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CORVETTE TODAY #212 - The Return of Tadge, Harlan and Josh!
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Jul 12, 2025
CORVETTE TODAY #212 - Tadge Juechter, Harlan Charles & Josh Holder Make A Return Appearance! They did this last year - they're doing it again this year! This week, Executive Chief Engineer, Tadge Juechter, Brand Manager, Harlan Charles and Corvette Chief Engineer, Josh Holder are back on CORVETTE TODAY answering your questions! Your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett, solicited questions from members of MidEngineCorvetteForum and CorvetteForum.com. The "Three Horsemen" answer these questions on this week's show. Realize that this has never happened in the 71 years of Corvette. And now, next week's show marks the second time all three leaders of the Corvette team have answered your questions on CORVETTE TODAY. Plus, the YouTube video was filmed live. So you see Tadge, Harlan and Josh talking while Steve asks the questions! You can listen and watch the Corvette team answer your questions on CORVETTE TODAY!
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0:03
Welcome to Corvette Today, the show that talks about everything Corvette with your host Steve Garrett, lifetime member
0:11
of the National Corvette Museum, president of the Corvette Club of Kansas City, Missouri, and radio disc jockey at
0:18
the number one radio station in Kansas City for over 45 years.
0:23
Here's Steve Garrett. Thanks for listening and watching
0:29
Corvette Today, the show that talks about everything Corvette and the only current podcast dedicated to Corvette.
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and find out more. Chevrolet together. Let's drive. And a shout out to Canadian Corvette Forum and Corvette Forum.
3:17
Welcoming Corvette enthusiasts from around the world. My guests on Corvette today are the holy trinity.
3:25
It's quite an intro. It's quite an intro. Josh Holder, Harlon Charles, Taj Jar, the executive chief
3:33
engineer, brand manager, and also the exe the chief engineer of Corvette. First, before we get going, Taj has
3:40
announced his retirement in July. Congratulations. And congratulations are in order. You just got elected to be in
3:46
the Corvette Hall of Fame, my friend. Congratulations. It's been a week and the reception here at the Bash and
3:54
Bowling Green has been unbelievable. It really has. Never felt so appreciated. They love you guys. They absolutely love
4:00
you guys. Well, as you know, what we do every year when we're at the bash here at the National Corvette Museum is we
4:06
poll everybody on Corvette Forum and mid-enginecvetforum.com. We get questions, you guys answer the
4:12
questions from the audience, and that's what we're going to do again this year. Our first question, we have about 20 questions this year, so it's going to be
4:18
fun. Our first one is from Midenine Corvette Forum. It's Mr. Awesome. I love that name. Isn't that great? He wants to
4:25
know, can we get a more prominent phone in charger icon or notice on the driver information center? Who's going to take
4:31
that question? Well, I I know we're we miss this ourselves. You know, we
4:38
drive these cars all the time. And right, you know, I'm fairly untrainable, so I was one person constantly walking
4:45
away from the car with my phone in the charger. And so, we went from having no message to a message. Um,
4:52
so it was a step in the right direction. It was a step in the right direction. It yes, it's possible to still miss that um as you're gathering your things, you
4:59
know, getting out of the car. So, I think it's an interesting question. I'm not quite sure what, you know, we only have a limited amount of space, display
5:05
space, and we could have a voice come over saying, "Idiot, you left your phone in the charger.
5:11
It's an option, right? I I don't know if that's what this person is is getting for, but it's right there on the the instrument cluster."
5:17
But you do have to look for it. This was one of those things I think is a positive story because we heard that we
5:23
experienced it ourselves and we heard that from a lot of customers and this was one of those things where because of
5:28
the electrical we actually were able to update cars people already had.
5:33
So software update we were able to do that from software. We added that phone and charger message
5:39
to people who already had their cars and a lot of people really thought that was very thoughtful the way that we
5:44
added that in. That's really good. So he was asking could we get a notice on the DIC and and
5:50
that came out with that update that Harlon's talking about. So Mr. Awesome and anyone else out there that's not
5:55
seeing that should check for the latest software updates that would come over the air and they would get that
6:01
improvement. It comes with a chime and a notice on the DIC. If you're not paying attention, you can still forget, but
6:06
it's better than better than nothing. That's perfect. Well, at least we you guys have been thinking in this direction anyway. So that's perfect. Our
6:13
next question is from Corvette. Ed from Corvette for me says, "Are graphics like the Jake's graphics installed at the
6:19
factory or the dealerships?" Because some dealerships don't have the capability to actually install the
6:24
graphics. Well, we do have graphics installed at the factory at and there's um but we
6:32
it's a limited what they can do. You know, it has to meet the the mass production whatever. So they we do like
6:37
the racing graphics, the full length and we do the the hood stingers there and we
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did the an 70th anniversary when we did that at the factory. But then the ones that are a little bit more distinct
6:50
maybe lower volume like the specialty ones like we have the Stingray R and the Jake ones they're talking about and the
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Tech Bronze those are like lower production. So we do those as accessories that are dealer installed.
7:01
Okay, that's how we do it. Some of those dealers don't have the people and the capability to do that. And I think that's what they're worried
7:07
about, right? Yeah. It is a acquired skill. If you don't do it very often, you can you can
7:13
lose that. So, if you're worried about your dealer installing those accessory stripes, I'd ask them if they've done
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them before or if they might have if their answer is no, they might have a recommendation for where you could go get them done somewhere else in their city where that
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can be farmed out, right? Or since we're at the museum, I have to say you could do a museum delivery and they do a great job.
7:32
Good option. Very good option. All right. Our next question is from midengine corvette forum.com. We go back
7:38
and forth between corvette forum and the midenine forum. This is from GS2020. He
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says, "Talk about the roll out of the -ray. Are you happy with progress so far?" So you're looking at me. I can
7:49
start. Um I don't know if this is asking about uh manufacturing acceleration or the roll out of what the car is. We knew
7:56
and anytime you introduce a new brand uh people are unfamiliar with it. Uh
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naturally with the electrification aspect of it, people were skeptical. They weren't quite sure what we're doing. Um and so I think we're pretty
8:08
happy with the customer education part of it, getting people to understand. We've had a lot of third party media
8:14
endorsement for the car itself and how it it operates. We went through some of that today
8:19
and honestly the um the messing it messaging has gotten better and better, but we've really realized how difficult
8:25
it is to penetrate the fog. There's so much inertia out there. Like Josh started his presentation today asking if
8:32
everybody in the audience knew where the chargeport door was to to plug it in and because that's been a common common
8:37
question really where do you plug it in? Oh my gosh. And so as many times as we said it people still are unsure about okay what
8:45
is this thing exactly? So, I think it's going to take a critical mass of real customers with real experience being
8:52
able to report on what they've experienced and how much they like the car and that will bring the masses in to
8:59
really understand what it is. So, you know, we're making cars and just like every other model, whether it was the
9:04
Stingray or the Z06, you start slow. I talked about it today. All Corvettes have a bunch of boutique, you know,
9:11
niche high-tech content in them. And some of the suppliers that make that sort of by definition, they're not high
9:17
volume traditional automotive suppliers, right? And so it takes them a while to get their people up to speed, their
9:22
processes up to speed. And that's true both internally and externally. We build the battery and the
9:28
drive unit ourself. And so we're on an acceleration learning path, which is traditional in all manufacturing. And so
9:36
would we like to go faster? Sure. We'd love to get people their cars as fast as possible. On the other hand, we want to make sure we do it in a very measured
9:42
way. Keep our quality. Josh talked about our our quality and warranty has never been in a better position in all 70ome
9:49
years of Corvette. And so we want to keep that and want to keep people happy with their car after they get it. Right.
9:54
And so we'll do a measured acceleration uh as we always do, but we work every day really hard on making sure that
10:00
slope is as steep as it can be. Yeah. Yeah. So to echo that, yeah, the answer is yes, we're happy with it. both public
10:07
reception of the car and the way the launch is going. Uh reinforce for people
10:12
to to have some patience like they had to have with Z06. You we promise we'll get you your car. Uh it's it's cool to
10:21
have this much demand. Um I I know what it's like to wait for a new Corvette. I myself have waited for a new Corvette.
10:27
So, we understand that we want to get these out as as quickly as we can, but we want to be very very uh thorough and
10:33
measured in the launch of especially a car like the -ay where we're getting into electrification the first time. We
10:40
want to make sure it's absolutely right. Yeah. And I think the really cool thing about the -ay and I think it goes back
10:45
to what you had talked about Taj when Josh said where do you plug the thing in? There's no plugin. And I think
10:51
people are under a miscommunication that the battery will take you x amount of
10:56
distance. It's not built for that. It's built for accelerated performance, not distance driving. And I think that's
11:03
really important. Yep. Performance and all-wheel drive. Taking advantage of the traction. You have the front end, too. And Cody's
11:08
presentation this morning talked about how that pays dividends in all kinds of driving conditions. Yeah. We're talking about Cody Buckley
11:15
who really kind of headed up all that stuff. It was really, really good. All right, let's go to the next question,
11:20
guys. Question four is from Andy Bump at Corvette Forum, and I think we covered this the last time we did this show, you
11:26
guys. Exactly how does the DCT filter monitor work? We know the first replacement is at 7,500 miles. When is
11:34
the second change supposed to occur? Would it be at 22,500 miles or 22,500
11:40
miles after the first change? So, the second change is at 22,500
11:45
miles. Okay, good. then 22,500 miles after that. Uh something that's caused
11:53
confusion uh with the transmission filter replacement and a bit but we we did it intentionally the first covered
12:01
service interval was going to be at about 7500 miles. That's when we wanted you to change the trans filter. It's
12:06
also happens to be when the engine oil and filter need replaced. Gotcha. We thought well that would be convenient
12:11
for a customer for most customers come in get all that done at once. Uh, however, there are customers, I'm I'm
12:18
one of them, that don't drive their cars very far or very often. So, they weren't getting 7,500 miles on the car in a
12:25
year. Uh, so just yesterday, we were able to make it official. We've extended
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the coverage of the transmission filter for three years. So, for those that
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don't put 7,500 miles on their car in the course of a year, they would still be covered. We don't we didn't want
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people going to the dealer to get a trans filter replaced prematurely because they're trying to get it under
12:47
the covered service. Uh we want to make sure customers get as close to that 7,500 mile mark when they get the filter
12:52
changed and then you do it again. 22,500 miles odometer reading.
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Okay. And then 22,500 after that. Gotcha. Anything else to add on that?
13:03
We're good. All right. Question number five is from sir five list on mid-enine Corvette forum. He said, "Is adaptive
13:10
cruise control going to be added to Corvette in the future?" That's a good question, and we've had a lot of
13:15
customers ask that question. Many of the cars they own otherwise have adaptive cruise. Um, many of us on the team don't
13:22
use it. Um, in part because it has to be conservatively calibrated. So, in city
13:28
traffic, if you drive around other people, you find yourself quite far behind a car in front of you. And um,
13:35
that means other people can just cut in front of you. And when when that happens, the adaptive cruise adapts and keeps that gap. So you go backwards,
13:41
right? But other people come in. And so um we had a choice when we were putting this car together. You had to go either
13:48
adaptive or non-adaptive. And based on our polling of drivers, we
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thought most people would probably not be would rather not be forced into the adaptive technology because it is kind
14:00
of a nanny telling you how to drive. Since then uh times have changed and
14:05
it's become more commonplace to have a system where it can be turned on or two off right
14:10
so that opens a new chapter on the discussion now it's not a trivial to
14:16
package the sensors and do everything you want to do on the front end of it which is a very our front end is low and
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pointy there's not a lot of place we got a lot of cooling area there's not a lot of place to put sensors in and so it
14:27
means a bit of a tear up uh but we're looking at some maybe non-traditional ways that we could get some kind of
14:34
functionality like that. Can't promise it, but we hear the customer ask and we'll see if we can accommodate it at
14:39
some point. And um Harlem, we've got some new electronics coming in for 2025, too. Do
14:44
you want to touch on that real quick? For 24,
14:50
right? 24. There's some new features. 24. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We have we
14:55
have basically, you know, we've um added, you know, the uh emergency
15:02
braking, the lane change alert. The one I really like is the the head the high
15:07
beam assist, you know, where it the intellam tells you um if you're especially driving around here in
15:13
Kentucky, you know, you get on these small roads where it automatically puts your high beams on and takes them off
15:18
when you need to. Sure. And you know, we were talking like um we talked about the adaptive cruise
15:24
too. We're like, you know, this is a Corvette. Who we who's going to be following? You have to follow somebody.
15:30
Yeah. What Corvette driver really follows somebody? But we do get this question a lot. And now that we have the
15:36
L, you know, I always thought, you know, I was a pretty good driver. Now we have all these things on. I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm ter I'm like not in my lane.
15:42
I'm following too close. Everything's going off. But I think um the way we're
15:48
trying to do it um is like we talked about is people can if they want to use
15:53
them, they're there. It's an extra level. And I think once people get comfortable with them, they like them, but we still want to keep it a driver's
16:00
car so things are defeatable. And we never want to be annoying whatever we do. Yeah. You can turn all that off if you
16:06
want. Exactly. Which is great. All right. Our final question in segment one, guys, comes from Bob Mlan. And I think we've covered
16:12
this before, but it is worth covering again. what's included in the ZER package besides summer tires.
16:19
So, basically, I think we're a little guilty of of confusing people because actually um even it through the
16:26
development we we figured out that we could the -ay was so robust we could go
16:32
to the allseason tires or the PS4s, you know, performance summer tires without
16:37
having to do different calibrations on the chassis. So, we have actually, you know, people study RPO codes and
16:43
everything. So, it does come with a different RPO code and originally it was supposed to be a different chassis. So,
16:48
people are wondering what's really the difference, but ultimately when ended up happening, we we could use the same
16:54
calibrations for both tires. So, the short answer is it's tires. It's tires. It is tires. And this is rare because
17:01
tires work in conjunction with all the rest of the chassis, right? We had this new allseason tire that was
17:07
specifically engineered for this application. It's a it's a work of art. If you listen to the technology behind,
17:12
it's amazing. And so, we were actually able to do stuff with that to bring it closer to a PS4s summer tire, such the
17:20
calibrations could be the same, which is great because a lot of people are and we can't advise them to throw all seasons
17:27
or throw winter tires on the car because we say, well, what the car wasn't engineered or tuned for that, so we
17:32
can't recommend that. But people really like to have that ability. In this case, you can go back and forth between a
17:38
summer tire and an allseason tire if you want on the -ay. That's perfect. Well, guys, let's take our first break. When
17:44
we come back, we've got more questions from Met Engine Corvette Forum and Corvette Forum with Josh Holder, the
17:49
chief engineer, Haron Charles, the brand manager, and Taj Jer, the executive chief engineer. Back on Corvette today.
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[Music] And now, back to Corvette Today with your host and my husband Steve Garrett.
21:01
Thanks for checking out Corvette Today on podcast and YouTube. It's the only current podcast dedicated to Corvette.
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Corvette Today is brought to you by Wheelcraft. You want your Corvette looking its best, don't you? We'll dress it up with bright chrome or black chrome
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today or give him a call 833-639-4231.
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I'm your host Steve Garrett. With me is executive chief engineer Taj Jer, also Harlon Charles brand manager and the
21:38
chief engineer for Corvette Josh Holder. In the second segment, we're taking more questions from Midenine Corvette forum
21:45
and Corvette forum. In our second segment, we're going to talk with Mr. Midenine Corvette forum, John Elegant.
21:51
John wants to know, "On this year's Car and Driver Lightning lap test at the Virginia International Raceway, the Z06
21:58
was faster than the -ray. Now, we know you test models on different tracks. Where was the -ray tested and found to
22:04
be faster on one lap than the Z06? The the Z06 is the ultimate track
22:11
Corvette. That was its mission. Yes, that does all things well. We talked about
22:18
all its all- weather capability. What a great grand touring car it is. If you want a track car, the Z06 is your
22:26
Corvette. So, the -ray is not generally quicker than a Z06, right?
22:31
On a track. There are some shorter tracks where it can hold its own. On a drag strip, um it's certainly at
22:37
least eighth mile uh is uh is going to outpace the Z06, but the Z06 is the ultimate track
22:44
weapon. And so, it's actually going exactly according to plan. Our mission
22:49
to set out for both the Z06 and the -ray have been achieved and the Z06
22:55
uh performance on track is where it really shines. Right. Right. I saw where somebody did a
23:00
0 to 60 in 2.2 and an when they hook up they uh
23:06
they go they can really go when you lay it down. You lay it down, right? I mean I mean we try to do times
23:11
that we know that when the media gets it and a you know that'll be good time but that a lot of people can achieve but if
23:17
somebody beats it that's great great and I would I would say you know we don't sandbag any of our models. It's
23:23
not like we pulled the -ray back so the Z06 could be the champ. We made that car
23:28
as pure a track machine as we knew how to do. We made the -ay as fast as we knew how to make it. It doesn't have as
23:35
good power to weight ratio. It claws its way out of corners like nobody's business, right? But once you get to the
23:40
straights at speed, the Z06 pulls away. So, and it comes with cup tires. You can get it with cuffed tires. So, exactly.
23:46
That's a huge step. It is. That's a big advantage for sure. Our next question is from Andy Bump from
23:52
Corvette Forum. He says, "What does the hydraulic system flush do and should it be done every time the DCT external
23:59
canister is replaced?" That's a good technical question. It is. So, I'll take a start at it. Uh
24:06
the hydraulic system flush does kind of the way it's described. It forces transmission fluid through the fine
24:13
filter, the filter that you replace. So at a dealership, they can hook up the
24:19
dealer service tool to the car and run a routine that will tell the trans control module to do this fluid filter flush.
24:26
Okay? And because the car is already hoisted on a rack, the technician's already got the panels out. There's some other work
24:31
he's doing. This kind of happens in parallel in the background. Okay? So, we're doing it at a dealer visit because we can and we can take the
24:38
last bit of whatever contamination might be in that oil and get it into the filter before the technician replaces
24:44
it. Do-it-yourselfers have become nervous that, hey, now I can't do it myself. I don't have a service tool. I
24:51
can't force this routine. You don't have to do the routine. Like I said, we do it because we can. But the the fine
24:58
filtering routine happens through normal driving anyway. In fact, when you're driving steady state, like say down the
25:04
highway, right, we run in a routine in the transmission that will force more of that fluid through the fine filter. So, normal
25:09
driving is doing this. If you are a do-it-yourselfer, you don't want anyone else touching your car, you can change
25:14
the trans filter without running this routine. Okay, that sounds good. And I noticed Andy Bump asked the
25:21
transmission filter question in the last segment, so I think he should come and apply to be a technician. He should
25:27
in uh one of our dealerships to help work us work on the DCT. I think he's trying to get a job,
25:33
don't you? He's asking good questions though. He's not the only one that have asked. That's true. Our next question is from
25:38
Lost Soul from Minine Corvette forum. He says, "Can you lower the stealth mode ambient temperature limit down to 30 or
25:45
40 degrees to make it usable in the mornings or even in warmer states?"
25:50
We would love to and we may. I would say, you know, we drive these cars year
25:56
round and we were talking about how great it is to have stealth mode and be able to crawl out of your neighborhood
26:02
quietly and not annoy the neighbors. And in Michigan, it's like the majority of the year where if you're parking
26:08
outside, you can't use stealth mode because of the temperature. Now, GM has a lot of requirements about the
26:14
functionality of the car, and we expect in any driving mode like this, you to meet all those requirements. So, it's a
26:20
fine balance of how well does the car perform? What are the customer's expectations going to be in a stealth
26:26
mode? It's amazing how much stuff is like fully functional. It's just driving like driving a regular car. It's like
26:31
the engine started. Yeah. Almost everything works, but not everything works because just the, you
26:37
know, the front E axle, you're not generating in heat in the back. Um there's there's things that the car uses
26:43
to its advantage in different environmental situations, especially cold weather. Um, and so we're looking
26:49
at a bunch of us would love to drop that temperature. And so we're kind of in the middle of reassessing that balance of
26:55
performance. And if there's a way to drop it some, we will cuz we'd all love it. Great. And there there is I just want to
27:01
address one thing there. I reading some of the, you know, I read all the forums, both of these great forums, and there's some misconception, too, where some
27:08
people thought, oh, it's the batteries don't like the cold. It has nothing to do with that. It's more about your
27:14
comfort, defrotting the windshield and things like that is why we set the temperature where it was. It has nothing
27:20
to do with the batteries and the and the ewhe drive works at all temperature. It has nothing to do with that at all. I
27:26
just want the shuttle mode. You can use the shuttle mode. Any temperature? Any. Yeah. So, it's not the batteries. The
27:32
batteries will work. Gotcha. Okay. Good. All right. Our next question is from 23C8Z.
27:38
He's from Corvette Forum. He says, "Does manual mode cause any more wear to the transmission than leaving it in drive
27:45
mode?" No. If it did, Carlin would be braking cars left and right because that's the only way he drives.
27:50
He's never driven in drive. I don't think he's I like driving in manual mode. I drive in manual all the time. So, I'd
27:58
be the poster child for that. Because a transmission, it's no different. You're electronically commanding a gear state change. It does
28:04
its business. Whether it does it on its own command or on your command, it does the same work.
28:10
In some ways, it might be less shifting than the car would do on its own. Depending on how you drive it. Depending on how you drive it.
28:16
Yeah. Probably don't. I I love shifting. I put it in manual mode. If I'm not in manual mode, I still do paddle shifting and I'm up and down.
28:23
Up and down. It's Marlin just leaves it in third gear down the highway. Whatever. You can go.
28:28
We don't recommend that actually. You can go you can do almost everything. Light load and high RPM is not
28:34
recommended. So the clean answer to that is no. Okay. Definitely doesn't hurt. And then the other answer is don't drive
28:39
like Haron. If it makes you happy.
28:46
Our next question is from 11Z Senator from Miden Engine Corvette forum. He says, "Can an Australian participate in
28:52
an RHC delivery and go to Spring Mountain?" That's a good question. So So I'll just start. Um anybody can go
28:59
to Spring Mountain. I mean, they have they'll open it up. If you're willing to fly to Las Vegas, they'll you can sign
29:05
up and go go to go to Spring Mountain. The museum delivery gets tricky because
29:11
it has to do with whatever laws in their country and licensing the car and
29:16
driving it out of state. So, we haven't even been able to even the Canadian laws because be honest, a lot of people want
29:23
to do it from Canada and we haven't we haven't been able to work that out even for Canadians. So, it gets it gets
29:29
into that. It's not that we don't we of course we'd love to have everybody and maybe we'll work it out someday. We
29:35
talked about like um in Europe they have like a tourist thing where you can you go the
29:41
other way like people buying German cars can drive it and then get set back. That would be great. That would be like a dream thing if we could do that someday.
29:47
I've heard where people buy BMWs, they go over there, they take their car delivery, they drive around, they send
29:53
it back to BMW and they ship it to the United States. Yeah, program. That would be cool if that's what
29:59
they're getting us someday for Australian or somebody from Germany or Europe. We could do drive around this
30:04
beautiful country, our beautiful country, and then yeah, we don't have that loophole. I mean, the
30:09
museum is effectively a delivery dealer, right? And we have to abide by
30:15
all of the laws in place in the country where it's delivered. And so, a car with a steering wheel on the wrong
30:21
side would be a foul. For sure. Australia would be I should say the wrong side. Yeah. The
30:27
other side. The other side. We love the Australians. Yeah. We had that question this afternoon in your session. Can you buy a
30:32
right-hand drive and keep it in the United States? And the answer is absolutely not.
30:37
There you go. Why anybody would want Yeah. It was from an American who just wanted to be different.
30:44
Yeah. I think he saw that Corvette Summer movie. If you guys remember that. Yeah. Where they had the right-hand drive
30:50
Corvette. And if they saw the Barbie movie, they saw a C1 with a back seat. Hey,
30:55
who put a back seat in a C1? We weren't consulted on that. I obviously can tell. All right. Our next question is from
31:01
Chevy Chad from Corvette Forum. He said, "We would love to have the option for blue brake calipers. Can that be added?"
31:08
Well, we can tell. Tell me about it. I just bought a blue car. Why couldn't I get blue calipers? Har. Maybe that's something we should
31:14
look at. We'll get back to the back to work. I mean, we'll get right on it. Chevy, Chad, and and Taz want it. Maybe
31:21
we should look at it, right? Okay. Before Taj retires and goes off,
31:26
we should get him some blue calipers. There's a
31:32
We move about as quickly as the government on some of this stuff. We used to We did have them previously.
31:37
So, yeah, that's a good question. Not unprecedented. That's a good suggestion. There we go. All right. Our final question in segment two is from even ZR1
31:43
from Corvette Forum. He said, "Will the SE This is a great question. Will the 70th anniversary microfiber interior be
31:50
offered again? I love mine in my 2023 70th anniversary white pearl metallic
31:56
coupe. I think we should just keep it for those cars.
32:01
Well, there's always that balance, isn't there? Right. Right. So, the se So, that's that's basically the answer. So, the 70th anniversary
32:08
interior was special just for that 70th anniversary model, but there is a
32:13
possibility, you know, the the suede. A lot of people like more a suede intensive interior. So, that's something
32:18
we could do in the future on a new interior perhaps. It's pretty classy looking. I love mine.
32:24
Everybody that gets in and goes, "Wow." And they feel that interior, the dash and the doors, they're really impressed.
32:30
They'd love it. So, but that's a perfect example of where we can't please everybody. You know, people
32:35
want this. So, we could make the person happy wants to order that in their 24 and make everybody who's got a 23 angry.
32:41
Wait a second. I thought this was going to be special for me. Now, you've just hurt my resale. You've hurt the
32:47
specialness of my car. So, we're always struggling with that balance. Even ZR1 from Corvette form is going to
32:52
have to go find a a 70th anniversary 2023 Stingray or ZR1 or or Z06. There
32:59
you go. All right, guys. Our final break's coming up in our third segment. We'll take six more questions coming up
33:05
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You're enjoying the only current podcast on Corvettes. Corvette Today. Thanks
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once again for listening and watching Corvette Today, the show that talks about everything Corvette. Corvette
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Today is brought to you by Wheelcraft. You want your Corvette looking its best. We'll dress it up with bright chrome or
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give them a call 833-639-4231. I'm your host Steve Garrett. With me is
35:31
the holy trinity of Corvette. It's Josh Holder, Tad Jer, and Harlon Charles. Our
35:36
final segment here starts with Red C806. He's from mid-engine Corvette Forum.com.
35:43
His question is, does the -ray come with two coolant tanks, one in the frunk and one in the rear? What does each one do
35:50
and what coolant do they use and why are they not customer serviceable?
35:55
So, it does come with two coolant tanks just for the -ay. Okay. Okay. The one in the front is uh
36:02
part of a system that cools what we call the power electronics. So that's the inverter. We talked about the massive
36:08
amount of power that the battery can both regenerate and and dispense to the electric motor. That power generates
36:14
heat and the power electronics manages that current. And so they see a lot of
36:19
heat. We cool that with um a glycol and deionized water mixture.
36:24
Wow. Which is why we put a tamperproof cap on it. So, I'm trying to answer all his questions at once. Uh, we just didn't
36:31
want anyone inadvertently putting tap water in it. You can get the cap off. It's more of a, hey, read your owner's
36:37
manual before you, but the reality is you should never need to open that or service it. It's not something you have to regularly service.
36:43
Good. Um, that heat is exchanged through a radiator in the front of the car. Um,
36:49
that helps cool that system off. At the rear, same deionized glycol mixture goes
36:54
through a chiller. We call it a chiller. It's a liquid to liquid heat exchanger that transfers thermal energy from the
37:00
battery cells themselves. Wow. With refrigerant, the same refrigerant that's used in the AC system. And a
37:07
battery pack, you don't want it to be too cool or too hot, like around 100° in
37:13
in our case, 100 degrees Fahrenheit is about where we like to keep it. So, our strategy is let the battery get
37:18
up to temp when it's powering the vehicle or regenerating. And when it does, we like to clamp that temperature
37:23
as quickly as we can, which is why we use a refrigerant and a chiller to exchange that thermal energy. Gotcha. Good answer. Our second question
37:31
is from Turbo Tuner from Corvette Forum. He says, "Please go through the RPM and slip percentage control in launch
37:38
control settings." So, I can do a start. Josh will probably
37:43
add. So, you know, we have a really good traction control sort of default launch
37:49
control uh calibration. And a lot of people think of tracks as either
37:54
slippery or sticky. There's actually way more variables than that. Um there's the
38:00
static coefficient of friction. So, how much traction can the tire get when it's not slipping? And then once it starts to
38:06
slip, that coefficient of friction changes. And it can change at different rates. It can change as a function of
38:12
temperature. can change as a function of how fast the wheels are spinning. So there's all these different variables
38:18
that go into the quality of the launch. And so since we can't predict every track in the world, the temperature,
38:24
humidity, how much sun loads been on the track, what's the tire compound that's been laid down on the track, there's all these different things that would be
38:30
impossible to predict. So that's why we put this feature in where people can determine how much inertial energy, you
38:37
know, spin up the motor that when you dump the clutches to try to optimize the amount of energy to take advantage of
38:42
the available traction, both that static and the dynamic friction. So that's why
38:48
it's there. Gotcha. Yeah. And the idea behind the two variables you can adjust. Slip
38:53
percentage is just like it sounds. It's how much the tires are spinning before traction control starts to intervene.
39:00
And then engine speed, RPM is really we're we're managing torque. So we're
39:06
allowing the customer to tailor how much torque delivery during a launch. And like Tad said, it's really meant for
39:12
customers to play with on varying friction surfaces. So you might be in
39:17
the southwest where there's particularly a lot of sand or something on the road. You might want to play with it there. Its real mission was dragstrip type
39:24
launches. People think, "Oh, I'm going to a dragstrip. I've got this rubber covered surface. the car is going to hook up like crazy if you have drag
39:31
slicks. Yes. Right. On radial street tires, especially cold ones, it's awful.
39:37
Um, so that's where that comes in really handy. But the honest truth is it's just
39:43
juvenile fun to play with uh to see what each one does and what it does to your
39:48
launch. Um, and so we we did it so customers could play with it and that's exactly what we wanted to do.
39:53
That's great. Almost almost everybody thinks it can out outwit the computers. Mhm. Nice. So, we give them some knobs to
39:59
turn and see if they can do it. Give you something to play with, right? Give you some humility. There you go. Our next question is from
40:05
Away in the Sky from Minute Engine Corvette for me. He says, "Throughout the design of the C8 and the
40:11
development, what's been your greatest challenge and your greatest accomplishment?" Each guy.
40:16
Okay, I can start. We didn't I don't know if we've got these doled out. We could do a whole show on this.
40:21
We could do a whole show on this. I'm I'm going to start with, you know, we the biggest challenge we had was doing a
40:27
mid-enine architecture right on our first try. Yeah. You know, years, you know, we had seven generations of front engine car. We had
40:33
it pretty dialed in. We knew it was important. We knew a lot about and I'll
40:38
pick thermal management uh as as an example. What we didn't know on a
40:44
mid-enine car is okay, we got an engine in the back, so there's n no natural air
40:50
flow through the engine compartment. In a front engine car, you got all the heat exchangers and then that heat downstream
40:56
of that which or the air downstream of that. It's warmed up a little bit, but it's way cooler than an exhaust manifold, right? And so you have natural
41:03
evacuation of the That's why you have the gills on the side of the fenders. So through there, out the bottom of the
41:08
car. Now we don't have that. Now you got people sitting in the way. And so that's why we had to figure out how to get air
41:16
flow to the back without turning the whole back end of the car into a parachute. Yeah. you know, we need to get
41:22
ventilation through there, but capturing air through big side openings and not having that turn into a bunch of high
41:27
pressure inside the the back of the engine compartment, which slows you down. That's drag, right?
41:32
Um, and then how do you manage the There was almost an infinite number of ways that you could configure heat
41:38
exchangers. We were just talking about the complexity of just cooling off the battery and the power electronics. Now
41:44
you throw everything else in. Trans fluid, engine oil, you like to be
41:49
comfortable, your AC, you've got this myriad of different needs for cooling
41:55
air. How do you distribute it in an optimal way? How do you do all the plumbing? Where do you package all this
42:00
stuff? And it's not like we had cars running around to tell us or we could just plug and play all this stuff. We
42:06
had to synthesize. We had to do computer models. Sure. to generate all the alternatives and what are the pluses and
42:11
minuses for all these things. And as you can see, we've had the car out for quite
42:17
a long time now. 5 years. Air conditioning, no complaints. Track performance never overheats. Things
42:23
bulletproof. You know, we've done uh quite an amazing job and kept the traditional efficiency. What people like
42:29
about Corvettes is you buy a Stingray, you know, still get 30 miles a gallon on the highway, drag is low. It's it's you
42:38
know it's an it's a privilege and it's been amazing to work with the whole team putting this plan together and getting
42:44
it right especially when we have to compete against all of our other mid-enine competitors. They've done many many generations. They've got the tribal
42:50
knowledge of how to do things right, how to do things wrong. We had to grow that internally. Yeah, absolutely. Haron,
42:58
so I I'm going to talk a little bigger scale. I think the greatest accomplishment is going to sound
43:03
different. You know, of course, we're so proud of the Z06, the E-Ray ZR1 is coming. I'm actually most proud of the
43:10
accomplishment with the Stingray because this was a car I believe that we're the only ones in the world that could do
43:16
where we took the attainable Corvette formula and made it an exotic mid-enine
43:22
sports car with all the attributes and benefits that come with that. But so the biggest challenge was, you know, so
43:29
we're working with, you know, all the engineers finally we get to do mid engine. we're going to make this thing, you know, they're thinking of the ZR1,
43:36
they're thinking of the Z06. And I go, but we got to have the this thing's got to be a daily driver. We got to have
43:42
trunk space. So to maintain the Corvette formula, all the things people love
43:47
about Corvette above all, you know, in terms of attainability, it's too it's a car you can go on road trips, you can
43:53
couple can go for long distances. And we started like everything with like being
44:00
in we wanted a front storage and a rear storage. So we got to the point, you know, we're sitting in all these
44:05
meetings. We said we're going to make like the the carry-on bag an engineering
44:13
volume surface. You cannot interfere with this. And the same thing in the rear. We're going to have the two plus
44:18
the golf clubs. You know, it has to hold that. And we got to the point like and the roof has to fit in too.
44:23
And the roof has to fit in. So every we'd be in these meetings that start like 6:30 in the morning and it go like
44:29
all day. I was call stewing in our juices for like 10 hours in this conference room and and we go and every
44:36
time somebody would come with something nope. It's going it's going into the you know I had to be be there sit there you
44:42
know we're all there like police like no you can't put that in there. There's a there's a hose going through. No you can't do that. So it was just like
44:49
the challenge of everybody tell realizing I know this is the high performance sports and that's what
44:54
different than you know if it's a Ferrari or Porsche they don't care you know they're just going to do what they do it's it's a toy where ours is really
45:00
a car that you can enjoy and drive. So that's I think our challenge and what I'm proud of. Yeah Josh
45:07
I I think I'd build on what they said and I bet if like I said you could do a whole show on this. We could all just go
45:12
on for hours about this. Mine Mine's also stingray related. The whole everything we're talking about applies to all Corvettes and the eighth
45:18
generation platform, but the design synergy between the coupe and the convertible happening at the
45:26
simultaneously, right? And how one change affected another. We have to stow the roof and the coupe in
45:34
the trunk that Haron and all of us were fighting so hard to keep that utility. In the convertible, we have to store
45:39
this retractable hard top between the rear wheels which sets the width of the car. The opening of the roof sets the
45:47
depth and of the trunk and length of the car. One little millimeter affects all others, right? So, we're continuously
45:53
going in these loops. And I think people would be shocked about the heated debate over literally millimeters about what
45:59
what the right decision was. And to have our, you know, this the talent in our studio doing these two cars together,
46:08
being able to do the thermal management Taj was talking about with a trunk that gives all this utility yet blocking air
46:14
flow would have been so easy to cool the engine compartment without that trunk there to get the air out of the car. And
46:19
then things like the design of the transmission, the front face of the transmission case to the output shafts
46:26
of the axle is super super short. And that dimension sets up the length of the
46:32
whole car. We knew we're doing a small block V8. The Bore Centers have been around since 1955. We're going to change that formula. It's got to go behind that
46:39
occupant compartment. We want to get a average tall height driver into the car. So the whole length underneath is
46:46
competing with all this length above all at the same time. And another thing about the transmission, the input shaft
46:53
is below the output shafts. And that might Oh well. So what? Well, it allowed us to lower the engine. The crankshaft
47:01
and the out input shaft of the trans are on the same axis. So, that whole center of gravity is now lower and rearward in
47:07
the car. Wow. And it made one thing I know we're all proud of and that's the driving experience. We were the first time we
47:13
got in the car out on what we call the challenge course. Just a cone course out on on Black Lake. It was about 80%
47:19
calibrationish. The car wasn't quite done yet, but we were all taking turns in the car and got out just giggling.
47:25
And when when grown adults are giggling, you don't really need comments. You
47:30
know, we've achieved what we tried to achieve. Absolutely. Right. Josh, tell me in essence, when did you guys
47:36
really start working on the mid-enine car? What year? 05 05.
47:42
Really? So that was that's you know in principle. Well, not this iteration. We actually
47:48
had a previous iteration. So like when you you were talking about before about our first try in a in a weird way this
47:54
was kind of our second almost like the first generation was really the second generation cuz we had kind of a round
47:59
before this. Wow. We had started one but the 2005 is when Harl and I did our very first
48:06
presentations asking leadership to let us study it. So it's not like we're drawing lines on a mid-enine car. It's
48:11
like right can we even ask for resources? Pablo one time said anybody caught working on a
48:17
mid-enine car is going to be fired. Wow. in the face of that, we're still doing presentations advocating for it.
48:22
And so, you know, that's why it took a really long time and we did get a false start. Um, after that, uh, we did a
48:29
bunch of presentation, convince them, hm, maybe it's worth studying and we convinced them it's probably a good
48:34
idea. We're probably going to have to do it and we started it and then we stopped. Really?
48:40
Yeah. Wow. Heading into bankruptcy, it was just no way we're going to do it. So they just
48:45
they stopped us in our tracks because the C7 was supposed to be the mid-enine generation supposed to be.
48:50
It was pushed back. Yeah, we were working on it. But that first that first one though cemented like I think in leadership's
48:56
mind that eventually we were going to go there. Yeah. Right. That's good. That's good. All right. Our
49:01
next question is from even ZR1 from Corvette forum. He says, "Can we get a software update to hide soft buttons on
49:08
the interface so that Android Auto and Apple CarPlay can be full screen?
49:14
Who's the unfortunate person who's going to answer this one? I think the answer is no.
49:20
Yeah, I I'll take a a stab at it. We're we're chuck we agree with the sentiment
49:26
here is why we're chuckling. We understand the the question. Uh in in our infotainment system that
49:33
allows phone projection, we keep what we call persistent virtual controls. The idea is that you can
49:39
project your phone, which we know a lot of people do. We all do it. sure uh that you can switch back between your
49:45
phone and native applications like the -ray app we were talking about earlier today that's super engaging and
49:51
entertaining and fun to look at and and having that layout that way allows you to switch between your phone projection
49:57
and and an application like that at the same time projection developers like
50:03
Android Auto and Apple CarPlay also have menu but buttons that are persistent and
50:09
virtual. So within the projection application, you can switch back and forth. And when you stack all those
50:16
buttons that are persistent up, the display, whether it's uh song title, album art, or navigation shrinks to make
50:24
room for all those persistent virtual. So it' be nice maybe for it to take over and maybe you as you approach those
50:31
virtuals would pop up. We don't control how they project the phone, you know, that's up to them. We
50:37
can't tell them how to do that. We chose to keep these persistent displays within our native system so you can go back and
50:43
forth between and that was really a reaction to customer input. We send customer surveys out and this is not just Corvette. This
50:49
is companywide infotainment resources and so you ask a customer would you like
50:55
XYZ to be persistent so you have instant one-touch access to it. They'll say yes. It's the questions ever asked are you
51:01
willing to sacrifice the rest of the screen shrinking down to do that? They all say yeah sure I'll do that. So we
51:07
have these surveys that say this is what customers want and so that balance is a tough one to
51:12
the time and temperature too was on there. You know they wanted that you know people wanted that persistent. So
51:17
that's takes up some room. That's a tough one. That's a tough one especially for us cuz we have a very
51:22
compressed interior compartment. So lots of cars have bigger screens and you sit way up high much higher roof.
51:29
We just can't do that. If we put screens from some of our trucks and you wouldn't be able to see the road. They'd be way
51:34
up here. So interesting. Yeah, definitely. All right, our next question is from Minute
51:39
Engine Corvette forum. It's Meer Webb. He says, "When you're stopped in either drive or manual mode with your foot on
51:45
the brake, are the clutch discs dragging to allow the car to creep or do they engage when you take your foot off the
51:52
brake pedal?" Yes and yes. Okay,
51:57
next question. So, uh, the clutch engagement is controlled by hydraulic pressure. we can
52:03
apply pressure to the clutches, which is how much friction they're applying and how much torque is being used to creep
52:10
the car forward. And that's a function of brake pedal pressure. It's not just on off because that would make a very
52:15
clunky and awkward driving experience. So, the more firm you are on the brake pedal, the less clutch pressure we're
52:21
applying. Okay? As you back off the brake pedal, we'll start applying more clutch pressure. So,
52:26
the car is ready to move like a torque converter automatic transmission, even though this is completely different. So
52:32
it operates the way people would expect in automatic drive mode. Yeah. It's a modern miracle that you can
52:38
use friction clutches and have a driveway as smooth as it is. You think about you trying to do a manual, a
52:44
traditional manual, dry clutch, and engage it and so smooth that it feels like a torque converter.
52:50
Yeah. And we were paranoid and skeptical about being able to do that.
52:55
Yep. Well, that's really cool, though. All right. Our final question, guys, is from C. Wadell. He's from Corvette forum. He
53:02
said, "What considerations were made for combining a stop start system with stealth mode in a selectable economy
53:09
mode? It seems like that would be beneficial for fuel mileage to get the car to move in stealth mode or after a
53:16
stop start. What's it take? This is where life gets complicated."
53:22
Yes. Um, that's a engaging question, isn't it? It's a good question because it's it's something I think we all
53:28
intuitively like to do other hybrid vehicles. Um this is a unique hybrid in the world.
53:35
Um the way it operates is completely unique. And so we still have to live within the rules that are defined for
53:42
emissions for all kinds of other cars. And so there's some real technical
53:48
challenges uh with that. And we're very very conservative when it comes to meeting emissions. Other people walk
53:54
right up to the edge. General Motors in its entire history, we we are very conservative that way. We make sure that
54:01
cars new are way way headroom to all the regulations and even old cars have
54:06
headroom to the regulations. And so we live within a constrained environment on
54:12
what we can do executing the system. So we've tried to do the best we can um with what with the hardware we have, but
54:18
it's a really good question. and a lot of us are trying to see in the future. Could we be more aggressive in this
54:23
direction? So, we think it's a really good question uh that we're studying um
54:29
for some point in the future. We'll take this question as a vote to implement something like this. One one thing Ted was getting at cold start
54:36
emissions and I don't mean cold temperatures. I mean the hardware the catalyst, right, is not hot enough to effectively uh do
54:43
its job as an emission device. So there's very stringent rules around cold
54:49
startups. And within a drive cycle, you effectively get one cold start. So in a
54:55
stop start situation, if if anyone's been in any car for long enough, you'll notice if you sit there long enough,
55:01
even though you didn't move, the engine will start. That's because detecting that the catalyst is starting to cool off. So it's things like that that have
55:07
to be integrated into when we could deliver stealth mode. And a customer could be in a situation where they'd be
55:13
like, "Hey, I didn't do anything that should exit me out of stealth mode. The engine just started." Right? And so it's that balance of drive
55:20
quality that gets and emissions compliance that gets really, really complicated and tricky. But
55:26
that's a tough answer. It really is. Like I said, it's complicated. It is. It really is. Guys, thank you so much. Josh Holder, chief engineer for
55:32
Corvette. Harlon Charles, brand manager. Taz Jucker, executive chief engineer. Buddy, we're going to miss you.
55:38
Thank you very much. Congratulations on 47 years with General Motors. Congratulations on your nomination and
55:44
election into the Corvette Hall of Fame. Come back and see us. It's been a joy.
55:49
It's been a privilege. Been an honor. Thanks for everything. Thank you. Thanks again for listening and watching
55:56
Corvette Today. And be sure to tell your family, friends, and other Corvette enthusiasts about the Corvette Today
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