Up next in 10
Harlan Charles has been the spokesperson and face of Corvette for over 2 decades. He worked for General Motors for over 3 decades!
On this episode of CORVETTE TODAY, Harlan sits down with your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett, and reminisces about his time with Corvette and GM.
Harlan talks about how he got his job with GM, how he got the idea for the Performance Data Recorder and some of the milestones Corvette experienced during his tenure with the brand.
He is loved and respected by the entire Corvette community. And on this episode of CORVETTE TODAY, he talks about what he's the most proud of in regards to Corvette.
This is one of those "Must Listen To" episodes - we celebrate Harlan Charles and all that he's done for Corvette on this episode of CORVETTE TODAY.
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[Music] Welcome to Corvette Today, the show that
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talks about everything Corvette with your host Steve Garrett, lifetime member of the National Corvette Museum,
0:13
president of the Corvette Club of Kansas City, Missouri, and radio disc jockey at the number one radio station in Kansas
0:20
City for over 45 years. Here's Steve Garrett.
0:28
Thanks for listening and watching Corvette Today, the show that talks about everything Corvette and the only
0:33
current podcast dedicated to Corvette. I'm your host, Steve Garrett. I appreciate you tuning in. Corvette Today
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is brought to you by Wheelcraft. Want to dress up your Corvette with bright chrome or black chrome wheels? Visit
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wheelcraft.com and learn about their advanced PVD chrome finishing. They can refinish your wheels or offer a wheel
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exchange for most models, and it comes with a 5-year warranty. Visit wheelcraft.com today or call them at
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be sure to mention Corvette today as your referral for a special gift when your loan is funded. And a shout out to
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Canadian Corvette Forum and Corvette Forum welcoming Corvette enthusiasts from around the world. My guest on this
3:48
episode of Corvette Today needs no introduction. He was with GM for 37 years. 24 of those years were spent with
3:55
Corvette. He owns 11 patents. He's made many, many appearances here on Corvette Today. He's a personal friend of mine
4:02
and a true friend of the show. Today we celebrate his career with General Motors and Corvette. He's the former Corvette
4:08
marketing and brand manager, Harlon Charles. Harlon, welcome back to Corvette Today, my friend.
4:14
Hi, Steve. Thanks for having me. It's always great to have you on the show, buddy. Before we get into all
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this, talk about how as a young boy you kind of latched on to Corvette. You knew
4:24
that Corvette was your car. Yeah. You know, my dad was into cars growing up and I became into cars. You
4:30
know, I wanted to be speed racer watching that cartoon. Yep. He did a lot of traveling in Europe for his job and
4:37
he would bring me back books on sports cars and there was these German card games and they always had pictures of a
4:44
car stats and the country that it was from. And I noticed the only one with the American flag that was ever in any of
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these things was the Corvette and I always thought how cool is that? Here's an American car even all around the
4:56
world is getting prestige. I love sports cars. That became my favorite car growing up. I read everything I could
5:02
about it. I bought all the books. I aspired to someday work for GM or Chevrolet if someday my dream came true
5:08
on the Corvette. Just reading everything I could, including things like at that time when I was younger, the Aerovet,
5:15
the four rotor as it was called back then, right, the mid engine and reading about Zora, all that. I was just totally
5:22
geeked on it. So eventually when a lot of people say, "How do you know this history and stuff?" I just naturally
5:27
learned it when I was a little boy. Really, just reading all these books. Buddy, you sound like me. whenever I'd
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see a Corvette on a magazine. I'd always grab that magazine. I'd read everything I could as well. That's the way it went.
5:38
Yes. Hey, before we talk about General Motors and Corvette in your career there, tell me where you went to college. What did
5:44
you study and what's your degree in? I get growing up, I was fascinated with design. I grew up in Florida and I
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really didn't know how to be a designer. I remember reading that a lot of the designers start as engineers. I did
5:55
study mechanical engineering at Drexel University, which is in Philadelphia for those that don't know. I also later on
6:02
once I started working studied both transportation design at CCS in Detroit
6:08
and strategic marketing with University of Michigan Business School. Wow. Nice. And you know I always love
6:14
hearing these backstories of how you got your interview with General Motors and then what your first job was. Tell me
6:19
about that. Well, coming out of school when I did in the late 80s, it wasn't easy to get a
6:25
job period, let alone in the auto industry. But I just wanted to get in. I actually have I think I still have it in
6:31
my basement. Back then when we used to mail in resumes, right? I actually had 150 rejection letters
6:37
from all across the auto industry. And then finally, I just never gave up.
6:43
I did get a job actually at Johnson Controls in their car seating division. Okay.
6:48
So my first job that got me to Michigan in the auto industry, I designed the structure for the rear seat in the first
6:54
Ford Explorer. Huh. I kept trying the GM design. There was a gentleman down in Florida that my dad
7:00
ended up meeting and he retired from the wood shop at design staff and he goes, "Why don't you just write a letter to
7:06
Charlie Jordan, he called him, which Chuck Jordan, VP of design then?" Yeah. And just tell him that Scotty sent you
7:12
and you're a good kid and maybe he'll give you an interview. So I did that. I wrote I spent like, you know, a week writing this elaborate letter and I did
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get an interview and I didn't get to meet Chuck Jordan, but I didn't get hired in right away, but I would call
7:23
about every week to see what's happening. Eventually, I think I annoyed them so much, one of the engineers I was
7:29
interview with said, "When I retire, you're going to get my position." Wow. That's what I did. And I started in
7:34
February of 88. Nice. And you were concepts engineer in the design staff department. Right.
7:40
Right. It was really a great group that we had then. It doesn't really exist now, but our job was to come up with
7:46
creative engineering solutions to solve design problems. For example, one of the ones I was proud of was wheelto- body
7:53
relationship. You know, a car always looks better when the wheel sits right in its wheel openings and its fenders,
7:58
right? Nice stance. It really makes a car look well put together performance. But there's a lot of criteria in there for
8:05
when it gets tested at Milford, potholes, things like that, right? This was the days before electronic
8:11
suspensions were really the thing. So, I created a mechanical variable strut that would work in cars that had front
8:17
McFersonson struts that would restrict the travel on these aggressive maneuvers like the pothole and driveway ramps and
8:25
things like that that would allow a tighter wheel body and I got several patents on that. Interesting. Now, then you went to work
8:31
as a product manager for the Oldmobile Intrigue. Tell me about that. Yeah. So actually right before that at design
8:37
that group it seemed like it was being transitioned more to the conventional engineering and there was a strategic
8:43
analysis group that worked with this design studios and we helped the studios
8:49
react to the customer clinic. So we went to different clinics and they would look at the clay model say what they like dislike and it was always a balance of
8:56
it's appealing versus the reach. You know you didn't want it to be like everybody likes it but then it's old when it comes out versus you have to
9:02
stretch it right. But anyway, that got me into the door with marketing and helped me get this job. A few of the
9:08
people from our group did end up going to Ozmobile, which at the time, for some of the younger listeners are like, "Oze?
9:14
What are you talking about?" But at the time, in the late 90s, early 2000s, Ozmobile was really trying to be GM's
9:21
import fighter. They had Saturn at the low end back then, but in the higher end, midsize, and up, Ozmobile was going
9:28
to take on Honda, Mazda, Toyota, you know, the imports. Yeah. And I think that was a really good midsize car.
9:34
Actually, it was very wellreceived overall to the point where Dave Hill,
9:39
the Corvette chief engineer at the time, actually bought one for his wife to drive and she loved it. Nice. Now, since you were working on the
9:47
Intrigue, that was right down the hall from Corvette and that gave you that visibility and exposure with Dave Hill,
9:52
didn't it? Yeah, we were on the same floor right next door, our midsize team with the sports car team. Actually, at that time,
9:59
I had bought a 99 Corvette. I had my 90 already. I bought a 99. I was telling Dave Hill
10:06
and the other people on the team about it. I like someday I'd really love to be on this team. And Dave was like, "Well,
10:11
we're not doing anything right now, but keep that in mind." And he really would ask me questions about the Intrigue.
10:17
Corvette at that time was pioneering active handling or stability control, which is common place today, but it was
10:23
on the cutting edge. And the Intrigue was actually the first midsize car to have four-wheel stability control.
10:29
Interesting. That was a lot of the topics that we would discuss. Now, in 2001, that was the big year
10:35
because the product manager job became available. I understand you were one of 200 applicants for that job with
10:41
Corvette and you landed the job, didn't you? Yes. So, when that job came open, actually, by that time, I had moved on.
10:48
The writing was on the Raw for Olsson. So, I was a Cadillac technology manager. Okay. I landed there, but I'd only been
10:54
there less than a year, but when that job came open, I told my supervisor, I go, "I know I haven't been here that
11:00
long. This is my dream. Please let me go after it." And he said, "Okay, nice." And again, I was worried that, oh, they
11:06
probably post it. Maybe they already have somebody in mind, but I went out, you know, with everything I had. I was
11:11
one of five people they interviewed and Dave Hill and Rick Baldick, who was the brand manager for the Corvette at the
11:17
time, interviewed me. And they cut it off a little bit early which made me worry because I was the last one. Oh,
11:24
actually Dave was heading out to the Corvette museum. I think maybe it was the bash or was going on. I said, "Well,
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maybe I'm not going to get it because why would he leave so early?" But I did get the job. And one of the things I
11:35
think that helped was I just told Dave that I really enjoyed the day-to-day decisions and customerf facing actions
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that we take as we're creating a new Corvette or any car. And that I really wanted to get back in the game doing
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that. And as a Corvette enthusiast myself, I really thought I'd be great for his team.
11:53
Yeah. And as they say, the rest is history. Right, buddy? Right. That's cool. Well, I tell you what,
11:58
let's take our first break. When we come back, we're going to talk about your time with Corvette in segment number
12:03
two. We're talking with Harlon Charles celebrating his career with GM and Corvette here on Corvette today. We all
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We come for the Corvettes. We stay for the friendships made along the way. Hi, I'm Mark Falter, host of the Retirement
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And now back to Corvette Today with your host and my husband, Steve Garrett.
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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. I know you want your Corvette looking its best. I do, too.
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I'm your host Steve Garrett. With me is my buddy Harlon Charles, the former brand manager Corvette. We are
15:42
celebrating his career with General Motors and Corvette. In this second segment, we're going to talk about the
15:47
time that Haron spent with Corvette. Harlon, you started with the C5 Corvette. Give me an idea of what that
15:53
was like to start with a car like a C5 because that was a real big introduction for the Corvette.
15:59
Yeah. I mean, the C5 really revived the Corvette. When I started, we were just
16:04
finishing up the 50th anniversary. Mhm. And the plan was that the 50th
16:10
anniversary would be the grand finale for the fifth gen. Okay. And in ' 04, the sixth gen was
16:16
going to come out. But what happened? 911 economy, things like that. So they
16:21
shifted it out a year. So Dave Hill, our chief engineer, says, "You're the product manager. You got any ideas? You
16:26
can't do a 51st anniversary car. What do you want to do for the finale of the fifth gen?" At that time too, we had
16:33
2001 and 2002 our class at the 24 hours of Lama, which we were very proud of.
16:39
Yeah. So then also I looked at the later C4s. We had the grand sport and collector
16:44
edition. So, kind of building off that, I had this idea to celebrate instead of
16:49
just doing a collector edition for the end of the C5, let's celebrate the C5's wins at the 24 hours of LAMA. We had
16:57
this new blue color. And I know we had a Leam Blue in the past, and this wasn't exactly the same thing, but I said, you
17:03
know what? Let's just This is the new one. We'll call it Lam Blue and we'll combine that with a shale interior from
17:09
the 50th anniversary. 50th anniversary was red. So it gave it a completely different look and I think it was really
17:15
upscale. And then working with Kirk Benyan at design, one of the things we heard a lot loud and clear was on the
17:22
03. There were some people that were disappointed. We didn't do a Z0650th. It was only on the regular Coupe
17:28
convertible. Mhm. Let's do something even more special for the Z06. And Kirk designed this stripe
17:34
scheme for it. Also engineering said, you know, we wanted to look at carbon fiber for the future. Here's a good low
17:41
volume chance. Let's try the carbon fiber hood that a supplier's working on. This could be the first volume carbon
17:48
fiber panel on a production car. So that Z06 version had the special carbon fiber
17:53
part. The only thing was it wasn't the carbon that people are used to where it looks like more of a linear carbon.
17:59
Yeah. So we painted it and then the graphic on it denoted it was carbon fiber.
18:04
Unfortunately, some people thought that wasn't real. No, this is real carbon fiber. The stripe is a stripe, but the
18:10
carbon under it is real. That car, I think, has its own status. A lot of people love that particular car, and
18:16
became a collectible, especially the Z06 version of it. I think we did finish 04
18:21
with a nice finale. Yeah, definitely. And you also came up with some really nice special editions
18:27
like the commemorative edition. Talk to me about that because really Corvette was the ones that came up with these
18:32
special editions. Yeah. So, myself and Kirk Penny of Design, we would always be scheming things like this ' 04 was the
18:40
Lama commemorative edition. So, we did that one. Then later on when C6 came around, we did cars like the Ron Fellows
18:46
edition. We did the 427 tribute with real cookie, the plant manager, signed
18:51
them all, right? And we did the GT1, which was a racing competition sport,
18:56
which was like your own special autocross track day cars, as well as the
19:02
Z06 Carbon was a great one and the Centennial. And of course, finally, we closed out C6 with the 60th anniversary
19:08
and the 427 convertible. Yeah, that's true. Let's talk more about C6 because you were in on the full
19:14
development of that car, weren't you? Yeah, the coupe and convertible were partially underway and the Z06 was just
19:21
getting started. The main thing about it was to take the fifth gen and make it leaner, meaner. Of course, more ties in
19:27
with the racing team with the fixed lamps instead of the pop-up lamps and things like that. But one of the things
19:33
at the time, the Z06 was shown with a 6.4 450 horse engine was the plan. And I
19:40
thought you think, well, that's pretty good. That's really good for that era. But Viper came out with 500. And I was
19:45
talking to Dave Wickman, recent Hall of Famer, you know, Corvette development at Milford, right? He whispers in in my ear
19:52
telling the young guy, "Hey, you guys at marketing, we didn't ask for enough horsepower. We shouldn't let Viper beat us." I said, "You know what? You're
19:58
right." So, I write a form, we call them CR request to make the Z06 500
20:03
horsepower at minimum. And then talking with some of the powertrain guys, they thought you could do it if you increase the displacement. And we're kind of
20:10
whispering, well, the race car had the 7 liter tie it to racing and also 427, which is a magic number.
20:15
Yeah. So, I wrote that request and at the time Taj and Dave were like, "Oh, we're going to push this to get as much
20:21
as we want. I don't know if we'll get quite there, but we're going to push it." Then they were presenting their plan to Bob Lutz and Lutz just said,
20:28
"Why aren't you going after 500? Don't you want to beat the Viper?" And they came back and told me, I was like, "Well, how come you didn't do that when
20:34
I wrote the request?" They go, "Well, you didn't do it at the right time." But anyway, at least maybe inserted the
20:40
catalyst to get everybody thinking about that. And that actually came out 505. What a great car that is. The sixth gen
20:46
Z06, lightweight, naturally aspirated, high revving small block. What a great car.
20:52
Yeah, absolutely right. And the ironic thing was is that Bob Lutz was kind of considered the father of Viper and he
20:58
signed off on having horsepower that was five horsepower more than the SRT10. Oh yeah. You know, once he was over, he
21:05
was very proud of the Viper, don't get me wrong, but I think he always envied that whatever they did, the Corvette was
21:10
always America's sports car. I think he realized that. Yeah, that's kind of tough to battle at any point, isn't it?
21:17
Right. You know, if the C6 highlights included like the creation of the Grand Sport model, which turned out to be the
21:23
bestselling version of the C6, and that was your idea. Yeah. So, when it happened, the sixth
21:29
gen, again, like every Corvette generation, seems to run longer than the original plan for it. So, we were given
21:35
the opportunity to do a midcycle for 2010. I started to think about it again going to customer events talk. Everybody
21:42
loved the Z06, but it wasn't for everybody. It was an aluminum frame at that time. It was a fixed roof only, no
21:49
convertible, no rule top, manual transmission only, and of course, it was a little bit more expensive. So again,
21:55
working with my buddy Kirk, we thought if we change some of the carbon fiber like the fenders have to conventional
22:01
fenders, new wheel design, you know, for relatively low cost, even less than doing a midcycle enhancement, we can
22:07
create a new model that people can upgrade to that gives you the stance, the aggressive look of the Z06, plus the
22:14
handling and the chassis of the Z06. Combine that with the standard LS3
22:19
engine and you could get automatic, you get manual, you can get coupe removable roof, convertible, and we brought back
22:25
torch red also backed by popular demand. Still always runs number one or number two on Corvette.
22:31
Mhm. Brought that color back. We had the convertible torch red and we introduced that at the Corvette Museum. And the fun
22:38
thing was I think this was the first time there was no clue that anything like this was going on.
22:43
Cool. It was a true reveal and a surprise. And I did like the calling it the Grand Sport. Again, it wasn't a limited
22:50
edition like the 96 Grand Sport, but I thought in theory or in concept that car
22:56
had the ZR1 wider rear track on it, right? Using the standard body.
23:02
Mhm. You know, we took the wider stance from the Z06 and put it on the standard car. But we opened it up. Of course, you had
23:07
to offer the hashmark on the fenders. You get multiple colors, any exterior, any interior. You could really make it
23:13
your own Grand Sport. and it became the bestselling model for Corvette and really helped save us in some lean years
23:19
towards the end of the 6G. It wasn't the best economy. You know, we're talking 2010 to 2013 and it really kept the
23:25
plant running. Yeah, it was really a great combination of the wide body of the Z06 and the
23:30
Stingray engine and the suspension performance. It was really an ideal car. That's for sure. Also, you revived the
23:37
ZR1 for the C6. GM was a little hesitant. I know that the C4 ZR1 didn't sell very well, but you revived the ZR1
23:44
for the C6 generation, which is an awesome car. Yeah. So, I can't take credit for the whole car obviously, but the name I take
23:51
a little credit for. When we were working on that Z06, Rick Wagner, who was the CEO, came in and the price point
23:57
of that car ended up being about 65,000. He goes, "I wonder what kind of car you could do if you had 100,000."
24:02
Yeah. And he just said it like a flipping comment. But Dave Hill said, "You know what? Let's show them what we can do."
24:08
that concept to do an even higher up ultimate performance Corvette hung around to the point where Tom Wallace
24:14
took over as chief engineer. He actually executed that and it had different names. One time Chevrolet had this
24:21
philosophy where they wanted every model to have an SS, a performance model. Huh.
24:26
Well, maybe this would have been the Corvette SS. Yeah. Ultimately, that wasn't special enough.
24:31
Actually, it was some issues with export in Europe and things like that. And then at one time we looked at Stingray and
24:37
that stuck for a while to bring back that moniker in a different way as a top-of-the-line Corvette. But Ed Welburn had a design
24:44
and I think he was right here. He goes, "Let's save Stingray for when we do a completely allnew Corvette, a new design
24:49
statement. So what are we going to call it?" And Tom asked me, I go, "Why don't we just call it ZR1, King of the Hill?" Cuz I grew up the '90s ZR1 took on the
24:57
best in the world, you know, King of the Hill, life begins, you know, at 180 miles an hour,
25:02
right? And there was a little hesitation from some because even though the ZR1
25:08
was a great car, there were some that remembered the tail end of it where they had some leftover cars that were hard to
25:13
sell. I mean, it was very expensive at that time. Do we really want to bring that back? And there was some naysayers. The other thing I liked about it though,
25:20
the 01 and the 90 had an allnew engine, 32 valve engine, and this was the first supercharged Corvette engine. So, design
25:27
did a badge that had supercharged on it. Everybody seemed to rally around that. I thought that that was really cool
25:32
because it's not just the name sometimes, it's the graphic and how it looks. And we put the blue one on it for
25:37
the Blue Devil in honor of Rick Wagner. He was a Duke guy and that was always our internal code name for it. So, we
25:43
had blue accents and blue brakes and things like that. Ultimately became ZR1 and I think now it's hard to imagine it
25:50
being anything else. We've done a couple more after that one. So, I think ZR1 has kind of cemented it as the moniker
25:56
that's the king of Corvettes. Absolutely right. You know, I remember when that C6 ZR1 came out. I saw that
26:01
car at the Kansas City Auto Show and it was a big deal because that was the first $100,000 Corvette and it had the
26:08
window in the hood where you could see the supercharger. Yeah, that was a great feature, the window in the hood and it actually
26:14
helped the clearance because, you know, we didn't want to hurt the downward vision too much in the front and keep
26:20
the hood as low as possible. And the window is thinner than a conventional hood material and insulation. It was a
26:26
cool thing because you could see the actual supercharger and also it helped keep the hood lower. Yeah, that was awesome. Well, buddy,
26:32
let's take our final break. When we come back, we're going to talk about the mid engine platform for Corvette. That's coming up next with Haron Charles here
26:39
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You're enjoying the only current podcast on Corvettes. Corvette Today.
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Thanks once again for listening and watching Corvette Today, the show that talks about everything Corvette.
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Corvette Today is brought to you by Wheelcraft. I know you want your Corvette looking its best, so dress it
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I'm your host Steve Garrett. With me is former Corvette brand manager Harlon Charles. We are celebrating his career.
30:08
37 years with GM and 24 years with Corvette. In this final segment, we're going to talk about the mid-engine
30:14
platform for Corvette. Harlon, before we get into that, C7 was originally supposed to be the mid-engine car. Tell
30:20
me what happened with that and how it got to be front engine. Yeah. Well, actually, when the C6 came
30:26
out, I wrote a thing like the view from 2004, like should we start talking about C7 already? One of the thoughts I had
30:32
was we had done a good job at taking away a lot of excuses for people to not buy a Corvette. I It was no longer this
30:39
cramped, hard riding car that was uncomfortable with no storage space. It was a very usable sports car.
30:45
Yeah. And the one of the last things left I thought was the one thing the Corvette wasn't great at was driving it in the
30:50
winter. I thought two things. The mid engine rear traction would help the car be an all-around car in that way and
30:56
also being even closer to the cutting edge of racing technology. All the top motorsports, you know, you talk about
31:03
Formula 1 and London winners, the ultimate sports cars were all mid-engine designs. I mean, and reading Jerry
31:09
Burton's book on Zora also just growing up reading about Corvettes and mid engine. So, we had a meeting again, Dave
31:16
Hill was the chief, you know, let's start talking about C7. What could it be? And they were talking about minor changes, maybe moving the wheels forward
31:23
a little bit. And then finally, I guess I was feeling bold that day. I said, why don't we consider something more
31:28
radical? Are we going to talk about that? I mean, this is our chance if we're going to do a new Corvette generation. He said, like, what are you
31:34
talking about? What about mid engine or even considering all-wheel drive? And he goes, "Oh my gosh." Basically, he said,
31:39
"If Chevrolet," meaning me as the represent for Chevrolet has a different viewpoint than the rest of the team, you're welcome to come in next week and
31:46
present that. So, thinking, "Oh my gosh, I have to come up with a reason to do mid engine in a week." A lot of the
31:52
midenine had failed over the years because people thought was super expensive, very impractical, can't do a
31:58
convertible. what kind of transmission do you use? Things like that. So, the concept was to do a car that nobody else
32:04
in the world could do where we combined things people love about the Corvette, its price point, it's small block V8,
32:12
it's easily able to drive cross-country trips, the luggage space, practical things like that. But let's merge that
32:19
with the mid-enine supercar exotic enablers like the center of gravity
32:24
being around your body, the low forward cal for great visibility, the rear weight distribution for better track
32:30
times and acceleration and performance and fun to drive aspect of it as well as a new proportion that could put Corvette
32:38
and attract new buyers to the Corvette. Mhm. Ultimately, Dave Hill had said that, you
32:43
know, I'm not sure if this is the way to go yet, but you've raised enough points that I think we should study some
32:48
packaging. He was concerned about some of those cars have the cramped foot box, you know, the Lamborghinis and Ferraris
32:53
of that time, right? So, could we do something that has good accommodations? And Taj actually gave me a look. He
32:59
said, "Nicely done." So, that kind of cemented the seat a little bit. Both Kirk Benyan and Kim Lind were working on
33:05
packages to see if they could be Corvettes, you know, with proportion. and Kirk was on board right away also
33:11
with doing the mid-enine car because the proportion changed and things like that. Ultimately, we got approved program. It
33:19
was going to be a 2012, but the late 2007 89 when the crash and bankruptcy,
33:25
things like that. Taj called me. We're just about to do mule cars, start putting a plan together to build some.
33:31
Taj told me it was Christmas break 2007 that they had paused the program,
33:36
basically cancelled it, and there was no new Corvette program at that time yet. But when we came out of it, we knew we
33:42
had to do something quick for Corvettes. So the first idea was, oh, do a major change to the C6. But you know how we
33:48
are once we got started, we're going to go all aluminum frames and design did such a good job with the design that we
33:55
got to the point where though this is a C7. We changed so much of the car. We changed almost every part that it became really a great car, almost too good in a
34:02
way where some people are still like, are you sure you want to do a mid engine? But I think we had cemented that in at that time.
34:07
Yeah. And you know the front engine C7 gave us the full spectrum of Stingray, Z06, Grand Sport, and ZR1. And I know
34:14
that the ZR1 was not supposed to be a single year car, but it did turn out to be. I also remember Tad saying, "We have
34:20
gone as far as we can with the front engine design for Corvette, too, didn't he?" Yeah. Basically, we were even learning
34:27
that it was hard to get better accelerations times, even as much horsepower as you put at it. You just
34:33
run the limits of physics and traction with the weight distribution that we had. Mhm. One of the big wins for the 7th gen was
34:40
we're going to go all aluminum frames before only the Z06 had it. But I pushed hard and they did it to make it a
34:46
convertible worthy so that we could do Z06 convertible and open roof coupe,
34:51
right? And manual and automatic on a Z06. So originally we weren't even going to have
34:56
a Grand Sport because of the success of the sixth gen Grand Sport. All I kept hearing was, "Are you guys going to come
35:02
out with a C7 Grand Sport? When's that going to happen?" And eventually we did that. Also, of course, like I said, this
35:08
got pushed out another couple of years. It was so successful the idea to do a ZR1 again on that. Originally, it was
35:15
going to be probably a 2-year car, but we ended up doing a short 2018 and a very long 2019 model year that year.
35:22
Yeah. So, even though it was one model year, it was a very stretched out 2019. Yeah. And that was a great car. That ZR1
35:28
was awesome. The whole C7 generation was awesome. I had a manual transmission Stingray and absolutely loved that car.
35:35
And that really helped get to the eighth generation because we upgraded the interior, the electronics. We did the
35:41
driver mode selector where you could program the car on your own to be tour, sport, track, weather, things like that.
35:48
So, a lot of those learning and bringing aluminum into the factory really helped us with the eighth generation car.
35:54
Yeah. And then you brought out the eighth generation car in 2020 and it was under $60,000. Everybody went, "Oh my
36:00
gosh, that's crazy." Yeah, there was a secret. It was one of the biggest secrets even inside the company. There were people even working
36:07
on the car that didn't know the price. I think most people assumed it was going to be a six-f figureure car to start
36:13
that we're just moving the car much more expensive. But again, that was part of the original plan was to keep the car
36:19
affordable because we want people to be able to afford it. You know, that was always one of the things that I loved about Corvette was it's a dream car, but
36:26
you don't have to be a super wealthy, rich, again, not inexpensive, but somebody that works hard should be able
36:32
to afford America's sports car. Yeah. As cool as the ZR1 and the Z06 and the
36:38
-ray are, the Stingray is really still the most unique car in the market. There's nothing else like it for that
36:44
price. Yeah. Anywhere in the world. Agreed. You know, I remember when the C8 came out, it was either Car and Driver
36:51
or Road and Track that said Corvette has just flipped the middle finger to all European supercars,
36:57
right? That's what we like to do as Americans, you know, embarrass the European snobs around the world and crash the country club and just show
37:03
what we can do with our ingenuity. Exactly. Let's talk about some of the milestones in your career, Harlon. You
37:10
were the one that came up with the performance data recorder. You name the -ray, the first production Corvettes to
37:16
use carbon fiber hoods, which was the C5, Z06, and then some of the special editions. I mean, those are really now
37:23
everyday but iconic things. The performance data recorder and the -ray. Talk about that real quick.
37:28
Yeah, so the performance data recorder actually I think it I proposed it 2007.
37:34
I was playing video games like Gran Turismo or Forza and when you're done you get an
37:40
instant replay of what you did so you can watch it. And the idea was they're trying to be realistic to the real
37:46
world. Why can't we do something from the video game world and bring it to the real car to do like your own instant
37:52
replay. So I basically used their instant replay screen and doctorred it
37:57
up. things that you'd want to know if you're doing a driving school or you're just trying to match things like the
38:03
speed, the geforces, RPM, throttle and brake, what mode you're in, whether
38:08
stability came on or not, things like that that you could look at. You could use it to improve your driving, but
38:14
also, you know, it was the beginnings of social media and things that you could share with people. And there were some
38:19
things like this in the aftermarket, but everything was separate. People were coming out with phone apps. So the
38:25
innovation was let's have it all on board the car. Now it was difficult because there's no performance recorder
38:30
group at GM at that time. I mean there is now. Yeah. We had the data in the car. It could be
38:36
done. We added a camera and the microphone to it. We have the screen. We had a SD card reader that we added. But
38:42
combining all that together took the integration and it actually took until we couldn't do it for the sixth
38:48
generation. We wanted the new electrical system that the seventh generation had. We missed the first year, but it came
38:53
out in 2015 and it's still out to this day and we've been making improvements to it. But I still think nobody else in
39:00
the industry, now it's 10 years now, has a better integrated performance data recorder that's easy to use, fun to use,
39:08
and it has other uses, too. One of the things was I read this article where somebody dropped their car off with a
39:13
valet and went on a cruise and they found out, it was a news story that the valet people were using their car all
39:19
week. So, we combine that. What if people don't even go to the track? Not everybody does. So, you could use this just to record your tail of the dragon
39:25
trip or in a valet situation, you put a code in there. You have a record of everything that happened on your car
39:31
when you weren't in it. So, it gives you that piece of mind as well. So, it get, you know, it had multiple usage cases
39:36
and that's why we put the SD card in the lockable storage as well. Yeah, that was awesome. Talk to me about
39:43
how you got the name. Okay, so we were talking about early days of scheming the
39:49
eighth generation car, what models we would have. This is back 2014, 2015. And
39:54
one of the concepts was we could do either conventional all-wheel drive or we are also studying doing a hybrid
40:01
all-wheel drive, which ultimately what we did with the electric motor. And I was looking through names in general, you know, cuz we had Stingray
40:07
we brought back for C7, which I love. And there was some thoughts, do we keep that? Do we do other things? And one of
40:12
the ones I came across, I was just looking at sharks and rays and aquatic. Of course, we had Manor Ray, which was a
40:18
show car. We used Makeo Sharks, things like that. But there actually was an electric ray. It was a real sea creature
40:24
called the electric ray. Yeah. I thought this would be cool if we ever did something again, we weren't even thinking about full electric cars really
40:31
then, but like we ended up doing like even something with electrification, shorten it to trademarked that back in
40:38
2015 for possible usage in the future. And then when we started working on what
40:43
became the -ray and it stuck and actually when the patent went out it was a good name because everybody instantly
40:49
know oh they're doing some kind of electrified Corvette must be what that name is for. Everybody knew right away what that meant.
40:55
Also we have special editions. We touched on those during the first segment. The Centennial edition, the
41:00
Lama edition, Ronfellow's Z06 Carbon editions. Were there any others besides
41:05
those? The centennial I'm very proud of because nobody was really planning anything for the 100th anniversary of
41:11
Chevrolet. I tried to get people, you know, why don't we share it? Why don't we do like a common theme across all the cars,
41:17
right? But one of the things I tapped into was Louis Chevrolet, who we're named after, was a race car driver,
41:23
right? One of the arguments he had with Billy Durren, okay, back when they started the Chevrolet company, he wanted to be a
41:28
high-end performance company where Dur wanted to be a low price car that competed with the Ford Model T. So, I
41:35
thought if Louis Chevrolet was alive today, he would be so proud of the Corvette that it was a Chevrolet car.
41:41
Yeah. And let's use the iconic Louis Chevrolet driving the race car in Indianapolis in
41:47
1911 and use that as the logo for us. And he also had the slogan never give up
41:52
and the race team adopted that for the racing season that year. Nice. And then Kirk came up with the red
41:58
stripe wheels and the carbon flash exterior. It's really one of my favorite specials that we did.
42:04
Agreed. I like it, too. You also had personal options that you brought to Corvette like seat stitching, colored
42:10
seat belts, color brake calipers, two-tone seating, and a lot more. You know, it's great because that really
42:16
enables a Corvette enthusiast to really specialize and make their Corvette their own. Yeah. They started pushing that towards
42:22
the tail end of the sixth generation and just expanded from there because we wanted people who buy any sports car,
42:30
you know, Porsches, Ferrari, Lamborghini, whatever, to consider Corvette. And we don't want them to feel
42:35
like they're giving up any choices or any chances to make their own. As well as Corvette customers that we already
42:42
have asked for things like that as well that we're doing, you see customization and things at different Corvette events.
42:48
So little by little we added these things. The thing was engineering generally doesn't want to do things like
42:54
that. Not that they don't want to but it's added complexity. It's added engineering and validation right
42:59
even if it doesn't people like well what is thread cost? What does it cost to paint a cal even if it doesn't there's a lot of cost but when you look at we
43:06
charge for some of these options again not huge but it more than pays for the extra work that we have to do to do
43:13
this. It's a win-win. Customers love it. The bean counters love it. We were able to plan the Corvette around it. You can
43:19
really make your own Corvette statement right from the factory with these choices. You sure can.
43:24
People really enjoy doing that. Yeah, absolutely. Right. Buddy, any closing thoughts? You've worked with
43:29
some of the big people in the industry, and I think the Mountain Rushmore of Corvette would be you, Taj, Kirk, and
43:36
maybe Zora. Wow. Yeah, of course. Dave Hill, Tom Wallace is chief engineers as well. We
43:43
have Josh Holder still holding it down. It's just great to be associated with that. And I really feel from the early
43:49
2000s to now, sixth, seventh, and eighth generations. I think is really a golden
43:54
era that I'm really happy to be a part of and have a lot of pride about. I've really had the best life I could have
44:01
ever dreamed of as a little boy to do all the things that I got to do with Corvette. It just makes me happy that
44:07
customers are happy and I got to be involved in the early stages of the engineering design and be a part of the
44:13
scheming. I just can't imagine a better life that I could have had. So, I'm very thankful for the time I had on Corvette.
44:20
It's something that will stick with me forever. Buddy, the entire Corvette community loves you. We'll miss you. I hope you
44:26
enjoy retirement and I hope you're not a stranger. You are always welcome on Corvette today. Please let us see you
44:32
soon. Thank you and the work that you do. And you're like family. That's what I said before. All these Corvette people, they
44:38
start as customers, they become friends, and they feel like it's the Corvette family is just wonderful. I received so
44:44
many positive comments online, people texting me personally, and people are just so wonderful. It just makes me so
44:50
happy. Thanks again for listening and watching Corvette Today. And be sure to tell your family, friends, and other Corvette
44:56
enthusiasts about the Corvette Today Show. And thanks to our sponsors, Wheelcraft. Want to dress up your
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DJ. Thanks again for listening and watching Corvette today. [Music]
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