entry in this class must include amateur drivers), Winward Racing’s Mercedes AMG GT3 won out over AF Corsa’s Ferrari 296 GT3.

In other news from the track:

Takeaway #1: The ending was confusing

Fans and drivers both were confused with the race’s finish, which seemed to come at least a lap early. The NBC broadcast said there were two laps to go, but the white flag flew almost immediately, and it seemed that the GTP cars had already begun their final lap.

Felipe Nasr, who was driving the winning #7 Porsche Penske 963, said, “I was confused, too. I don’t know if there were two white flags. I don’t know. I really don’t know. I was just focused on each corner, each braking and just clearing traffic and making sure there was no mistakes and taking the car to the end.” That’s why Nasr didn’t really begin slowing until it was clear that it was obviously time. “Yeah, you’ve got to keep on the throttle until it’s over.”

We’ve asked IMSA for an explanation, and here it is: “Due to an officiating error in race control, IMSA inadvertently announced and subsequently displayed the white flag with under three minutes remaining in the race. At the end of the lap, the race-leading No. 7 GTP car then received the checkered flag with 1 minute, 35.277 seconds still remaining, ending the race short of the planned 24 hours by effectively one lap.” According to the rules, IMSA said, the race ends when the checkered flag is displayed,  thus completing the Rolex (not quite) 24.

Takeaway #2: We never saw a proper Mustang-Corvette fight

The highly anticipated Ford vs. Chevrolet battle in GTD Pro never really materialized which, in reality, should not be surprising. Even though they have tested extensively, the Ford Mustang GT3 and the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R are brand-new cars, and there is something about the Rolex 24 to make even the most tested vehicles break. Or crash. The highest-finishing Mustang of three in the race came in sixth in class and 31st overall, in a 59-car field. The top Corvette finished fifth in class and 30th overall.

Both models were fast, and ran near the front in the early stages of the race. Both of the Pratt Miller Corvettes led for extended periods, but one suffered a cracked oil tank, and the other a power steering pump. The two AWA Corvettes were sidelined with a power steering issue in one car, an electrical problem in the other. One of the Mustangs was rear-ended by a Corvette, and repairs cost the car six laps.

Takeaway #3: Lexus had bad luck

It was an unlucky outing for the two Vasser Sullivan Lexus RCF GT3 cars, one (#14) running in the GTD Pro class, the other (#12) in GTD. That car sat on the pole and led for multiple stints until it was hit by another car, damaging the rear bumper. But the car persevered and made it to the final pit stop still in contention when, leaving the pits, it burst into flames. Driver Parker Thompson got out and grabbed a fire extinguisher from a corner worker and put the fire out.

As for the #14, which is the IMSA class champion, it was leading in the first hour of the race when an LMP2 car spun and collected the Lexus. The car was repaired by was 36 laps down when it rejoined the race. “We have championship drive and we’re not going to let this race deter us from going on to achieve great things this year,” said driver Ben Barnicoat. “We’re going to get our heads down and get ready for Sebring.”

In happier Lexus news, Toyota Racing Development president David Wilson told Hagerty that Lexus will have a brand-new GT3 car, likely for 2026.

Takeaway #4: The winning LMP2 car was driven by a 17-year-old bound for NASCAR

The Era Motorsports car that won the LMP2 class had some experienced sports car racers, including Ryan Dalziel, who won the race overall in 2010, and in LMP2 in 2021. But making his first start in the Rolex 24 was Connor Zilisch, believed by some to be the Next Big Thing in stock car racing. He becomes the second-youngest driver to score a win at the Rolex 24 at 17 years and 191 days old; he’s just behind Michael de Quesada, who won the GT Daytona class in 2007 at 17 years, 63 days old. Zilisch signed a contract for this season with NASCAR’s Trackhouse Racing, and his schedule includes races in the NASCAR Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series races, along with starts in ARCA, the zMAX CARS Tour, Mazda MX-5 Cup series and the SCCA Trans-Am TA2 series.

“It’s been a wild last few weeks for me, and I’m not going to let my head get big. I’ve still got to put in the work. I’m only 17,” he said. “I can’t even rent a car. Dad has to do that for me.”

Takeaway #5: Brad Pitt got some filming done for his racing movie

The planned filming of the Brad Pitt racing movie, which is possibly called Apex, reportedly went well, with Pitt spending some time behind pit wall of the #120 Chip Hart Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, which was being raced by Wright Motorsports in the GTD class, finishing seventh in GTD, and 26th overall. The car carried cameras, shooting footage that is expected to be in the movie. That car had a twin in the garage; the actual film stunt car carries the names of the fictional Sonny Hayes (Pitt’s character), C. Kelso, and Patrick Long, who does actually exist.

Long, a former Porsche factory driver, doubled for Pitt in some of the filming during practice sessions, which began more than a week before the Rolex 24 and is expected to conclude on Thursday. Pitt has been spotted around Daytona Beach, and, oddly, at a laundromat in New Smyrna Beach with co-star Javier Bardem.

Takeaway #6: Attendance hit a record high

IMSA, the sanctioning body for the WeatherTech Sports Car Racing Championship, is owned by NASCAR, and they stopped giving attendance figures in 2013. But IMSA president John Doonan said that not only was there a record turnout for the Rolex 24, but also for Friday’s Michelin Pilot Challenge race and the Roar Before the Rolex.

The series is undeniably healthy, with 18 manufacturers participating, compared to two for IndyCar, three for NASCAR, with no additional manufacturers for those two series in sight.

Takeaway #7: The four-hour support race was a nail-biter

Speaking of the Michelin Pilot Challenge race, the four-hour event was held Friday afternoon, with a 45-car field. The race was a nail-biter to the end, as several of the leaders were in danger of running out of fuel before the checkered flag. In the last 10 minutes, leader after leader peeled off the track to get a splash of fuel, and at the end, the Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 718 GT4 RS was the last car standing, winning with a two-second lead over the Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT4 car. Windward Racing, along with driver Daniel Morad, also won the GTD class in the Rolex 24 in a different Mercedes.

The Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup also squeezed in two races, won by Nate Cicero and Gresham Wagner. The aforementioned Connor Zilisch qualified his Miata on the pole for one of the races.

Takeaway #8: Where to catch the next action

The IMSA WeatherTech series is back in action with the second-longest race in its season, the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring at Sebring International Raceway on March 16. At that race, Lamborghini will debut its new GTP car.

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Now that this past weekend’s Roar Before the 24 is in the books, the three-day practice session for cars and drivers entering next weekend’s Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona has given the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship staff a better idea of who’s fast—and who isn’t.

That’s important in case the IMSA technical crew makes changes to the Balance of Performance before the race. The Balance of Performance, or BoP, is IMSA’s way of assuring that the variety of cars in each class are approximately running the same speed. Mandated changes in the BoP, which could be applied to engine power, rpm limits, aerodynamics, weight, the amount of fuel the cars can carry, or other adjustments, are designed to maintain parity and create a level playing field.

IMSA has now added Rolex 24 qualifying to the Roar. Prior to that, when it was just practice, many teams declined to show their full hand during the test, for fear that going as fast as they possibly can might result in getting BoP performance limitations for the race itself. Adding qualifying to the Roar likely limits that; granted, where you start may not be that critical for a 24-hour race, but it’s a feather in the cap of the teams and the manufacturers that qualify up front.

So who did? In the top class, GTP, it’s an all-Cadillac front row. Driver Pipo Derani, in the Whelen Cadillac V-LMDh, turned a lap of 1 minute, 32.656 seconds (138.318 mph) on the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course, laying waste to the existing track record set in 2019 by a Mazda DPi. Second was Sebastien Bourdais in another Cadillac, this one from Chip Ganassi Racing, who was just 0.071 seconds behind Derani. In third was a Penske Porsche 963 driven by Felipe Nasr, with a lap of 1:32.816. Acura, looking for its fourth straight overall victory, qualified fifth and sixth.

“Obviously, the Cadillac was flying out there today,” Derani said after earning his 10th career pole position in IMSA competition. “It was just a privilege and a pleasure to drive such a car—really well balanced. There was great teamwork to improve what was needed for qualifying. The car felt on rails, and it was nice to enjoy and feel the full potential of GTP.”

In LMP2, Ben Keating was again the fast qualifier in his new ride, the United Autosports USA Oreca, with a lap of 1:38.501. In GTD Pro, Seb Priaulx put his AO Porsche 911 GT3 on the class pole with a time of 1:44.382. And in GTD, Parker Thompson won the class pole in his Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, with a lap of 1:44.494.

In other news:

—Cars and drivers from Friday’s four-hour Michelin Pilot Challenge race, called the BMW M Endurance Challenge, also participated in the Roar Before the 24. Twenty-seven cars from the GS class were on the entry list, plus 12 cars from the TCR class. Notable are the drivers of the Smooge Racing Toyota Supra: NASCAR’s Bubba Wallace, John Hunter Nemechek, and Corey Heim.

—LMP2-class cars are all powered by a V-8 from British manufacturer Gibson, and of the 11 entries, 10 use the Oreca chassis. The outlier is Sean Creech Motorsports, which is running a Ligier chassis. Said veteran driver Joao Barbosa, who has won the Rolex 24 outright: “It’s been super interesting, working with this car and this team to bring the Ligier back to life,” said Barbosa. “We knew it was going to be a big challenge and we took it head on, and it’s paying off. Looking at all the hard work the crew has put in behind the scenes, to catch up on all these years of non-development, it has been really rewarding to watch the car go. The week has been very successful, and the team is very motivated to continue that progress.”

—The GTD Pro battle between Chevrolet and Ford looks to favor the Corvette GT3 over the Mustang GT3, judging from qualifying. A red flag allowed for just eight minutes of green-flag running, though, so that may not be definitive. The fastest Corvette, from Pratt Miller Motorsports, was driven by Antonio Garcia, qualifying third in GTD Pro. The fastest Mustang was driven by Dirk Mueller and qualified ninth. 

—The Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 caught fire while traveling down pit lane on Saturday, with driver Romain Grosjean quickly exiting the car. It had to be a scary moment of déjà vu for Grosjean, who was injured in a fiery crash while driving in Formula 1 in 2020, but he emerged unscathed at Daytona. The team replaced the engine and continued practicing in the Roar.

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Daytona International Speedway is crackling with the sound of race cars this week—more than 40 of them, here for a sanctioned IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship test that will help set the field for the 2024 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona endurance race in January.

Besides a chance for drivers and teams to knock the rust off, it’s an opportunity for IMSA officials to get a look at some new entries that are just now breaking cover in a public setting. Those new cars include the Lamborghini SC63 Grand Touring Prototype car (GTP), the Ford Mustang GT3 and the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, as well as cars that have undergone some changes like the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo and the Porsche 963 GTP cars.

The Lamborghini, the only all-new entry in the GTP class, won’t debut at the Rolex 24 but will race in March’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. It’s running in this pre-season test to give IMSA a required look at the car. But IMSA had to look quick—the Lambo was the fastest GTP car through Thursday testing, the only day when every class was allowed onto the track.

The underlying purpose of the four-day test is to help set parameters for the 2024 “Balance of Performance” adjustments. The BoP is IMSA’s way of leveling the playing field in a roster of cars that are front- and rear-engine, normally aspirated and turbocharged. The idea is to slow down the faster cars in a class and speed up the slower ones by mandating adjustments like making the cars heavier or lighter, restricting engine air flow and fuel tank size, and tweaking aerodynamics.

This seems especially important in the GT Daytona and GTD Pro classes (those are the cars constructed from road-going counterparts—the more extreme, from-the-ground-up cars are Prototypes, like the GTP and Le Mans Prototype 2 racers). At least one car from each manufacturer in the GTD and GTD Pro classes (the Pro class can use all professional drivers, while the GTD class must have an amateur component) is required to participate in a special Saturday session, which is specifically intended to gather information for the BoP.

Missing this time around are the LMP3 cars, smaller Prototypes that use a common V-8 engine. That class, which will continue to compete in support races, has helped fill out the lineup for the last couple of years, while the new-for-2023 GTP cars, and the newly reconstituted LMP2 class, grew in numbers. Some of the LMP3 competitors, such as the dominant Riley/74 Ranch Resort team, are taking the opportunity to move up to LMP2.

With the exception of the Lamborghini GTP car, everyone will be back January 19–21 for the mandatory Roar Before the Rolex test, including a few cars that didn’t make it down for this event, such as a pair of Corvettes that will be fielded by a customer team from Canada. This is the first time Chevrolet has marketed the IMSA Corvette to customers, something Ford is also doing with its new Mustang GT3, setting up the classic Ford-vs.-Chevy battle—along with BMW, Lexus, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Mercedes AMG, Acura, McLaren, and Porsche.

The 2024 Rolex 24 is scheduled for January 27–28, with a start time of 1:35 p.m. For more information, click here.

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The website for Mitsuoka, the fanciful Japanese car builder, sums up the history of the modern world and leads off with a philosophy for the company and an explanation of their M55 concept car, loosely translated here:

“For our company, which was founded in 1968, the 1970s was an important era that laid the foundation for today’s business. At that time, there was a torrent of energy within us full of dreams and hopes.

“The Americanized Japanese identity influences the design of cars. Under the period of high economic growth, the performance of automobiles improved and GT-type cars appeared. The color television, air conditioner and car, which were called the new three sacred treasures, also became explosively popular. The times were hot and swirling like magma, and culture was at its dawn. We will once again revive the energy filled with dreams and hope, like hot magma that has survived the same era.”

There’s a lot of hot magma there, but we wouldn’t argue that cars, AC, and color TV aren’t critically important inventions.

Which leads us to the latest hot magma from Mitsuoka, a four-door, Honda Civic-based design that looks like a Dodge Challenger up front, maybe some Toyota Celica and last-generation Dodge Dart on the sides, and a rear that’s all Mitsuoka, cooked up to commemorate the company’s 55th anniversary. The M55 has an appealing look, sort of a flashback to the ‘70s with the louvers on the rear window, but modernized. We’d say it works.

The dashboard is mostly Honda, but the ring-holed seats are an interesting, and not that comfortable-looking, touch. We assume the car has a turbocharged 1.5-liter four-cylinder under the hood and it obviously has a manual transmission, but Mitsuoka isn’t providing much detail. It seems unlikely that the M55 will be produced for sale.

This isn’t the first time we’ve been entertained by a Mitsuoka replica car. There was the Buddy, sort of a Chevrolet Blazer crafted out of a Toyota RAV4. The Buddy followed the 2018 Rock Star, a Corvette lookalike based on the Mazda MX-5 Miata. And the company used a Miata to craft a Morgan-looking sports car called the Mitsuoka Roadster.

Long live Mitsuoka and its vivid imagination, which flows like hot magma. “Free ideas and playful minds produce our cars,” Mitsuoka says. Here’s to another 55 years.

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General Motors racing has announced a shakeup in its Corvette and Cadillac driver lineup for 2024. Most notable is the departure of Jordan Taylor, who is leaving the Corvette stable to rejoin his family-owned team (Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport) in an Acura prototype, as the team plans to field a second car for 2024. Taylor will pair with co-driver Louis Delétraz.

In more than ten years as a factory driver for Corvette Racing and General Motors, Taylor achieved 33 victories and four Drivers championships in both prototype and GT competition, including wins in 2020 and 2021 with Corvette Racing. He also was part of the team’s winning lineup for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2015 and is a three-time Rolex 24 winner in GM-powered entries. The vast majority of his sports car career has come in GM race cars. In the Corvette, he teamed with Antonio Garcia.

“I loved my time competing in GT with Corvette Racing alongside Antonio these past few years. We had a lot of success together. I’ve learned a lot and grown as a driver, so I’m looking forward to bringing that experience back to prototype racing,” Taylor said.

The 2024 Corvette lineup includes Alexander Sims, who returns as a Chevrolet Corvette factory driver, this time for a full season, along with returning veterans Antonio Garcia, Tommy Milner, and Nicky Catsburg. The quartet of drivers will contest the 10-round GTD Pro championship for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports in the debut year of the Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

Sims moves over from Cadillac; Jack Aitken, co-driver of the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R for this year’s four IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup races, will join Pipo Derani as a full-season driver for the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the car, replacing Sims.

“We’re very pleased with the full-season IMSA lineup in the Corvette Z06 GT3.R for 2024,” said Mark Stielow, Director, Chevrolet Motorsports Competition Engineering. “The four drivers have exceptional records and history with Corvette. At the same time, we thank Jordan Taylor for his years of service and success with General Motors,” Stielow added. He has been an important part of Corvette Racing and a great ambassador for Chevrolet. We wish him well.”

The current Corvette Racing program is in the midst of its 25th season with 126 race victories to date—114 in IMSA with the most recent coming at the Chevrolet Grand Prix in July at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Also for the second year in a row, Corvette Racing has programs in both IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship with the Corvette C8.R, now in its final season of competition.

As for WTRAndretti, Taylor and Delétraz will join teammates Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque, holdovers from this season. Additional drivers for the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup and the Rolex 24 At Daytona will be announced in the coming months.

The 2024 IMSA season begins with the Rolex 24 At Daytona on January 27–28.

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Callaway Cars has announced the passing of its founder and CEO, Ely Reeves Callaway III. He died on July 11, at his home in Newport Beach, California, from injuries sustained following a fall at home. Callaway was a car tuner and builder, founding businesses based on his love for speed.

Rather than follow in the footsteps of his father, who founded Callaway Golf and invented the Big Bertha club, and also founded Callaway Vineyards, Reeves Callaway became a legendary figure in the world of high-performance automobiles. Entirely self-taught, Reeves founded his company in 1977 from his garage in Old Lyme, Connecticut.

His first product success was an aftermarket turbo kit for a BMW, which automotive journalist and Hagerty contributor Don Sherman reviewed favorably in Car and Driver. “He hung a turbo kit on a borrowed 320i,” Sherman recalls. “I ended up testing it and was impressed. At the time he had no intention of building his company. Why should he? He was rich, and having the time of his life.”

The rest was history as Callaway, a Formula Vee champion driver and instructor for Bob Bondurant’s driving school prior to becoming a constructor, moved with his customary speed to open Callaway Cars’ first headquarters in Old Lyme, Connecticut.

Over the four decades since, Reeves and Callaway Cars have continued to earn accolades from media, the automotive industry, and the global motorsports world as a pioneer of “Powerfully Engineered Automobiles.” His performance and design innovations have delivered track and road-going successes for global marques, including BMW, Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Land Rover, Mazda, Volkswagen, and General Motors, “who looked to Callaway’s innovation, creativity, agility, and performance to help accomplish their goals,” said his obituary.

He is best known for his work with Corvette, a deep and high-level relationship with the American sports car manufacturer that began in 1987 and culminated with two industry firsts:

• The Callaway Twin Turbo Corvette “B2K” designation, a factory code to signify the GM stamp of approval to permit sale and distribution of the Callaway Corvette via the Chevrolet dealer network.

• The second was a world record: in 1989, Callaway Cars built a Twin Turbo Corvette, dubbed “The Sledgehammer” that blew away all the competition by setting a production-car top speed record of 254.76 mph. Not until 2010, 21 years later, did Bugatti break Callaway’s record by achieving a 267.85 mph in a Veyron Super Sport.

In 1994, Reeves launched a Germany-based racing unit, Callaway Competition, with partners Ernst Wöhr and Giovanni Ciccone. International recognition was achieved by their successes at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and later a European GT racing team which ultimately led to authorization by GM to construct and homologate C6- and C7-generation GT3 race cars for international competition. That same year, Motor Trend called the Callaway C8 “the world’s baddest Camaro” on its March cover.

A longtime helicopter pilot and Board Director for Kaman Corporation, Reeves was in recent years a founding adviser to a hydrogen-powered and composite-intensive, blended-wing aircraft start-up with funding from NASA and the Air Force.

“Thanks to Reeves’ visionary entrepreneurial spirit, Callaway Cars will continue to innovate and grow in the 21st century, inspired by his unique, extraordinary vision, and by his personal example of integrity, resourcefulness, and leadership as our founder,” says his son Peter Reeves Callaway, the company’s president. “Dad’s passion for making beautifully designed and crafted machines can be seen in each and every project, and we remain devoted to executing to the highest standards, in true Callaway fashion. He was rarely found doing anything other than working towards the next milestone for the company. He was a charismatic leader with a sense of humor that we will all remember through various ‘Reeves-isms.’ I feel fortunate to have grown up working with him and the company.”

“A true gentleman,” the obituary concluded, “he was the devoted father of four and grandfather of two.”

Reeves Callaway was 75. “He was a great guy,” Sherman says.

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It was a regular Saturday. I was tinkering with a sticky carburetor float on my Lotus Esprit when a neighbor pulled up in his mint 1959 Chevrolet Corvette.

We got to talking, bonding over the pitfalls of fiberglass bodywork, and other assorted highs and lows of the old car ownership. We exchanged numbers and agreed to head out on an early Sunday morning coffee run in our classics.

The weather was hot. When he went to restart the Vette it just wouldn’t play ball. We wondered if it was flooded or the high temperatures were causing a fuel evaporation problem. Talk, however, is cheap and it was clear that he couldn’t leave his car in the road, so my wife and I began to roll it gently to the curb.

As we pushed, ominous black smoke started spewing from under the hood. My neighbor hopped out and popped the engine cover. Flames leapt out from the edges and I shouted for him to close the hood, while I sprinted back to the Esprit to grab an extinguisher.

Specifically, I grabbed a recently-purchased Fire Safety Stick, which had been recommended by a fellow Esprit enthusiast. Lighter (just 7.6 ounces) and more compact than a regular powder extinguisher, the stick is not unlike a flare, but with the opposite effect.

I rapidly read the instructions, removed the safety cap and struck the top of the stick with the igniter. Inside, the triggered chain reaction caused the stick to emit a powerful spray of nitrogen and potassium free radicals, which starve any fire of oxygen.

Mr. Corvette (he prefers to keep his name out of it) opened the hood again and I pointed the stick at the air filter where the flames were spewing out. He then grabbed it off me to run around the other side of the car and finish the job. Within a minute the fire was out, and a near-$200,000 vehicle was saved.

Amazingly, there was only a small amount of blistering on the hood from the heat. Even more remarkably, when the owner had to move the car a day later it started on the button.

The people behind the Fire Safety Stick (sold as Element in the U.S.A.) told me that’s down to the fact that the product leaves almost no residue behind.

Andrew Robinson from Argento Global Solutions, the company that imports the stick in the U.K., explains that’s why many motorsport teams have now started carrying Fire Safety Sticks in addition to traditional plumbed-in extinguisher systems.

The technology, he explained, was actually invented in Soviet Russia during the space race, but it wasn’t until 20 years ago or so that an Italian company bought the rights and began manufacturing and selling the devices.

Having seen the stick in action, I immediately ordered another and highly recommend you do the same. Meanwhile, my neighbor, who has a collection of 11 classics, has probably become their biggest customer.

***

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Lego’s latest classic-car model is … the 1982 Plymouth Reliant station wagon!

Just kidding. The kit is a 1961 Chevrolet Corvette convertible wearing the obligatory red and white. (We still await the Reliant station wagon, although anything I build will look like a Plymouth K-Car anyway.) The arrival of the set coincides with the 70th birthday of America’s sports car, the first example of which emerged from a Michigan factory on June 30, 1953.

Lego’s Corvette comes with an opening hood and trunk, a detailed engine bay (with spinning radiator fan!), and working tie-rod steering. You can remove the roof for access to the detailed interior, which includes brake, clutch, and gas pedals, plus gear shifter, radio, and rearview mirror.

Specifically geared for adult builders, the Corvette measures over 4 inches high, 12.5 inches long, and 5.5 inches wide. It comes with digital building instructions. The 1210 parts, Lego says, “are manufactured from high-quality materials. They’re consistent, compatible, and connect and pull apart easily every time: it’s been that way since 1958.”

The kit will be available August 1 at a price of $149.95.

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Whenever being a crew chief starts to feel like work, Greg Ives thinks back to March 22, 2004. That day, he started working for Hendrick Motorsports, the stock-car racing team owned by mega car dealer Rick Hendrick and based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Working for Mr. Hendrick, as Rick is called by everyone who works for him, was Ives’ dream job.

Ives, 43, has been a winning NASCAR Cup crew chief for Hendrick drivers like Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Alex Bowman. Last year, he stepped down from the 39-week-a-year grind of being Bowman’s full-time crew chief to spend more time with his family. His son is climbing the ranks of karting, “my daughter is graduating next year, and the middle one is playing softball,” Ives said. “I can’t miss any more of that.”

Fortunately, the perfect job was waiting: Build and crew-chief the 24 Hours of Le Mans Garage 56 entry, a specially equipped NASCAR Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

A collaboration between NASCAR, Chevrolet, Goodyear, and Hendrick Motorsports, the Garage 56 Camaro was the brainchild of NASCAR chairman and CEO Jim France. France is also the chairman of IMSA, the NASCAR-owned sports-car racing series that sanctions the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. With IMSA’s top GTP Prototype class now legal for competition in this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, France wanted to take the connection one step further.

“I would have never come up with this idea if [NASCAR chairman] Jim France hadn’t tapped me on the shoulder,” said Rick Hendrick. “Once you get involved in something like that, it gets very exciting. To me, I want to showcase our very best. I want people to look at this car and say, ‘Wow, they did something remarkable here.'”

Garage 56 originated in 2012 as a one-car, exhibition-only class for vehicles that showcased unorthodox technology and didn’t fit in any of the classes established by the ACO, the race’s sanctioning body. Because each Le Mans entry has a garage, and there had long been 55 of them, the entry was dubbed Garage 56. The first was the oddball but successful DeltaWing, styled by Chip Ganassi Racing designer Ben Bowlby and built by Dan Gurney’s All American Racers company.

The DeltaWing was an ultra-lightweight, ultra-streamlined car that used a four-cylinder engine to run lap times comparable to those of V-8-powered, scratch-built prototypes. After the DeltaWing did its exhibition run at Le Mans in 2012, the American Le Mans Series accepted the car as a full-fledged competition entry. It probably helped that the founder of ALMS was also the DeltaWing’s owner: Dr. Donald Panoz, the wealthy inventor of the nicotine patch.

2023’s Garage 56 Camaro began life as a NASCAR stocker. To run a 24-hour endurance race, it gained functioning headlights and taillights, a larger fuel cell, carbon-ceramic brake discs, and specially designed Goodyear Eagle race tires. Drivers were seven-time NASCAR Cup champ Jimmie Johnson, former Formula 1 champion Jensen Button, and two-time Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller, who did the lion’s share of pre-race testing.

“From the beginning of this project, it was important to us that the car we bring to Le Mans is a true NASCAR stock car,” said France, the NASCAR chairman. “While there have been some adjustments to allow the car to compete in a 24-hour endurance race, fans in Le Mans would be treated to the full NASCAR experience.”

Boy, were they.

“We thought we were going to have a little bit of resistance to NASCAR, to our American style coming into Le Mans. We figured the reaction would be mixed—some would love it, some would hate it. But oh my gosh! Nothing further from the truth,” Ives said. “Everybody loved it. The fans loved it, and the crew members—we had crew members coming down from other teams asking for a quick tour. The reception was pretty awesome even before they knew how it sounded on track… how it performed.”

The rules for a Garage 56 exhibition car are relatively open. Ives had two goals: To keep the Camaro looking like a NASCAR stocker, and to run with the GT cars. (Each of those GT entries starts life as a real car, as opposed to the cars in the ground-up Prototype class, which Ferrari won.) There were plenty of GT Ferraris, Aston Martins, Porsches, and even Corvettes going for the GT win. Ives did not want his car to get in the way on the 8-mile track.

So was the Camaro more Cup car, or more GT3 car? “In terms of looks, it was more of a Cup car, but with all the aero bits that the GT cars allow to create some downforce. We kind of lack the ability to put downforce in a Cup car efficiently, so we added front dive planes and the rocker wedges and the rear canards, and you’re able to do that and get downforce in the car efficiently. When we were able to do that it just gave the car a lot of its overall speed. It allows you to have the straight-line speed, but also the cornering speed that you needed to compete.

“We worked on a scale that was respectable and also put ourselves in a situation with the other cars so they knew that we’d be predictable and they’d be able to get around us. Looks-wise, it was definitely a Cup car, but from an aero-efficiency standpoint, we were more along the lines of a GT car. Obviously, a big wing versus a spoiler on the rear is probably the next step we probably could have taken, but we didn’t want to take away from the look of the Cup car in itself.

“The driveshaft, transaxle, the suspension, most everything was Cup-based. The motor was more along the lines of the 5.5-liter IMSA motor due to the fact that they had experience with being able to go 24 hours. It’s still a Cup-based block and heads, I believe, just a little bit different build to have some more endurance in it. Instead of being built to run 400 to 600 miles two or three times, this engine was meant to run 3000 miles one time.”

The ACO, the sanctioning body for Le Mans, was afraid the 3000-pound Camaro would be very slow in the track’s Porsche curves, slow enough to stack up traffic behind it. So they planned to wave a white flag at the entrance of the curves, the signal for “slow car ahead.”

“That flag disappeared after a couple of laps,” Ives said, laughing. “They knew they didn’t need it.”

The usual small problems, such as brakes and sensors, were factors, but it wasn’t until about four hours were left in the race that the lone major problem reared its head—a transmission failure. True, the Garage 56 racer wasn’t technically racing, but tell that to Ives, Button, Johnson, and Rockenfeller. The team took their time making sure the car was perfect before sending it back out. They lost more than an hour, dropping the Camaro overall from about 28th to 39th, where it finished out of 62 cars.

It annoyed Ives that some of the media reported that the Camaro “limped around” for the final few hours. That wasn’t true: “We put Rocky in the car, and he went out and turned the fastest lap we’d done all race.”

And how fast was that? The winning Corvette was the fastest GT car, notching a best lap of 3 minutes, 50.439 seconds. The Camaro’s fastest lap was an incredible 3:50.512, faster than every other GT car, including those Ferraris, Porsches, and Aston Martins. In the end, the Garage 56 Camaro covered 285 laps, beating 12 of the GT cars.

As for Ives: “He was amazing,” said John Doonan, president of IMSA, former head of Mazda Racing and the project chief for Garage 56. “I told him after the race that his work on the radio was tremendous… Methodical, just like an endurance racing veteran!”

So what’s next? The Garage 56 car (there are two race cars and a show car) went to Brands Hatch in England for a major car show and will go to Goodwood to run the July hill climb. Afterwards, it’s likely Hendrick and France will each get one of the race cars, and the show car will go on tour in the United States.

As for Ives, he’ll be crew-chiefing some Xfinity races this year. Last weekend, however, he was in Indiana, where his son was competing in the U.S. Pro Kart Series at New Castle Motorsports Park.

Would Ives like to go back to Le Mans? “I’d love to, especially if we could do it with all the same people. But like always, I’ll work wherever Mr. Hendrick needs me. If he puts me to sweeping floors, I’ll be the best floor sweeper out there!”

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In a presentation at Le Mans the day before the 24 Hours of Le Mans takes the green flag, Ford has formally unveiled the Ford Mustang GT3, which is expected to race globally with customer teams in as many as 100 series that feature production-based GT cars, such as IMSA, the WEC and the SRO.

Based on the 2024 Mustang Dark Horse, the Mustang race car has a new look from Troy Lee, who is recognized as one of the premier motorsports designers in the world. The legendary Mustang GT3 represents Lee’s first foray with Ford race cars.

With the reveal, Ford officially enters Mustang into the global FIA GT3 category. Chevrolet has unveiled a Corvette GT3 car based on the Z06 that will debut in the U.S. against the Mustang GT3 car at the 2024 IMSA Rolex 24 at Daytona in January.

“Ford and Le Mans are bound together by history. And now we’re coming back to the most dramatic, most rewarding and most important race in the world. It is not Ford versus Ferrari anymore. It is Ford versus everyone. Going back to Le Mans is the beginning of building a global motorsports business with Mustang, just like we are doing with Bronco and Raptor off-road,” said Jim Farley, Ford CEO.

To coincide with the unveiling, Ford also is revealing new, global Ford Performance branding – a cleaner, simplified look that will now be featured on all its racing vehicles. This “expressive and engaging” new identity will help position Ford Performance as a lifestyle brand with a sporting mindset. The new Ford Performance mark is easier to integrate across various environments and spaces, including car liveries, merchandise, apparel, display assets, parts, accessories and in advertising.

Ford Performance extended its relationship with two longtime partners in Multimatic and M-Sport for the basis of this project. Multimatic, builders of the Ford GT, were also involved in the Ford GT race program and will help build and support the Mustang GT3s, while longtime World Rally Championship partner and two-time championship winning team M-Sport will assemble the Ford Performance-developed 5.4-liter Coyote-based V-8 engines that power the GT3 car.

“For a project like the Mustang GT3, we turned to two of our most trusted partners in the motorsports world to help bring this vehicle and program together,” said Mark Rushbrook, Global Director, Ford Performance Motorsports. “I know we’ll all be as thrilled as Ford fans when Mustang begins racing at the highest levels of GT racing in 2024.”

Before going to Le Mans in 2024, the Mustang GT3 will compete in various GT3 series across the globe in the hands of customer teams. The first customer team, announced today, is Proton Competition. Based in Ehingen, Germany, Proton intends to campaign a pair of Mustang GT3s in the FIA World Endurance Championship, starting in 2024.

Multimatic will also field a two-car race program with Mustang GT3 in IMSA’s GTD class. This will be managed by Multimatic Motorsports and begin at the 2024 Rolex 24 at Daytona. 

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Calm down, Corvette motorsports fans. The end of Corvette Racing, capital “R,” doesn’t mean the end of Corvette racing, lower-case “r.”

Earlier this week, GM’s motorsport competition engineering director Mark Stielow told Sportscar365 that the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, when it takes to the track at the 2024 IMSA Rolex 24 at Daytona and beyond, would not be compete as part of a fully General Motors–funded racing team. That’s the arrangement that GM uses now, and has for more than 25 years. Given the expected demise of the IMSA GTD Pro class, however, the disappearance of GM’s factory-backed effort is no surprise. 

As it is, Chevrolet doesn’t supply GTD cars to IMSA privateer teams the way, say, Porsche, BMW, Acura, Lexus, and Mercedes-AMG do. That will change when the new Z06 GT3.R debuts, and Chevrolet makes the model available to teams. And since those teams are customers, expect advertising from sponsors on the sides of the cars. (Currently, Corvette Racing is owned by Chevrolet, so the only stickers are manufacturer-related.)

Porsche, BMW, Acura, Lexus, and Mercedes currently have private teams that field GTD-class cars, but each typically gets engineering help from its respective company, and often a factory driver or two to participate in the Grand Touring Daytona class. (Unlike the IMSA GTD Pro class, Grand Touring Daytona is based on entries from customer teams.) Expect some of the current Corvette factory drivers to stay with the brand, with Chevrolet likely signing some of their paychecks.

Since IMSA is going to a single GTD class, which will feature the privateers, the only fully Pro class in IMSA will be the GTP class for the prototype, from-scratch race cars. BMW, for example, races in the GTD class with Turner Motorsports, Mercedes with Winward, Acura with Gradient, and Lexus with Vasser Sullivan.

Stielow said that, typically, the Z06 GT3.R will be available just to teams. “We’re trying hard not to sell just to collectors. Everybody that buys a car, we want to make sure they’re racing them.” One team may be assigned to Pratt & Miller, an engineering firm that has long been a partner to Corvette.

Stielow told Sportscar365 that GM had already identified other partner teams. Don’t be surprised if some move from other makes to the new Corvette Z06 GT3.R, which has been in development for over two years.

Corvette racing will still be represented in IMSA and the World Endurance Championship, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and even the SRO series, just not by Corvette Racing after 2023.

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In the automotive equivalent of introducing a new member to the rest of the family, our spy photographers caught the new Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 traveling with a Corvette Z06, a Corvette E-Ray, and a Porsche 911 in what was most likely a benchmarking session for the ZR1 in Detroit.

The ZR1 is heavily camouflaged with thick plastic, and even the wheels are covered with camouflage discs. But there’s no hiding the massive rubber those wheels are carrying. As for the engine, we’re expecting a twin-turbo version of the Z06’s 5.5-liter DOHC V-8, something in the vicinity of 875 horsepower, with the long-rumored Zora model – if indeed it happens – nearing 1000 horses.

That model would be fittingly named in honor of Corvette chief engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov, credited with making the pleasant roadster into a genuine sports car in the late 1950s and into the 1960s. The Zora would likely be a hybrid with all-wheel-drive.

Consequently, we have to be careful using the term “ultimate Corvette,” until we know for sure what the final version of the C8’s absolute king of the hill will be.

Regardless of the camo, we can still see that it’s hiding a substantial splitter at the bottom of the front fascia. Out back, we can see the same wing as used on the Z06, but that would be easy to change for the ZR1’s production version if Chevrolet is so inclined.

Look for the Corvette ZR1 as a 2025 model. As for the Zora – your guess is as good as ours.

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Chevrolet fought the good fight with its C4 Corvette for a dozen years before giving America’s sports car an overhaul. It was as complete as remakes get, and really the only thing that carried over to the new-for-’97 Corvette C5 was the badge.

The aluminum-block 346-cubic-inch LS1 V-8 was new. Putting its 350 ponies to the back wheels via rear transaxle was new. The hydro-formed space frame, the suspension, the interior, the exterior—all of it clean-sheet new. All the meaningful dimensions increased, too—the wheelbase by 10 inches, the width by 3 inches, the track by 4.4 and 2.9 inches front and rear—which led not only to a more sure-footed Corvette, but also to actual space for real human-sized feet in the footwells. The result was the most revolutionary sports car Chevy had ever built.

By the time production gave way to that of the C6 for 2004, the Bowling Green, Kentucky, plant had churned out nearly a quarter-million C5s. Including this 2003 coupe, our Sale of the Week, which rolled off the line October 14, 2002. Radiant in Millennium Yellow, it sold May 10 on Bring a Trailer, after 23 bids, for $30,500.

This Corvette was outfitted with a black leather interior, polished five-spoke wheels (17-inch front, 18-inch rear), a four-speed automatic transmission, a limited-slip differential, Magnetic Select Ride Control active damping, removable glass and body-color roof panels, and a Bose sound system.

None of that exactly makes it a unicorn, but there are several interesting tidbits to consider about this Corvette. For starters, the mileage. The odometer shows just 812 miles, with the dealer-seller adding 20 of those and stating that the original owner only drove the car regularly to cars and coffee on the weekends (a 10-mile round trip) and to a few other car shows. It never knew a raindrop and spent the majority of its days in a climate-controlled garage in Texas. “He was all show and no drive,” the seller said in the BaT comments.

There’s also that color. Millennium Yellow found its way onto 3900 Corvettes in 2003, including 1041 coupes just like this one. It’s not the rarest color (that would be Speedway White), but it does bring a small premium in the market—a premium that will likely exist no matter how many miles get put on this car.

Which brings us to the Corvette’s custom engine control unit (ECU) tune and an aftermarket exhaust that includes tubular headers, high-flow catalytic converters, a crossover pipe, and a cat-back system. A cold-start video provided to curious parties confirmed the car’s meaty resonance, while a recent dyno printout confirmed output at the wheels at 324 hp and torque at 355 lb-ft. The car was made to sound better and go better than stock, but who are we to judge an owner for upgrading the performance of a car when they had little intention of driving it?

Hagerty quote data tells us that C5 owners skew boomer, and the majority drive their cars an average of 1823 miles per year, which, 20-ish years on, theoretically makes many of them 36,000-mile cars. In that respect, sure, there is something special about this example. But special enough to keep it that way?

This is no precious Corvette; it is no double-digit, plastic-on-the-seats “wrapper car.” Certainly it would have benefited from such treatment, as the large, unfortunate stain on the passenger seat front bolster attests. As it sits, then, this Corvette presents the buyer with a serious question: Drive it or park it?

The $30,500 price paid puts this C5 smack-dab in the middle of the range occupied by condition #1 (Concours) and condition #2 (Excellent) examples, which happens to be about the same realm as a #2 50th Anniversary edition or a #3 (Good) Z06 of the same vintage. But it is neither of those cars. It’s regular coupe with an automatic, which generally accounts for a 10 percent hit in the market.

Even adding ten times the current mileage, with proper care the new owner could still keep this car in excellent condition. As clean C5s have seen some upward movement in the market in the last couple years, it’s reasonable to think the owner might even recoup the investment a few thousand glorious miles down the road.

Cold-start idle videos are great and everything, but there’s a song to be heard from that LS1 and its sporty pipes. A careful strategy to drive and enjoy this Corvette could wring out every delightful note.

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If you’re a regular reader, you’ve probably noted that we frequently reference demographic data—in particular, age. That’s due to both supply and demand. We have a surfeit of information on enthusiasts’ ages courtesy of Hagerty’s insurance call centers (“how old are you” is one of the standard questions an agent will ask in order to give you a quote on insurance). And we know, from comments on Hagerty media articles and chatter at practically every car event, that many enthusiasts worry whether the next generations will keep our hobby going.

Generally, the story is an encouraging one. Our data show younger enthusiasts are increasingly interested in collector vehicles and in particular tend to appreciate the very same vehicles their parents and grandparents loved.

Of course, this interest is fortunate for the hobby—if every enthusiast sought out solely the new cars of their youth, tens of thousands of Ford Model Ts and Model As (along with countless other models) wouldn’t still be on the road.

This phenomenon doesn’t extend to every classic car, however. Based on our policy quote data, some vehicles face flagging interest among younger collectors—and we’re not just talking about fringe models, either.

Before diving in, we should remind you that age is just one of several factors that enable us to accurately track collector marque and model trajectories. Breaking down enthusiasts by generation admittedly lumps together a broad swath of automotive interests—a Gen-Xer born in California in 1965 may well have different collector influences and priorities than one born in Idaho in 1979, for example. That said, parsing interest in vehicles by collector age group has proven to be an effective indicator of the potential future health of that vehicle’s valuation.

1961–74 Jaguar E-Type (series I, II and III)

For all three series of E-Types, a full 80 percent of quotes are from enthusiasts born before 1965.

Cost likely has something to do with that—older enthusiasts still tend to dominate interest in more expensive vehicles, and the series I (1961–7) E-Type, the most popular model, is reliably a six-figure car, per both the Hagerty Price Guide and the values callers assign to their cars when they call us ($148K, on average). Yet the series II (1968–71) and the V-12-powered series III (1971–4) tend to be more attainable and still get relatively little interest from younger collectors.

1948–65 Porsche 356

Porsche as a whole is one of the healthiest brands in terms of its appeal to enthusiasts of all ages, thanks largely to the longevity and timeless appeal of the 911. Yet that doesn’t seem to extend to the car that started it all, the 356.

Nearly 70 percent of the people calling us about insurance on one are born in 1965 or earlier. As with the E-Type, cost might be a factor. The earliest 356s (those built between 1949 and 1955, or “pre-A” in Porsche-speak) can hit seven figures, and even the later models (1963–5 356C) tend to be worth more than $100K. Yet no one would call the 964-era 911 Turbo an affordable car these days, and Gen-X and younger generations reliably make up close to fifty percent of interest in them.

1946–55 MG T-series

The MG aids in demonstrating that interest (or lack thereof) in a car is not simply a function of price. The MG series helped popularize the sports car in the United States after World War II and has always been an affordable gateway to the joys of open-air backroads driving. The 1950–3 TD, the most popular of the T-series MGs, can be had in good condition for around $20K. And yet 88 percent of quotes for these MGs are from enthusiasts born before 1965.

There are a number of factors here, including the fact that MG hasn’t sold a car in the United States since 1980. Yet the most salient reason for the MG’s lack of popularity among younger enthusiasts is probably the Mazda Miata, which is even less expensive (for now), considerably newer, and has the 1990s vibes that Millennials in particular seem to dig.

1963–7 Chevrolet Corvette

You might expect Corvettes to dominate this list but, for the most part, you’d be wrong. Late third-generation (or C3, 1974–1982) and fourth-gen cars (C4, 1984–1996) tend to be quite popular among younger collectors.

Yet for the 1963–7 C2, interest is indeed graying: Some 74 percent of people calling us about them were alive when the car came out. These cars aren’t MG-cheap, but, leaving aside early split-window cars and ultra-rare variants, neither are they E-Type expensive. People calling us for a quote on a C2 state an average value of $83K, about sixty grand less than for early E-Types.

The outlook isn’t the same for all American cars of this era. The 1961–9 Lincoln Continental (29 percent of quotes come from those born prior to 1965), 1960s Chevrolet Impalas (36 percent), the 1965–8 Ford Mustang (41 percent), and 1949–67 Volkswagen Beetle (36 percent) all have a majority of quotes from Gen-X and younger enthusiasts.

What’s to come?

What are the potential implications for those vehicles that don’t have much youth appeal? In the short term, we don’t see much risk. People from the baby boomer or earlier generations still control nearly 65 percent of the wealth in the United States and are extremely active in the collector car market.

If these trends continue over the long term, however, affected vehicles may see diminishing demand and values that don’t keep up with inflation or decline.

That won’t shake any of those cars from the firmaments of classic-car legend, and it won’t make them any less fun on your favorite road. Just the same, it never hurts to head out to local events, let the kiddos sit in the car, and take them for a spin.

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Lamborghini sends off its V-12 in style

Intake: Series production of Lamborghini’s normally aspirated V-12 ended when the last Aventador rolled off the line, but the Raging Bull isn’t quite done with its marvelous motor. There’s a final Sant’Agata send-off in the form of two unique cars called Invencible and Auténtica. Think of them as the Aventador’s greatest hits double album as the duo present a variety of design features from previous special editions. The huge rear wing is inspired by the Sesto Elemento while the Reventon and Veneno influence aggressive angles, and the ground-snorting stance and hood are a reference to the Essenza SCV12. Invencible is a coupe and Auténtica is a roadster, but aside from that the two cars are essentially the same, using the carbon tub and running gear from the Aventador. There’s all-wheel drive and all-wheel steering, with a seven-speed transmission, but the undisputed star is the naturally-aspirated 6.5-liter V-12 engine, installed for the very last time without the aid of forced induction or hybrid assistance. In final specification, it produces 780 horsepower to go out with quite a bang.

Exhaust: In truth, it’s not the end of this engine, more of a new beginning as it will reappear very soon with added electrification. In the same announcement, the company confirmed there are “just a few weeks to go before Lamborghini’s first hybrid super sports car makes its debut.” We don’t yet know whether it will use a Sián-style supercapacitor or a more conventional battery pack, but we do expect the car to feature a near-silent fully-electric mode as well as the ability to use the extra power for even more explosive performance. — Nik Berg

Consumer Reports reveals its list of the 10 most satisfying vehicles

Intake: According to Consumer Reports, the Chevrolet Corvette C8 is the most satisfying vehicle to own, based on a study of reader responses asking whether they would buy or lease the cars again. The Corvette is followed by, in order, the Porsche 911, Rivian R1T, Ford Maverick Hybrid, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Polestar 2, Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ twins, Toyota RAV 4 Prime, Mazda Miata, and the Dodge Challenger.

Exhaust: Half the vehicles are enthusiast models, the rest are good hard-working vehicles. Hard to argue with anything on the list, but the relatively new Polestar 2 is a surprise. — Steven Cole Smith

Ferrari left hanging in an elevator shaft

Intake: A Ferrari Roma, the $243,000 2+2 mid-engine coupe, was stuck in an elevator last week when there was a problem at Ferrari of Palm Beach in West Palm Beach, Florida. According to the Palm Beach County Fire Rescue’s account: “A car elevator malfunction caused a car to hang in the elevator shaft. Crews had to first mitigate a fuel leak. This involved setting up portable standpipes and cutting the power to the business. Once the leak was mitigated, Special Operations worked with Kauff’s Towing and their new rotator wrecker to remove the car from the elevator.  Kauff’s 45-foot boom and multiple 50,000 pound winches were the right tool for the job.”

Exhaust: Hats off to Kauff’s Transportation Systems, who are clearly the people to call when your Italian exotic gets stuck in an elevator. The good news: There were no injuries, except for the silver Roma. The bad news: That’s unlikely to buff right out. This will be a good test of how comprehensive the dealership’s insurance coverage is. — SCS

Rivian lays off 6 percent of workforce amid tightening EV landscape

Intake: Rivian announced last week that it will lay off six percent of its workforce to curb costs, according to Reuters. Rivian has already had to grapple with falling cash reserves, a weakening economy, and supply chain difficulty, all of which have led to the need to trim down costs. CEO R.J. Scaringe notified Rivian employees via email. In the note, he said that the company would be focusing its resources on ramping up production of the R1T and R1S vehicles, and on reaching profitability.

Exhaust: Rivian has been hurting for a while now. The stock is down 90 percent from its peak in November of 2021, and the company has been hemorrhaging cash as it attempts to navigate the complicated path from start-up to full-fledged automaker. Let’s hope Rivian can forge ahead quickly; its products are some of the more impressive ones to come from the new wave of automakers hoping to get in on the EV action. — Nathan Petroelje

“Do not drive” directive for some older Honda and Acura models

Intake: Tens of millions of vehicles with Takata airbags are under recall, says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Long-term exposure to high heat and humidity can cause these airbags to explode when deployed. Such explosions have caused injuries and deaths. With that in mind, NHTSA has issued a “Do not drive” directive to owners of certain older model Honda and Acura models that haven’t been returned to the dealer for the recall.  “If you have a vehicle with a recalled Takata Alpha airbag, you must get it repaired now—for free. These inflators are two decades old now, and they pose a 50 percent chance of rupturing in even a minor crash. Don’t gamble with your life or the life of someone you love—schedule your free repair today before it’s too late,” said NHTSA Acting Administrator Ann Carlson. The vehicles in the “do not drive” directive are the  2001–2002 Honda Civic and Accord; the 2002 Honda CR-V and Odyssey; the 2003 Honda Pilot and Acura 3.2 CL, and the 2002–2003 Acura 3.2 TL.

Exhaust: A 50 percent chance of rupturing? We won’t take those odds. Acura/Honda Customer Service can be reached at 888-234-2138 or by visiting their Takata website. —SCS 

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Mike and Dianne Morey have had fun collecting cars over the years. Now, as they get older, they’ve decided to give the collection away in an auction benefitting Northwood University, a private college in Midland, Michigan. The collection is valued at $2 million, and will be sold at the Mecum Auction in Kissimmee, Florida—just south of Orlando—in early January, with all proceeds going to the college.

The Moreys are sending 34 cars and trucks to auction. The Morey Collection is diverse, including plenty of 1955–57 Chevrolets, some vintage Corvettes, a 1966 Pontiac GTO, a 1955 Chevrolet Cameo pickup, a rare 1981 Teledyne Continental Cheetah—the company’s answer to a Hummer—a 1969 Plymouth GTX Hemi, and some 1932 Ford street rods.

There are a few cars, like a 1958 Corvette, that the Moreys are holding back for personal reasons, but the donation represents the lion’s share of the vehicles they’ve collected.

Mr. Morey said in a video for the college that a candy apple red 1957 Chevrolet “kind of got me going” on the collection. “And obviously I’ve overdone it, like I do everything. I collected 40-something cars, and I had a ball doing it.

“I’ve had a great time finding the cars and meeting the people. I always thought if I made some money, and I’ve been lucky enough to make a little—I wasn’t interested in investing; it seemed like a crap shoot to me. Why not have more fun collecting cars?

“At our age, my wife and I have what we want. Doing this for the college, for them to get a couple of bucks to help run the place, is great. It tops off all the fun I’ve had.”

The Moreys started Bandit Industries with a single model wood chipper, and the business expanded into a variety of forestry industry products. There are over 600 employees, and they’ve marketed equipment in more than 50 countries.

Though the Moreys live less than a half-hour from the university, they have no direct connection to it. Mike Morey’s cousin was honored by Northwood for his business leadership several years ago, and he recommended Northwood as a potential recipient of Mike and Dianne’s collection, said Justin Marshall, chief development and engagement officer at Northwood.

It’s a small private school with about 3000 students, Marshall said, and early on after the university was founded in 1959, they began offering degree programs in automotive-marketing areas. “That was one of the things that impressed the Moreys,” he said.

“I worked hard, treated my employees right, and we built a beautiful business,” Morey said. Now he and his wife are making a beautiful gesture to give something back to their community.

You can see the cars in the collection that are going to the Mecum auction here.

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When Chevrolet unveiled the 2023 Corvette Z06 at the Petersen Automotive Museum, several development engineers were on hand to answer our feverish questions. Corvette chief engineer Tadge Juechter fielded them with grace, but the man of the hour was Chevrolet small-block assistant chief engineer Dustin Gartner. A group of current Corvette owners was in attendance, and the nuts and bolts of the recently revealed LT6 and its astonishing 670-hp output—making it the most powerful production naturally aspirated V-8 ever—was all they wanted to talk about. The DOHC engine did indeed steal the show, and Gartner was a real sport about diving into its nitty-gritty details. Naturally, we pestered Gartner with our own questions to learn about some of the LT6’s details that weren’t in Chevrolet’s press release. Let’s take a look!

The LT6 is nicknamed “Gemini”

If you watched Chevrolet’s launch video for the Z06, you likely caught a glimpse of a rocket that was very conspicuously placed on the engine’s front cover. In order to keep information from slipping by using any sort of identifiable nomenclature that might tip anyone off, engineers nicknamed the LT6 “Gemini.” It’s a nod to the Corvette’s link to NASA astronauts and a highlight that this Corvette team’s “moonshot”—a lofty goal to build a naturally aspirated V-8 that would surpass the LT4. In addition, Gemini is represented by the Roman numeral II to represent the constellation’s famous twins, and the LT6 has twin intake plenums and twin throttle bodies. The rocket cast into the engine’s front cover—which also has a Roman numeral II—is one among dozens of easter eggs found in the engine bay. Gartner didn’t tell us how many exactly but gave us a hint: “There are actually more inside the engine than outside.” The Gemini rocket is used on each piston and just about anywhere inside the engine where a part would need to be marked for proper installation orientation.

Five camshafts

Yeah, there are two camshafts mounted above each cylinder head, each activating two valves per cylinder as you’d expect on a 32-valve V-8—but there’s also a camshaft mounted in the valley. This isn’t some kind of vestigial leftover from the small-block’s evolution to an overhead-cam valvetrain, either. Instead, this short, two-lobe cam drives a pair of high-pressure fuel pumps that each supply fuel for one bank’s direct injection system. Nestling the pumps in the valley between the cylinder heads and below the sizable intake manifold helped to muffle the noise inherent in those high-pressure pumps.

It has virtually nothing in common with Cadillac’s Blackwing V-8

Some early rumors indicated that the LT6 would be based on Cadillac’s twin-turbo V-8, which also happens to use DOHC architecture. That’s not the case. The block, heads, cams, and intake are all unique to the LT6, although there are some ancillary parts shared with other engines, like the twin 87-mm throttle bodies, which actually are found on the Blackwing V-8.

The pistons are made by CP Carrillo

CP Carrillo is known in the aftermarket for making tough, reliable pistons for racing applications and the LT6 demanded lightweight, low-profile pistons that would survive at high engine speeds. CP Carrillo is one of the most esteemed aftermarket manufacturers and seems like a good partner for supplying a tough forging for the LT6.

Diamond-like carbon coatings are used on multiple engine surfaces

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating gives metal a tough, thin, low-friction surface to reduce heat and wear. You will find it on many of the wear surfaces inside the LT6 including the mechanical finger followers, which transmit lift from the camshaft to the valve, and the piston rings.

It’s not designed for short service intervals with lots of maintenance

Gartner was adamant that the LT6 is not like a typical exotic car engine “that you have to take apart every 10,000 miles” for valvetrain adjustment or some kind of rebuild. “At the end of the day, this is a Chevy. Our expectations are that of any other Corvette we’ve sold.” Thank the DLC coating for part of that durability. “It’s long-term bulletproof,” Gartner said. “Even though we have a true mechanical valvetrain that’s lashed at the plant, the surface treatments, the DLC coating, and all our validation … it’s lashed for life.”

The LT6’s front damper is aluminum

A flat-plane crank removes a lot of mass, somewhere in the range of 30 to 40 percent compared to a cross-plane unit. According to Gartner, the aluminum, viscous-filled front damper on the LT6, is also “drastically lighter” than an iron elastomer damper like the one found on the LT2. The rear flywheel-side damper is similar to the one on the LT2 but is also lighter.

It runs a 70° Celsius (158° F) thermostat and has an abundance of coolers

While the engine is designed to run around “mid-90s to 100° C” (as you’d expect), the thermostat is actually a bit cooler than most. “It’s hard to get this engine hot, hot.” Gartner said, noting that the two radiators on the side pods are dedicated to the engine and the transmission oils.

“The bulk of the hot coolant comes out of the engine, goes forward, gets cooled by three radiators, and comes back to the water pump. Most of that then goes to cool the engine. The water pump pulls off fresh coolant to the two side radiators, which then step it down even colder.” The driver-side heat exchanger is dedicated to the oil cooler, which circulates the coolant to the biggest engine oil cooler Chevrolet has ever installed. It keeps the 5W-50 oil—specifically selected because it provides ample lubrication and allowed engineers to optimize bearing widths—very cool. The passenger-side heat exchanger does the same but cools the transmission. “This is rock solid from a thermal perspective,” Gartner promised.

The intake and exhaust tuning virtually supercharge the engine

The plenum and large, tapered velocity stacks definitely work as intended and, as Gartner pointed out, are unique to each valve. At the engine’s 6300-rpm torque peak, volumetric efficiency is at 110 percent, and at the horsepower peak 2100 rpm later, it’s still 106 percent. What does more than 100 percent mean? Answer: Each cylinder is being crammed full of air so efficiently that it’s moving more air than the cylinder displaces. That’s possible by tuning the intake and exhaust tract so that the incoming air has enough momentum to cram air into the engine as the valves are closing.

The plenum is tuned for peak volumetric efficiency, most of the time

The twin plenums atop the LT6 work in unison by breathing through 87-mm throttle bodies. There’s also another set of valves that open up between the two plenums to allow them to truly work as one. Three equally-sized butterfly valves link the two sides of the plenum. Two of the three are linked together and the rear valve operates independently. Gartner explains: “At different speeds you want a different amount of communication between the two plenums to maximize the tuning at that speed. Otherwise, it would only want to tune at one engine frequency, one rpm. With the communicator valves, we can open up that tuning window where we get volumetric efficiency greater than one. Throughout the rpm band, those valves will change half a dozen times.”

That tuning will also vary depending on which drive mode has been selected. “We found at full load, if you’re tuning for max torque, you get a lot of good induction noise,” he said. That’s great for all-out performance, but it might be distracting if you’re cruising, so the communicator valves operate under a different schedule in Tour mode to keep things a bit more subdued.

Each engine will have a 20-minute dyno break-in cycle

While the car will likely have a suggested 500-mile break-in period before it should be subjected to any all-out track shenanigans, the engine will already have a 20-minute dyno break-in where it’s warmed up and put through its paces and finally run at 7600-rpm for a WOT pull.

It uses a cartridge-style oil filter

Being the largest flat-plane V-8 in production means that there will be inevitable vibrations. Having a light rotating and reciprocating assembly will reduce the severity of these vibrations, but at some point, as Gartner put it, “you have to tolerate it.” A low-torque, spin-on oil filter canister is in danger of vibrating itself loose on an engine like this, so Chevrolet opted for a cartridge-style oil filter for the LT6.

The dry sump lets the crankshaft spin in a near-vacuum

The LT6’s bottom end is divided into four bays, one for each throw of the crankshaft, with each one isolated from the others. A pump pulls oil and air from each bay to evacuate oil. Not only does the crankshaft not have to whip through oil, which saps power, but at nearly 80 kPa of vacuum, it meets very little air resistance. A side benefit is that the arrangement keeps the rings at the bottom of their grooves as the pistons approach BDC for better sealing.

Two additional pumps pull oil from the front cover and the cylinder heads, but those are low-vacuum. The entire system is designed to put oil back into the tank so that it can be ready to be pumped out to where it’s needed. It’s not sitting around where it’s getting in the way or not doing any good. As Gartner explains, “At max engine speed, there’s more oil in the tank than at any other time.”

The post 13 details to know about the Z06’s 670-hp LT6 V-8 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

The veiled trickle of Z06 teasers continues. Chevrolet just published a preview for an upcoming 30-minute feature film set to accompany the debut of the 2023 Corvette Z06 next Tuesday, October 26, at 12 p.m. ET. The shadowy 30-second clip features flat-plane V-8 noises aplenty (just like the teaser released earlier this year confirming that engine design), and made note that NBA superstar Devin Booker—an avid car enthusiast himself—will play a part in the much-awaited C8 Z06’s grand entrance.

What most caught our eye, however, was the measurement of time Chevy used to denote how far ahead of the reveal this clip arrived: 8600 minutes. A rather specific number, no doubt. Did Chevy just reveal the flat-plane V-8’s redline? It’s a distinct possibility; flat-plane V-8s tend to be higher-revving than their cross-plane counterparts, such as the marvelous 6.2-liter LT2 found in existing C8s (redlining at 6600 rpm). What’s more, if it does indeed sport an 8600-rpm redline, that will make it the highest-revving American performance car ever, besting Ford’s 5.2-liter Voodoo V-8 and its 8250-rpm limiter. And that’s just one of a handful of records this screamer might topple.

Of course, the reveal of the actual car is somewhat moot, considering we saw a camo-free Z06 (above) late last month. We know that the Z06 will boast wider hips than the standard C8, likely in an effort to swallow more tire front and rear. The tires, of course, will bear the brunt of the fury from a heavily motorsport-derived engine that’s likely to push north of 600 horsepower from 5.5 liters of displacement. Expect sticky rubber to be standard, with even grippier track tires offered as an option. There’s also a host of aero changes as well to help keep the whole business stable at eye-watering speeds, which we know are being achieved in camo’ed test mules that have been spied at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, the de facto proving ground for performance cars the world over. Carbon-ceramic brakes are also a likely to be an upgrade over the current iron rotors, in order to stand up to the abuse and extreme temperatures generated by repeatedly shedding massive pace on track.

Thankfully, we don’t have long to wait to see if our speculations are correct—roughly 8420 minutes, if our math is correct at the time of this writing. We’ll see you Tuesday.

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