From the linked article:
Shawn Conner was refueling his high-end 2024 Corvette at a gas station in early June when the car spontaneously caught on fire, torching it in a matter of minutes.
Conner turned to a Facebook group of Corvette enthusiasts. A video he posted showed the supercar exploding out of the blue, sending a person at a nearby gas pump scattering away.
“Anybody have any experience, or ever heard of anything like this before?” Conner asked. “Car exploded while pumping gas. I have an idea, but would love to hear what everyone else thinks.”
Conner declined to comment. GM said it couldn’t comment on the specific situation.
Similar incidents caught the attention of an employee at General Motors, which makes the Chevrolet Corvette. Another social-media post identified multiple cars that had burst into flames while pumping gas during a 30-day period. Later that week, a GM-owned Corvette test vehicle also caught fire, a company report said.
For the next few months, GM dug into the problem to determine whether this pattern of explosions was related to a defect. And then last month, GM made a determination, recalling the vehicles over an unusual issue: In some Corvettes, a cooling fan that runs even after the car has been shut off could blow spilled gas on the engine and catch fire.
GM said the issue is a rare occurrence, and faulty filling-station pumps that don’t automatically stop appear to be a contributing factor. The recall affects more than 23,000 Corvettes that start at over $100,000 and are among the fastest cars ever made by GM.
Owners shelling out six-figure sums for a high-end supercar may think they are immune from the sort of dangerous defect affecting these Corvettes. But the issue is a stark example of how even the priciest cars on the market today can be dragged down by a safety recall.
