Speaker 1: I'm Matt Miller and I'm Hannah Elliott, and this is
Speaker 1: hot pursuit. I'm going to take the lead today on
Speaker 1: the intro because Matt is near death's door at home
Speaker 1: on the couch. We've listened to him hack for the
Speaker 1: past twenty minutes. He's drunk. He's drunk a bottle of robitussin,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's very touch and go, but he's
Speaker 1: rallied and we're so happy to have you here.
Speaker 2: I'm ready. It's been a tough week. I launch a
Speaker 2: new television show on Bloomberg with Katie Greifeld and Channelli Bassic,
Speaker 2: so it's been like all hands on deck working twenty
Speaker 2: four to seven, and earning season has been super intense
Speaker 2: this week. So somehow my immune system failed. But I
Speaker 2: continue to push on because it's not pandemic days. I
Speaker 2: don't stay home when i'm sick anymore. I'm still going
Speaker 2: to work every day.
Speaker 1: We actually may want you to stay home at this point.
Speaker 1: It's basically the walking wounded over here. I'm glad you're
Speaker 1: home right now. Hopefully you can get some rest and
Speaker 1: like chicken noodle soup or something.
Speaker 2: I can't get any rest We've had the most insane
Speaker 2: business news cycle, especially an automotive, right, I mean, General
Speaker 2: Motors kicked it off and they had such an amazing
Speaker 2: earnings report that I instantly like emailed.
Speaker 1: It to me. I know, you know, which is perfect
Speaker 1: timing for their debut this week because it's just like
Speaker 1: all things are coming up rosy with GM while everyone
Speaker 1: else struggles, right.
Speaker 2: Which is, by the way, a Corvette debut. And I
Speaker 2: want to talk about your story specifically, and of course
Speaker 2: our special guest is the president of General Motors. He
Speaker 2: is a massive Corvette fan himself, Mark Royce. I'm super
Speaker 2: excited to get to him, but I do want to
Speaker 2: get the earnings picture for automotive out of the way first,
Speaker 2: because it's been amazing since GM beat and they didn't
Speaker 2: just beat right expectations for earnings. They sold two hundred
Speaker 2: and thirty thousand plus pickup trucks Silver Across, Silverado and Sierra,
Speaker 2: and they also raised their full year forecast. So this
Speaker 2: was a couple of days ago and I thought, Man,
Speaker 2: what an awesome earning season it's going to be for automotive.
Speaker 2: Then every other automaker that's come out has absolutely the
Speaker 2: bed they have Ford has had its biggest drop on
Speaker 2: the stock market after posting an amazing twenty cent earnings
Speaker 2: miss in fifteen years. I mean, it's like a crisis
Speaker 2: level stock reaction for Ford. And then Stilantis had such
Speaker 2: a big drop in profit, like forty eight percent in
Speaker 2: the first six months that Carlos Tavares, the CEO, said,
Speaker 2: you know what, every brand right now could potentially be
Speaker 2: on the chopping block, and.
Speaker 1: To me, crazy to hear.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you know what, if you look at some
Speaker 2: of the brands and near and dear to my heart
Speaker 2: as Dodge, they don't have very many products. I did
Speaker 2: love the Hornet, we talked about that, but that's all
Speaker 2: they make, right, There's no challenger, there's no charger. So
Speaker 2: the Durango still exists in some old and tired form,
Speaker 2: but they just don't have a lot to contribute. So
Speaker 2: it's just mayhem.
Speaker 1: It's really tough. And in the luxury world, we should
Speaker 1: say that even Porscha cut its outlook for the year
Speaker 1: and took its biggest drubbing in a single day since
Speaker 1: September twenty twenty two. When ISIPO exactly? So if this
Speaker 1: isn't even just you know, mass market brands. This is
Speaker 1: hitting the luxury sector too. I think Hyundai did pretty well.
Speaker 1: That was sort of another another highlight. They seemed to
Speaker 1: have gone up a little bit in operating profit and
Speaker 1: actually beat their estimates basically based on hybrid sales, which
Speaker 1: I know how much you love hybrids, so it's really interesting.
Speaker 1: And then here we have, of course, of course, and
Speaker 1: then we have General Motors that is basically doing phenomenal
Speaker 1: off the back of internal combustion engine trucks and SUVs,
Speaker 1: and this Corvette is no different. It's not this isn't
Speaker 1: even This is their most powerful corvette debut ever, and
Speaker 1: it's not a hybrid. It's it's an actual V eight.
Speaker 2: All right, let's talk about Let's talk about this corvette
Speaker 2: that's just debuted. You wrote a phenomenal story about it.
Speaker 2: Everyone's been waiting for it. It is the ZR one, right,
Speaker 2: What does that mean for Corvette? What is a ZR one?
Speaker 1: The ZR one is right now, it's the top of
Speaker 1: the line. Now we have seen rumors that General Motors
Speaker 1: is coming out with a higher performance hybrid in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five. They've actually trademarked a name.
Speaker 2: Zora that such a cool name.
Speaker 1: It's a cool name. But right now, the Z one
Speaker 1: is the top of the line one thousand and sixty
Speaker 1: four horsepower, and the two really new things about this
Speaker 1: car are number one, it's the first Corvette ever to
Speaker 1: use turbochargers, which is wild to think about. And then
Speaker 1: number two, it's got a split window in the rear
Speaker 1: like the from the sixties. So these are significant changes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I love the obviously, I love the Corvette,
Speaker 2: and I've been raving about it for weeks now, ever
Speaker 2: since I drove the E Ray, which is their hybrid currently.
Speaker 2: It's kind of the middle of the lineup right because
Speaker 2: they have the base Corvette, the Stingray exactly, which has
Speaker 2: just the six point two leader naturally aspirated V eight
Speaker 2: right behind the driver in the middle of the setup.
Speaker 2: Then they have the E Ray, which has that six
Speaker 2: point two leader, you know, the traditional for now Corvette engine,
Speaker 2: and then an electric motor on the front axle. Then
Speaker 2: they had the Z six, which has the fire breathing
Speaker 2: five and a half leader flat plane crank V eight,
Speaker 2: which is kind of like a Ferrari setup, but even
Speaker 2: better than Ferrari I think could have done, because it's
Speaker 2: such big displacement and manages to keep itself together. And
Speaker 2: so this is going to be the z R one
Speaker 2: is going to be the.
Speaker 1: Top of the line.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it's gonna be basically the twin turbo charged
Speaker 2: version of the Z six, which is typically how it goes. Right,
Speaker 2: Corvette releases the Z six, which is their top of
Speaker 2: the line version, naturally aspirated, and then they come out
Speaker 2: with the usually supercharged version that's the ZR one. In
Speaker 2: this case, it's gonna be using turbos, which is something
Speaker 2: we'll ask mister Royce about. Yes, but it's gonna have
Speaker 2: over a thousand horse power.
Speaker 1: Over one thousand horse power, and there's going to be
Speaker 1: an optional zt K performance package that adds like a
Speaker 1: huge rear wing and aggressive styling on the front and
Speaker 1: like a gurney lip on the hood, all made from
Speaker 1: carbon fiber. It's gonna have stiffer suspension and different wheels
Speaker 1: and all of that too.
Speaker 2: They've gotten so good at I mean, they have all
Speaker 2: this alphabet soup at GM, right. I know, if you
Speaker 2: get the sting Ray, which is probably good enough to
Speaker 2: begin with for most people, you can add the Z
Speaker 2: fifty one package, which makes it a little better. If
Speaker 2: you get the Z six, which is the sort of
Speaker 2: screaming Ferrari flat plane crank, you can add the Z
Speaker 2: seven package, which makes it like a little bit racier.
Speaker 2: And now if you get the ZR one, what's the
Speaker 2: package that you can add.
Speaker 1: It's called zt K Performance Package. I mean, I'm already
Speaker 1: sort of lost in all all of those numbers and letters.
Speaker 2: Well, then the cool thing about the progression is so
Speaker 2: the rumored improvement on the ZR one is called Zora,
Speaker 2: which is I guess named after the original designer designer
Speaker 2: the Corvette, and that would be the twin turbo charged
Speaker 2: five and a half liter V eight in the back
Speaker 2: with an electric motor I'm guessing in the front, so
Speaker 2: like the hybrid version of the turbocharge bad ass. So
Speaker 2: it's like total top of the top of the line.
Speaker 2: And I don't know what Royce is gonna tell Yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Mean, well, look, I took the liberty of going ahead
Speaker 1: and asking the pr ahead of this conversation for you know,
Speaker 1: to confirm anything about the Zora, and of course he
Speaker 1: did his job and told me absolutely nothing. But I
Speaker 1: did see that General Motors just on June third, trademarked
Speaker 1: that name in Mexico, which you know, they've sort of
Speaker 1: been filing these trademarks for the past few years in
Speaker 1: the US and Mexico. So if we're reading the riding
Speaker 1: on the wall, it does seem like they're heading in
Speaker 1: that direction, which would be really cool.
Speaker 2: Now, the only thing that's missing from this whole lineup
Speaker 2: for Corvette is an all electric version.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, what do you think about that?
Speaker 2: I mean, I wouldn't probably like it very much. I
Speaker 2: don't tend to like fully electric vehicles unless they're utility
Speaker 2: vehicles like ke Has EV nine. You know, I love that,
Speaker 2: but I'm not using that as a sports car that's
Speaker 2: supposed to give me goosebumps and make little hairs in
Speaker 2: the back of my next stand up.
Speaker 1: Right yeah, you know, I really think that Corvette is
Speaker 1: probably like the nine to eleven at Portal, where they're
Speaker 1: going to do everything they can to hold off from
Speaker 1: electrifying their you know, chevrolets, GM's crown jewel car. And
Speaker 1: I don't think it's an accident that General Motors has
Speaker 1: just announced that yet again, they're delaying their electric pickup
Speaker 1: plant and they've postponed a Buick EV so this sort
Speaker 1: of goes hand in hand with what we're seeing, you know,
Speaker 1: as automakers including GM, but Ford and others, Mercedes have
Speaker 1: started to sort of slow down and walk back all
Speaker 1: of these electric promises that they've made because they're not selling.
Speaker 1: The evs aren't selling as well, and there are still
Speaker 1: valid concerns about especially the charging network. And I should
Speaker 1: mention I don't know if now it's the time to
Speaker 1: talk about it, but I did have that little electric
Speaker 1: Fiat five hundred E last week that got towed when
Speaker 1: I tried to charge it. That is quite quite a story.
Speaker 1: And let me tell you it was not fun. And
Speaker 1: you could argue ultimately it was user error on that,
Speaker 1: but it was an error any user could have made unbelievable.
Speaker 2: So they towed the car while you were charging it.
Speaker 2: I guess you weren't with.
Speaker 1: It, so I didn't know you had to stay with
Speaker 1: your car. Here's the scenario. Basically, I go downtown for
Speaker 1: a lunch and to do an errand, and I think, oh,
Speaker 1: it'll be nice just to charge the Fiat for an hour.
Speaker 1: It was at like fifty percent. I thought this will
Speaker 1: be I just need to do it just for experience.
Speaker 1: So I know what this situation is. I go to
Speaker 1: the first charger that I've used before in a public
Speaker 1: garage parking garage. The charger's broken. I use the app
Speaker 1: to find another available charger close by. That charging app
Speaker 1: sends me to a parking lot, an outdoor parking lot.
Speaker 1: I did have to go through a barrier, and I
Speaker 1: took a ticket to you know, to get into the
Speaker 1: parking lot. I go. There's a valet guy. He watches.
Speaker 1: This guy watched me go through this whole thing. He
Speaker 1: watches me pull up, plug in. I think, okay, I'll
Speaker 1: be back an hour. I'm just gonna go have lunch.
Speaker 2: Come back.
Speaker 1: The car's gone completely gone yep.
Speaker 2: From a private from a gated park.
Speaker 1: Apparently it was private, but it let me take it.
Speaker 1: I just thought, oh, you just take a ticket and
Speaker 1: if you don't have, you know, if you're not a member,
Speaker 1: you just pay. I just assumed if you if it
Speaker 1: lets you in, you just pay to get out.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: So as by the way, thank you, thank you. So,
Speaker 1: you know, I kind of fish around and there is
Speaker 1: a sign on the side of the parking lot that
Speaker 1: has a number to call, you know, Brian's towing and
Speaker 1: I call him and it's after five at this point,
Speaker 1: and you know, I'm told that you can come get
Speaker 1: your car and it's going to be four hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty six dollars in cash.
Speaker 2: Oh you know, I.
Speaker 1: Can't really hear the guy. It's it's so so shady.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's basically a shakedown. It's so completely completely
Speaker 1: so you know, basically, I draw it's a mile away,
Speaker 1: they tow it a mile away to when I tell you,
Speaker 1: it's the sketchiest environment I've ever been in this side
Speaker 1: of Cape Town. I am not kidding. It was. It
Speaker 1: was like skid Row times a million. It was so sketchy.
Speaker 2: Charles Bukowski, Yes, yes, surely that in Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: So then you know, of course I get there and
Speaker 1: I'm banging on the gate. No one's there. I call
Speaker 1: the guy again. He's like, oh, you know, all right,
Speaker 1: I'll come come, And I end up waiting for you
Speaker 1: to get out to ours.
Speaker 2: I mean, you don't just carry five hundred dollars in cash,
Speaker 2: do you? On the regular? You probably shouldn't say if
Speaker 2: you do.
Speaker 1: No, for I'm not gonna say if I do or
Speaker 1: if I don't. But at that point I had the
Speaker 1: cash in hand because I did not want to mess
Speaker 1: around anymore with this. I was so you know what
Speaker 1: was the worst thing. The guy in the parking lot
Speaker 1: watched me do the whole thing. And he's probably the
Speaker 1: one who.
Speaker 2: Called the Probably, yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure.
Speaker 1: And I mean, why did he not just say, hey,
Speaker 1: you you realize this is private or whatever?
Speaker 2: I mean? Because he gets a cut. Probably Brian at
Speaker 2: Brian's Towing said, dude, if you see anyone come in here,
Speaker 2: don't stop them, let them go call me up. I'll
Speaker 2: give you a C note. And I'm sure you know.
Speaker 2: It's a great scam. Actually, if you think about it, good,
Speaker 2: yea perfect for the modern era. You just put up
Speaker 2: a charger and then poorly sign that you're not allowed
Speaker 2: to use it. Yes, and you just wait and watch
Speaker 2: for somebody to walk away from the car, and as
Speaker 2: soon as they do, you go and jump on it.
Speaker 1: Yes. And you know what, I would never have even
Speaker 1: gone into this parking lot except for the app sent
Speaker 1: me there. The charging app sent me there and said
Speaker 1: it was an available charger. So I thought, oh great,
Speaker 1: this is so close. You know, it's just around the corner.
Speaker 1: No big deal. I didn't even I wasn't even aware
Speaker 1: there was a charger there, So that kind of annoying.
Speaker 2: I know it was.
Speaker 1: It honestly was the good thing though, is the Fiat
Speaker 1: when I got it back was fully charged, so it
Speaker 1: was it was there long enough to get a full
Speaker 1: full juice going.
Speaker 2: All right, So that that is an unbelievable story and
Speaker 2: yet so believable, right, I know.
Speaker 1: It's alsoing, and it's like I tried to do. I
Speaker 1: tried to charge. I thought, you know, not a big deal. No,
Speaker 1: people stay with their cars for hours on it.
Speaker 2: No, not at all, not at all. And and I
Speaker 2: feel like if you if it comes up in the app,
Speaker 2: you should probably be able to use it. Yes, a B.
Speaker 2: If you go into a gated parking lot and it
Speaker 2: lets you in, I think it's safe to assume unless
Speaker 2: you see a sign that says, you know, like private
Speaker 2: parking space that you can park there. No, and then
Speaker 2: when you get to a towing company that's cash only,
Speaker 2: you know that that's a I know.
Speaker 1: I completely completely. I almost was like, good job, guys,
Speaker 1: you really got me this time.
Speaker 2: Like, wow, they've earned it, Brian earned it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, good job on that one.
Speaker 2: So okay, but the thing is a Fiat five hundred, right,
Speaker 2: and any electric vehicle, I guess short of a Remac
Speaker 2: isn't something that you would substitute for a Corvette or
Speaker 2: a Porsche. And by the way, we should talk about
Speaker 2: this rivalry with Mark Royce also, So I've grown up
Speaker 2: getting Road and Track magazine, or I did when I
Speaker 2: was a kid, every month, and inevitably, whenever there was
Speaker 2: a new Corvette, there would be a cover story pitting
Speaker 2: the Corvette against the nine to eleven, right, because they're
Speaker 2: sort of America's ultimate sports car versus the benchmark ultimate
Speaker 2: sports car. Yeah, and I think, especially now with the
Speaker 2: C eight, I think you could argue that it's a
Speaker 2: more valid comparison than ever because the engines behind you,
Speaker 2: and it truly is maybe even you know, more ideal
Speaker 2: in terms of a sports car, right, a mid engine
Speaker 2: layout than a nine to eleven, which you know, with
Speaker 2: the rear engine layout has always been a little bit awkward,
Speaker 2: even if they've managed to make it work at Portia.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I wonder if we should ask Mark
Speaker 1: whether he believes a Corvette is a supercar or not.
Speaker 2: Maybe we don't get into that, but they've clearly, you know,
Speaker 2: they've clearly benchmarked the most successful vehicles in the world
Speaker 2: in the past, and they obviously benchmarked Ferrari four, five,
Speaker 2: eight with for sure with the Z six, So I
Speaker 2: wonder if they even think about the nine to eleven anymore,
Speaker 2: or if now they're aiming at Ferrari and Lamborghini instead,
Speaker 2: because the styling is obviously not subtle. Yeah. Also, they've
Speaker 2: expanded their product offering in such a nine to eleven way,
Speaker 2: right They now they have the Stingray, the E Ray,
Speaker 2: the ZO six, the ZR one, they'll have the Zora,
Speaker 2: and you've got to imagine they're gonna have convertible and
Speaker 2: hard top versions of probably all of those, so they'll
Speaker 2: have ten different models. Yeah, and I.
Speaker 1: Should say the zer one is coming in coop and
Speaker 1: convertible version. They're both. They're both starting production at the
Speaker 1: same time in Bowling Green. So yeah, it's a lot
Speaker 1: of options.
Speaker 2: Previously, by the way, because I look at these things
Speaker 2: online and lust after them and configure them. I think
Speaker 2: I've already configured a Corvette at least once today. Constantly
Speaker 2: I go back and forth between what I want, the
Speaker 2: hard top or the coop because the hard top obviously
Speaker 2: is a T top in a Corvette, so you can
Speaker 2: take off the top, but the convertible is you know,
Speaker 2: you can do it automatically. And the benefit of the
Speaker 2: hard top is you can see the motor right because
Speaker 2: the hard top has a c through panel on the back,
Speaker 2: and then it's totally baller. You know.
Speaker 1: As someone who has a T top C three, I
Speaker 1: think it would be nice to be able to push
Speaker 1: a button and have the top to go down, because
Speaker 1: I've made the really bad mistake of trying to take
Speaker 1: the T tops off at a stop while you're waiting
Speaker 1: at a stop light. I'd like pull them into the
Speaker 1: cabin when you're waiting at traffic. And that was I'm
Speaker 1: sure anyone who saw that thought this woman is insane.
Speaker 2: I think you know the consensus probably, And I've been
Speaker 2: lurking on corvette forums for a long time as well.
Speaker 2: People who get the coop the hard top, they say
Speaker 2: inevitably that they don't bother anymore taking it on and off.
Speaker 2: They just it's like you have a hard top car, correct,
Speaker 2: But they're all happy that they can see the motor,
Speaker 2: which makes sense. It's so awesome to be able to
Speaker 2: see it. People who get the convertible put the top
Speaker 2: down constantly and up constantly. I know when I spent
Speaker 2: a week with the E Ray that was one of
Speaker 2: the best functions. If it's raining, if it's too hot,
Speaker 2: you can put the top up. Otherwise you have it down.
Speaker 2: I feel like I've settled on the convertible. But this
Speaker 2: is probably something that we could talk to Mark himself about.
Speaker 2: The Other thing that I'm excited to talk to him
Speaker 2: about is the spine that they've added to the z
Speaker 2: R one.
Speaker 1: Right, Well, they're calling it a split window. I agree.
Speaker 1: I agree to me, I think that's a little bit
Speaker 1: of a loose term. I agree. It looks more like
Speaker 1: a spine. It's more like a carb It can be
Speaker 1: carbon fiber or the body color. And yeah, it looks
Speaker 1: like a spine running down the back, which looks cool.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: I get the term from your story, So yeah, it's
Speaker 2: stuck in my head now. But the thing is Mark
Speaker 2: has very beautiful classic C two corvette with the split window.
Speaker 1: Oh I didn't.
Speaker 2: And I mean, if you get the C two in
Speaker 2: the coupe, you want the split window.
Speaker 1: That's expensive.
Speaker 2: That's indicative of the z R one.
Speaker 1: Yes, exactly.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 2: Now, fresh off the track from test driving the brand
Speaker 2: new SE eight Corvette z R one, or at least
Speaker 2: a pre production version of that car. KNNA, let's get
Speaker 2: over to GM President Mark Royce.
Speaker 1: Thanks for taking the time. We know, I think you
Speaker 1: just got out of the car. Can you just tell
Speaker 1: us what it's like to drive? We're so curious.
Speaker 4: So, yeah, I've driven the car on quite a few occasions,
Speaker 4: but the car today was the first time I've driven.
Speaker 4: It started on camouflage with you know, exposing the split
Speaker 4: window on the coop and so that was pretty special.
Speaker 3: And it's the capability of the car is just insane,
Speaker 3: so you'd know that.
Speaker 4: But you've seen the power numbers, the torque numbers, the
Speaker 4: where it happens rpm wise, you know this is a
Speaker 4: it's a very special, you know, power train in the
Speaker 4: Gemini twin Turbo LT seven very special.
Speaker 1: Talk to us about the turbochargers. Uh, why do a
Speaker 1: turbo charger?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 1: Does this mean that the V eight has sort of
Speaker 1: been topped out in terms of its capabilities and now
Speaker 1: we're looking for other ways to get more power?
Speaker 4: Well, nothing's nothing's ever topped out. I think at least
Speaker 4: in my career it hasn't been. But I think you know,
Speaker 4: the turbos that we architect the engine for are you know,
Speaker 4: they're sort of the electronically controlled waste gates that they're
Speaker 4: pretty sophisticated and how they make the engine breathe. And
Speaker 4: you know, if you think about an engine is basically
Speaker 4: an air pump, right, So you're bringing air into it
Speaker 4: and you're you're you're pumping air out of it. And
Speaker 4: so the more efficient you make that air pump, the
Speaker 4: more you're you're going to get out of it. So, uh,
Speaker 4: just looking at something like our Indian engine, changing the
Speaker 4: location of a turbocharger dramatically changed sort of where we
Speaker 4: pick up torque and what our PM range. So you know,
Speaker 4: that's how sophisticated some of the fluidynamics modeling is around.
Speaker 4: You know, the air pump called an engine in this
Speaker 4: case Gemini, and so I think that's that's really important.
Speaker 4: But the turbo charge piece of it, you know, as
Speaker 4: long as you can get a linear develop you know,
Speaker 4: delivery of power from how you're controlling what's happening with it.
Speaker 4: And as you know, the software and controls for turbo
Speaker 4: charges have gotten so sophisticated that there's really not a
Speaker 4: new lag there's no, there's none of that.
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, we should say that the Z
Speaker 2: six already has and correct me if I'm wrong, the
Speaker 2: most power from a naturally aspirated V eight of any
Speaker 2: production car, right, that's correct. And I was lucky enough
Speaker 2: to drive in that car with you a couple of
Speaker 2: years ago, which was probably super fun for you, terrifying
Speaker 2: for me on the on the testing track in Detroit.
Speaker 2: This is even more powerful. Have you made any changes
Speaker 2: to the actual engine other than adding the turbo chargers?
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Speaker 4: I mean, if you look at how we deliver fuel,
Speaker 4: there's we're sort of a you know, this is hard
Speaker 4: to deliver enough fuel to realize the capability of it.
Speaker 4: So you know, we've got some pretty sophisticated fuel delivery
Speaker 4: systems in fact too. And then we we've also taken
Speaker 4: the intake is when you see the engine, you'll see it,
Speaker 4: but it's a split intake that.
Speaker 3: It is really fascinating. So there's that.
Speaker 4: There's you know, the hardening of some of the components
Speaker 4: of the engine are very special. You look at the
Speaker 4: front of Gemini ZO six, you know, five and a
Speaker 4: half leter naturally aspirated engine. You look at the front
Speaker 4: cover of the LT seven, it's really different, but the
Speaker 4: core engine is still the same, right, So the architecture
Speaker 4: was designed to handle it.
Speaker 3: And there's a lot of cool things on it too,
Speaker 3: because just fun things to do.
Speaker 4: I mean there's little little Gemini rockets cast into the
Speaker 4: turbo chargers and the heads and blocks, so that you know,
Speaker 4: in the future when you get one of these, or
Speaker 4: you're looking to get an engine or place parts on it,
Speaker 4: it'll have a Gemini brocket.
Speaker 3: On it if it's genuine, and you can't really fake that.
Speaker 4: And so you know, Gemini obviously the twins and and
Speaker 4: so you know, and the teasers you saw the twin
Speaker 4: scroll of the swirls. We really thought a lot about,
Speaker 4: you know, how to mainten it and how to do
Speaker 4: things that are cool for people who buy these cars.
Speaker 2: By the way, can I ask Mark in the past,
Speaker 2: and the kids may not know this. In the past,
Speaker 2: US astronauts have had corvettes, right yeah. Yeah. And now
Speaker 2: that NASA is preparing a mission to send once again
Speaker 2: Americans to the Moon, you know, astronauts are going to
Speaker 2: be sort of right at the top of our cultural
Speaker 2: focus again. Have you guys had talks with NASA about
Speaker 2: giving them C eight corvettes.
Speaker 3: I would love to.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you know the story of all
Speaker 4: these are delivered man, back in the late sixties there,
Speaker 4: when it was basically a person in my job in
Speaker 4: GM sold these cars to a dealer for a dollar
Speaker 4: so that it wasn't just free, I believe, and then
Speaker 4: and then gave them to the astronaut. So I don't
Speaker 4: know what we'll concoct, but I would love to be
Speaker 4: involved with that, and we haven't done it, but what
Speaker 4: a special deal that would be, right, I mean, I think,
Speaker 4: by the way, fighter pilots are one of our number
Speaker 4: one customers, right, they love Corvette, So you know, yeah,
Speaker 4: so it's all good.
Speaker 1: Can you tell us a little bit about who you're
Speaker 1: benchmarking when you're developing this car. Who are you looking at?
Speaker 1: Who are who's the benchmark in the segment for you guys.
Speaker 4: I think there's different cars that do different things that
Speaker 4: we benchmarked, and you know, the four fifty eight we
Speaker 4: did that from a sound standpoint. We've done lots of
Speaker 4: different cars over the years on C eight as we
Speaker 4: developed it. But you know, we always look at our
Speaker 4: competition and take them very very seriously. So nine to
Speaker 4: elevens we have a really good relationship with Portia at
Speaker 4: the nerber Ring in Germany, so we have swapped corvettes
Speaker 4: with nine to eleven's and then, you know, so it's
Speaker 4: pretty fun, it's a good it's really cool. So it's
Speaker 4: a great camaraderie. And there's only a couple of times
Speaker 4: a year they do the industry pool there, so typically
Speaker 4: once once one of those times we'll stay in the
Speaker 4: same hotel as the Porsche engineers.
Speaker 3: So pretty cool.
Speaker 1: I know that you guys did some Nerbour green laps.
Speaker 1: Do you want to say what time were a time
Speaker 1: you were close to are you going to announce that anymore?
Speaker 2: Or zero to sixty times or a quarter mile? Can
Speaker 2: you tell us any detail?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I can look at the cargo comfortably more than
Speaker 4: two fifteen top speed wise, and these are stimulations. We
Speaker 4: haven't finished the car yet, as I said, we're going
Speaker 4: to take it in September to the ring, but you know,
Speaker 4: the zero sixty we do not have a time money yet.
Speaker 4: We just haven't finished it, and then the quarter mile
Speaker 4: will be on or you know, ten seconds not no problem.
Speaker 1: The other thing where Matt and I always talk about
Speaker 1: and I'm curious what the conversation is for you guys
Speaker 1: at GM talk to us a little bit about manuals.
Speaker 1: Obviously this is this is not a manual vehicle are
Speaker 1: Is there any conversation about that for you guys our
Speaker 1: customers asking for it? And would you ever come out
Speaker 1: with a manual Corvet?
Speaker 2: Yeah, even even Mark uh and the sting Ray, Like,
Speaker 2: I know you're gonna have trouble putting a manual transmission
Speaker 2: on a thousand horsepower hypercar like the z R one,
Speaker 2: but you could you could do it on the sting
Speaker 2: Ray like and you do you do on the the
Speaker 2: Black Wing. Right, you have a manual transmission a Cadillac,
Speaker 2: so why couldn't you do it for a for a Corvette.
Speaker 4: Again, the whole I think there are the whole car
Speaker 4: is architected around our d CT that's made it up
Speaker 4: to you know, whatever engine we put behind n C
Speaker 4: eight and so that DCT is is a core architecture decision.
Speaker 4: And if we carry things to do other variants on transmissions,
Speaker 4: it's scar mass and it's scar costs, and it affects
Speaker 4: every eight and that's that's not what we're going to do.
Speaker 4: So it'll it'll damage the efficiency and the power delivery
Speaker 4: and the performance of allse eights to do a very
Speaker 4: small volume on manuals. And you know, there are probably
Speaker 4: a few people that love manuals. I love manuals. We
Speaker 4: do them on our Cadillacs. That's not scarred because of
Speaker 4: the architecture of the car. But this is a pretty
Speaker 4: specifically architected car for the range of power units that
Speaker 4: you see. And it's very tough to fit an engine
Speaker 4: like an LT two and base form all the way
Speaker 4: up to the LT seven in the same area of
Speaker 4: the car and not carry inefficiencies in it. But adding
Speaker 4: a manual, it's just, you know, it's it's a bridge
Speaker 4: too far.
Speaker 2: It makes sense, And I mean, obviously this car is
Speaker 2: you know, it's more of a race car. Anyway you
Speaker 2: want to faster shifting, you're gonna you know, you're going
Speaker 2: to get a better lap time. In terms of the
Speaker 2: availability and the pricing, what are we looking at, Because
Speaker 2: it's so amazing that you've kept the stingray you know,
Speaker 2: down to like sixty and change the E ray. I
Speaker 2: just spent a week in the e Ray and it
Speaker 2: was like, I couldn't believe how amazing it was. The
Speaker 2: only thing I could compare it to is the Lamborghini
Speaker 2: Hurricon that I had driven like a couple weeks before.
Speaker 2: But this is like another level on top of another level.
Speaker 2: So and I think the Eray is like one hundred
Speaker 2: and six to start, and then the z O six
Speaker 2: is like, what one twenty ish? So what are we
Speaker 2: looking at this for the ZR one.
Speaker 4: Well, I can't tell you the price right now because
Speaker 4: we haven't finished the pricing on it, because that's where
Speaker 4: we are in the program. Well, we try and price
Speaker 4: as close to delivery as we can, so not only
Speaker 4: for our customers, but also you know, so we see
Speaker 4: the actual market dynamics and the environment that it's in.
Speaker 4: But it's you know, you have to plan something for
Speaker 4: the business case. All I can say is that, you know,
Speaker 4: Corvette and c A is designed from day one to
Speaker 4: be accessible to a lot of different folks at different
Speaker 4: price points. And you know, right now we've got fifty
Speaker 4: percent of the market in sports cars, so we're doing
Speaker 4: it very profitably. So I'd say we have the formula
Speaker 4: pretty pretty well understood, and you know, I want, I
Speaker 4: want everybody to be able to enjoy these cars. And uh,
Speaker 4: you know, I don't think Corvette or Chevrolet stands for
Speaker 4: anything else. It's not farmed out, it's not made somewhere else,
Speaker 4: it's not you know, half a million dollars, it's none
Speaker 4: of that's it's a pretty pretty thoughtful progression and price
Speaker 4: that matches the performance.
Speaker 2: What about for the z R one? What about production?
Speaker 2: Are you gonna make an unlimited number to meet the orders?
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 2: What are the orders? Does the order book already look
Speaker 2: like right now? And are you making these in Bowling Green?
Speaker 3: We are making them. Everything's made in Kentucky, including the
Speaker 3: engine obviously.
Speaker 4: But yeah, no, we we we haven't opened the orders
Speaker 4: on them at matt because we're we're fulfilling E Ray
Speaker 4: right now in ZO six and and of course sting
Speaker 4: right so you know, we're pretty maxed out and in
Speaker 4: terms of capacity. But as all of those things change
Speaker 4: over time, we introduced the next variant that makes sense.
Speaker 4: So yeah, we're not going to constrict things. You know,
Speaker 4: it's going to be based on allocation, and the allocations
Speaker 4: based on Corvette dealers who sell corvettes, you know, and
Speaker 4: how many well.
Speaker 1: Mark, thank you for taking the time to talk with us.
Speaker 1: We really appreciate it.
Speaker 3: And yeah, thank you. It's going to be a great night.
Speaker 3: So push you guys were here.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Wow.
Speaker 1: So that was great. I love that he had just
Speaker 1: gotten out of the car before we talked to us,
Speaker 1: and I kind of did want to ask him more
Speaker 1: about the split window though, because that's a really interesting
Speaker 1: I mean, they haven't done that since the sixties, that's crazy.
Speaker 2: I love how much joy Mark Royce takes in driving
Speaker 2: and building products for others to drive. Like when he
Speaker 2: drove me around their testing track in Milford in the
Speaker 2: Z six, he was not letting up. I mean, it
Speaker 2: was good for fast and I was like, you know
Speaker 2: when you go for a hot lap with a race
Speaker 2: car driver and you're legitimately scared for your life. I
Speaker 2: had that feeling when I was in the Z six
Speaker 2: with him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's not necessarily it's not like a thrill lap.
Speaker 1: It's more like a you might die lap.
Speaker 2: Yes, And by the way, for those I'm not an engineer,
Speaker 2: but I have learned a lot about flat plane cranks
Speaker 2: over the years because you know, Ferrari does them, and
Speaker 2: that's what makes that screaming sound. And then like ten
Speaker 2: years ago, Ford benchmarked the Ferrari with its five point
Speaker 2: two liter V eight in the Mustang and I remember
Speaker 2: talking to Jim Farley about it and he was telling me, like,
Speaker 2: the problem is with the with that setup, there's so
Speaker 2: much vibration that the engine literally begins to shake itself apart.
Speaker 2: And that's why Ferrari historically hasn't had at least one
Speaker 2: of the reasons historically hasn't had very big displacement, right,
Speaker 2: because if you have too much displacement, then in that setup,
Speaker 2: the engine just vibrates itself into pieces. So it was
Speaker 2: already an amazing engineering feet that Ford had built a
Speaker 2: five point two liter V eight with a flat plane
Speaker 2: crank and it managed to hold itself together. Now GM
Speaker 2: has built a five point five lider V eight with
Speaker 2: a flat plane crank and at least so far isn't
Speaker 2: falling apart. So it's just so cool and that they're
Speaker 2: able to do that, and the way it sounds is
Speaker 2: hair raising.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't wait to hear it. And I also
Speaker 1: can't wait to hear what their actual lap time in
Speaker 1: is that is at nurburg Ring, because Porsche's had some
Speaker 1: pretty fast ones lately. And if they're benchmarking, did you
Speaker 1: say they're benchmarking the four eighty eight, which is what
Speaker 1: we thought.
Speaker 2: No, he said they benchmarked already the four fifty eight, sorry,
Speaker 2: four to fifty eight in the Z six. And I
Speaker 2: heard a story. I don't know if this is true,
Speaker 2: but I heard that they got a four to eighty
Speaker 2: eight and the engineer were like, this isn't as good
Speaker 2: as the old one, so they like sold it and
Speaker 2: went and got a four fifty eight instead, which is
Speaker 2: the consensus among Ferrari owners as well.
Speaker 1: Chevy did that, Yes, is what you're saying.
Speaker 2: Wow, Yeah, Chevy went out and bought you know, the
Speaker 2: new one, and they were like, yeah, this is this
Speaker 2: just doesn't happen.
Speaker 1: You have you have a good source on that the soul.
Speaker 2: No, I think I'm pretty sure I've read that in
Speaker 2: anything from some idiot on a forum to a writer
Speaker 2: for Car and Driver, I.
Speaker 1: Don't know, but or anywhere in between. Yes, it's out there,
Speaker 1: it's out in the ether.
Speaker 2: It's out there, and you know, I just love the
Speaker 2: idea of these engineers for a big company like GM
Speaker 2: going out to a dealer or going on, you know,
Speaker 2: bring a trailer and buying another brand's car and then
Speaker 2: bringing it back to Milford and testing it and they'll
Speaker 2: I'm sure Mark gets a couple of laps in it,
Speaker 2: and they'll have you know, Tony Stewart will take it
Speaker 2: around the track for them and they'll say, yeah, we
Speaker 2: like the way you know it turns in, but it
Speaker 2: doesn't really take the gas so well on exit, and
Speaker 2: you know, it just to me, that's the fun part
Speaker 2: of them making these cars.
Speaker 1: So and the other thing is every person who works
Speaker 1: at an automaker with whether it's an executive or someone
Speaker 1: in the communications department, they've all got a dirty little
Speaker 1: secret of what they own at home that is not
Speaker 1: the car brand they work for. For instance, you know,
Speaker 1: I know several people who work for German car brands.
Speaker 1: They're very high up and they own a Corvette. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's kind of like they know, you really have
Speaker 1: to get them drinking to get it out of them.
Speaker 1: But then they do and they love it, but they're
Speaker 1: also embarrassed.
Speaker 2: It's funny. I actually, for a couple of years dated
Speaker 2: the daughter of a very high ranking Mercedes Benz executive,
Speaker 2: and you know, he always had two or three top
Speaker 2: of the line Mercedes products at his house outside the grunt. Yeah,
Speaker 2: oh no, he actually kept them in the garage because
Speaker 2: in Germany you've got to be you don't want to
Speaker 2: be too showy or your neighbors will freak out, so
Speaker 2: like you've got to hide that kind of stuff. But
Speaker 2: even though he had access to everything Mercedes made, and
Speaker 2: obviously they make amazing top of the lines Apex Predator products,
Speaker 2: he's still desperately always wanted either a Corvette or you know,
Speaker 2: a Dodge Viper, and he ended up getting a Corvette,
Speaker 2: a CEO six, I remember, and I thought it was
Speaker 2: funny because he actually paid like twice us MSRP because
Speaker 2: they didn't have a market in Germany, so he had
Speaker 2: to have it kind of gray area shipped over. But
Speaker 2: it's so funny. I was like, you could have an
Speaker 2: SLS Black Series and you've got this Corvette CEO six
Speaker 2: in your garage, and he was like, yeah, I just
Speaker 2: love the the grunt and the kind of brutal power
Speaker 2: that it delivered.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I believe it fascinating.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, I had a million other questions. Hopefully
Speaker 2: Mark Royce will come on on my TV show. I
Speaker 2: want to ask about expanding the Corvette like sub brand.
Speaker 2: You know, they could easily and rumors are that they're
Speaker 2: working on it. Build an suv. I know, purists, will
Speaker 2: you know that's like heresy, I'm sure, but for some reason,
Speaker 2: I love the idea of a Corvette suv. I think
Speaker 2: the yes, well that's an electric and it's a little suv, right,
Speaker 2: I would want Corvette to make more of a puro
Speaker 2: sang or whatever you call the Ferrari. You know, I
Speaker 2: love the logo, the Corvette logo. They have such a
Speaker 2: storied history, as he said, like the time with NASA
Speaker 2: and everything is so cool and fighter pilots and stuff.
Speaker 2: So it'll be awesome if they make like a Lamborghini
Speaker 2: Urus competitor, and I think they could easily do that.
Speaker 2: I also interest Yeah, I also want to ask, like
Speaker 2: if they will actually split that off in the way
Speaker 2: that you know some brands have done it, Mercedes with AMG.
Speaker 2: Mercedes has done tried that with my Bock and they
Speaker 2: kind of reverse course a little bit.
Speaker 1: Right, split it off, split it off from Chevy.
Speaker 2: From yeah exactly, like you know, so when Mercedes like
Speaker 2: tried to make my bock. It's totally own brand, and
Speaker 2: it didn't really work. So now they've made it just
Speaker 2: like a top of the line trim.
Speaker 1: So you're saying Chevrolet would make Corvette its own brand.
Speaker 2: I don't see why not because but why because Corvette
Speaker 2: is something more than Chevrolet. It's bigger and I don't
Speaker 2: want to say better, but it's better, you know. It's like,
Speaker 2: it shouldn't be the Chevrolet Corvette. It should be just
Speaker 2: a Corvette.
Speaker 1: Corvette stands alone.
Speaker 2: I always feel weird when I'm going on Auto Trader
Speaker 2: and I'm looking for a Corvette. It's so weird that
Speaker 2: I have to put in the make Chevrolet and then Corvette.
Speaker 2: I think in the make it should just be Corvette.
Speaker 1: I could see that. I've never thought about spinning that
Speaker 1: off to its own thing. That could be interesting. But
Speaker 1: the reference points that you just said both kind of failed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I guess that's true. True, you're not wrong, So.
Speaker 1: Which makes me think it's a difficult thing to do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I can't remember the last time anyone has
Speaker 2: has really done that. I don't think there's other than
Speaker 2: AMG in my bock. I don't think there's really a
Speaker 2: lot of history in companies taking a model and then
Speaker 2: spinning it off as a full sub brand. I'll probably
Speaker 2: get a lot of emails saying like, here's fifteen different examples.
Speaker 2: By the way, our email address.
Speaker 1: Hot Pursuit at Bloomberg dot net, and we do read
Speaker 1: and respond to your emails. I don't know have you
Speaker 1: responded to any of this week?
Speaker 2: Matt, Yeah, well i've Okay, I responded to this guy Peter,
Speaker 2: who's become like my email buddy because he's gotten an
Speaker 2: amazing new car. I used to have one of these.
Speaker 2: You know. He got a G five fifty in emerald green,
Speaker 2: which is exactly the same set that I had. But
Speaker 2: there are subtle differences between the American and the German version.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: The American version has that cow pusher on the front
Speaker 2: and the German version doesn't come with that. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: in the new wheels on the G five fifty are
Speaker 2: so cool, much cooler than the turbine.
Speaker 1: Wheels that I had on the GP Mounta blocks.
Speaker 2: No, no, the mono blocks I think are only on
Speaker 2: the AMG verse.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, I was gonna say, do.
Speaker 2: You not like the monoblock wheels AMG's.
Speaker 1: Monobiling, not necessarily, not necessarily.
Speaker 2: I was in I was in Mercedes Manhattan today in fact, Oh,
Speaker 2: and I was like salivating over a G sixty three
Speaker 2: with those monoblock wheels.
Speaker 1: Of course, that doesn't surprise me in the least. That
Speaker 1: makes perfect sense.
Speaker 2: I love them. I would have them and just brushed
Speaker 2: stainless steel. The ones I saw were black. But I
Speaker 2: think that's a horrible mistake.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I saw someone brushed stainless steel the other day.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you really want to be like the
Speaker 1: ultimate obnoxious level of everything, which I mean in a way,
Speaker 1: you might as well go for it.
Speaker 2: And I do you know? Yeah, all right, Well it
Speaker 2: was awesome.
Speaker 1: It was awesome.
Speaker 2: I'm so psyched about this product launch and your story.
Speaker 2: Everyone can check it out on Bloomberg dot com. I
Speaker 2: guess that's all we we have to talk about. What
Speaker 2: are you driving right now?
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm driving a Rivian this week, the second the
Speaker 1: second generation, second generation Rivian suv.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I don't spoil it. I don't want to
Speaker 2: spoil it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we won't discuss, but that is in the mix
Speaker 1: right now. What about you?
Speaker 2: I am driving Subaru b r Z with a stick
Speaker 2: shift and it's got all these w t I pieces
Speaker 2: on it, and I'll tell you about it. Also, more
Speaker 2: about next week, because I have my thoughts completely.
Speaker 1: And next week we can discuss my recent co purchase
Speaker 1: with my husband of our new Rolls Royce. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: and we'll have Dario franchidion as well.
Speaker 2: Do you guys have now a few?
Speaker 1: We've got a few.
Speaker 2: Ah cool Dario Franchiiti. I wish you could get him
Speaker 2: in a z R one and get his take on it.
Speaker 1: That'd be really fun.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, definitely shoot us an email. Hot Pursuit
Speaker 2: at Bloomberg dot net is our email address, and thanks
Speaker 2: so much for listening this week. That's all we have.
Speaker 2: We'll check back in with you next week. I'm Matt
Speaker 2: Miller and
Speaker 1: I'm Hannah Elliott and this is Hot Pursuit