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By no means is Chevy inside the head of the man running SRT, but it’s on his mind. Specifically, the C8 Corvette.
In Detroit, Michigan during and exclusive one-on-one discussion for the latest episode of The Drivecast, Head of SRT, Tim Kuniskis told The Drive, “I think about C8 all the time.” In a plot twist, The Father of the Hellcats was quite complimentary when it came to the Corvette.
Listen to the entire conversation starting at the moment Kuniskis brings the C8 Corvette into the chat and his take on the American sports car from a cross-town rival below.
Kuniskis went on to say, “I am incredibly impressed with the engineering of that car. There’s some things I don’t like, of course, you know, and I’m biased, obviously. But there’s some things that were in that car—and I’ve had a chance to meet Tadge and talk to him about the car in the past—and it’s an impressive car, and the engineering in it is highly impressive.”
Kuniskis noted, “I told you a long time ago that when we were doing the Charger and Challenger, as much as we respect Mustang and Camaro, we weren’t trying to build a Mustang and Camaro competitor because they already exist.”
Tying the C8 Corvette to the upcoming Copperhead SRT Kuniskis said, “We’re not with this car trying to build a C8 competitor. Absolutely not. Why would I? It exists, they do really well with it, they sell, you know, 25,000, 30,000 [units per year]. I question the range; I question the $65,000 up to $250,000. But you know what? They’re getting away with it, so good for them. I don’t want to follow that, though.”
The man holding the keys to the SRT toy chest closed the topic by putting the C8 Corvette in one corner and the Copperhead in another. “I don’t want to chase that. They’re a sports car. I’m very, very clearly defining this as a hyper-muscle car,” Kuniskis said.
“It’s a different thing,” Kuniskis ended the topic while noting “A Viper is a sports car. This is a hyper-muscle car.”
Any SRT and Mopar enthusiast hoping Stellantis would take on the C8 Corvette can now begin the painful journey of healing.
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As Director of Content and Product, Joel draws on over 15 years of newsroom experience and inability to actually stop working to help ensure The Drive shapes the future of automotive media. He’s also a World Car Award juror.
