1989 Corvette Challenge Race Car Crash - VetteTube

Corvette C7 put on indefinite hold

Posted Oct 17th 2008 3:47PM by Damon Lavrinc
Filed under: Coupes, Chevrolet, GM

According to multiple unnamed sources speaking with Autoweek, General Motors has put its plans for a C7 Corvette on "indefinite hold, with no official or set timetable." That's a pretty broad admission, but not entirely surprising considering the financial issues plaguing GM, the rest of the domestics and the world as a whole.

Originally it was thought that the current C6 Corvette would undergo significant upgrades over the course of the next five years, with the C7 coming to market in 2014. That timeframe doesn't appear to hold water anymore, and Autoweek maintains that GM's leadership doesn't have a clear plan for what the future holds for the 'Vette, not to mention the rest of the General's lineup.

However, Corvette vehicle-line executive Tom Wallace assured the weekly pub that the halo coupe isn't going anywhere. "We're still working on future Corvettes," Wallace said, and "there are changes, some neat stuff, coming for 2010 that I can't talk about yet." Wallace went on to say that the 2010 model wouldn't be considered an all-new car and that the 35-mpg CAFE standards for 2020 are having an effect on future drivetrains specs of the next Corvette.

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/10/17/co ... 7-put-on-indefinite-hold/

She needs to go back for more training. Here's a good lesson!

The thing that scares me most about Obama is a Supreme Court with an additional 2 or 3 of these things appointed!

Chevy to temporarily halt Vette production due to economy
Posted Sep 15th 2008 9:01AM by Michael Harley

Filed under: Sports/GTs, Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, Plants/Manufacturing, Chevrolet


It's been more than a decade since the "recession-proof" Chevrolet Corvette had to endure a production cut due to excess dealer inventory, but that's apparently the case once again. Citing slow sales related to the ongoing automotive recession, GM will turn off the Corvette's factory lights during the week of October 6th. When Vette assembly resumes the following week, production will be scaled back to 15 cars per hour (normal speed is 18.5 cars per hour). Unfortunately, GM says layoffs will accompany the new schedule at the Bowling Green facility, with up to 75 workers losing their jobs. While surprising, the news isn't entirely unexpected. Corvette sales were down 8.5 percent for the year through August of 2008. They only rebounded after GM included the model in its employee pricing sale... and we all know a shot in the arm like that won't hold out over time.

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/09/15/ch ... production-due-to-economy

Don't forget the push bars and a "Dare" front license plate!

Quote:

I can't help but think of one of the Pink Panther movies where Clouseau tries to fix the cigarette lighter with a screwdriver.

Quote:

You can still own guns in Kalifornia?

Drive 55 campaign gaining speed

By William M. Welch, USA TODAY



Rocker Sammy Hagar, who wrote the song I Can't Drive 55, helps change a sign in 1995 after the maximum speed limit was raised to 65 mph on Highway 101 in Northern California.

File photo by Robert Buhl, AP

LOS ANGELES — Though it lasted longer than disco and leisure suits, the national 55-miles-per-hour speed limit was another remnant of the 1970s that did not endure.

Yet with high fuel costs reviving memories of the energy crisis of that decade, proposals to bring back the "double nickel" or something like it are emerging, with backers saying federal speed limits could save fuel, money and perhaps lives.

"The faster you go, the more you waste," says Tim Castleman, a Sacramento man who is promoting a Drive 55 campaign.

Until gasoline approached $4 a gallon, Castleman didn't find a lot of support for reinstating the 55-mph limit that Congress abolished in 1995 after more than 20 years.

"It was a terribly unpopular law," acknowledges Castleman, who maintains a website, www.drive55.org.

Indeed, reinstating the national 55-miles-per-hour limit, or 60 mph as some suggest, would seem a tough sell after the first experiment proved about as successful as Prohibition.

Opponents such as Jim Baxter, head of the National Motorists Association, a Wisconsin group, argue any fuel savings would be tiny and that higher limits haven't made highways less safe.

"People have to be willing to comply with it," he says. "And they weren't."

New action in Congress

Proposed by President Nixon and enacted in January 1974, the nationwide speed limit was described as a temporary emergency response to oil shortages and was to expire in mid-1975. But Congress soon made it permanent, and the 55-mph limit immediately became part of the national culture.

Auto speedometers highlighted the 55-mph limit, police radar detection devices became popular, and rocker Sammy Hagar had a 1984 hit record that complained, I Can't Drive 55.

States that had allowed speeds 75 mph or higher were compelled to go along because of the threat of losing federal money for highway construction. But in the face of resistance, Congress in 1987 relaxed the law to permit 65 mph on rural interstate highways. In 1995, Congress lifted the federal limit entirely. Baxter says most states have maximum limits of 65 or 70 mph. Some Western states have higher limits.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., introduced a bill last month that orders a study to determine the effects of a national 60-mph speed limit.

Warner says the 55 limit reduced fuel use by 167,000 barrels a day, or 2% of highway consumption, citing a Congressional Research Service report. With far more vehicles, fuel savings is likely to be far greater now, he says.

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., has proposed a 60-mph limit in urban areas and 65-mph elsewhere.

"There is no need for OPEC or the oil companies to help us out," Speier says. "Every driver can affect change simply by easing up on their right foot."

Both point to findings by the Environmental Protection Agency that fuel efficiency decreases above 60 mph.

Speier says 11 other House Democrats, most of them from California, are co-sponsoring her bill. And she claims support from environmental groups and the American Trucking Associations.

Few other politicians have been eager to climb aboard, Baxter says. He notes that Warner is leaving office at the end of this year and that Speier represents a San Francisco and San Mateo district where voters may be less tied to their autos than elsewhere in the country.

"The public isn't real excited about going back to a 55-mph national speed limit," Baxter says.

Traffic fatalities on decline

Baxter says the savings potential is overstated because most driving is done on streets and roads where lower limits are in effect. Only 2% of the nation's roughly 4 million miles of roadways have limits above 55 mph now, he says.

While up to one-third of daily traffic volume is on interstate highways, Baxter says, congestion often limits speeds anyway.

"All we would do by establishing another national speed limit is we would generate a lot of tickets, a lot of insurance surcharges, and give a little boost to the radar-detector industry," Baxter says. "There would be no change in fuel pricing."

Warner says safety is a reason to lower speeds too. He points to a National Academy of Sciences finding that the law "saved up to 4,000 lives per year from highway accidents." Disputing that, opponents point to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's figures that show the rates of traffic fatalities and injuries have been declining for more than a decade. The fatality rate in 2007 was 1.37 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, compared with 1.69 in 1996.

Castleman, 50, a retired heating and air conditioning contractor, acknowledges his cause is a long shot.

"We've been calling on people to do it for themselves, do it voluntarily, do it for the country, do it to stop climate change, do it to save money, do it to make our roads safer," he says.


http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-08-17-Drive-55_N.htm

If they break the law to be here in the first place, what makes you think they care about any other laws?

There's got to be a way to sell this as a new product.

Cool icy relief for hemorrhoid sufferers!

Just the thing for people who enjoy hot spicy foods!

Cat Fight!

Too bad this gal drives for CITGO.

When you care to send the very best!

I'll stick with my HK/Benelli M3 Convertible.

Here's a new one Georgia is pioneering:

Atlanta Suburb Turns Drivers Into Fuel Pumps

June 18th, 2008 Posted in Traffic Tickets

It’s a ridiculous concept, but somehow it seemed inevitable. Check out this story from USA Today:

The surging price of gasoline has come to this: a “fuel surcharge” on your next speeding ticket.

Drivers caught speeding in this north Atlanta suburb [Holly Springs] soon will have to pay an extra $12 — to cover $4-a-gallon gas costs for the police officers who stop them.

Is your police cruiser running low on fuel? No problem, just pull over someone driving home from work, ticket them, and you’ll have a full tank of gas in no time. It doesn’t matter who you pull over because — thanks to Atlanta’s notoriously under-posted speed limits — everyone is a speeder.

Need to balance your budget? Maybe you should look to Pizza Hut for inspiration:

[Police Chief Ken] Ball says he was seeking ways to maintain patrols despite record high gas prices. “I was hearing that Delta (Air Lines), pizza deliverers, florists were adding fuel charges to their services, and I thought, why not police departments?” he says.

Unfortunately it looks like this isn’t going to be an isolated case. As with any situation where money is available to be taken from citizens, local government is on the case immediately:

Ball says he’s being “inundated” by calls from police chiefs and city managers. “I’ve heard from at least a dozen police chiefs and half a dozen city managers,” he says of the measure passed Monday night. “They want to know how we did it, and could we send them a copy of the ordinance.”

http://www.motorists.org/blog/traffic ... -drivers-into-fuel-pumps/

Georgia has their own versions of Splendora Texas:

Georgia City Rakes In $1,136 In Traffic Ticket Fines Per Resident

October 9th, 2007 Posted in Corruption, Traffic Tickets

According to the Athens Banner-Herald, the city of Pendergrass, Georgia took in about $558,020 in fines in 2006 - enough to pay the police department’s $312,636 budget in 2006 and then some. That’s quite a profit for any town, but it’s even more amazing when you consider that Pendergrass only has 491 residents. If you do the math that’s a bill of $1,136 per resident! That figure is by far the biggest in the state.

Either people spontaneously become much more dangerous drivers on Pendergrass’s one-mile stretch of highway or the city is trying to pad its budget by ticketing as many drivers as possible. The city can claim that it’s all about safety, but the numbers just don’t add up. Pendergrass takes in nearly five-times the revenue per resident collected by the town with the next highest police-revenue-per-resident numbers.

So why don’t the residents revolt? The answer is simple. They’re not the people getting the tickets. Because they live in the town and know the areas where the police carry out their strict enforcement, they’re largely immune to the fines being given out and receive the benefit of an increased town budget at no cost to them.

Unfortunately, out-of-state drivers and people unfamiliar with the area don’t have that luxury and find themselves paying for additional Pendergrass police resources. More police resources means more tickets. And more tickets means more revenue for the city. It’s a vicious cycle that can only be stopped through speed trap legislation.

If you’re a Georgia resident, contact your legislators and let them know that it’s not right to value revenue over safety.

http://www.motorists.org/blog/corrupt ... icket-fines-per-resident/

Police Officer Gives Himself $21,000 Raise Using Stop Sign Tickets

July 18th, 2008 Posted in Traffic Tickets

A recent article by John Stossel examined a Michigan police officer’s penchant for giving out stop sign tickets as a means of increasing his income.

Day after day in Warren, Mich., people wait in a long line to pay traffic fines. Many are there because police say they didn’t come to a full stop at a stop sign. Often the policeman saying that is Officer David Kanapsky.

On last week’s “20/20,” you heard a motorist in court insist that she did come to a complete stop. The judge replied, as judges there often do: “I find Officer Kanapsky’s testimony to be credible. He is an unbiased witness.”

But the officer is not really unbiased. The more tickets he writes, the more overtime he gets. Last year, Kanapsky spent so much time in court he increased his pay by $21,000. Rolling through a stop sign in Michigan puts two points on your driving record. That hikes your car insurance premium. Fighting the ticket could cost even more. So to avoid the points and legal fees, most people plead guilty to a lesser offense: impeding traffic. The court sounds like an assembly line, ” … no points … $135 … “

Last year, the town made half a million dollars from such fines. Some drivers told us it “seems like a moneymaking scam.”

The city denies it, but Stossel is skeptical:

[Police Commissioner William] Dwyer denied the tickets were a moneymaking scam. He said he didn’t think it odd that Kanapsky wrote thousands of tickets. “It’s not unusual for a traffic officer to write 10 to 20 traffic violations a day, if not more.”

Please. I’m all for highway safety, but I suspect that America’s roads have too many rules, and that gives cops too much arbitrary power to harass people or profit off them. As the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao-Tse said, “The more laws that are written, the more criminals are produced”.

At the end of the article, Stossel references recent accident statistics that poke holes in the “it’s for safety” argument:

Remember the stop sign in Warren, Mich., where Kanapsky wrote many of his tickets? It’s been changed to a yield sign. One result: fewer accidents.

Police say, “[B]etween Jan. 16, 2008, and May 21, 2008, there have been no accidents reported. During that same time frame in 2007, there were four crashes reported.” Good. Let’s get rid of more signs.

And to all the cops who eagerly punish us for doing what they do, give me a break.

Additional Note: In November of last year, the city of Warren made our list of the worst speed trap cities in the United States.

http://www.motorists.org/blog/traffic ... -raise-stop-sign-tickets/

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This was reported again this evening on ABC News:

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=5405133&page=1

I agree that cars are so different that it would be stupid to re-enact the law. However, remember who we are dealing with:

Congress
Environmentalists
Safety Nazis

I'm not sure that bunch is capable of reasonable thought!

If you are not already a member, I suggest you join the National Motorists Association. This is the organization that helped drive a stake in the heart of the 55 MPH NMSL in 1995.

http://www.motorists.org/

I'm a member of the NRA to help prevent stupid firearm laws from being enacted. I'm a member of the National Motorists Association to help prevent stupid traffic laws from being enacted.

Better to fight this now. If it gets enacted we could live under it for another 21 years!

National speed limit pushed as gas saver


WASHINGTON (AP) -- An influential Republican senator suggested Thursday that Congress might want to consider reimposing a national speed limit to save gasoline and possibly ease fuel prices.

Sen. John Warner, R-Virginia, asked Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman to look into what speed limit would provide optimum gasoline efficiency given current technology. He said he wants to know if the administration might support efforts in Congress to require a lower speed limit.

Congress in 1974 set a national 55 mph speed limit because of energy shortages caused by the Arab oil embargo. The speed limit was repealed in 1995 when crude oil dipped to $17 a barrel and gasoline cost $1.10 a gallon.

As motorists headed on trips for this Fourth of July weekend, gasoline averaged $4.10 a gallon nationwide, with oil hovering around $145 a barrel.

Warner cited studies that showed the 55 mph speed limit saved 167,000 barrels of oil a day, or 2 percent of the country's highway fuel consumption, while avoiding up to 4,000 traffic deaths a year.

"Given the significant increase in the number of vehicles on America's highway system from 1974 to 2008, one could assume that the amount of fuel that could be conserved today is far greater," Warner wrote Bodman.

Warner asked the department to determine at what speeds vehicles would be most fuel efficient, how much fuel savings would be achieved, and whether it would be reasonable to assume there would be a reduction in prices at the pump if the speed limit were lowered.

Energy Department spokeswoman Angela Hill said the department will review Warner's letter but added, "If Congress is serious about addressing gasoline prices, they must take action on expanding domestic oil and natural gas production."

The department's Web site says that fuel efficiency decreases rapidly when traveling faster than 60 mph. Every additional 5 mph over that threshold is estimated to cost motorists "essentially an additional 30 cents per gallon in fuel costs," Warner said in his letter, citing the DOE data.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/03/warner.speed.limit.ap/

Return of the 55-Miles-Per-Hour Speed Limit?
Monday , July 07, 2008



Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Hold Your Horses

The high price of gasoline may mean that Congress will now tell you to slow down. Republican Senator John Warner of Virgina has asked Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman to calculate what speed would provide optimum gasoline efficiency under current technology.

In a letter to Bodman, Warner cited studies that show the 55-mile per hour national speed limit saved 167-thousand barrels of oil a day — after it was imposed by Congress in 1974 because of the Arab oil embargo. That speed limit was repealed in 1995.

The letter read "one could assume that the amount of fuel that could be conserved today is far greater."

An Energy Department spokeswoman says Warner's letter will be reviewed but that "if Congress is serious about addressing gasoline prices, they must take action on expanding domestic oil and natural gas production."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,377221,00.html

Here are the lines from the movie "Death Wish" that this story reminds me of:

Me and my crew was working down in the hole. One of the boys yelled down, "There's a mugging." So we come out...

...and we caught this guy and roughed him up before the police came.

The hospital reports the man had broken arms and cracked ribs.

No kidding? Jeez, the poor guy must have fell down.

Cops: Mob beats up 2 robbers

Woman injured with BB gun, police say

By Brad Zinn/staff
bzinn@newsleader.com

WAYNESBORO — Two armed robbers were beaten by a mob early Tuesday morning at the Mountain View Apartments after they broke into a woman's residence for the second time in less than two hours, Waynesboro police said.

Michael Seifert, 19, of Waynesboro and Blake M. Via, 18, of Stuarts Draft each are charged with armed robbery, abduction, malicious wounding and breaking and entering.

Police spokesman Sgt. Kelly Walker said authorities received an initial call at 3:11 a.m. from an 18-year-old woman who reported two unknown men had kicked in a door and entered her apartment. As the woman peeked around the corner, the men saw her and fled, driving away in a white car.

Walker said police went to the apartment and took a report. About an hour and 15 minutes later, police received a second call from the woman stating the two men had returned, this time armed with a long gun and two handguns that later were determined to be BB guns.

Walker said the men forced the woman into a back bedroom, where she was shot in the leg. The assailants then ordered the woman out of the apartment. Walker said after the woman called 911 again, she rounded up a group of four men from nearby apartments "and the fracas was on."

When police arrived at the apartment complex, which sits across from Kate Collins Middle School, Via broke free from the mob, but police tracked him down after a brief foot chase. "We found the other one lying on the landing of the steps to the apartment," Walker said.

Walker said the two robbers were carrying a computer and a Playstation 3 when ambushed. Both pieces of equipment, valued about $1,400, were damaged during the ensuing melee.

"It was pretty wild," Walker said.

Police also found suspected crack cocaine and powder cocaine on the men, Walker said. Drug charges against the pair are pending forensic testing.

Both suspects were treated at Augusta Medical Center in Fishersville for minor injuries and released. They are being held at Middle River Regional Jail in Verona without bond.

Walker said he the woman's skin was broken when she was struck by the BB. "I don't know if it embedded in her. The report didn't say."

Thug 1

Thug 2

Stray fireworks destroy Bensenville man's restored Corvette





Richard Szatkowski's 1989 Corvette was the hottest car around on the Fourth of July.

Literally.

The Bensenville car guru spent that day making thousands of dollars worth of improvements to his beloved car's interior, including new seats, carpeting and a steering wheel. He even videotaped footage of the project's progress for his weekly cable access TV show, "Wild World of Classics."

When Szatkowski finished, he washed the car and left its removable top off to let the carpet's corners dry.

Then around 10 p.m., a neighbor told Szatkowski his black Corvette was on fire.

Apparently, someone's errant fireworks landed inside the car, which Szatkowski spent the last 18 years tinkering with and restoring.

By the time firefighters extinguished the flames, shattered glass was everywhere. All that remained of the carefully restored interior was the frames of the seats and the steering wheel.

The car's Fiberglas body had been turned into something tan and fuzzy, and the aluminum side mirrors had melted and splattered on the ground.

Days after the incident, the smell of the burning car still lingers over Szatkowski's driveway.

"It's gonna probably stink forever," he said Tuesday.

The only usable parts of the vehicle are the suspension and engine.

"The interior's completely destroyed," Szatkowski said. "(The car's) garbage, and it'll go to a junk yard."

Szatkowski said he's devastated about losing the car he's been decking out for nearly two decades.

"Guys like to dress up their cars like ladies like to decorate their homes," he said. "That was my baby, my toy."

He even made his basic Corvette look like a speedy 1994 ZR1 by putting in special bumpers, wheels and a nameplate.

"Since this happened, I'm walking around like I lost my best friend," Szatkowski said. "I can't cry, but my heart's so heavy right now."

Szatkowski says the car had about 47,000 miles on it and was worth more than $25,000 when it went up in flames. He spent $27,000 to buy the car from a private seller in 1990.

He had been upgrading its features ever since.

Despite his loss, Szatkowski said he's thankful the situation wasn't worse.

"What if this (the fireworks) hit somebody's home?," he questioned. "Somebody could lose their life."

And though he doesn't think the incident was intentional, he's frustrated with people who shoot off fireworks willy-nilly around the holiday.

"People don't understand what they're doing," he said. "They think they're just having fun. I'm hoping by seeing this and reading this story, they will think twice about using things like fireworks."

As for the show, which Comcast broadcasts weekly in about 80 suburbs, Szatkowski says he's not sure when his special episode will air.

"I gotta clear my heart a little bit," he said. "I don't wanna be crying on camera."

In the meantime, Szatkowski says he's doing the best he can to deal with the situation.

"My heart probably will never recover," he said, "but getting a new Corvette would help me."




http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=216425

You will want to change the radiator cap to a model that has the spring-loaded closed drop down center.

See this link:

http://www.imcool.com/articles/antifr ... lant/dexcool-macs2001.php

I bought a pair of new GMPP LT4 heads from super_hawkvtr1000 (seller above) on eBay last year. The transaction was perfect with no complaints. I saved quite a bit of money!

Idiots turning their engines off at traffic lights to save fuel.

Illinois plate… Could it be a former Blues Brothers car?

A nice street cam is the Crane 104227. Often referred to as the "227" cam, it has a duration of 210/224.

Crane 104227 Specs

I have a theory about the need for the resistor mod on later model C4s to prevent SYS codes due to the dimmer circuits becoming open when an aftermarket stereo is installed.

I have owned 2 1996 models. One was a base model with the manual A/C. When I replaced the stereo with an aftermarket stereo the flashing SYS warning started, and it took the resistor mod to fix it.

My current 1996 CE is equipped with the electronic A/C. I recently replaced the stereo with an aftermarket unit. The SYS warning is NOT happening, and I did not need the resistor mod.

Looking at the FSM wiring diagrams, the electronic A/C also uses the dimmer circuits that the head unit uses. I suspect that is the reason that I did not need the resistor mod on this car.

So, my theory is if you replace the factory stereo with an aftermarket unit in a late model C4 Corvette:

If the car is equipped with the manual A/C option, you will need the resistor mod.
If the car is equipped with the electronic A/C option, you will not need the resistor mod.

A plugged catalytic converter might be a possibility.

911 operators don't help either. This story was on the CBS News TV show 60 Minutes this past Sunday:

http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?s=8312600

I am assuming this is CasetheCorvetteman!

Great article in the July 2008 Vette magazine. The title is "Arctic Blast" starting on page 34. And C4Guru is mentioned!

Done!

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Click on "Membership" on the left. When the listing page comes up, look at the top left of the listings.

Currently is shows 1136.

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The old Yellow-bodied Accels do have a reputation for being junk. The redesigned Accels (silver body) seem to have a good reputation. "tjwong" over on Brand X has an interesting post:

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I'm happy he made reference to this site! We should see another batch of new members soon.

I'll try to help fix the problem... Now where did I put those Hummer keys?

Be aware that some digital picture frames were shipped with nasty malware:

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/ ... rus_traced_to_china/9409/

I'm here!

Very nice! :thumbright: Welcome!

Don't give up so quick. Just because the part is no longer listed on GMPD does not mean all hope is lost. The part may be sitting on a dealer's parts department shelf somewhere.

Contact a dealer and ask them to do a dealership search for that part. If the part is found, the seach will tell which dealer has the part in stock and you can call that dealer's parts dept directly to have it shipped to you!

Sorry about that...

Anyway, here are 3 more threads worth reading:

http://www.camaroz28.com/forums/showthread.php?t=539869

http://www.camaroz28.com/forums/showthread.php?t=526760

http://www.camaroz28.com/forums/showthread.php?t=525186


The last thread includes instructions to change out the rotor screws that seem to want to come loose on the MSD units.

You might want to spend some time over at the CamaroZ28 forum:

http://www.camaroz28.com/forums/showt ... php?p=5227348#post5227348


There's lots of info on their LT1/LT4 Engine Tech section:

http://www.camaroz28.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=9

Download the Owner's Manual for free!

https://www.mygmlink.com/pdf/go2conten ... hevrolet/1995corvette.pdf

Good job on the smooth transition! :thumbright:

Hi all! I logged in just fine.

:thumbright:

"Raptor and STS have joined forces to develop a rear-mount turbo system for the C4 Corvette. Building on the foundation of STS's proven capability with rear-mount turbo charging, Raptor is currently developing rear turbo systems for the LT1, LT4, LT5 and L98 engine equipped C4. Rear mount systems have greatly reduced the complexity and corresponding cost previously associated with conventional turbo charging. Turbo charging maintains all of the great drivability associated with a stock engine yet can add in excess of 50% more power in most stock engine applications. The objective of the Raptor & STS program is to provide a product that has been thoroughly tested to fit properly, perform as represented, and "bolt-on" as nearly as practicable while still achieving that all important quality of appearance expected by Corvette drivers. The basic system is designed to be used on a stock engine but is capable of supporting well in excess of 600 chp with corresponding engine mods if the customer chooses. Option's to the basic system will be available for even greater performance potential."

http://www.vintageragtops.com/about_us.htm

http://www.raptorllc.net/LT1.htm

In my opinion most of us ended up here because we are anti-authoritarian. I’m afraid reining us in is going to be like herding cats!