Corvette C8
Text Box: Now firmly in the mid-engine camp, I naturally had my eye on the new C8 Corvette ever since the spy photos of camouflaged prototypes began showing up on the web. When I actually started seeing them in person, I really liked the shape and stance. Since I’ve always had smaller sports cars, at first it seemed HUGE! I wondered if I could navigate it down some of the narrow roads here in TN. Putting that aside, after they had been around a while, I decided to go for it. I tried local Chevy dealers, but none even wanted to put me on a waiting list as their allocation was so low. I ended up sending my deposit to MacMulkin in NH, the largest Corvette dealer in the country, on July 4th, 2022. The used car market was crazy. Knowing I would be getting the C8 eventually, and having the Alfa & Juke to drive, I looked into selling my 370Z. In the end, after having it for over 6 years, I ended up selling it for $600 less than I paid for it! The wait was kind of fun for a while. While you see all kinds of Teslas and other expensive cars here, it’s not a big sports car area like FL. I rarely saw a C8 on the road. Linda & I would go at night to various dealerships that had used C8s on the lot to check them out. As the months went by, following my place on the waiting list every week, I was starting to get a little anxious. Then, finally, I get a call from McMaulkin. They said that if I added the Z51 performance package I could get my car sooner as that was all they were going to make for a few months. At first I didn’t want to spend the extra money. After doing a little research, I saw where it made it a much better machine and would feel more like the stiffer sports cars I was used to. Also, I thought the overall design was just a bit busy, so I didn’t want the rear wing that comes with the Z51 package. Fortunately, there was an aero delete check box that eliminated the wing. Then I did all kinds of paperwork, and eventually it actually happened! It turns our that we are just a few hours away from the Corvette Museum and assembly plant in Bowling Green KY. Specifying museum delivery was $1000 extra, but it turns out that having the car shipped here would be far more money. So, it was the only way to go. On March 29, 2023, just short of 9months since I was put on the waiting list, we rented a car and headed for Bowling Green. That night we went over to the museum, and the guard let us in for a little sneak preview. The next day we went for the real thing! The museum delivery experience was incredible. They had all the cars being delivered that day inside the museum on “Corvette Blvd” with stanchions around them. They assigned a person to us that took us through every aspect of the car for about 2 hours. We toured the museum, and were taken to the assembly plant for a great tour. You actually are down on the plant floor, walking between yellow tape, right alongside everyone putting the cars together. Fantastic! We were going to spend another night, but saw that the weather was going to be bad. So we headed home after a really big day, driving the beast for the first time, naturally mostly in the dark. The only challenge ahead was me learning to back the car into the garage.

Video of our Guide driving me out of Museum in our C8!