The Midengine Corvette is already burdened with the curse of being an expensive American car. That means it will go on auction early in its production run, and Boomer money will pile onto it and relegate the thing to “collector” status before a tire ever hits the road.

But the car shouldn’t be trapped in a garage. It shouldn’t be forced to live out its life in a climate-controlled prison, waiting for the day that it can come back up at Barrett-Jackson with LOW MILES EARLY SERIAL NUMBER NUMBERS MATCHING COLLECTOR’S EDITION.

I say this because here’s a collection of a pre-production prototypes out in the snow and slush and sleet on a twisting California mountain road, the kind of place a traditional Corvette driver would look at and resolve to stay inside and grouse about while soaking in the hotel hot tub.

Original article by Aaron Brzozowski for GM Authority  Oct 18, 2018: http://gmauthority.com/blog/2018/10/why-some-gm-exhaust-tips-become-blackened-with-use/

As governments around the world continue to ratchet up the pressure on automakers to produce ever more fuel-efficient automobiles, direct injection has gone mainstream. That’s where fuel is injected directly into the cylinder, rather than being sprayed in at the intake port or further upstream, allowing for more precise control over the fuel timing and mixture.

It helps the 6.2-liter V8 small-block LT1 engine achieve up to an EPA-estimated 25 miles per gallon (highway) in the 2019 Chevrolet Corvette.

But like any automotive technology, direct injection has its shortcomings, and some owners surely will have noticed that many modern GM exhaust tips become covered in filthy, black soot as time goes on. We’re used to associating that soot with a fuel-rich air/fuel mixture, as that’s typically been the culprit on cars fueled by carburetors and port injection; blackened, unburned hydrocarbons are scavenged from