A truck hauling incomplete C8 Corvette Stingray bodies has been spotted driving on the highway by sharp-eyed Chevy fans.
These photos were shared by a Facebook user this week, who indicated the truck was spotted driving down the highway somewhere in Ohio, and heading towards Cleveland. The truck is hauling what appear to be partially built C8 Corvette Stingray bodies. While we can’t confirm this, it seems very likely these bodies were damaged in the recent tornadoes that touched down in the Bowling Green, Kentucky area, which damaged many C8 Corvette Stingray models that were being stored both outside and inside GM Bowling Green Assembly. Unfortunately, that would mean these bodies were on their way to be being crushed.
This isn’t the first time a batch of Corvettes that were presumably damaged by the tornadoes has been spotted. In late December, photos surfaced showing damaged C8 Corvette Stingray models being stored in a dirt lot, which were missing their body panels, doors and other components. These images are likely a bit frustrating to look at for Chevy customers that are awaiting delivery of a C8 Corvette Stingray, as the vehicle has experienced consistent production delays and setbacks since its introduction at the beginning of 2020. Higher than expected demand for the mid-engine sports car has compounded with these production delays to make the vehicle even harder to come by.
As a reminder, the C8 Corvette Stingray is powered by the mid-mounted, naturally aspirated 6.2L V8 LT2 gasoline engine, which is rated at 490 horsepower at 6,450 rpm and 465 pound-feet of torque at 5,150 rpm. Output is fed to the rear wheels through an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission. As noted above, the C8 Corvette is produced exclusively at the GM Bowling Green Assembly plant in Kentucky.
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Comments
There is a place in Akron the mfgs use to destroy cars. They use video to prove the car is destroyed or the specific parts are destroyed,
Better than on a dealer’s floor
Why would they not salvage the Tires, Wheels, Engine, Exhaust & Transmissions. Water does not harm these items and many more smaller items.
Exactly what I’m thinking, even if you don’t sell them why not keep them for spares or testing at the plant if something comes up.
From past experience with insurance companies… I have a theory that for purposes of insurance that
complete destruction is required to satisfy the accountants.
When you and I know that those engines, transmissions, exhaust, tires and wheels are fully usable
and would be welcome in any builders garage. Why not strip them back down to basic parts, and after careful
quality control let them serve a purpose ? Waste in any form usually turns people off, and this is no different.
What they are doing is simply a waste.
Simple they have to move them. Odds are good once they get to where they are going GM or the salvager will remove them and recondition them.
Most wheels today have core charges and can be reconditioned and resold if they have no structural damage.
You may find the engines and trannys will go to the secondary market too. Only the chassis will be destroyed and the electronics recycled.
There is a lot more to this than just crushing.
This is exactly what I thought!
Torch Red C8 is at least partially right. They probably have to be destroyed to satisfy the insurance company. If a claim was filed, and payment was made, then the cars, or what’s left of them belongs to the insurance company, and GM has no right to hold on to any parts of the cars. If this the case, then the insurance company will likely send them to an insurance yard where dismantlers can bid on them. Even if GM was self insured, and a company the size of GM may be, a loss the size that GM experienced (cars, trucks, buildings, parts, production down time, etc) would likely still be covered as a catastrophic lose under stop loss insurance, provided by an outside insurer.
Secondly, if these cars. or what remains of them, are being destroyed, it may be at the insistence of GM’s legal department. Many of the parts in today’s cars have VIN numbers on them, and even those that don’t, could possibly be traced back to GM. If a part from one of the tornado damaged cars ended up on a car that was involved in an accident, and was identified as being from one of those cars, then GM could be sued and/or help liable for the accident.
GM is self-insured, at least until the claim hits somewhere around a half-billion.
My thoughts exactly. GM writes these off as a loss against current and future profits. There isn’t any insurance company involvement in the matter.
I’m guessing that anything removed from a vehicle labeled as scrap, would have to labeled as “Salvage”. That would create another liability for GM. That’s the only way I can comprehend their action. By-the-way: Took possession of my 2022 Torch Red 2LT on the 19th. Loving it!!!! (ten days short of a year)
Seems like a long costly way to haul a carcass on a transport for destruction. If they were going to be scrapped why not just stack them in a dumpster and let the contracted scrap hauler at the plant remove them? They could be cut up into much smaller pieces to avoid anyone “rebuilding” them.
I would think there would be an on-site process and policy in place already at BG.
Different parts will be processed. It is likely GM removed what they wanted and the insurance company settled with a salvager that will sell the engines and scrap the chassis.
LKQ Triplett often scraps out shipping damaged cars for mfgs.
Little hoes to waste and little money is lost. In some cases the cars are worth more parted out than sold new.
In the 1970’s we knew a guy that worked at the dump. One of the jobs there was destroying brand new inventory
from companies. Brand new auto parts like carburetors, and even guitars from a well known global name.
The idea was that through destruction the company was able to reap more value (bottom line profits) than letting any of this get sold,
at any price. And … sometimes a few new pieces ended up in our garage…..
It was hard to understand how companies could make more money destroying than by selling. That is what ivy league
schools and wall street have provided.
GM does not want their dealers to miss a sale. i watched GM destroy and bury new flood damaged cars at a friend’s landfill and the guy from GM told me that
Most builders would sacrifice a body part(s) for some of this stuff in ‘as is’ condition!
Why are they unfinished? Don’t throw everything out because you don’t have one piece of the puzzle. Wait for the pieces I don’t start building if you don’t have everything! What a waste! No wonder everything cost so much! Nothing has value in today’s world!
Does every article end with, “ As a reminder, the C8 Corvette Stingray is powered by the mid-mounted, naturally aspirated 6.2L V8 LT2 gasoline engine, which is rated at…….”
Tornado and flood damaged vehicles would be useful for crash testing too.
I don’t know about that. The results from any test done using a car that was previously damaged, would likely be suspect.
I can’t believe the NHTSA would want a vehicle previously damaged for testing, or be willing to accept the results of tests done on a vehicle that had a questionable past. And I doubt GM would be willing to take a chance on the possible legal liabilities, that could result from relying on test results that could have been corrupted by previous damage to the test vehicle.
Certainly a good point and would depend on the damage incurred.
Considering the level of damage that results in totaling a vehicle, which can fall far short of any structural damage. Considering the structural layout of the Corvette, roof and panel damage would have little effect on the structural integrity of the frame and subframe structures. I do not, however, have any knowledge of the actual damage these examples experienced.
Taking new cars and bashing them up in a controlled and instrumented manner is certainly heat breaking to see but provides valuable and real feedback on the simulations that are used to design all kinds of vehicles.
Given the carbon fiber composite rear bumper, I would personally be interested in how this assembly interacts with the aluminum structure and its energy absorbing properties.
One thing, not mentioned above, that GM often does is to donate these to Technical Schools, High School Auto Tech Programs, and Junior Colleges with Auto programs for training purposes. This is where future Auto Techs can wear out every nut and bolt on these vehicles to learn how to properly service and repair them. These also go to General Motors Training Centers for the same purpose. Rather than use for salvage, they make a great learning tool.
Personnaly I wish that gm would have donated the damaged Vette’s to the various Highway Patrols in the neighboring states. The HP could have used them to chase down the fools in Tesla’s that think that they own the worlds fastest cars. It’s bad enough that they think that their cars could drive by themselves.
My younger brother is a tech. Ed teacher in a high school. He has benefited from gm donating vehicles to be parted, measured, reassembled. GM would pick up these vehicles after a certain time period. There were also rules that he had to abide by in order to stay in the program. It truly was a win win. GM could not resell these vehicles due liability issues. GO LAWYERS+
The school thing has been around and generally are completed cars damaged in shipping. We had them in school.
PPG even donated sone turbo Fiero pace cars from the cart series to the schools. They were later resold.
I wager much of these cars were being built and damaged in the roof damage. Hence not completed cars. The engines and wheels are easily salvaged and may be resold other wise they would have just brought in a portable crusher and done it on sight.
Since these seems like it’s an ongoing problem with tornados why doesn’t GM build a warehouse there to store the cars in.
Have you seen what a Tornado can do to a large candle company in KY that amounts to a large warehouse.
You would need an underground bunker. Also Tornado are in number but generally affect small areas
I just had a thought seeing those go-kart style chassis. How fun to drive them, just like that.
Yeah!
Just another Ford hauling junk Chevy’s to the scrap yard.
Sad these weren’t donated to tech schools, the techs of the future need to learn the newest technologies
There is a couple of small super car companies in North America that are using c8 vette chassis with there own bodies. Could be where these are going.