General Motors got a bit lucky with the timing surrounding the release of the C8 Corvette. Following production delays due to a 2019 UAW strike, early deliveries of the C8 began just before fears of a global coronavirus pandemic ground the automotive industry to a halt. The result is that the internet is now chock-full of happy new owners blasting around in their new toys—though those owners certainly don't want to be reminded that the higher-spec variants of the outgoing C7 'Vette can still blast them out of the water. Meanwhile, the pandemic may have delayed GM's plans for more aggressive C8 models, which has led shops like Hennessey Performance to fast-track their modding packages (though Hennessey has only teased theirs, not truly released it). Perhaps some of Hennessey's delays can be explained by a recent video posted by the YouTube star Emilia Hartford, who bolted a pair of snails onto her Chevy supercar and promptly blew up the engine.
Don't Try This At Home
Hartford had already released a string of videos and a ton of social media posts featuring her C8 Corvette, which she's been building up into a track monster thanks to a twin-turbo upgrade. To most owners, the prospect of voiding the C8 Corvette's warranty and potentially causing catastrophic damage might not seem worth the potential gains, this is YouTube and everyone wants to know what might happen. Well, the eventual did happen and as Hartford took her newly boosted 'Vette out for a test drive, all kinds of nasty sounds emerge from the mid-mounted LT2 V8.
The Damage Is Done
Digging into the disassembled V8 back at the shop, Hartford and her team found that the pistons inside still looked serviceable, though the powerplant had bent some rods. Of course, the man-hours and money required to rebuild the LT2 will also come along with more content that fans are sure to eat up, so Hartford sounds relatively unphased by the development and plans to keep beefing up the C8 in the hopes of one day driving the car GM should have released from the factory first.
Source: Youtube