Why is This C8 Corvette Part Trying to Fake Performance?
Fake exhaust tips, fake vents, and goofy body kits have plagued the “performance” or “custom” car scene for a long time. Just as I thought we were moving away from such foolishness, Custom Cre8ions comes out with a silly expensive engine cover that attempts to make your C8 Corvette look vintage with fake velocity stacks. My thoughts on this In a word; Booooo.
Get your C8 working right first before adding fake performance parts
Yep. The Drive highlighted that Custom Cre8ions made a $1,500 engine cover that does nothing other than look like it has velocity stacks. If you are unfamiliar with velocity stacks, they are vintage verison of an open-air intake. They are the little silver trumpet-shaped things sitting on top of the engine with nothing other than little mesh guards that keep little more than animals from getting sucked into the throttle bodies. These are the classic tuner mod. Those big old V8s need a lot of air.
As a fan of old cars, I understand that velocity stacks look cool, but they are only really useful on carbureted engines. Putting them on a modern EFI engine is a bit silly at best. To spend $1,500 on this cover is simply goofy.
The C8 Corvette engine cover gets worse
Although velocity stacks are typically on carburated cars, they can work on EFI cars, but these stacks aren’t even in the right place to be taken seriously at all. According to The Drive, the stacks are screwed directly onto the top of the engine cover… Yeah, that ain’t right.
If the goal is, for some reason, to look like your corvette has been modded in the ‘60s, this will not achieve that goal. The original Corvettes didn’t have the stacks in this place at all because it makes no sense. Engines don’t get air through their cover. It’s quite literally the opposite of what engine covers do. They are meant to shield the engine from debris, not suck debris directly into it. *palm on face
Listen, this engine cover is dumber than a bag of hammers, but I understand the desire to feel like your driving something old with all the conveniences of a new car. I get it but come on, now – not like this.
Vintage Corvettes are expensive, finicky, and hard to justify. But, this is the way it is; just drive your new Corvette for what it is and save the cash for tires when you roast yours all up. Burning tires is infinitely more fun than fake performance parts. That’s just science.
There is plenty of fun to be had in the C8 Corvette as is
The 2021 C8 Corvette is fitted with a 6.2-liter V8 sitting right behind the cabin, making it the first mid-engined corvette ever. That big ole V8 makes 490 hp of tire ripping madness. If you go for the Z51 package, you get the electronic-limited-slip differential keeping the tire ripping to a minimum and speed at a maximum. A 0-60 mph sprint can be done in a zippy 2.8 seconds with or without the velocity stacks. Even with all this power, the C8 Corvette is pretty friendly at the gas station. In town, the C8 gets 15 mpg, but on the highway is can do 27 mpg; combined, that makes for 19 mpg, which is better than a wrangler and plenty of other way slower trucks.
Look, your C8 Corvette is fine how it is. Don’t go slapping fake performance parts all over it. You’re better than that, Corvette owner. Just drive and enjoy and let your Corvette be the car it was always meant to be; one part over compensation and one part rad American sports car.
