Month: May 2013

We were very surprised to learn that the 4th installment of the “Transformers” movie franchise from Director Michael Bay has started filming out in Monument Valley near the borders of Arizona and Utah. Joining the cast of cars to be featured in the movie is the 2014 Corvette Stingray.

The race-inspired Corvette Stingray is shown in a promotional photo on Michael Bay’s official website. Speculation among Transformers fan sites point to the car being an autobot named “Slingshot”.

We see the Stingray sporting a lime green with black stripes (not Lime Rock Green!) paint that actually looks pretty good. The Corvette appears to have the actual rear wing from Corvette Racing’s C6.R, complete with the GM and UAW logos on the side. The only body modifications that make this a non-stock Stingray are some side rockers and a front splitter that look to be “bolted on” instead of integrated with the existing body work.

Also joining the T4 cast is the 1200 hp Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse that may or may not be an autobot named “Drift”. The Bugatti Veyron sells for a reported $1.4 million so we doubt we’ll see any “off-road” shots like we did with the Corvette Stingray Concept that appeared in the previous films.

Returning to the movie will the Semi Truck leader known as Optimus Prime and the Camaro Bumblebee.

Optimus is getting a makeover for the 4th film. Instead of being a Peterbuilt truck as he was in the first three movies, Prime comes as back as a truck from Western Star, a division of Daimler Trucks North America. The truck features lots of bling including three exhaust stacks on each side of the cab.

And finally, just announced from Bay’s site is that Bumblebee will be returning as a highly modified vintage 1967 Camaro SS. The promotional shot shows the Camaro in flat black with a yellow stripe around the car’s grill.

General Motors has offered cars throughout the franchise’s three previous movies and we are sure we’ll see more bow-ties as the cast is rounded out.

Transformers 4 is expected to hit the big screen on June 26th, 2014.

Source:
MichaelBay.com

Related:
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[VIDEO] 2014 Corvette Stingray Spied on the Set of Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Transformer’s Corvette Concept Revealed

General Motors North American President Mark Reuss will drive the 2014 Corvette Stingray pace car at this weekend’s “Indy Dual in Detroit”. The Indy Dual in Detroit races include the Grand-AM and IndyCar races on Belle Isle this Saturday and Sunday.

Reuss is a lifelong racing enthusiast and its been said that he keeps a personal racing firesuit in his car for those times he wants to put some laps down at the Milford proving grounds.

“The all-new, 2014 Corvette Stingray proved last week at Indy that it’s at home on the racetrack, and we’re excited to bring it home to Motown to pace the Chevrolet Indy Dual in Detroit,” said Reuss. “To be able to drive this car, on this track, in this city, is a huge thrill for me personally, and I can’t wait to get behind the wheel to pace this great field.”

The events this weekend include the IZOD IndyCar series, the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix featuring the Grand AM Rolex Sports Car Series and the Pirelli World Challenge Championship Series.

Reuss will drive the 2014 Corvette Stingray pace car to lead the Grand AM Rolex Sports Car race on Saturday and the IndyCar race at Belle Island on Sunday.

The 2014 Corvette Stingray comes off its stint as the 12th Corvette to pace the Indy 500 last weekend. 49ers Coach Jim Harbaugh had the honor of driving the Lagnua Blue C7 Stingray.

Here is a short video showing Reuss behind the wheel of the 2014 Corvette Stingray on the Belle Island Circuit. He talks about one of his favorite new features on the C7 Corvette – Active Rev Matching:

The Corvette was also in the news earlier this week as Chevrolet made it official that the new Stingray will offer 455 horsepower with the standard exhaust and 460 horsepower with an optional performance exhaust system. The new 2014 Corvette Stingray will be available at Chevrolet dealers later this summer.

Source:
General Motors

Related:
Official: 2014 Corvette Stingray Cranks Out 460 Horsepower!
49ers Coach Jim Harbaugh to Pace the Indy 500 in the 2014 Corvette Stingray
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A living legend in the Corvette world will be honored this fall when he is inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame.

Ron Fellows and five other Canadians – the late Bob Armstrong, Jimmy Carr, Tom Walters, and Jon and Sharon Fletcher – will be inducted during a ceremony in Toronto on Sept. 28, 2013.

“I wish to congratulate the successful inductees for their dedication and contribution to Canadian motorsports,” said Dr. Hugh Scully, chairman of the Hall of Fame.

Fellows, of course, has long been respected by Corvette enthusiasts for his outstanding performance as a member of the Corvette Racing Team from 1998 to 2007. He won 27 races and three ALMS championships, took two wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and also earned “Most Popular Driver” awards from ALMS fans for an unprecedented four straight times.

Although he hasn’t raced for the factory team since 2008, he remains active in NASCAR events and is tied with Terry Labonte for the most road course wins in NASCAR history. He has served as an advisor for the GM/Pratt & Miller factory team and an ambassador for Corvette in general, attending races, Corvette Corrals, Corvette functions and charities, often auctioning off passes to the Ron Fellows Driving School for charities.

GM even paid tribute to Fellows by producing the “Ron Fellows ALMS GT1 Champion Corvette Z06” in 2007.

Fellows is a prime example of not giving up on your dreams. He began his career in Karts, which led to Formula Ford 1600 and Formula Ford 2000. When money got tight, however, he left racing for nine years to be a gas pipeline worker. He returned to the track in the 1980s with help from driving school instructor Richard Spenard and made his professional debut in 1986 in a showroom stock Camaro in the Player’s GM Challenge.

His career has been a diversified one, as he is one of the most successful drivers in the history of the SCCA Trans-Am Series with 19 wins in 95 starts. He also has wins in NASCAR truck and Nationwide stock car competition.

He even has a 1997 victory at Mosport Park in the IMSA GT Championship driving the legendary Ferrari 333SP.

Fellows is being inducted into the Hall of Fame as a competitor as well as a contributor. His Sunoco Ron Fellows Karting Championship encouraged and developed young drivers, and he’s a driving force in the Canadian Karting Championship and Team Canada Rotax World Finals program with Canadian Tire. After spending much of his adult life at Mosport, he became co-owner of the track in 2011, and its rejuvenation as Canadian Tire Motorsport Park reflects his vision.

Source:
Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame
Photo Credit: Motrface.com

Related:
[VIDEO] The 2014 Corvette Stingray Makes Its Debut in Canada
Win a Trip to the Ron Fellows Performance Driving School by Playing the “Fellows 5 Challenge”
Winning Legacy of Ron Fellows at Mosport Fuels Current Corvette Racing’s Drivers

The National Corvette Museum welcomed a special visitor today. Rutledge Wood, co-host of Top Gear USA on the History Channel and a reporter for SPEED TV made a personal video to the NCM and toured the exhibits. During the visit, Corvette Assembly Plant Manager Dave Tatman brought over a new Velocity Yellow 2014 Corvette Stingray and we were told that Wood was “blown away” by the new C7.

The NCM Insurance Agency’s Adam Boca uploaded this video to his facebook page. Rutledge watches as Tatman explains and demonstrates the Drivers Mode selector which changes 12 characteristics based on the mode selected. He then revs the engine to demonstrate how the exhaust tune is different between the Sport and Tour modes:

A significant portion of the NCM’s operating budget comes from the raffle of Corvettes. Wood’s visit coincided with the drawing for the last C6 Z06, the engine having been assembled by Dave Tatman at Wixom’s Performance Build Center. Wood drew the raffle ticket for the last 2013 Corvette Z06 and the winner was David Ryan of Concord, OH with ticket #791. The Museum sold 1322 of the 1500 available tickets.

We understand that Wood was in Bowling Green for a speaking engagement and so there was nothing filmed at the NCM today. However, now that he’s visited, perhaps we can get him to return with his co-hosts for some sort of hoonery in the heart of Corvette country.

Source:
Pictures courtesy the National Corvette Museum
Video comes from the NCM Insurance Agency

Related:
[VIDEO] Corvette Assembly Plant Update with Dave Tatman at the 2013 NCM Bash
End of an Era: The Last C6 Corvette Rolls Off the Production Line in Bowling Green
DVR Alert: C4 Corvette Limo on Top Gear USA

Last week we ran an image from Getty that showed Shane Steelman’s red Corvette Z06 surrounded by the destruction from the tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma on Monday, May 20th. Shane saw the picture on our Facebook page and provided even more photos and video. Here is his account of what happened before, during and after the storm as well as the fate of his beloved C5 Z06.

Shane was working that fateful Monday and had is daily driver with him, a 2007 Chevy Trailblazer SS. When the storm warning’s came that afternoon, he rushed home to pick up his dog. Realizing that he wouldn’t get there in time, his girlfriend Samantha picked up the dog and then met Shane at her house which was about 2.5 miles from the path of the tornado.

“We got in my Trailblazer SS and headed north right away out of its path. We got a picture of it out of the rear window as we drove away and it just looked like it was ripping through my neighborhood. The radio was telling us it hit the Plaza Towers Elementary School, and I’m only one street east of it. After it passed, we went back around and walked a couple miles to the house looking at the debris and the closer we got the more we realized the damage was getting worse. Once on my street it was hard to tell the houses apart from the other. If it wasn’t for my corvette it would of been hard to figure out which was mine. I was just in shock at the devastation it caused. I could tell right away the car was gone. I had not a single standing wall of my house left. The car had been turned around and the rear of it put on top of the concrete base around the garage.”

Shane reiterated to us on how lucky he was that no one was home at the time the tornado passed over his neighborhood. His immediate neighbors where both home when the storm hit. While one of them also survived the storm, his 70-year-old neighbor Deanna Ward tragically did not.

After the immediate shock of the storm wore off, Shane assessed the damage to his Corvette Z06.

After we pulled the car off the wall with the wrecker I noticed all of the insulation in the exhaust and after seeing under the hood was spotless and the shifter felt just fine I decided to start it up and blow it all out. I could of drove the car out of there if I kicked the windshield out of it. But the wrecker driver was already there so I let him take it. The car had a custom grind boost cam and full exhaust. It dynoed 407rwhp, and all of this work was done only a couple months before this. My plan was to add an A&A kit very soon. I’m afraid I’m going to take a big loss on the car because insurance is only going to give me the value of the car and I spent 7k on it a couple months ago.

Here is the video of Shane starting his Corvette Z06:

Shane has pretty much lost everything in the Tornado. He tells us there was no trace of his couch, loveseat, washer and dryer. He found the door from his refrigerator but everything else completely disappeared. However, he did come across his class ring which was found in the debris. The drawer that it was stored in is nowhere to be found.

The Corvette Z06 unfortunately didn’t make it either. The insurance company has let him know that they are going to total the Corvette as a complete loss.

Shane included this message to us: “I’ve been calm about this whole thing but to see that others want to reach out to me in my time of need brings me to my knees in tears. I can’t believe the goodness and kindness of others.”

Shane is on the Corvette Forum (aka SteelmanZ51) and his facebook page shows his Corvette in the cover image during better days.

We’ve never asked our readers to do this before, but if you have a few dollars to spare, can you send them to Shane via his paypal account? His email address is “lordlink151@aol.com” and anything we can do for a Corvette brother that has lost everything would be very much appreciated.

The Corvette was big part of Shane’s life and out of the blue he sent a message about how much he misses it. Please donate to his paypal account using his email “lordlink151@aol.com” and let’s help him get back into the driver’s seat of a new Corvette!

Related:
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Collector Car Insurance Industry Dealing with Hurricane Sandy Aftermath
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Now in his 80s, longtime Corvette enthusiast Dick Guldstrand reflects in this video on Electric Federal about his work in the 1990s on the Guldstrand GS90, which was based on the C4 Corvette ZR-1.

“Well, the GS90 got started because we decided there was something that had to be done for the car to keep the Corvette going,” Guldstrand recalls. “We had heard all these rumors about the Corvette being canceled and that it was not an exciting car so we took it upon ourselves to develop a whole body based on the LT5 engine” being used in the C4 ZR-1.

Guldstrand admits at that time getting 400 horsepower out of a production car was “pretty amazing,” plus he notes, “that engine would run over 7,000 RPM so it was a tremendously exciting engine to put in the chassis of a Corvette.”

The problem? “We felt (the ZR-1) was lackluster because it looked like all other Corvettes,” he said, “so we agreed to do this body change.”

“We kept the modifications to a minimum so that it would be a base Corvette. We’ve learned very quickly how to make a small fortune building special cars. You start with a very large fortune and build a few special cars and you end up with a very small fortune,” he says with a chuckle.

Guldstrand says they kept the changes on the interior to a minimum, just putting a dash plaque inside that said GS90.

The body and suspension were a different story, however.

Styling was a throwback to the 1963 Ferrari GTO with bold and muscular lines and a few cues from the C2, not to mention six tail lights on each side and exposed head lights foreshadowing the C6 Corvette. Then there was the distinctive Nassau blue paint job with a single white racing stripe.

“The GS90, because of the wheels and tires we included on it,” Guldstrand says, “is a much better handling car. It’s very stable at high speed; I’ve had it up to 190 miles per hour and it’s really a pleasure to drive.”

Guldstrand also included every trick in his bag when it came to things like thicker anti-roll bars and coil-over shocks.

Looking back, “Goldie” is glad he undertook the project. “To be sure,” he says, “when we built the car, we wanted to make a statement and I think it was really worth it with the camaraderie that we developed, the excitement we built, the acceptance of Chevrolet’s design group and all, really stepped a lot of us one step further down the road.”

Guldstrand says he is “so very, very proud” of the GS90.

“It’s lasted the test of time,” he says. “It’s still great. People still love it. It stops traffic. I think that it made a statement and in the line of Corvettes I’m really proud to be I think quite close to the top.”

Source:
ElectricFederal.com

Related:
[VIDEO] Corvette Racing Legend Dick Guldstrand Talks About His Hollywood Days
[VIDEO] Corvette Racing Series Episode 5: A Salute to the Le Mans 50th Anniversary