Corvette C8.R Suffers Engine Issue, Sounds Cool Doing It!
An electrical gremlin struck the No. 4 Corvette Racing Corvette C8.R at the 2021 Sebring 12, sound caught on tape for the world to hear.
The Corvette C8.R’s climbed a few mountains since first arriving at Daytona back in 2020. It took its first-ever win on the Fourth of July at Daytona (the most American win ever). It finally conquered the Daytona 24 this January. And it racked up tons of wins and titles along the way.
However, the C8.R still has a few more peaks to summit. There’s the Le Mans 24, which it will finally go for in August. Then, there’s the Sebring 12. Last November witnessed a rough outing for Corvette Racing, and the same would occur again in March. Racing videographer Lanky Turtle caught a mishap for the No. 4 ‘Vette, one that sounded pretty cool despite its cause.
“The No. 4 Corvette C8.R trio of Tommy Milner, Nick Tandy and Alexander Sims had a day to forget,” Corvette Racing said in a statement. “Beginning the race second in GTLM, the No. 4 C8.R developed an electrical problem from the outset that hampered the Corvette’s performance. Milner, Tandy and Sims – who finished second in GTLM at Daytona – were fifth in class Saturday at Sebring.”
The electrical issue left the C8.R’s flat-plane crank V8 hamstrung, but one of the side effects was to its sound. With one cylinder down, the remaining seven gave off a noise that sounds like a flat-four; one comment noted that that was how Chevy could sell Corvettes to Subaru and Porsche fans.
“It was a tough day for everyone on the whole team,” Sims said. “Certainly on the 4 car, it was a long day. It was quite clear very quickly that we were going to be up against it to get anything from the race. We went into it seeing what we could salvage, and in the end we couldn’t salvage much.”
“The guys did everything possible to try and figure out and resolve the issue,” added Tandy. “But in the end we took the view that it would be better to carry on and try to pick up pieces if anything happened rather than take time out and spend a lot of time in the garage.”
That decision in the garage made for a cool video in the end, too.
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