1966 Chevelle on 2040-cars

Auto blog

GM to restore legendary Corvette damaged in sinkhole accident

Car lover's hearts' sank when they saw images of bent and destroyed classic Corvettes at the bottom of a sinkhole last February after the floor of the National Corvette Museum gave way. General Motors announced Wednesday it would restore the one millionth Corvette ever produced to its former glory. The 1992 convertible was heavily damaged when a 40-foot deep sinkhole opened beneath a bevy of rare cars at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Since then, GM has been slowly restoring the classic cars, though five of the eight that caught in the sinkhole were determined to be too damaged to repair. This November, the 2009 Corvette ZR1 Blue Devil was the first car to be returned in mint condition to the Museum, according to Autoblog. It suffered significant damage but was still drivable after being pulled out of the debris. The one millionth Corvette is still in bad shape. The automaker is estimating six months worth of work to restore the car, which sustained paint scratches, rear-suspension damage and a mangled front fender. Related Gallery Consumer Reports Most Loved Cars 2014 Chevrolet GM Automotive History corvette famous cars sinkhole corvette museum

GM removes start/stop from full-size trucks and SUVs with V8 engines

GM is removing start/stop technology from a number of its popular full-size SUVs due to the ongoing chip shortage. This follows the removal of cylinder deactivation technology from some of its trucks, which was also due to the chip shortage. GM Authority first reported the news, but we’ve just confirmed everything with a GM spokesperson.  The following 2021 model year vehicles will be affected: Chevy Tahoe, Chevy Suburban, GMC Yukon, Cadillac Escalade, Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500. Only versions of those vehicles built with the 5.3-liter V8 or 6.2-liter V8 and mated to the 10-speed automatic will have the tech removed from them. Only vehicles manufactured on or after June 7 will be affected. “By taking this measure, it will enable us to continue production of our high-demand full-size SUV and pickups as the industry continues to rebound and strengthen,” GM said in a statement. Those who ultimately buy one of these vehicles without start/stop technology will receive a $50 discount off MSRP for their troubles. Losing this fuel-saving tech could be a big negative for some, but we know many folks turn it off anyway. Not having to press the button to deactivate start/stop every time could actually be a positive if youÂ’re part of the camp who does that already. 2021 Cadillac Escalade Sport Platinum View 27 Photos On the downside, GM says “most of the affected vehicles will experience a minor reduction in fuel economy.” We donÂ’t have revised window stickers in hand to know how each model will be affected, but any 1 mpg reduction will be rather impactful for vehicles rated as low as these trucks already are. Any reduction will be seen in the city mpg rating, so take the kind of driving youÂ’re going to be doing into account before purchasing. When it comes to greenhouse gas compliance rules, GM says it doesnÂ’t foresee this impacting the companyÂ’s average fleet score. It also intends to begin adding start/stop back to these models as soon as possible, but there will be no retrofit effort made to fit the tech to vehicles already built without it. “Our supply chain organization continues to make strides working with our supply base to mitigate the near-term impacts of the semiconductor situation,” GMÂ’s statement reads. “GM continues to leverage every available semiconductor to build and ship our most popular and in-demand products, including our highly profitable full-size trucks and SUVs for our customers.

How easy is it to rebuild a Chevy small block V8?

Chevrolet's famous small block V8 stands as one of the workhorse engines in American auto history, with its variants going into vehicles from hot rods to pickup trucks. But do you know that you can fully disassemble and completely restore one of these mills in just under four minutes? Well, as long as there's some assistance from time-lapse photography, that is. Hagerty created this short clip showing a dirt-covered small block turning from a frog into a prince. Thankfully, the time-lapse doesn't speed the process up too much, and it's still easy to see how all of the principal parts fit together. With all sorts of sensors and software helping to drive the modern automobile, viewing the internal combustion engine in its purely mechanical form is still fascinating. Related Video: