Minnesota man puts saw blades on his Corvette and puts it to the test on a frozen lake

A man removed the wheels from a C5 Corvette and replaced them with saw blades before heading out onto a frozen lake in Minnesota. 

In what must surely be a world first, YouTuber Westen Champlin took the C5 out onto the iced-over lake and took it for a spin. 

The car enthusiast also brought along a Subaru WRX that had been parked for a few years. 

But, how did the whole thing pan out?

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Ever wondered what happens if you replace wheels with saw blades?

Every so often, an inquiring mind will ask the sort of questions most folks don’t think about – like, ‘What happens if you cross a Chevrolet G20 van with a snowmobile?’ or,  ‘Why shouldn’t I fit monster truck tires onto a motorbike?’ 

One such inquisitive and creative person is Westen Champlin, who wanted to know exactly what would happen if he took the wheels off a Corvette and replaced them with half-inch thick saw blades – creating a one-off 400 horsepower saw-bladed vehicle. 

In a clip shared to his YouTube channel, Westen said he wanted to find out ‘if the Corvette is going to fall through or not’. 

“If you never see this Corvette again, just know it fell through,” he joked as he replaced the wheels with the specially made saw blades. 

With the blades in place, Westen took his first drive in the C5 and admitted that it ‘worried’ him.

After experiencing the vehicle on the road, he was left feeling even more anxious. 

“You know how I said there was a five percent chance something was going to happen to us? I feel like that chance just went to about 60 percent,” he said. 

How did the Corvette handle the ice?

Before heading out to the lake, Westen also prepped his Subaru WRX – fitting a new hand brake and studded tires. 

The car enthusiast took the Subaru out onto the ice first and while the studded tires were a very useful addition, the car’s engine couldn’t quite handle it. 

Next up, Westen took the Corvette out onto the ice – initially with its rubber tires, before stopping to replace them with the saw blades. 

The unusual vehicle soon caught the attention of a cop, but rather than issue a ticket, he called the Corvette ‘awesome’ and stuck around to watch how it performed. 

As you might have guessed, the Corvette initially struggled with traction, and the back wheels quickly cut through the thin ice. 

Westen used a 4×4 to pull the Corvette further onto the lake, where the ice was thicker, but the blades still tore through the ice. 

After a push from the 4×4, the Corvette eventually got some speed up and Westen was able to drive it around on the ice unaided.

“We have proved if you want to drive a Corvette on saw blades across frozen lake you can do it,” he said.  

There you go, it can be done.

But should it be done? We’ll leave that up to you to decide.