Month: September 2012

One of the hardest working vendors you will see at a major Corvette show are the guys from Adam’s Premium Car Care Products. Every time we walked by their booth at Corvettes at Carlisle, they had a different Corvette parked in front and several detailers hard at work demonstrating Adam’s products to the assembled crowds.

We caught up with Adam Pitale, founder and President of Adam’s, who was very excited to tell us about their exclusive line of car care products branded and endorsed by GM for the Corvette and Camaro. So we tagged along and had the opportunity to see some of them demonstrated to members of GM’s Corvette Team.

Adam’s huge vendor tent was just down the aisle from GM’s Corvette Team and we saw Adam do a quick walk-around of Tom Hill’s 2013 Corvette 427 Convertible. “This paint is rougher than a night in jail” Adam joked as he ran his fingers over the Torch Red sports Car. “Let’s get this car into our tent so we can claybar it” he told one of his detailers. As the Red 427 Convertible was backed down the aisle and into Adam’s tent, a contingent of GM’s Corvette Team including Hill, Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter and Bowling Green Assembly Plant Manager Dave Tatman came down to watch.

As his detailers went to work claybaring the 427 Convertible Corvette, Adam was demonstrating several of his officially licensed products on the red sports car. Dave Tatman was especially interested in the glass cleaner for the windshield and so Adam went to work, explaining how glass is porous which keeps water on the windshield and then showed how his products help keep to clear the water.

Check out these pictures from Corvettes at Carlisle:

The officially licensed product line of Corvette and Camaro car care products includes Adam’s Car Wash Shampoo, Brilliant Glaze, Detail Spray, Buttery Car Wax, Super VRT Tire & Trim Dressing and Adam’s Green Wheel Cleaner. Here is a quick run-down on each product:

• Adam’s Car Wash Shampoo – Pamper your ride with this pH balanced conditioning formula that provides safe, swirl free car washing. Get the clean that others will envy.
• Adam’s Brilliant Glaze – Take your vehicle to the next level with this superior glaze. It provides amazing depth, gloss and clarity while being super easy to use. Achieve that wet looking shine with ease bringing your vehicles appearance to a whole new level.
• Adam’s Detail Spray – Keep your vehicle looking just detailed with this “instant car detail” in a bottle. Great for exterior and interior touch ups, and adding shine on the go. This is one detail spray that gets every detail for an all over top notch clean.
• Adam’s Buttery Car Wax – As much as you love your ride, no one loves to wax their car. However, waxing doesn’t have to be a chore. This easy to use formula gets you done with waxing faster and back to enjoying your car! Adam’s Buttery Car Wax is so simple and easy to apply, that it really doesn’t matter how or where you apply it. The clean is pristine and beautiful.
• Adam’s Super Vinyl, Rubber & Trim Dressing – Keep your tires and trim looking their best with our water repellent, no sling, dressing. This product provides durable SPF 35 protection leaving a crisp, sharp, freshly detailed look and who doesn’t love that kind of clean.
• Adam’s Green Wheel Cleaner – The perfect answer for those searching for car care with a conscious, this wheel cleaner is eco-friendly while being tough on brake dust. Don’t worry though, our exclusive formula is gentle on all wheel finishes and your ride’s wheels will shine brightly in the sun.

“We are honored to be chosen as the officially licensed car care products of Corvette and Camaro by GM,” said Adam Pitale. “Our specially formulated GM branded products will go above and beyond to help consumers protect and care for their vehicles.”

All of Adam’s Premium Car Care Products are proudly produced in the USA with high quality, easy to use formulas for the perfectionist. To learn more about Adam’s or watch instructional videos on how to properly detail your ride, check out www.AdamsPolishes.com.

Related:
[PICS] Corvettes at Carlisle 2012
[VIDEO] The 2013 Corvette Seminar at Corvettes at Carlisle
Sunday Afternoon Tradition: Washing the Corvette!

 

It’s a tribute to the engineers at Chevrolet that the Corvette ZR1 is even considered a peer with the much, much more expensive Ferrari 458 Italia and the McLaren MP4-12C.

Road & Track recently decided to pit three of the best that the United States, Italy, and Britain have to offer at Spring Mountain’s Radical Loop, with IMSA GT legend Steve Millen driving for the timed laps. Millen, of course, has the most all-time wins in that series with 20 as well as the most pole positions with 23.

For proper evaluation, the magazine flogged the three cars on a Death Valley road trip, lapped them at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch, and finally through the generosity of Hennessey Performance Engineering validated their power on a dynojet chassis dyno.

Road & Track found all three cars spectacular in their own way, praising the Corvette for its easy, effortless torque, fantastically stick Michelin tires, and a chassis that’s planted yet still offers a reasonable ride.
They describe the Ferrari as high strung, incredibly precise, and with a flick of a switch on its steering wheel can go from merely precise to racecar levels of handling aggression.

The McLaren dazzles with its looks, amazes with its twin turbo power, and can also change handling personality with the flip of a switch, R&T says.

While each of the three cars is absolutely world class in performance and execution, Road & Track aptly points out that there can be only one winner. So which is the most desirable V8-powered supercar on the planet?

We won’t spoil the surprise, but we will tell you it comes down to the Ferrari and the Corvette. Check out the video to find out which is the winner:

Source:
TopSpeed.com

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[VIDEO] Mystery Car Taunts a Corvette Z06
[VIDEO] Drag Race Battles with a Corvette ZR1 Hennessey vs 1200 hp Twin Turbo Jeep SRT-8
Ferrari 458 vs 750-hp Corvette ZR1 Lingenfelter, Nissan GT-R and Audi RS6

 

Gavin and Milner Score Big in GT Championship with Runner-up Finish, Magnussen and Garcia Fight Back from Last to Sixth

BALTIMORE, Sept. 1, 2012 – Corvette Racing encountered heavy holiday traffic on the streets of Baltimore today, finishing second and sixth in the Baltimore Sports Car Challenge. Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner labored long and hard on the Labor Day weekend to bring the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R across the finish line second, 2.2 seconds behind the winning No. 17 Porsche of Bryan Sellers and Wolf Henzler. That result increased their lead in the GT driver championship as their closest rivals finished down the order. Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen battled back after a tire puncture on the first lap dropped the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R to last place. With their sixth-place finish, Garcia and Magnussen retained second place in the GT driver standings.

The top eight GT cars finished on the same lap, completing 67 tours around the 2.0-mile temporary street course in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor in the two-hour race. The GT-winning Porsche finished fourth overall, and the Gavin/Milner Corvette was fifth overall. The first four finishers in the closely contested GT category represented four different manufacturers: Porsche, Chevrolet, Ferrari, and BMW.

“I just kept thinking about the bigger picture in the closing laps,” Gavin said. “I caught Bryan pretty quickly, but he was driving well and not making mistakes. We had a number of cautions, and he was better than us on the restarts. Once we got into those caution periods, I realized that we needed to think about the championship points. Of course we want to win, but we didn’t want to risk throwing it away. We’ve extended our lead in the standings with two more races to go. We’re certainly not taking anything for granted.”

Milner started the No. 4 Corvette C6.R on the GT pole, and Garcia started third in the No. 3 Corvette C6.R. The first lap saw a traffic jam as several prototypes tangled and blocked the first turn; Milner and Garcia made it through, but the No. 3 suffered a slow puncture and had to pit on the third lap, falling to 12th in the GT class. Milner led for the first 10 laps before he was blocked by a prototype and passed by the No. 55 BMW and the No. 17 Porsche. The BMW was penalized for avoidable contact, but the No. 01 Ferrari got by Milner before a pit stop and driver change at 48 minutes into the race. Gavin took over and was second after the pit stop cycle, a position he held to the checkered flag.

“The start was a mess, as I expected,” Milner said. “We were lucky – the No. 3 Corvette had a puncture and we had some light contact. I was in the right place at the right time and was able to squeeze through without much damage. The car was tough to drive, though, and I was really working hard.

“We always want to win a race, but today second place feels like a victory,” he added. “We got good points in the driver championship and gained ground for Chevrolet in the manufacturer points. These races are so tough – starting on pole and being fast all weekend, you’d like to win, but it didn’t work out that way today. We made the most with what we had, and that’s what counts now.”

After Garcia pitted early, he moved up to sixth before handing off to Magnussen at the 46-minute mark. Magnussen emerged in seventh, and passed the No. 48 Porsche for sixth, a position he held to the checkered flag.

“Nobody touched me in the first turn, I just followed Tommy around and got a puncture,” Garcia said. “I saw out of the corner of my eye that somebody misjudged where he was going. I could make up two or three seconds, but when you are 20 or 25 seconds behind, you need some help with yellow flags.”

Magnussen agreed with his teammate: “The car was fast, we were catching the guys in front, but when you get put back like that in the beginning of a race, you have to be very lucky with strategy,” he said. “I just kept pushing as hard as I could, the car was fantastic, but the luck didn’t go our way.”

Gavin and Milner now unofficially lead the GT driver championship by 28 points over teammates Magnussen and Milner (124-96). BMW driver Dirk Mueller is third with 94 points, and Joey Hand fourth with 91. Chevrolet leads the GT manufacturer championship by 19 points over BMW (145-126) with two races remaining, followed by Porsche (123) and Ferrari (110).

“Our sole strategic mission today was to finish ahead of the BMW,” said Corvette Racing program manager Doug Fehan. “Ordinarily we might take a slightly different perspective, but at a street race like this, with such closely matched cars, you have to have realistic goals. Our objective was to finish ahead of the BMW today, and we accomplished that. I’m proud of this team for its performance under pressure.”

Corvette Racing’s next event is the American Le Mans Series VIR 240 at Virginia International Raceway on Saturday, Sept. 15.

Baltimore Sports Car Challenge GT Results (Top 10)
Pos./Car No./Drivers/Car/Laps

1. 17 Henzler/Sellers, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 67
2. 4 Gavin/Milner, Corvette C6.R, 67
3. 01 Sharp/van Overbeek, Ferrari 458 Italia, 67
4. 56 D. Mueller/Hand, BMW E92 M3, 67
5. 45 Bergmeister/Long, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 67
6. 3 Magnussen/Garcia, Corvette C6.R, 67
7. 44 Long/Holzer, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 67
8. 55 J. Mueller/Auberlen, BMW E92 M3, 67
9. 48 Miller/Maassen, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 66
10. 23 Sweedler/Bell, Lotus Evora, 66

Source:
CorvetteRacing.com

Related:
Corvette Racing Wins GT Pole for Baltimore Street Race
Corvette Racing at Baltimore: Racin’ in the Streets
[VIDEO] Here’s the Wild Finish for Corvette Racing at ALMS Road America

 

As a scorching Corvette ZR1 roars around a turn in the background, automobile expert Matt Farah of the Attack of the Show asks viewers on the Web if they’d like to drive that.

“I can’t but I’d sure as hell like to,” Farah says. “Today that’s what we’re gonna do.”

Farah was lucky enough to go to the Ron Fellows Driving School for a lesson in not just any car, but a 2012 Corvette ZR1.

“You won’t just improve your driving technique,” Farah says, “but you’ll have a little fun in a $100,000 ride!”

He gets lessons from Rick Malone, head instructor at the Ron Fellows Driving School.

Malone admits that the ZR1 is not an amateur’s car, “but the way (it) is designed with the computer system and electronic aids, it will help an amateur driver actually become a better driver.”

Malone points out that the ZR1 is a legitimate 200mph car, “and if you think about it in the United States just a half decade ago, the most you could get out of a street car was 405-hp – the Z06, and now six years later, we’ve got 638-hp.”

Farah asked him what are some of the challenges most encountered with the drivers he trains, and Malone says it’s the corner approach and corner entries, focusing on the exit speed instead of the entrance speed.
Every corner has three parts – a turn-in point, an apex, and a track-out – or the beginning, middle, and end.

“Every corner is different so it’s important to know where that apex occurs on the corner,” Farah says, “to maximize your fastest driving line.”

On his first time around the track, Farah sets a baseline time of 1:32.20, then takes an hour of instruction with Malone and 10 practice laps to see if he can improve.
He does, dropping to 1:29.07.

“Ron Fellows Driving School is pretty awesome,” Farah says. “Even somebody like me who’s relatively advanced can still show up and take 2½ seconds off my lap time in just an afternoon!”

Source:
G4TV.com

Related:
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[VIDEO] Matt Farah Learns to Drift a Corvette at Bondurant
[VIDEO] Watch the Morrison 3G 1960 Corvette in Action at Spring Mountain

 

Gavin Captures 20th Career ALMS Pole on Challenging Street Circuit, Magnussen Third in GT Qualifying

BALTIMORE, Aug. 31, 2012 – As Oliver Gavin prepared to make his qualifying run for Saturday’s Baltimore Sports Car Challenge in the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R, he asked engineer Chuck Houghton how many laps he had. Houghton replied, “However many it takes for you to put the car on the pole.”

Gavin needed only four laps to post the quickest qualifying time in the GT class for the eighth round of the American Le Mans Series. He turned a time of 1:29.945 (81.650 mph) on his fourth time around the 2-mile, 12-turn temporary street circuit to claim his 20th career pole in the American Le Mans Series. Teammate Jan Magnussen was third quickest at 1:30.413 (81.227 mph) in his ninth and final lap in the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R. Gavin won the pole on the streets of downtown Baltimore by a .382-second margin over the No. 55 BMW of Bill Auberlen that qualified second in the 13-strong GT field.

“It’s always fun to qualify on a street circuit, something a driver really relishes with new tires on a course that getting better and better with every lap,” Gavin said after setting the track qualifying record on the reconfigured course. “I’m delighted to be on the pole.”

The No. 4 Corvette C6.R set the pace in both practice sessions today. Gavin’s co-driver Tommy Milner did the initial setup during the one-hour morning practice, but Gavin’s track time in the final 30-minute afternoon session was cut short by red flags and contact with a prototype that damaged his car’s right-side bodywork and exhaust system. The No. 4 Corvette crew repaired the car in the pit lane, and Gavin was ready to charge when the green flag flew for 15 minutes of GT qualifying.

“The car was very good, and I have to thank Tommy for his excellent work this morning, and thank Chuck for coming up with a setup that was quick right off the truck,” Gavin said. “We made a few tweaks here and there, and then it was about finding the rhythm. That’s always the way it is on a street circuit, you just keep working away while you have the tire grip. I managed to nail it on the fourth lap. Then I was looking to go that little bit more, but I was starting to really hang it out and didn’t want to risk ending up in the wall.”

Magnussen made an all-out run for the pole on his final lap, but came up .468 seconds short. “We missed on the setup just a little bit, and it was hard for me to find the lap time,” Magnussen said. “For sure I didn’t get the best out of my tires when they were at their peak. After that I felt pretty secure, but it wasn’t possible for me to improve my lap time. We need to work on the race setup now. It’s a shame I didn’t nail it on the lap when I needed to, but that’s how it is.”

Gavin and Milner will start tomorrow’s race leading the GT championship by 18 points over Magnussen and Antonio Garcia. With 20 points on the line in the two-hour race, Gavin is mindful of the championship race.

“It’s going to be a real dogfight, and I’m sure that the car is going to come back with some scars on it,” he said. “We’re going to have to take some risks with traffic, maybe rub a wall here and there. We have to be smart as well, and as always you need some luck on a street course. We’re starting in the right spot, hopefully out ahead of the crowd where all the action can sometimes happen.”

The two-hour Baltimore Sports Car Challenge presented by SRT, the eighth round of the 2012 American Le Mans Series, will start at 4:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Sept. 1. The race can be viewed live on ESPN3.com starting at 4:15 p.m. ET. ABC will televise the race at 12 p.m. ET on Sunday, Sept. 2.

Baltimore Sports Car Challenge GT Qualifying (Top 10)
Pos./Car No./Drivers/Car/Time

1. 4 Gavin/Milner, Corvette C6.R, 1:29.945
2. 55 J. Mueller/Auberlen, BMW E92 M3, 1:30.327
3. 3 Magnussen/Garcia, Corvette C6.R, 1:30.413
4. 45 Bergmeister/Long, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 1:30.665
5. 56 D. Mueller/Hand, BMW E92 M3, 1:30.838
6. 01 Sharp/van Overbeek, Ferrari 458 Italia, 1:31.262
7. 17 Henzler/Sellers, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 1:31.412
8. 48 Miller/Maassen, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 1:32.108
9. 92 Goossens/Kendall, SRT Viper GTSR, 1:33.526
10. 23 Sweedler/Bell, Lotus Evora, 1:33.701

Source:
CorvetteRacing.com

Related:
Corvette Racing at Baltimore: Racin’ in the Streets
[VIDEO] Here’s the Wild Finish for Corvette Racing at ALMS Road America
Corvettes Fourth and Sixth in Wild Finish at Road America