#jeff corvette

[aisyahazmi]

[kachowthunder]

The pre race party summed up

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Do you think Jeff used to be a piston cup racer before he began racing in GT racing?

Seeing how irl Jeff and Ray used to work together, it wouldn't surprise me if Gorvette and Reverham used to work together too, long before Jeff met John Lassetire.

(also btw, I apologise if this ask was sent twice, tumblr glitched out on me, and idk why)

I think in the Carsverse, Jeff Gorvette was always a GT racer. Inasmuch as the Piston Cup will let basically anything on track (lol), there's something in my mind that's just like, Corvette no. Corvette does not belong on stock car track.

The Piston Cup's rules package is much looser than NASCAR's, with cars across eras that in our world are so functionally different from each other it would never work (in our world). I mean, they let Cruz walk on, and she is a literal street car.

But I do think some distinctions remain--otherwise the WGP wouldn't have been as special and seminal as it was, where you had all these extremely different cars from different disciplines racing together. And apparently my line in the sand is Corvettes.

I don't necessarily think that needs to be everyone's line--I mean, why is a Corvette so much different than a Superbird, a bunch of roly poly Gen 5s, and one-of-a-kind purpose-built LMQ all racing together--but I feel like historically there doesn't seem to be room for Jeff having raced in the Piston Cup--at least, not long enough to make the splash Jeff Gordon did in NASCAR.

I feel like the Piston Cup missed the experience of Dale Sr. and Jeff, and Jeff and Jimmie, because Piston Cup racing careers have (had) a longevity that let them skip clear from Richard Petty to Lightning McQueen (who shares an era with Jimmie but of course is not Jimmie). I write about this perennially on this blog, but I maintain that part of the reason Lightning was so well-loved when he arrived and such a lightning rod for the sport, pun unintended, is because narratively the sport needed him.

I don't know if this is true in other sports, but NASCAR media explicitly talks about events in NASCAR as "storylines." Particularly with The King retiring and taking his star power with him, the Piston Cup needed Lightning's storyline. It needed him to get tires in the stands, it needed the talent, the "sizzle," in order to maintain its cultural crown. I don't think that need would have been as great if Jeff Gorvette had been there doing Jeff Gordon things. And if that meant putting up with "a very confident Lightning McQueen," the Piston Cup didn't have lot of room to have qualms about it. At least he wasn't Chick, in that LMQ has never intentionally walled anyone. (And really, of course they'll put up with him. Those cameras and those interviews and those headlines all had their hand in making him.)

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Do you think lightning is a corvette?

Nah, I don’t! Lightning McQueen is Lightning McQueen, one-of-a-kind and custom-made. (Pixar did talk to Corvette about their upcoming stylings when developing the movie, and also tested a more NASCAR-shaped model for LMQ, but ultimately blended that with the more curvaceous Le Mans cars and any other car stylings they liked. But I’m personally more interested in imagining things from the POV of the Cars universe itself, so let’s do that!)

I do think when other cars see Lightning, most could probably guess at a little Corvette in his lineage somewhere. These would’ve been the Corvettes around the same age as Lightning–the C6:

Definitely some similar body characteristics, especially in the fenders/quarter panels. Lightning has been spared the C6′s absurd terrarium-like rear window though, in favor of a more NASCAR-y one. :P

Ramone also clearly sees it when he dolls Lightning up for the Radiator Springs cruise, because he paints Lightning to resemble the Corvettes he would have grown up with in the 50s/60s:

But I maintain that Lightning definitely isn’t a Corvette, because you know who is? JEFF GORVETTE IS A CORVETTE. XDD So he’s what Lightning would look like if he really were a Corvette, 100%:

Ta dah!