Last year’s UAW strike lead to fairly lengthy delays for the Corvette C8. The mid-engine sports car was originally set to enter production in December and begin shipping to customers in early 2020, but strike-related delays forced the launch to be pushed back to late February.
Understandably, Corvette C8 owners were ecstatic to begin receiving their cars after the unexpectedly long wait time, but one Vette owner barely got to enjoy his new car for a full 24 hours before it was totaled by a drunk driver.
As The Drive reports, Facebook user June Bug took delivery of his new Sebring Orange Tintcoat Corvette C8 Z51 on April 2nd. The next day, he was driving down Highway 41 near Bradenton, Florida when a suspected drunk driver in a Hyundai Accent pulled out in front of him, causing him to t-bone the black compact car. The impact pushed in the nose of the mid-engine Corvette and completely collapsed the entire side of the Hyundai, but thankfully no one was hurt in the crash.
In a post on his Facebook page, June Bug said Chevy did a great job designing the Corvette C8, as both he and his passenger were able to walk away from the heavy front-end impact without any serious injuries.
Photos uploaded to his Facebook page after the fact show the extent of the damage. The crash flattened the front end of the mid-engine sports car and set both airbags off. The eight-speed dual-clutch transmission and 495-horsepower, 6.2L LT2 V8 engine may be salvageable, though we’re sure that’s little consolation for this heartbroken Corvette owner.
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Comments
Hard to tell without knowing the speed or seeing the other vehicle, but that indicates excellent retention of the spaceframe. That’s Tesla-grade safety.
It’s going to be hard waiting for a Super Cruise C8. May have to buy one early and swap later.
June Bug is the epitome of FloridaMan
Sounds like the other driver poured more than one
A long time ago,I had a similar incident. I picked up my Monte Carlo and had it less than 6 hours, with a inexperienced woman driver lost control of her vehicle on some ice,on an off ramp, causing a chain reaction .
I wonder if there’s a way to stick that drivetrain in a Factory Five GTM?
For a $75,000.+ vehicle that’s brand new, that looks like repairable damage to me. There must be damage that isn’t visible for an insurance company to declare the vehicle a total loss. I’d like to know more about what the extent of the damage is.
I would not want a repaired new C8. No thanks Insurance Company Buy me a new one.
I was thinking the same thing! I mean, it’s pretty bad but it doesn’t look like “it’s completely totaled” kind of bad to me either.
Insurance doesn’t want to pay the cost to get brand new components at this time. The car is so new replacement parts may be a big penny expense.
Make the guy who hit him pay for it!
And then hang him from a bridge with his Hyundai.
If that car is liquidated on CoPart right now it could fetch $35,000.
It’s the fear that they get in there, fix the frame for $15k, do $10k in body work and then find oh… Shoot… The engine is damaged after all. Cars with that much damage can circle back to the shop multiple times and insurance is on the hook.
On late model Vettes, once the frame is tweaked, there is no way to straighten them out and maintain the original strength. I had a unibody car that was T boned, they fixed it but it wasn’t right. Put a trailer on it and the opposite quarter buckled because there wasn’t any strength in the frame.
GM as of 2009 issued revised frame guidance. The Corvette-based Solstice and Sky (frame anyway) were the first to benefit from this – a godsend since there won’t be anything like them any time soon.
If done very carefully, and properly, spaceframes can be fixed. It’s arguably easier than a unibody because of their component based constructions.
That said, it’s also easy to screw it up if you don’t measure out perfectly.
i also had a similar incident with my new car around 35 years ago… (during the 1984 Olympics)
i had let my new girlfriend drive my car who was much shorter than myself who did push the front seat back but apparently did not let it bounce back and click into place… she stepped on the gas and her seat rolled back and she could not reach the brakes… so guess what?…
she crashed into some neighbors garage and damaged the front end…
what did i do?
i broke up with her and took the money from my insurance…
lesson learnt: Never Ever Let Anyone Drive Your Special Car!
‘Especially Your ‘Girlfriend’ !!!
ps.. this happened twice to me.. once i let a friend drive my car to the local carwash… guess what? he had a fender bender..
what did i do? the same as above… good bye, have a nice life
Sorry, but this guy looks like a goof. He also seems very intent on making sure people know or think it was a DUI , by even going to the extent of writing it all over the car, and then posing on it.
2nd day of ownership, gee wonder how fast he was driving when he hit the “suspected drunk driver”
F
With all the problems, delays and now this, I think the C8 is cursed.
What imbecile would want a self-driving supercar?
It would be cool if he had the track recorder turned on when the collision occurred It would at least be a benefit for him when it comes to dealing with his insurance company.
Unless he was way over the speed limit.
I would never ever want this car back. EVER!!! If the drunk was at fault then if he has insurance (never know) then it’s new car. If it is on the C8 then my collision pays for it. If they give me trouble layer up . The car will never be the same .
Coming to a racetrack near you. 😉
Take it to a Demolition Derby?