C8 Corvette Owner Lends Car to Teen With Predictable Results

The owner of this C8 Corvette learned his lesson the hard way, but making matters worse, his car wasn’t even past the break-in period. 

As they say, we were all young once, and in many cases, most of us did some silly things at a young age. It’s safe to say that if you’re an enthusiast now, you probably did some questionable things behind the wheel when you were younger, likely, driving in a more spirited manner through your teenage years. It’s a rite of passage, really, though as we get older, we tend to appreciate our powerful machines more than we did back then. Regardless, now, many of us are facing a new kind of problem – our teenage kids and other relatives are in the same boat and want to borrow our cars. While a lot of us would automatically say no – thinking back to how we acted at that age – that wasn’t the case with CorvetteForum member and C8 Corvette owner Lalji, as they explained in this thread recently.

“Looks like I need some advice! I lent my brand new car to my nephew who is 17 years old. I told him that the car was in a break-in period and to go easy. When he brought it back within 20 minutes, I saw that the app had 23 alerts. The app said that he did 19 hard accelerations and 4 hard brakes.”

“I know, I’m an idiot for lending him the car, but as difficult as it is, let’s try NOT to re-state the obvious. My question is, do you think there is any damage to the car now? What should I do? Ignore it? When he brought it back, I could smell the rubber and fuel smell. That’s why I’m worried. Now, it might just be my mind playing tricks on me, but I feel like I can hear a very faint ‘ticking’ sound from the engine.”

As one might imagine, plenty of folks still chime in to remind the original poster that this wasn’t exactly a great idea. However, others are keen to let them know that even though this C8 Corvette was in its break-in period when this occurred, there’s little chance that any sort of real damage was done. “I’m sure the car is fine. As long as there’s no physical damage that is from hitting something. These cars are meant to be abused,” said Falcon0159.

“The car won’t let the engine or transmission exceed limits during break-in of the first 500 miles, so outright damage is unlikely. Some people in fact support full throttle break-ins. Brakes require high speed burnishing which looks like he did that too,” added davelv. And as for the ticking noise, as many C8 Corvette owners are well aware, this is pretty typical of direct injected engines, in general. “The ticking is likely the DI fuel injectors. The LT1/LT2 is a very noisy engine, especially with it right behind your head,” said Kracka.

“You have NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT,” emphasized Bob Paris. “During the short period when GM turned on their Smart Driver app without the driver’s knowledge, it showed that I had numerous hard accelerations and hard stops. It also showed that I rarely wore my seatbelt which is incorrect. I can only guess that their parameters for judging hard acceleration and stops is very narrow so that driving a performance car ‘normally’ would trigger such alerts. As far as the seatbelt issue, I always wear my seatbelt but I usually start the car and then put it on as I back out of the garage. I presume that if the seatbelt is not latched prior to engine start, then I earn a ‘ding.”

All of this is rather comforting not only for the owner of this particular C8 Corvette, but anyone that’s thinking about taking the plunge. After all, not many cars out there have any kind of forced break-in like the newest Corvette, which can be confusing to many. Regardless, this thread also reminds us that lending our high-performance sports cars to a young person is probably a risk that isn’t worth taking, unless you really trust them to resist their teenage-fueled desire for speed.

Photos: Chevrolet