CORVETTE TODAY #158 - Meet Aaron Link, Chevrolet's Global Vehicle Performance Manager-Performance...
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Jul 11, 2025
On this episode of CORVETTE TODAY, you get to meet another one of the men behind the scenes of Corvette. Aaron Link is Chevrolet's Global Vehicle Performance Manager. He is responsible for how your Corvette rides and feels when you drive it. Aaron joins your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett, and talks about his upbringing, his school career and how he got his job with GM. Aaron has had one job...with GM! Aaron talks about his involvement with the C8 Corvette and its variants. And like so many on the Corvette team, this is his dream job! Get up close and personal with Aaron Link on this episode of CORVETTE TODAY!
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0:00
[Music] Welcome to Corvette Today, the podcast
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that talks about everything Corvette with your host Steve Garrett, MC and DJ at one of the largest Corvette weekends
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the number one radio station in Kansas City for over 40 years. Here's Steve Garrett.
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mid-enginecorvetforum.com. And a shout out to Corvette Forum and Canadian Corvette forum.com. Welcoming
2:27
Corvette enthusiasts from around the world. My guest on today's show is the global vehicle performance manager for
2:33
Chevrolet performance cars. He played a major role in the way Corvette drives and handles. He's Aaron Link. Aaron,
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welcome to Corvette today. Thank you very much, Steve. It's great to be talking with you tonight. It's a pleasure to have you on the show,
2:46
buddy. First off, Aaron, talk about you. Let's talk about where you grew up. Did you come from a car family?
2:52
Absolutely did. Yep. I grew up near mid Ohio, so have that background of a
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racetrack about an hour away, a really good racetrack. So, I was in central Ohio for first 18 years of my life.
3:04
Yeah. My father has always been really into cars. My uncle Jerry as well. My
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dad's had a variety of cars over the years. A Porsche 914 before I was born.
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His childhood dream car was a tri. So, he restored a 55 Chevy when I was in
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high school and I helped a lot on that. Nice. So, when did you realize you're a car guy?
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It was pretty early. You know, there's pictures of me with a big wheel up on jack stands, working on working on the
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plastic pieces underneath, I guess. Nice. And yeah, you know, I kind of mimicked his involvement in the garage and
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wrenching and wanting to learn mechanical things and then a real appreciation for all things cars and
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sports cars particularly. and then was able to learn how to drive at the limit
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and on road courses at a pretty young age. It kind of all came together with being with General Motors and being able
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to apply a lot of what I learned in the past and learned from my dad growing up in a very car culture, carri family.
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Now, were Corvettes a car that were on your radar early on or was there a Corvette connection with you maybe at an
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early age? There was. Yeah. You know, I mentioned my dad's 55 Bair. That's was kind of his
4:14
when he was 10 years old that car came out, right? So that would have been his moment to think about why he would have
4:20
loved cars and what made them special. After my mom and my dad moved to South Carolina, he bought a 62 Corvette. He
4:27
always liked that first generation. That was just a few years ago when I was older, but that connection's always been
4:32
there for him. One of his good friends growing up had a firstg, I think it was a 57 Corvette. So he had that
4:39
connection. My aunt had a C3 pretty much from when I could remember. So, there was always a touch point for us and
4:46
always a Chevy family, never anything else. That always played strong for me. Very cool. Aaron, let's talk about where
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you went to college and what your major was. Sure. So, after going through high school in Ohio, I wanted to go to an
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engineering school. I think I remember taking one of those aptitude tests in high school and it was clear something
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engineering based or a pilot I think were the two that stood out for me as what this kid would be good at. So I
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wanted to go to engineering school and we drew a 6-hour radius around home. I'm an only child so I wasn't going to be
5:18
allowed to go to California, you know, somewhere pretty far away. And so I ended up at Virginia Tech. One of the
5:24
best experiences of my life. I wanted something different than where I grew up geography wise. It was very different
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and I really loved the vibe in Southwest Virginia. It was a great fit for me. I studied industrial engineering there
5:35
which is a little different path into the automotive world. Typically that would be assembly plants and efficiency
5:41
and balancing lines, manufacturing assembly lines. Mhm. But when I interviewed with GM, I
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entered the college graduate and training program which existed back then. And it was a rotational program
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and by the grace of God and some luck too met some of the more important people on Corvette back in the day and
5:59
kind of always maintained that connection where when the time came I was allowed to apply for the job so to speak and eventually find my way here.
6:06
That's great. So when you graduated did you really target a place like General Motors getting out of college?
6:12
I sure did Steve. Yeah, it was onampus interviewing there. So that's when the employers come to, you know, huge job
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fairs, right? A big school like that, it's got a lot to offer and certain companies target certain institutions as
6:24
their key institutions. And this has always been one of GM's. So it came down to General Motors or Exxon Mobile for
6:31
me. Wow. As the two choices, Exxon Mobile's a very wealthy company, lucrative company,
6:37
but they couldn't really tell me if I was going to be stationed on some oil rig in the Gulf or some refinery. It
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wasn't real clear. GM's offer was we're going to put you through two years of rotations and you're going to get to
6:48
learn what you like about the automotive business and what you don't like, where you see your fit, and where you might do
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best. So, extremely appealing. You know, you don't have to pick your career when you're 22 years old and be stuck if you
6:59
didn't pick correctly. It gives a lot of bandwidth and variety to look at. So, luckily for me, my second rotation was
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with Mike Neil in the Corvette performance team, which I now am in charge of. That was my view into
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Corvette. He was the vehicle dynamics engineer on the cars, C5s at that time,
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and he let me do as much as I want in this very hands-on environment at Milford. So, it was one of those moments
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where I said, I didn't even know this existed, this job, this place, this historic type of setting for developing
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cars. So, pretty clearly I was like, I have to get back here somehow. And I guess about 15 years later, I did come
7:36
back around. That's perfect. And so, you've really come full circle, haven't you? It has been. Yeah. You know, when we
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spoke earlier, a lot of it is the capstone for most people. You know, if you can achieve improve your worth and
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get into this group or working on Corvette in any function, in any fashion, most people stay. You know,
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once you get there, it's hard to find something that's going to be as compelling or rewarding. And so, there's
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rare opportunities. There's not a lot of openings that typically come around. So, yeah, in 2017 was when I got my shot.
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And I'm so blessed and honored to be part of this in its 70th year now. That's fantastic, Erin. Let's take our
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first break. When we come back, we're going to talk more about getting your job at General Motors and your path to
8:18
Corvette. We have Aaron Link with us, the global vehicle performance manager for Chevrolet performance cars here on
8:25
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I'm your host, Steve Garrett. With me is Aaron Link, the global vehicle performance manager for Chevrolet
11:21
performance cars. We are talking everything Corvette. In this second segment, we're going to talk more about
11:26
how Aaron got into General Motors. Aaron, tell me the backstory about how you got into General Motors through your
11:32
interviews there on campus at school. Yeah, sure, Steve. That's a fond memory. So, now it's my 22nd going on 23rd year
11:40
here at GM. Kind of rare nowadays to have a single company in your career like this. We always talk about it in
11:46
our group. It's our dream job. And as I mentioned earlier, didn't even know something existed like what I'm doing now. And once I did, it was really a
11:52
goal to get back there. So yeah, I joined the college graduate training program after college. I had I think it
11:59
was five rotations. They planned for six, but if you're needed more in one, you might extend your stay or something
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like that. So I think I had five. a design job, designing of suspension parts, designing of fascia bumpers, and
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then the job I mentioned being Mike Neil's shadow in the Corvette development group, and then one in Ham
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Tramik at our plant, which at that time was building Cadillac TTS's, I believe, downtown Detroit, and then one more in a
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quality organization. So, the goal is really to spread you around the company and find out the best fit for each
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person. Interestingly, when the program ended, it ended earlier than what we had thought about and kind of said, "All
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right, you folks need to find some jobs for real." So, I called up the people I met through working with Mike, one of
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whom was Dave Wickman, who had my current job two people ago. So, he was a longtime representative of Corvette and
12:51
contributor from the C4 days. I had met him and got to know him well and really
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respected his abilities and how he ran the group. and I just said, "Hey, uh, looking for a job because it's time to
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find full-time job now." And so he was looking around for me at Milford. And ended up finding a job as a technician
13:10
in the vehicle handling lab. So nothing related to Corvette necessarily. We would call it like a vehicle dynamics
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center job. So it serves the whole company, right? I became a technician right away. So it
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was really fun for me because it's fully hands-on. So the job was basically instrumenting cars, driving them for
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handling tests and processing the results. So they called it a full service engineer. You
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would set up the cars, test them yourselves, and then analyze the results. And it's the way that GM was
13:39
pretty much the company that invented how vehicle dynamics are measured. A gentleman named Maurice Ali in the 1930s
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developed equations to measure the feeling of handling, under steer, response time, sensitivity, etc. So it
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was this very elite group I got to join of very bright PhD type folks that are
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coming up with ways to measure what we feel. You know you and I when we drive our cars when the steering feels too
14:06
heavy, too light, or the handling balance isn't quite right, how do you quantify that instead of saying I don't
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like it or I love it. That lasted for about 2 years and then I was able to
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start a ride and handling job. And I like to tell people my first ride and handling project was a limousine.
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Wow. About as far away from a Corvette as you could get. Huh. The funny thing was for those we would
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make the Cadillac DTS in its normal form and they would leave out the back seat and all the trunk and then you'd send
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them to coach builders most in New Jersey, New York, and they would cut the thing in half,
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stretch it, and then put it all back together. Wow. It was an interesting project. And the
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fun part was I would ride in the back and I would have somebody drive me.
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That's great. Because the thought was, well, if you owned one of these, you're not driving it. Sure. It's got to ride best in the back seat.
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So, it was a riot. I would be driven around and decide if the springs felt right, the shocks felt right. But then a
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couple projects later, I was allowed to step into more of the performance environment, and I worked on Cadillac
15:09
CTS-V, the second generation. Nice. which is the LSA powered sedan, coupe, and wagon, which are all still
15:16
pretty revered and valuable. And so that was really when I became to get to know how to do this job in the vehicle
15:22
dynamics world. I was trained to be the highest level of GM driving possible, which was awesome. That's another pinch
15:28
me moment of, okay, I get to go practice on the best tracks in the country, show that I can control the car and be within
15:35
2% of John Hiny at the time. would set the target laps, you know, a 14time SECA
15:41
champion. And there's a funny story we all talk about now that he's retired, but he would leave something on the
15:46
table every time. And if you got close enough to him, he would go out the next day and reset a new time. Just when you
15:53
think you've got it, like, hey, oh my gosh, what a huge accomplishment. They'd call you and say, you better come back
15:58
out. He's a second faster than he was yesterday. Oh my gosh. Hinri has been on the Corvette today, too. That's a funny
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story. Can imagine. Yeah, I ran into him over last summer right after I was fortunate enough to win this job and he would have
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had this job four people ago. Three people ago, excuse me. Right. So, that was neat for me. A full circle
16:16
moment of saying that. Absolutely. You've really been with GM all of your business life then, haven't
16:21
you? I have. Yeah. 22 now going on 23 years right out of college. That's amazing, Erin. That's awesome.
16:28
Yep. So, yeah, after the CTS-V, I worked on the Camaro, the fifth generation ZL1.
16:34
I was going to say tell me about your time with Camaro. Yeah, you know that's another wonderful part of my career. The fifth gen Camaro
16:40
as most people remember hopefully was done out of Australia when we owned Holden based on the Zeta platform that
16:45
that underpinned all the Holdens. So they did the first model year, the SS and the LTS and the RS's. And then when
16:52
the ZL1 came to life, which originally was called Z28 by the way, it came to
16:58
life with the LSA engine that I was very familiar with from the CTSV. And so I got to do the right hand handling on
17:04
that project and that group worked under Dave Wickman who I mentioned earlier. So that was then Corvette and Camaro
17:09
development team altogether. That car I think won a lot of accolades and was our
17:15
take on the fifth gen Camaro. We then continued that into the the Z28 that had the LS7 that goes down in history as one
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of the best engines ever and more fitting for a Z28 than the LSA was. Absolutely. That was fifth gen and then
17:28
I was able to advance in the company and be the lead development engineer on the entire sixth gen Camaro. So from 2012 to
17:36
2017, those models, we were extremely proud of how that car set the bar in the
17:41
segment in many respects. Kind of allowed me to demonstrate I knew how to do things more than just tire tuning or
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shock tuning or bushing selections. Lead development, you're overseeing the entire car in most respects, how it
17:54
drives, how it feels, how it sounds. etc. Yeah. And when did you start working on Corvette, Aaron?
17:59
So then Corvette came along in 2017. Okay. The sixth gen Camaro was pretty much
18:04
finished at that point and there was a need for a lead development engineer within the Corvette C8 world. That
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became, you know, my dream job. I was so happy to win that and be tagged for it because then it basically let me come
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back full circle from 2001 when I worked with Mike Neil. Now I'm a full part of
18:23
this, not just a recent graduate. Right. Right, buddy. Let's take our final break. When we come back, we're
18:28
going to talk in depth about Corvette and the mid-enine car. Coming up next with Aaron Link on Corvette today.
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Steve Garrett. Hey, thanks once again for listening and watching Corvette Today, the show that
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20:22
refinish your wheels or offer a wheel exchange for most models and it comes with a 5-year warranty. Visit
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wheelcraft.com today or call them 833-84-5334.
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I'm your host Steve Garrett. With me is Aaron Link, the global vehicle performance manager for Chevrolet
20:40
performance cards. Aaron, that's a long title. That doesn't fit really well on a business card, does it?
20:46
No, it doesn't. And I guess normally in the world of GM acronyms, we're just called VPMs.
20:52
There you go. Talk about your title a little bit more and exactly what your job entails.
20:58
Sure, I'd be happy to. Yeah, I'm really enjoying this, Steve. So, the VPM job has been around since about 2000. It's
21:04
always been on my list as a goal, a very specific position that I was able to be
21:09
familiar with from the 2001 time frame. It's a special role for sure and I'm very honored to have it. The job
21:16
basically entails leading a group of about 20 people to perfect the driving
21:22
experience of a Chevrolet performance car. So Camaro Corvette is what we've
21:27
had in the past. It was also the Solstice in the sky. The little two-seaters. I love that Solstice in the Sky. Yeah,
21:33
those were awesome cars. Yeah, kind of the same group of folks did those as what we have now. So, we've
21:39
kind of all had this in mind to achieve this level in this group. I like to say we're the car whispererers where we have
21:46
to apply art and science to come up with I'll use the Z06 as a most recent example. The experience of owning that
21:54
car is really what I try to put myself in somebody's shoes to fulfill. And it's a fun challenge. Think about, okay,
22:00
we've got this ridiculously capable engine that's new to us completely. We've never done anything like it in GM
22:07
and it's been in the making for many years. And so, how do you feature that and complement it with the rest of the
22:13
car? So, you have this holistic experience of I love what I bought, you know, that's what I want everyone to say
22:19
and not have any asterisks to their statements, you know, where it's everything's great but X, Y, or Z. You
22:25
know, we want it to be everything they've saved up for and aiming for in their lives. You know, it's not a small
22:30
purchase by any means, right? And that would entail anything we can affect, the most we can do. So the
22:36
seats, for instance, are the same as the Stingray that came out in 2020. And there's three levels of them and they
22:42
all work extremely well. So those were developed early, but the exhaust system is wellnown now, but it's completely new
22:48
for the Z06. And that was an important piece of this whole puzzle when you only get one chance to do this. It's going
22:55
away from 65 years starting in 1955. And we're turning the recipe upside down
23:01
with this exotic, high revving, lower torque engine. And so, how do you highlight that, honor the past, but then
23:08
make it something that people are just shocked by in in many respects? That was kind of the goal. There's an element of
23:14
the design folks that have to make it fit the theme, and then the engineering release side that has to get the
23:20
supplier to build them correctly and tool them, and then the assembly plant has to put it all together. It's a huge
23:26
undertaking. Definitely. Well, you guys hit it out of the park and we're going to talk about the Z06 and the -ray in just a minute,
23:32
but let's start with the Stingray. Let's talk about your role in the development of the mid-enine Corvette.
23:38
Sure. I kind of came along after most of that was accomplished. My counterpart at
23:43
that time was a gentleman named Mike Patrusi. He had the lead development engineer role on the first model year
23:50
this thing rang. And so he started that role. Boy, I think it was probably 2012
23:55
or 2013, many years before the car really came out. Wow. Architecting everything about it. The
24:00
beauty of C8 is the architecture supports the models that we have now. Mhm.
24:06
The 6, the -ray, they all have the same structure and foundation and backbone. It's a really beautiful story how we've
24:13
got many thousands of cars coming off this architecture where in this segment in the mid-enine world, they're
24:19
specialty vehicles. sometimes where they don't have high volumes. We've got this plant that can turn out very different
24:25
versions of the architecture that we're seeing now. So, I really didn't become involved with the Stingray at all. When
24:31
I started in 2017, I was put on the Z06 straight away. Gotcha. All right. So, the Z06 is a
24:37
fantastic machine. Talk about your role in the development of the Z06 and how it differed from Stingray.
24:43
Sure. Yeah. This is the heart of the matter for me in many respects. I was the lead development engineer on the
24:48
Z06. That's the job I had before my current job and VPM job. I said in our
24:54
reveal video, if a 10-year-old version of myself could see this, they'd be so amazed that it came to this where I was
25:01
able to work on this vehicle where we had the best tires in the world, the biggest rear tires we've ever put on a
25:06
car, a Corvette, most powerful naturally aspirated V8 in history, and then in
25:12
this mid-enine architecture that has such good bones for the weight transfer
25:17
and the balance of the car. The nose is so responsive without the weight up front and then the traction is just
25:23
fantastic out of the rear. It's like this perfect mixture of all the right ingredients and then our group is in
25:28
charge of putting it all together to get the right outcome for the experience. For me, my background is ride and
25:35
handling and vehicle dynamics like I mentioned. So, a lot of that came working with our team to do the tire
25:42
selections with Michelin, the spring rates selection and the bushing selection. all of the core pieces that
25:49
define the ride and handling balance. I don't have as much background in the noise and vibration side, but the whole
25:55
exhaust of this car was probably our greatest achievement in terms of changing the character from the
26:01
Stingray. In one point, they had the same muffler setup and it just never really delivered what we wanted to. So,
26:08
we tore it up in a lot of ways. People supported it, you know, at the high levels and and Taj's level. Taj himself
26:13
supported it strongly. That's cool. Now, if the Z06 is a fantastic machine, like I talked about,
26:19
the -ray is a monumental machine, let's talk a little bit about the development of the -ray versus the Z06 and the
26:26
Stingray as well. Sure, Steve. So, I have a counterpart as well, Mike Cooer, you guys will become
26:31
familiar with here soon when we do the -ay drive event later this year. He has a lot of background in hybrids and
26:37
electrification that none of us really do in our group. It's a new thing for Corvette, for sure. Yeah. So he came to the party with a lot
26:45
of that background. We complement his capabilities and knowledge base with our
26:50
background with the Corvette heritage I guess you could say and especially since C6C7 time frame here of just knowing
26:57
what each model needs to achieve. So the obviously is a brand new model we've never had before. the first electrified,
27:04
first all-wheel drive Corvette is a pretty huge statement as you mentioned and I think the message on that car was
27:10
always Harland always termed it the Swiss Army knife. It's got a tool for every task. There's no fear of taking
27:17
your Corvette out in all seasons now and no fear of a hill that you can't climb. Nothing that it can't do. The Z06 the
27:24
mantra was a urgent intense experience which I think we delivered on where it's
27:29
rewarding in terms of what I like to tell people is I'm going to remember every drive I take in that car because
27:35
it's got this emotional passion in every piece of it that we've created. Whether it's a 5-minute drive to the grocery to
27:42
pick up the kids or an hour long Sunday morning cruise somewhere that's going to stick with me throughout the day because
27:47
it's just so powerful of a connection. The -ray is the jack of all trades, best
27:53
well-rounded car we've ever done. Absolutely right. What was the most challenging aspect about the -ray, Erin,
28:00
from my perspective? And again, it was going on in parallel to the Z06 in many respects. So, I was seeing it from the
28:05
periphery before I assumed this job last August where now I'm able to have more oversight on it and insight. The biggest
28:11
thing that we always saw was the front motor would kind of be hidden in the driving experience. Mhm.
28:18
Like we weren't really sure how to feature it without going too far where people lose a rear wheel drive feel.
28:25
Initially, you really had to prod the throttle to get the motor to do anything. It didn't really show up until
28:31
late in the game. Now, we've got it where it's always present in terms of
28:37
output, in terms of watching the gauges on the console where you can see, oh, I'm getting a front axle contribution
28:44
here. And then also with the sound character of the car now. People in the reveal heard the ominous tone that the
28:50
car emits now when it's in electric mode. It's a different experience alto together. So I'd say the hardest aspect was just featuring the motor but not
28:57
letting it dominate the experience. We still want the small book to be the highlight of the car in many respects.
29:03
Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Working on the midenine C8 generation, what makes
29:08
you the most proud, Aaron? Boy, we were talking about that today at work, in fact, of just how we can put these cars
29:15
up against anything that comes throughout the world and not have to be concerned about something not living up
29:21
to whatever it's competing against. Like that pride is pretty hard to come by and a lot of it is focused on, you know, the
29:28
fit and finishes now, the paint, now the interior quality is second to none. And
29:34
I think that's reflected in the JD Powers scores that recently came out where it's number one in the segment.
29:39
Exactly right. People are just relishing owning these vehicles now. And again, we're typically
29:45
performance focused. You know, lap times, quarter mile, breaking distance, skid pad numbers, like all those
29:52
magazine things that you grow up as a kid looking at. We tend to now have no
29:57
fear of who we're going up against because the car is that good. It stands up that well. This is not to put down
30:03
any prior generations. It's more just the looks of this car and the proportions have thrust it forward into
30:09
this supercar world. We just saw there was a Hagerty icons episode that just came out with Jason Kamisa. That's a
30:16
Ferrari and a Lamborghini there against the Ray and it dominates and he sees it that way too. That's probably the thing
30:21
I'm most proud of across every model we have. It can cover every base on the field. And that Hagerty video was perfect. It
30:28
really was. That was just a great video. And Corvette has lost the moniker for the money. It's the best car out there.
30:35
We don't need to put the for the money part with Corvette anymore. It is the best car out there.
30:40
Mhm. Yeah. You know, I was kind of reading between the lines like I was kind of saying, yeah, there was always this asterisk of wins on price or
30:47
something like that. It doesn't have to. It's got all the chops of everything else out there in the world. In some
30:52
ways, more from a technology standpoint, from a usability standpoint. You know that part when we see some competitive
30:58
cars there's maybe one trunk and now we have two with a small block with the
31:04
highest output naturally aspirated V8 Edmonton in the world right an all-wheel drive car and they all have
31:10
two trunks usable storage a glove box a center console like there's no compromise in how you can use this car
31:17
to enjoy life and that's always been the value of Corvette and the proposition of this is not some exotic that you have to
31:25
service every 3,000 miles and take the engine out and redo all sorts of things. It's serviced at 3,000 Chevy dealers in
31:31
the country. It has warranties for 100,000 miles. It's almost like the culmination of everything that we've
31:37
always thought about and dreamed of is now seen and in the flesh for people to purchase. Absolutely right. It is the American
31:44
supercar for sure. Yeah. Yet to be part of it, it's America's sports car and now America's
31:49
supercar, right? Yeah. It makes the hair on your arm just stand up, doesn't it? It does.
31:55
And as we were talking about, this is what keeps us going. The love of these cars, you don't want to let anyone down.
32:01
You don't want to mail it in one day and say like, uh, it's good enough. We sweat so much to make sure folks like yourself
32:08
and your listeners are just overjoyed with what they bought. And they are. They absolutely are. Buddy, thank you so much for taking the
32:15
time to be on Corvette Today. I've got to have you back. This has been so much fun. It was my pleasure, Steve. Yeah, great
32:20
talking to you and I look forward to it again. Thanks for listening to Corvette Today. And please be sure to tell your
32:26
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33:14
with Steve Garrett. If you'd like to contact Steve with any thoughts on the podcast or ideas for guests on Corvette
33:20
Today, you can email him at stevegaredjgmail.com.
33:25
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33:32
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33:38
Thanks again for listening to Corvette today.
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