balthazar

F1 is 'cookie cutter' because all the engine builders build the same spec engine. Honda, Mercedes, renault, ferrari all build 1.6L V6s, all with single turbos, the same software, the same displacement. No individuality, no proprietary design, just 90-degree V6s. Price is immaterial- they could all cost $50 million, they'd all still be the same engine. Ju-uuuust like NASCAR : all 358 CI V8, IBC, McLaren software, naturally aspirated, restrictor plates. Rule-regulated to the same thing under the hood. 'Cookie cutter' = the same thing. Like a package…. of cookies.

A friend traded an S-class mercedes on a Chevy Tahoe LTZ. 'Never again' he said of the MB ownership.

From 'wickedautovids' ~

They're all 90-degree 98 CI V6 single turbos, run with McLaren software, making 900-1000 HP. Cookie-cutter engines.

I've never had any interest in F1 racing. F1 and modern era NASCAR are events about the DRIVER, and that's fine if that's what you like, without question. But I'm not a 'driver guy', I'm a car enthusiast. F1/NASCAR cars are very very tightly rule-bound to the point of being all the same. It's 'go-fast re-badging'. It's like trying to make a point between WWII Jeeps being built by Ford, or Willys, or American Bantam. Inconsequential.

Except for one thing- the mainstream market has long & steadily embraced the SUV & truck AS mainstream. GMC sold 311K units in 1986, they sold 556K last year.

Think of it as the 'recipe' that made you, you. I found that my mother would've been born with a different surname, because no one knew her father had a different biological father. When the mother remarried, the kids apparently were adopted & had their surname changed. Her father never told anyone about it (he was 8 when it happened); not his first wife (my grandmother) or his second. He had a German surname, but was born with an Italian one.

The dark green car you posted on page 2 is not a convertible. Other than the mail-slot rear window, the rearward roof structure (the large B-Pillars) are still there. There's no folding (or retractable) roof. I'd need to see the pics of the 'convertible' and the 'targa' together, but --marketing terms/semantics aside-- that's a coupe with a removable roof panel.

Toyoter couldn't handle 3 brands, it's not going to buy 2 more.

Souvenir key chain trinket.

• I question how many buyers of exotics continue to repeatedly only buy from that 1 brand. I know there are hardcore fans of each out there who do, I wonder what percentage of overall buyers. Because another brand will NEVER sway those buyers- they're 'off the table' as far as conquest sales go / an OEM is wasting their time chasing them. A hardcore Corvette buyer is never going to consider a ferrari, either. • Where OEMs should / are focusing is the new or non-loyal buyer, the one who considers -not the badge- but the merits of the vehicle. That's where a brand new C8 is high on the list of contention for a WIDE variety of reasons. That's a winning formula for conquests.

Is it a convertible, or really more of a ‘targa’? I see jutting, rigid B-Pillars there. Be a shame if the ‘targa’ loses the see-thru engine cover... Via my observation, the only people who call the car a ‘Chevy’ have no intention of buying to begin with.

I’m actually not, and I’ve been here before as being against legal separation of the Corvette form Chevrolet. I’m well aware of what it technically is, but it does have a tangible firewall between it and everything else Chevy does (including what they do wrong). I think ‘making the Corvette a Cadillac’ is just stupid, moreso because of how ‘insulated’ it is from the rest of the brand. In other words, I do not believe a serious consumer is holding the fact that its titled ‘Chevrolet’ stop their purchase if they love the car otherwise.

It goes even deeper; it’s such an ingrained Americana thing that it doesn’t have to be One Brand Only, but it sure as hell is unlikely to be a Japanese brand.

GM still does -at times- some of the World's best styling. WRT to the above pic; very artful combination of suble and sharp lines and gentle radiuses. The venting inboard of the 'flying buttress' C-pillars is well done; some excellent surface transitioning overall.

Other than the Ford GT (tho that’s actively ID’d as a ‘Ford’), I don’t think there’s any other singular model more separate from its parent brand. It hasn’t said Chevrolet’ on it, I believe, in about 50 years. Point being; that it how the car is perceived by consumers; as a ‘Corvette’ 1st, and as a ‘Chevy’ around 95th. Potential buyers aren’t thinking ‘Oh, the same brand made the Aveo, I can’t buy one!’ There’s a towering ‘firewall’ of perception there. Ferrari had been owned by Fiat for 40 years now.

What does service have to do with it; I can get a Jeep serviced at a Chevy dealer. Are there any Chevy emblems or nameplates on a Corvette?

Choice is best

It’s not a Chevrolet tho; it’s The Corvette.

Why not- it's been doing that for most of it's history.

Picked this up, thought it might be cool on the B-59 key chain.

'68. BTW; I got my eye on you dfelt. Don't think what you're up to is going unnoticed… ?️