General Motors Donated Some Cool Cars to Help Train the Secret Service
Even when the President is paraded in different countries to meet other world leaders, it would be impossible not to spot the convoy of vehicles in the presidential motorcade, which includes many different cars, including some specially equipped Chevrolet Suburbans. Although it may seem like something out of TV or the movies, Secret Service agents responsible for the safety of the President are trained to be ready for anything, even if it means commandeering an unfamiliar car.
This is where General Motors comes in. Earlier this week, the U.S. Secret Service rekindled its close relationship with the Detroit automaker after it donated 10 different vehicles to the agency's James J. Rowley Training Center (RTC) in Laurel, Maryland.
These vehicles serve a broad spectrum across the automaker's brands and include some of its desirable high-performance offerings. GM provided the agency with two Cadillac CT4s, two Cadillac CT5s, and two Chevrolet Corvettes-including one Corvette E-Ray. Curiously, two of the Cadillacs provided were CT4-V and CT5-V Blackwings equipped with manual transmissions; a fairly unusual car for Secret Service use.
Though car enthusiasts and muscle car fans will drool over the idea that the Secret Service gets to train how to protect the President behind the wheel of a CT5-V Blackwing with a 6.2-liter V8 pumping 668 horsepower, the Secret Service sees this as a valuable teaching tool for scenarios when driving stick will be required. They maintain that its special agents assigned to foreign field offices or protective visits could be required to drive manual cars.
"Not everyone is able to operate a manual shift," said RTC driving instructor Mark Armstrong. "Having that platform here will enable us to give instruction on how to drive manual vehicles for overseas trips."
The fleet of vehicles donated to the Secret Service training ground also included a Chevrolet Suburban, a Chevrolet Tahoe PPV, a Cadillac Escalade, and a Chevrolet Colorado ZR2. Scott Simons, the special agent in charge at the James J. Rowley Training Center, noted that having a variety of vehicles on hand helps agents adapt to different vehicles they may encounter.
"Experience with different types of vehicles can help instructors teach students how to adapt their driving techniques based on the vehicle they are operating," Simons said. "Because each vehicle handles differently in any given situation, exposure to new cars will challenge instructors and give them an opportunity to develop more realistic training scenarios."
Constantine Gerukos, a driving instructor with 13 years of experience at the Secret Service, noted that while advanced driving is an important skill for agents, it is important to test out which vehicles are suitable for training and the field as auto technology evolves.
"I think it is cool to try out all these different platforms to figure out what is going to fit, and what we can use," Gerukos said. "The times are changing, and so is the rest of the world. So, we have to do the same thing."
In the press release, one of the driving instructors, Brandon Bohonek, noted that agents are trained to deal with various "realistic" scenarios and that these vehicles will help add more depth to it.
"The students wouldn't be expecting it," Bohonek said about the new cars. "We won't have these vehicles in view. So, they won't know it is out there. They may be expecting a (police) SUV, and all of a sudden, one of these vehicles rolls up. We try to make it as realistic as possible out here, which is not always easy to do."
It should be noted that the Secret Service's responsibilities go beyond protecting the President. Up until 2003, they were a division of the U.S. Treasury, and are currently tasked with investigating a wide range of financial and cyber crimes, including credit card fraud, wire and bank fraud, computer network breaches, ransomware, as well as currency counterfeiting. It would be interesting to see Secret Service agents roll up in Cadillac CT5-V Blackwings to carry out a search warrant for a Superbill investigation or track down the origin of some hackers.
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Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Yahoo
It's Been One Year Since Musk Endorsed Trump. Was It Worth It?
There was every reason to assume that Elon Musk would vote for and potentially endorse Donald Trump during the 2024 election season. By the time the campaign entered its summer stretch, the tech billionaire had already spent months posting on X, his social media platform, about his slide to the political right and fears of a 'woke mind virus.' But it was not until Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024, that Musk felt compelled to formally announce his allegiance to the candidate. 'I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,' he posted on Twitter, sharing the video of a bloodied Trump raising his fist as Secret Service agents pulled him offstage. What followed was a truly wild year in the life of a brash election megadonor, one that would see Musk become a key campaign surrogate, then 'First Buddy,' and finally a special government employee overseeing a new, unaccountable commission empowered to destroy federal agencies. Along the way, he got in explosive fights with Trump advisers, handed out million-dollar checks to voters in a shameless influence campaign, was sued for paternity by a far-right influencer, and provoked a worldwide wave of protests against his electric vehicle company, Tesla. Eventually, mounting frictions in D.C. (possibly worsened by Musk's dismal polling numbers) led to a spectacular blowup between Trump and Musk, with the spurned oligarch vowing to use his fortune to found a third party. Could it have gone any other way, or is there some alternate timeline in which the pair effectively governed together? In ours, at least, there was only the triumph of a stunning election victory — followed by pure dysfunction. Going full MAGA In the wake of his initial endorsement, Musk was riding high. He had quietly set up his Super PAC, America PAC, in the months prior with anchor donations from friends in Silicon Valley, and his public MAGA turn emboldened other wealthy industry players to back Trump as well. (Trump's cynical embrace of cryptocurrency further helped to funnel their money his way.) Musk would dump around a quarter of a billion dollars into his own Super PAC between July and the end of the election. Musk's stumping for Trump consisted of two main themes: freedom of speech and demonization of migrants. On the newly rechristened X, he spread conspiracy theories, claiming that millions of noncitizens were registered to vote, and continued to repeat the falsehood that Democrats were importing these individuals to commit fraud at the ballot box. Like Trump, he stoked fears about immigrants committing violent crime. His views on border security grew so rabid that they raised questions about whether he, originally a citizen of South Africa and Canada, had at one point worked illegally in the U.S. before being naturalized in 2002. (He denied such reports.) The world's richest man also made it a point to appear alongside Trump for rallies and in TV interviews, where he routinely revealed himself to be a stammering and unexciting public speaker. His first on-stage appearance with Trump — a triumphant return to Butler, Pennsylvania, in October — was most memorable for the cringeworthy way he jumped around with his hands in the air, perhaps expecting similar liveliness from the crowd. 'I'm dark MAGA,' he said as he commenced his speech, referring to his black MAGA hat. He predicted that if Trump didn't win, 'this will be the last election.' Paying for votes? But Musk drew more attention in the final weeks of the race with daily $1 million giveaways for voters in a handful of battleground states, a scheme that prompted legal challenges which remain ongoing amid accusations that America PAC ran an illegal lottery. Signing a generic 'Petition in Favor of Free Speech and the Right to Bear Arms' as a registered voter in one of those states supposedly entered one in the sweepstakes. Participants were also to receive $47 — and later $100 — for each person they got to sign. Plaintiffs for subsequent lawsuits claim they never received those payments. Musk's own lawyers revealed right before Election Day that the $1 million grand prize winners, some of whom received checks from Musk himself at rally events, were 'not chosen at random' as advertised, but specifically selected. None of the ethical concerns about this unprecedented infusion of personal wealth into U.S. politics seemed to matter. Trump was cruising to an easy victory on Nov. 5, 2024, carrying every swing state. Musk was characteristically smug that evening. 'Game, set and match,' he posted on X, without waiting for broadcasters to project Trump's win over Vice President Kamala Harris. 'First Buddy' Team Trump had been ready to torch Musk for costing them the election if it had gone the other way. Instead, they found themselves stuck with what one campaign official called a 'very strange man,' who was now calling himself the 'First Buddy.' Musk became a permanent fixture at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, frequently bragging about how America PAC and X had secured him a second term. The billionaire's self-important attitude and close involvement on Trump's calls with foreign leaders and discussions of cabinet appointments caused rifts with the president-elect's inner circle, and led to at least one 'massive blowup' over dinner with an adviser whose staffing recommendations he had challenged. At the same time, Musk was plotting what he envisioned as his landmark achievement within a second Trump administration: the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, named to give the acronym 'DOGE,' in reference to an old Reddit meme that gave rise to a crypto coin that Musk has invested in. Trump announced in a statement that Musk and another ally in the business world, Vivek Ramaswamy, would head the group, assigned to 'dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.' He added that DOGE could 'become, potentially, 'The Manhattan Project' of our time.' Yet Musk's adaptation to Trumpworld faced setbacks. For one thing, there were already policy disagreements: the hardliner anti-immigrant MAGA faithful erupted in a furor when Musk and Ramaswamy said that the U.S. needed to maintain a robust H-1B visa program for skilled workers from abroad in order for Silicon Valley firms to thrive, since there weren't enough 'super motivated' and 'super talented engineers' in America. New Year's Day brought an ominous omen for the Musk-Trump bromance. In Las Vegas, a 37-year-old military veteran died by suicide in a Tesla Cybertruck outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, shooting himself before firework mortars and gas canisters in the rented vehicle exploded, injuring bystanders. The burning Cybertruck next to a Trump-branded property proved an instantly indelible image of what 2025 had in store. Musk, however, argued that the truck's stainless steel paneling had 'saved lives,' and that the blast was 'good advertising.' DOGE demolition On Inauguration Day in January, Musk scandalized the nation — except for its right-wing extremists — when he threw up a straight-armed salute during a post-inauguration rally. Musk spent the next weeks and months continuing to deny any Nazi or white supremacist sympathies, even as he continued to boost the German political party Alternative für Deutschland, which has ties to neo-Nazis and has been designated as extreme-right by German intelligence. Just days after the salute, in a video address to an AfD gathering, Musk said Germany had placed 'too much of a focus on past guilt,' evidently referring to contrition over the Holocaust. The ascendance of DOGE was as swift as it was chaotic. Musk had forced Ramaswamy out before Trump was even back in office, and he set to stacking the organization with loyal lieutenants plucked out of his sprawling corporate empire, as well as a cadre of inexperienced youths with backgrounds in coding and AI. One of these programmers resigned after reports about his racist hate speech in social media posts, but Musk, with support from Vice President J.D. Vance, got him reinstated. (In a minor and more amusing subplot around this same time, Musk also admitted that he was paying people to level up his characters in the video games Diablo IV and Path of Exile 2, creating the false impression that he was a globally top-ranked player in both titles.) As DOGE worked its way into crucial elements of the administrative state that control budgets and payment processing, it shuttered the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), paused the work of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB), and targeted the Department for Veterans Affairs and other agencies for massive cuts, inviting federal employees to take a buyout to quit and simply firing tens of thousands without cause. As the mouthpiece of the commission, he declared that it was maximally transparent while it dodged any meaningful oversight, telling outrageous lies about dead people receiving Social Security checks and how $50 million of foreign aid money had been earmarked to supply condoms to Gaza. (In a typical embellishment, Trump later claimed the contraceptives were for the militant group Hamas.) Lawsuits against DOGE and legal challenges to its activities multiplied at tremendous speed. 'I am become meme' Meanwhile, Musk casually confessed to horrifying mistakes, such as accidentally cutting funds for USAID's Ebola prevention program, and instituted tedious management gimmicks, the most infamous being an automated Friday email to federal employees asking them to list five accomplishments for the week — or be terminated. Once that email address leaked, people flooded it with spam and crude insults. It does not appear anyone ever read the actual responses from workers, and the routine gradually died out. DOGE offered a public tally of the 'waste, fraud, and abuse' it had slashed from taxpayer expenditure, but it was riddled with errors, and the team frequently had to delete billions in supposed savings. Yet Musk still somehow found time for personal beef. There was the February incident in which he flipped out on an astronaut who corrected his lie that Americans stuck aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for months had been abandoned for 'political reasons,' firing back, 'You are fully retarded.' That very same day, the musician Grimes, his ex-partner, posted on X out of desperation, saying he would not reply to her private messages about an 'urgent' medical crisis one of their three children was experiencing. This followed a surprise statement on X from the right-wing influencer Ashley St. Clair, who said she had given birth to a child allegedly fathered by Musk, adding to his already significant brood by way of three other women. (Musk, often warning of falling birth rates, is an outspoken and active pronatalist.) Without an acknowledgement of the child from Musk, St. Clair sued for paternity and custody. The filing includes alleged text exchanges in which Musk told her they had 'a legion of kids to make.' A bizarre appearance at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference in February around this time, Musk wore sunglasses, waved around a symbolic chainsaw that he said would cut through bureaucracy, and stumbled inarticulately through an interview, at one point declaring, 'I am become meme.' (Months afterward, he expressed regret over the stunt, acknowledging on X that Argentinian president Javier Miliei 'gave me the chainsaw backstage and I ran with it, but in retrospect, it lacked empathy.') His off-putting mannerisms at CPAC renewed speculation about his recreational drug use, particularly the dissociative anesthetic ketamine, which had been reported on in The Wall Street Journal a year prior. In May, the New York Times reported that Musk had told people on the campaign trail that his ketamine habit had affected his bladder; he denied this, insisting he had not taken ketamine for years. Tesla is tanking DOGE backlash and dramas of Musk's own making — like his amplification of an X post arguing that 'public sector workers,' not Adolf Hitler, were responsible for the Holocaust — took its toll on Tesla, a brand virtually synonymous with his name. Though the car company and SpaceX, his rocket company, were enjoying reprieves from regulatory woes as DOGE dismantled the agencies that enforced fines and penalties against them, a 'Tesla Takedown' movement had taken shape, with tens of thousands around the world protesting at dealerships, pushing for owners to sell their cars and investors to unload their shares. Tesla drivers bought up countless anti-Musk bumper stickers, and some even disguised the make of their cars, looking to avoid having their vehicles spay-painted with swastikas by vandals. Sales plummeted. A rash of violent attacks on Tesla properties prompted the administration to claim they would treat such acts as 'domestic terrorism.' In March, as Tesla stock slumped, Trump, in a stunning display of cronyism, invited him to demo several models in the White House driveway, ultimately buying a Model S Plaid for himself. Still, by May, the Tesla board was reportedly considering replacing Musk as CEO. He reacted to the news with indignant fury. Musk's increasing unpopularity grew harder to ignore. The assault on the federal government, the blatant conflicts of interest, the embarrassing failures of his ventures (there have been four consecutive explosions of SpaceX rockets this year, some of them raining debris over the Caribbean and diverting flights), and his endless, aggressive posting on X had made him a resolutely toxic figure. In his first attempt at political kingmaking since the 2024 election, Musk shoveled $20 million in America PAC money into a Wisconsin Supreme Court race, reviving his $1 million giveaways and speaking to voters in a Cheesehead hat as he made the case for the Republican candidate. Wisconsinites roundly rejected his message, with the Democrat clinching the seat by a wide margin. Weeks later, perhaps deflated by the resounding loss, Musk said, 'I think in terms of political spending, I'm going to do a lot less in the future.' Troubles with Trump Throughout his tenure in D.C., Musk's spats with rival Trump officials came to be common knowledge. One senior official told Rolling Stone that Musk was 'just the most irritating person I've ever had to deal with.' He bickered over disagreements with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Longtime Trump surrogate Steve Bannon routinely attacked him. Musk denounced Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro as 'truly a moron,' 'dumber than a sack of bricks,' and 'Peter Retarrdo.' A screaming match with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly turned physical when Musk body-checked him, and the brawl had to be broken up by witnesses. Adviser Sergio Gor, another Musk hater, persuaded Trump to withdraw Musk's favored nominee to lead NASA, hastening their messy split. While Musk had faithful underlings at DOGE, it looked as if he had no friends in the White House apart from — for a while, anyway — Trump himself. That relationship, too, began to crumble as Musk reached the end of the 130-day period he was allowed to serve as a 'special government employee' in his work at DOGE. Musk denied that they were parting ways when he read headlines relating how Trump had privately told people he would be leaving the administration soon; in public, Trump remained coy about how long Musk might stay but hinted that the CEO might want to return his focus to his various businesses. All of it led to a muted farewell ceremony in the Oval Office on May 30, officially Musk's last day in government. Standing by the president's side with a black eye that he said was from his young son punching him in the face, Musk received a ceremonial key and thanks from the president, who cautioned that he was 'not really leaving.' He had launched DOGE with the promise to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, though to date, it claims just $190 billion in savings — less than 10 percent of that amount. It then emerged that right before their last presser together, Trump had learned that Jason Isaacman, Musk's pick to head NASA — a position of utmost importance to him given the agency's contracts with SpaceX — had previously donated to the campaigns of Democratic politicians. Trump confronted Musk after the cameras were off, and that same day, withdrew Isaacman's nomination, a humiliating blow to Musk on his way out. All-out enemies In the end, of course, it came down to money. Trump had mustered all his political capital to get the tax and spending measure he called his 'One Big Beautiful Bill,' poised to further enrich the wealthy and strip healthcare from millions of Americans, passed in Congress. By early June, Musk was ready to let rip, and posted on X that the bill was a 'disgusting abomination,' since it would increase the national deficit by trillions. As he sought to convince lawmakers to vote against it, Trump noted that he was 'very disappointed' in Musk. He speculated that Musk was angry that the bill would end an electric vehicle mandate, ending a tax credit incentive for customers who buy Teslas. Musk went nuclear, first asserting that without his help, Trump would have lost the election. 'Such ingratitude,' he wrote during an hours-long tantrum on X. He then alleged that Trump, for many years a friend of Jeffrey Epstein, was named in government-held files related to the late sex trafficker, and that this was why his Justice Department was not releasing them. Trump called Musk 'CRAZY' and mulled his options to 'terminate' his companies' government contracts. The following week, Musk deleted the Epstein posts, saying they 'went too far.' The damage was clearly done, however. Trump signaled that he didn't care to patch things up and warned of 'serious consequences' for Musk if he continued to meddle in the congressional debate over the tax bill. Musk nonetheless vowed to ensure that anyone who 'campaigned on reducing government spending' but voted for the measure would lose to a primary challenger in their next election cycle. 'What the heck was the point of @DOGE,' he wondered on X, if the administration was going to increase the debt anyway?' As Trump bashed Musk in the media, advisers who had rankled at Musk's presence in their midst since the 2024 campaign eagerly discussed angles for revenge, like restarting the paused regulatory investigations into Musk's corporations and pressuring MAGA brass to side with Trump in the feud. Bannon suggested a more direct approach, telling the president to investigate his former adviser as an 'illegal alien.' Ahead of passage and signing of the contentious bill over Fourth of July weekend, Trump posted on Truth Social that 'without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa.' Asked by a reporter if he would deport Musk, Trump said 'we'll have to take a look,' and floated the idea of siccing DOGE itself on Musk's contracts. An embittered Musk went on to revisit the topic of Epstein in July, seething along with scores of prominent right-wingers over a joint FBI and Justice Department memo that effectively closed the case with no further disclosures. As the MAGA base called for Attorney General Pam Bondi to be fired and the administration fell to vicious infighting, he kept hammering at this weak spot. 'How can people be expected to have faith in Trump if he won't release the Epstein files?' he asked on X. A new party Once the tax bill became law, Musk, apparently resigned to his breakup with Trump, announced that he was founding a new political party, the America Party, since he had run a poll on X in which a majority of respondents were in favor. 'The America Party is needed to fight the Republican/Democrat Uniparty,' he posted. Only a week before the one-year anniversary of his Trump endorsement, he was committing to a movement that could potentially leech votes from the GOP in future elections. A reasonable person might take a moment to reflect on whether any of this spectacle was worth it. In the space of a dozen months, Musk has alienated the liberals who ordinarily buy his cars, galvanized activists against the American oligarchy he represents, made himself into a traitor in the eyes of the MAGA rank-and-file, courted the ire of cabinet members and top White House lieutenants, humiliated himself with the bungled DOGE assault while making enemies of virtually the entire apparatus of federal administration, helped spread hate speech and misinformation on his poorly managed social media site (whose CEO just resigned), revealed that Tesla is far behind in the self-driving robotaxi race, and overseen the development of an AI chatbot that recently identified itself as 'MechaHitler.' If he can draw anyone into the America Party besides a smattering of diehard fanboys inclined to dismiss his every misstep, it would be a miraculous achievement. Those acolytes have a saying: 'Never bet against Elon.' It's true that with his immense wealth and cultish followers, Musk has withstood plenty of scandals and many, many screwups, increasing his fortune and his power over political discourse. But the wins scored with his turbulent entry into cutthroat Beltway affairs came at extraordinary cost. Would he do it differently, given the chance? It's probably not the right question to ask about Musk, creature of relentless impulse that he is. More relevant by far is whatever he'll do next. More from Rolling Stone Speaker Mike Johnson Splits From Trump, Calls for Release of Epstein Files What Trump Has Said About Jeffrey Epstein Over the Years House Republicans Block Release of Epstein Files Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Yahoo
Here's How Rich You'd Be if You Bought Tesla Stock Instead of a New Car in 2012
When Tesla first hit the market in 2008, CEO Elon Musk didn't just introduce a new car to the world, he changed the industry by redefining what a car could be. While not everyone was on board with electric vehicles, early investors who believed in the bold innovative vision saw big returns as the company grew from an unknown niche automaker to a global powerhouse. Read Next: Find Out: While it's no secret that Tesla is now experiencing a downward turn, if you purchased stocks in its heyday, it was like 'grabbing a golden ticket,' Danny Ray, Founder of PinnacleQuote 'The Life Insurance Experts' said. Here's how rich you'd be if you invested in Tesla in 2012, according to finance experts. Buying stocks in the beginning of Tesla proved to be a smart move. If you invested back in 2012, you'd be a multi-millionaire today depending on how much you purchased. 'A $30,000 investment in Tesla then would be worth millions today,' Ray explained. He continued, 'In fact, the stock skyrocketed over the years because Elon Musk did what most doubted, he turned electric cars into a worldwide movement- it wasn't just hype, it was about changing how we drive.' The last few months have been a rough ride for Tesla. Musk shifted his attention from the company to focus on the Department of Government Efficiency for President Donald Trump where his role was to reduce government waste and fraud, which caused disruption. 'Many investors got spooked and it rattled the market', Ray explained. But that's not the only factor that has impacted Tesla's stocks. Musk and Trump had a major public breakup, which also affected the market. 'The fallout has hit both sides — Musk and Trump,' said money expert Andrew Lokenauth and founder of Be Fluent in Finance. 'Tesla's stock is already down, and I've noticed Republican leadership starting to distance themselves from Musk,' he explained. While Tesla isn't giving major returns right now, it is still a cutting-edge brand that has a strong loyal fanbase, but is it worth investing in? That depends on your goals,' Ray said. 'Is explosive growth like we saw in the early 2010s? Probably not. But for long-term belief in clean tech, AI and robotics, yes, it's still in the race. Just don't expect lightning to strike twice the same way.' Lokenauth has a different view and is no longer counting on Tesla to boost his portfolio. 'I've trimmed my Tesla position by about 75%,' he said. While he believes the company is still 'solid,' the stock price swings are just 'too wild.' He explained, 'Most of my conservative clients have completely exited their positions.' Musk left his position as the leader of DOGE on May 28, 2025 and turned his attention back to Tesla and his other companies. With Tesla's sales under pressure, investor and reputation expert Eric Schiffer believes Musk is ditching distractions and doubling down on survival. 'When a brand built on audacity loses any cool factor, you swap out anything hurting the spokesman and not the battery pack. Musk is back to playing lifeboat captain until he gets sales rocketing again in key markets.' More From GOBankingRates The 10 Most Reliable SUVs of 2025 This article originally appeared on Here's How Rich You'd Be if You Bought Tesla Stock Instead of a New Car in 2012 Sign in to access your portfolio
Hamilton Spectator
06-07-2025
- Hamilton Spectator
An electric Corvette? And it's all-wheel drive? Yeah, it's bloody fast, too
Behind you, the low-strung bellow of a naturally aspirated, 6.2-litre pushrod V8. Chevy's LT2 small block snarls, gasps, barks and farts, the way any American-bred motor ought to. That's the past. Up front, or rather, through the E-Ray's audio system, you'll hear a synthetic, almost alien-like hum. It floods the entire cabin. It's intoxicating, even a bit annoying at times. It's a reminder that this Corvette is electrified, thanks to hybrid technology. This is the future. By the time you've come to your senses from the cacophony of go-fast decibels, you've teleported to your next destination. The 2025 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray redefines your perception of what fast should be. It's bloody fast! But this Corvette is tremendously easy to live with. Chevrolet is unleashing its most potent Corvette yet. No, I'm not talking about the ZR1, although its 1,064-horsepower figure was already out of this world. The ZR1X combines the ZR1's twin-turbocharged flat-plane crank V8 and this E-Ray's electric motor. The combined output is a mind-boggling 1,224 horsepower. Let that sink in for a moment! Next to such colossal numbers, the E-Ray's 655-horsepower and 595 lbs.-ft. of torque (motive force) appear, well, sort of weak. But these numbers don't tell the story: it will take just 2.5 seconds for the E-Ray to sprint to 100 km/h from a standstill. It's a rocket. (I can only imagine what a ZR1X must feel like.) Look, all Corvettes are fast. But within the Corvette hierarchy — Stingray, Z06, E-Ray, ZR1 and ZR1X — the E-Ray remains a force to be reckoned with. It's a relatively unique machine in this space, given its combination of both gasoline and electric propulsion. Acura attempted this with the second-generation NSX, and we've seen some multimillion hypercars in the McLaren P1. But this is a first for an American sports car, and definitely a first for the Corvette. It's first-ever hybrid 'Vette. But don't expect the E-Ray's hybrid system to help it save fuel. It doesn't. The sole purpose of the 160-horsepower permanent-magnet AC motor installed on the car's front axle is to add 160 hp to an already potent machine. It also gives the E-Ray the benefit of being an all-wheel-drive sports car. Yes, the E-Ray can sort of drive in full electric mode, but only during a short period of time at very low speeds. The system is best appreciated in Stealth mode. The car takes off on electric power alone only to fire up its growling V8 once you've left the neighbourhood. This proved particularly handy one early morning on my way to the airport. And boy does that eight-cylinder sound glorious when it wakes up. During the week I was driving the E-Ray, Quebec got a summer's worth of rain. Chevrolet had planned to have me drive the car in the mid winter to prove a point: that the E-Ray is an all-weather sports car. But it wasn't to be. Even in late May's rain, the E-Ray's tenacious grip, aided by a set of Michelin Pilot all-season tires, turned its ludicrous performance into a normal, everyday affair. Getting to places fast in an E-Ray is a casual thing. It was comfortable. Sure, the confined, two-seat cabin isn't exactly sports sedan spacious. And you'll need to practice with your right arm placing your phone on the wireless phone charger between the seats. But except for these normal sports car compromises, the E-Ray is relatively spacious, given its small size, and it adapts well to different weather, thanks to its retractable top. There's storage. Obviously, nobody expects a Corvette to out-cargo a three-row SUV. But combining the front and rear storage compartments, you end up with enough space to fit anything from golf bags — two will fit — to a full complement of groceries. Yes, that retractable top will also fit in the rear compartment. There are things about the Corvette E-Ray I would change. I'm definitely looking forward to the updated interior in 2026. Although the 2025 model's large spine of buttons looks cool and all, it's not exactly an ergonomic success. The software lags when cycling from one drive mode to the next. That drive mode knob dial has an awkward resistance, as if Chevrolet doesn't want you to rotate it. Weird. This Corvette will brawl with McLarens and Lamborghinis all day on a racetrack, but it can serve as a formidable daily driver. The beauty of the E-Ray's electric assistance is that it takes none of the C8 Corvette's visceral, analogue, all-American flavour away. If anything, it enhances it. The Chevrolet Corvette lives on, even in the electric age. Type: Two-door sports coupe Engine: 6.2-litre hybrid V8; 655 horsepower and 595 pounds-feet of torque (motive force) Transmission: Eight-speed automatic Fuel: 14.7 litres/100 km in the city; 9.8l/100 km on the highway; 12.3l/100 km combined; and 13.1l/100 km observed Cargo: 340 litres, or 12.6 cubic feet Price: $179,720, as tested
