Up next in 10
CORVETTE TODAY #52-It's our 1 year anniversary with Tom Peters!
229 views
May 9, 2025
CORVETTE TODAY #52-It's our one year anniversary! This is a truly fascinating episode of CORVETTE TODAY....your host, Steve Garrett, introduces you to the man who designed the C5, C6, C7 and C8 Corvettes, Tom Peters! Tom talks about his early years when he first discovered Corvette, his path to a California design school, how he got his GM scholarship as a sophomore in college (when they were only given to junior and seniors) and all through his 35 years at GM. Tom gives you the inside scoop on how they introduced the C5 Corvette at a reserve Air Force base and the competition thereof. He also recalls the story of how Global Design Vice President, Ed Welborn, gave his team the OK to finally call the C7 Corvette a "Stingray". Then Tom recalls his induction into the Corvette Hall of Fame. If you miss any CORVETTE TODAY podcast, don't let it be this one! You'll be glued to your listening (and YouTube viewing) device for this episode of CORVETTE TODAY!
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music] welcome to corvette today
0:05
the podcast that talks about everything corvette with your host steve garrett mc and dj at one of the largest corvette
0:12
weekends in the country corvette fun fest president of the corvette club of kansas city missouri
0:18
and radio disc jockey at the number one radio station in kansas city for over 40 years here's steve garrett
0:25
[Music] hey thanks for listening to corvette
0:30
today the podcast that talks about everything corvette i'm your host steve garrett i appreciate
0:35
you tuning in you can listen to corvette today on all podcast platforms like itunes spotify google podcasts
0:43
iheartradio apple podcasts anchor.fm pandora stitcher audible and many more
0:50
you can also listen on your smart device just say alexa or hey google play the podcast called
0:55
corvette today and you're connected also visit the corvette today website it's corvette today podcast dot com you
1:02
can also sign up for corvette today notifications updates and information at corvette today dot ck
1:09
dot page and don't forget join the corvette today facebook group we have over 2300 members and i'd love
1:15
to have you as a member as well first i'd like to thank our flagship sponsors of corvette today
1:20
mid-engine corvette forum.com if you'd like to join a new vibrant forum that focuses on the new mid-engine c8
1:27
corvette it's free to join this friendly community you'll meet a lot of fellow corvette enthusiasts like yourself
1:33
at mid-engine corvette forum.com also a new flagship sponsor of corvette today
1:38
is ctr america they're the oe supplier for chassis components for the c6 through c8
1:43
corvette ctr america also provides various aftermarket products like suspension and
1:48
steering parts they work with customers that have their own specs unique designs and requirements
1:54
the ctr enhanced r d process provides cutting edge solutions superior quality and lightweight yet
2:00
functional products including ev products ctr is brought to the aftermarket the same know-how
2:06
developed as an oem supplier visit the ctr america website and learn more at aftermarket.ctr.co.kr
2:15
another new flagship sponsor of corvette today is e-tech e-tech is the expert and leader in
2:20
custom flooring whether it's your garage floor basement patio or front steps of your home or a professional workplace
2:27
e-tec is four times stronger than epoxy and comes with a 15-year warranty there are hundreds of different patterns
2:33
to choose from and installation is completed in one day you can walk on your floor in 24 hours
2:39
call for a free estimate at 913-745-3732
2:44
or visit etechcustomcodings.com 913-745-370
2:50
or etekcustomcodings.com i have my garage floor done with e-tech
2:56
and absolutely love it and i know you'll love yours you can see the pictures of it on my blog
3:01
at corvettetodaypodcast.com also a shout out to canadiancorvetform.com
3:07
welcoming corvette owners from around the world my guest on corvette today is the retired director of design for the
3:14
gm performance car studio and also the co-curator for the ratfink exhibit at the national corvette museum
3:21
he's worked at gm for over 35 years serving on projects like corvette camaro silverado the cadillac xlr
3:29
and many many more he is mr tom peters tom welcome to corvette today oh hi
3:35
thanks steve i'm happy and excited to be here with you and talking about corvette it's been a wild adventure i'll tell you
3:42
it has been and we're going to talk about that wild adventure tom let's start with your early years
3:47
talk about your defining moment as a child when you saw that first corvette and kind of got you into the world of
3:52
cars and introduced you to corvette because that's a cool story i'll tell you what as a youngster as a kid again i'm eight
3:59
or nine years old right there are things that you see when you're kid you don't know why they're just cool you know whether it's science
4:05
fiction movies or spacecraft or airplanes cool bicycles i remember in
4:10
1963 schwinn came out with uh stingray right so just cool you don't know why i had no
4:17
understanding obviously of industrial design or style or any of that thing but when things are intrinsically
4:23
cool especially as a kid you just gravitate towards them you know so my first experience with corvette was
4:30
earlier third grade i went to deep haven grade school right near lake minnetonka i grew up playing
4:35
hockey there a lot among other things in baseball in that area but anyway getting off the bus one morning stepped off the bus with my
4:42
pals and looked over and it's like it's like a silver spaceship landed now i know what it is
4:48
we rushed over to it it said stingray on the side it was a silver split window it was a dad dropping off his
4:54
kid one morning and that was an amazing experience so every day we'd get off that bus
4:59
sometimes we'd catch them sometimes we wouldn't but more often than not we would stand just glare at this
5:05
car while the kid gets out and then drive off one morning i remember getting off the
5:11
bus and you know you just inspect those cars you're just all over trying to capture every detail right and one morning there's something
5:17
different about the car and looking inside you know how it's got the two split ip with the cockpit and then
5:25
because i remember seeing the radio one thing you noticed that radio's kind of up on end like that was very unique and
5:31
the kid picks up on that right away it's like wow that is really cool
5:37
one morning there's something different about looked in on a closer inspection and again this is 1963. there's probably
5:43
a four inch five inch diagonal tv screen in the console right in between i'll go
5:48
whoa in that era i've seen a tv in a car let alone a telephone or
5:53
something right wild this must be a different car because one day show up and the radio
5:59
would be there the next day show up that tv would be there so i look back on it now that guy had
6:04
two of these cars maybe one was his wife or something maybe he just had two of them
6:09
this guy had going on silver cars which is like the designer color exactly and probably if not the coolest
6:17
cars on the planet this guy was driving he understood what was cool but he was putting technology into these cars too
6:24
that was very futuristic and so you can imagine how impressionable that was on like a eight or nine-year-old kid
6:31
and his buddies you know that's my first recollection of corvette and it was so exotic like say it was
6:37
like a flying saucer landing from the future and people stepping out of it it leaves such a burning
6:43
impression on well that's what got me into corvette as well tom that 63 split window was
6:48
just revolutionary for me and that guy had to be the coolest dad on the block for sure he had a little bit i know you sketched
6:55
a lot of things as a youngster people plants animals houses but cars were your favorite now in the 60 muscle
7:02
cars were really hot and obviously corvette was king talk about those early sketches and those
7:07
developments at that point yeah born out of that early recognition of cars
7:12
as you know that was an explosive era of car design and performance and
7:19
when you think about when you look back all that was going on the whole hot rod scene all that developing out of world
7:24
war ii those guys making those hot rods on a p-38 drop tanks as a kid
7:30
you don't really realize what's going on you gravitate towards things that are cool and that
7:35
capture your interest and they're usually really flamboyant and colorful and almost cartoon-like and if
7:42
you think about that era back there everything was going on at once the music the beatles the beach boys
7:49
the kinks the stones all that going on there and then the cars they had the racing
7:55
head i called them proto funny cars those fx cars with the extended wheelbase
8:00
and right and you know kids are drawn to cartoon characters things that are amplified right cars with the altered
8:07
wheelbase and they're jacked up and some of them have blowers or stacks sticking out of the hood right
8:13
they have colorful graphics and you know you think about all the candy apple paints and all that as a kid that doesn't have his driver's
8:20
license that how close can you come to them and you look at hot rod magazine i used to
8:25
cover my walls with the posters of the set you know the center foldouts of the cars so that the music
8:32
the fashion planes f-104 starfighter can you think of a cooler
8:38
name for an airplane it was a great era to live in wasn't it tom it was super era again i owed this to my mom and dad my
8:45
mom was an excellent artist fortunate for me i think i got a few of those jeans somewhere along the way i drew
8:52
everything you know people cars were my favorite airplanes you're just compelled to draw stuff you
8:58
know and work with your hands and you know all the model kits came up and too and that was another wonderful thing that you just
9:05
evolved into to get close as you can to these cars that are happening i go right back to
9:10
model building think about all things you learn intrinsically or just without even realizing it packaging graphics right
9:18
how parts are made how they go together painting decals you learn sensitivity
9:23
and how to handle delicate things different mediums and then you understand the mechanics of how cars go together
9:30
right the drivetrain what makes them go all that i'm learning just by experiencing these scale models and i
9:36
can tell you i can relate right back to those experiences to my professional career in the industry
9:43
talk about the posters in hot rod magazines probably two other components to that that i can recall one
9:49
of those is at big daddy rocks yes and his influence and again we talked about these bigger than life
9:54
caricatures that were these race cars and all the hot rods and the custom cars
10:00
of that era but anyway ed big daddy raw and the drawings that he did you go on a hot rod magazine sometimes
10:06
you have this two page spread of all these t-shirt artwork right and i used to copy those i would inspect
10:13
those microscopically because the images weren't that big you know but i
10:18
tried to teach myself how to draw you know wheels and tires and different materials you know the shiny
10:24
paint the body size the reflections and the glass and then of course the expressive
10:29
engines and pipes and fire and burning rubber and small
10:34
cause oh my god man these are these bigger-than-life cartoon characters that just as a kid you gravitate towards you
10:40
know so that's how i kind of taught myself i would try to emulate those drawings and then take a step beyond
10:48
that is i started coming across in hot rod magazines i think it was also a new car preview
10:53
come out and there were drawings by harry bradley he was gone before i got to general motors but as a kid i
11:00
used to collect i would cut out his drawings and they were a different level there's something about
11:05
his artwork these cars were expressive they had lots of character but they were
11:11
somehow even more correct and that's the thing i was attracted to i think when i look back at big daddy raw stuff they
11:17
were super overblown and amplified but there was a correctness about them yeah they were hyper but the wheels the
11:25
tires the engines the components were correct if you know what i mean they were accurate in terms of their
11:31
impression and representations of the individual components and all that you know the valve covers
11:36
and the nuts and bolts and the configuration of the car although outrageously overblown they
11:43
were correct and harry bradley took that kind of expression on an artistic level to a
11:48
different level and he would do these custom cars and then he would do the new car
11:53
previews but there was something about the way the reflections worked they were so precise yeah that was a great era yes
12:01
so i would collect all that and that would influence my drawing i'd reference those you know without and
12:06
again i had no idea what design schools were just i didn't even know what design was
12:12
i just knew that i loved cars i loved drawing them i loved building the models it was just my life when you started
12:18
getting into college you were already working on cars right tom oh yeah oh yeah again this goes way
12:24
back to before i left minnesota you know right my uncle joni he always had
12:30
the best cabinet of tools when we go down to visit we'd spend time in his garage we teach my brothers and i
12:36
how to change spark plugs or check the filter or he'd have us ride in the trunk or on the floor listen for
12:42
squeaks and stuff on a new car you know even maybe they didn't have species just wanting to get us involved you know
12:47
yeah and that's all we would talk about are these cars these corvettes and all these muscle cars and camaro z28s and
12:54
super bees all that stuff were out there on the road these bigger than life caricature cars we grew up in the middle
13:00
of that and that just further fueled all this that we're talking about in terms of enthusiasm around these cars for me and
13:07
just left these impressions that were just amazing that have carried me thus far through a lifetime of cars it becomes
13:14
more of the job and i used to caddy and i would hitchhike can you believe this i would hitchhike the minnetonka country
13:20
club wow one day because hitchhiking home and i saw in the distance 68 brand new
13:27
corvette i turned around kept walking that this guy's never going to pick me up and i hear this
13:32
come in right behind me i turn around again another spaceship landed only this time to pick me up
13:38
wow this guy says hey kid you want to ride i said oh you're kidding me i jump in the car and
13:44
you know again here's the stingray and then this is the first sting corvette everybody remembers their
13:49
first corvette ride right this is the first time i've ever been in one and you know that doesn't wrap around
13:55
constantly kind of cuts away from you and then the big round gauges and the console and the stick shift but
14:01
i mean you're used to growing up and i think we had a pontiac bottomville you know four-door and all that and then before that was a station wagon
14:07
sure so to get in a corvette again you're getting in a spaceship that's another memorable corvette moment
14:14
for me you know absolutely and then you look up you see those fender flares sure just going up above and you know
14:20
what struck me was when you look at it from the outside they look wide and low but when you're actually sitting in the
14:26
cockpit it actually seems tight and kind of narrow and long that hood projects out in front of
14:31
you kind of this narrow lean the cell kind of rocket ship kind of feeling to it you
14:38
know again spaceship and it's like oh my god the sound of that motor hood him kind of looking over and kind
14:44
of romping on it and watching from my reaction you know is just hilarious it was all just a wonderful scene back then
14:50
absolutely the 60s were a great time to grow up in talk about when you graduated the art
14:56
center college of design in california because your time in college led you up to your job in gm
15:02
talk about how you got there well i'll tell you how you got there moved from minnesota spent a couple years in kansas city area
15:08
and then my dad changed jobs and we moved on to baton rouge louisiana down louisiana i'm probably 17 i
15:15
graduate from high school there so obviously i got my license and get my first car and all that that car i learned to do two things
15:21
one was work on it mechanically pull the motor out and all that but two was learn how to paint because i saw the movie
15:28
california kid and to see those flames on that 32 4 to 34
15:34
i forget what what it was but those black flames at home my god i said i gotta do that so that you can tie that right back into
15:40
building models so i got some spray cans out some tape some model paint
15:45
some of the spray cans laid out my first flame job on that car wow that was my first kind of delving
15:52
into car stuff you know transitioning from models so i went to the university of southwest
15:59
louisiana to start with and i was majoring in advertising illustration i assume i wanted to be an arts you know or some
16:05
kind of fine arts but i knew you probably could make a lot of money in fine arts so i did that not knowing what industrial design was and then the
16:11
second year i went to louisiana tech in rustin louisiana
16:16
because had a really awesome fine arts program so i was up there we were in class one day
16:22
a guy next door next sitting next to me he had this orange a square kind of a catalog things
16:28
paging through and i'm kind of looking over at i'm going whoa what is that so what it was was an art center catalog
16:36
and i opened it up and here like power tools and futuristic cars and furniture and it was an
16:43
epiphany steve it was like this is exactly what i've been doing my whole life since i was a
16:50
kid it was all embodied in this industrial design school catalog that was art center you
16:56
know right i'm gonna gather up all my stuff and i'm going there and but you had to submit a
17:01
portfolio for approval so i couldn't wait to get home and by that time my dad had passed well my mom's home
17:07
she supported everything that i did in life artistically i put together a portfolio centered out
17:13
i was accepted that's the start of my career at an art center you know i had about a year there's worth of finances to make it
17:20
happen and my cousin david he says hey you know what when you go out there stay with my buddies we have a condo
17:25
north of el toro so i walk in and here's a pool table in the middle of the living room floor i remember this cool
17:32
stereo bose stereo so i started my california adventure
17:37
and going to art center which was amazing and the other thing that i noticed before i decided to head out to
17:42
california was i looked in the back of this art center catalog i looked at who the faculty was and
17:49
guess whose name was on the faculty this is what cinched the deal for me who's that perry bradley
17:54
wow you were the professor there and as i mentioned i had a binder full of all his artwork that i'd collected since
18:01
i was probably 13 out of the hot rod magazines or whatever magazine his
18:06
artwork was in you know yeah i'm going to go out there and hear bradley one of my gods was going to be a
18:13
professor out there and hopefully i could take class from him you know that would be cool and it was because he was one of my
18:20
instructors let me tell you when i started those classes and again i was just shaking going into his class
18:26
i had to hold back tears talk about how you got your internship because i know that you got it as a sophomore
18:31
when traditionally it was for juniors and seniors in college yeah it was a point of kind of
18:37
desperation as i mentioned you know i had about a year's worth of finance take up a little bit of money that college is a specialized cause it's very
18:43
expensive and by the way i met my who now is my wife at art center there
18:49
carolyn my lovely wife i met her my second semester i made a little money went back for the
18:54
second semester and i knew i didn't have i could only last maybe another semester or two then
19:00
i'm either going to go to work or something's going to have to happen and i knew they had these internships that they sponsored that the different
19:07
companies ford chrysler and gm i knew i wanted to work for gm you know right so i said this is a do
19:13
or die either i'm gonna i gotta apply for this or i'm gonna have to go back to work so i rustled up my portfolio and i
19:21
submitted that but lo and behold they selected my portfolio to come and join them for their summer
19:27
intern program that year wow i couldn't have been more thrilled and let me tell you it was a lifesaver
19:33
not to mention going out there and experiencing for the first time this professional mecca of design and
19:40
creativity that was the gm tech center i'm going to go to the place where these were designed by these
19:48
creative men and women they've invited me to come and spend time with them in this hallowed space it just blew my
19:56
mind and i'm sure i didn't even realize the importance or the significance of that experience
20:02
even though i was early twenties you know sure and they were paying you to do it and you get paid for going there and
20:09
spending time with these incredibly talented men and women in this environment you know i could
20:14
it was it was mind-blowing so what that did was really turn the tide for me i didn't have to worry about whether i
20:20
was going to buy food or magic markers or pencils right
20:26
so i could focus on my design when i came back because none of that i got a scholarship for the rest of my
20:32
school career after that you know and then the college also gave you the lifetime achievement award
20:37
for your contributions at gm talk about the lifetime achievement award and the comments that ed welborn made
20:44
for you yeah oh my gosh well at art center going through that career and then being accepted and hired by
20:50
general motors having a wonderful career only to be acknowledged by this
20:55
school that meant so much to me and created a life for me that was just
21:01
magical to come back and say hey you know we would like to honor you and what you've done and
21:06
again you have to hold back tears when i think about what that meant because it you know it was a huge sacrifice for me to go out there
21:12
my family mom supported me on that and then to go through that and i you know you can imagine going through college
21:18
and all the things you have to sacrifice and blah blah blah the hard work and all that and then your career
21:23
to come back and say hey we want to acknowledge you for your accomplishments and who you are and what you meant and so to go back to this was such an
21:30
honor jay leno was there and he co-hosted that i brought back prince of we originally we just
21:37
introduced the c7 and brought back a poster signed for him ed couldn't make it so he sent a
21:43
letter and some notes out there in a video and i felt so honored by that
21:49
again ed i can't say enough about his trust and empowerment of everyone
21:56
when he became the vp no one in my career enabled not only myself but the entire
22:03
design crew what he talked about in essence was he kind of expressed his support and
22:09
observation our recognition of my passion for design and corvettes and all that went along
22:16
with that he empowered us to fully express that capability
22:21
i don't have any regrets or anything that i wish i would have done differently or felt restricted throughout his time
22:27
of leadership so to have him acknowledge me in that way in public in front of design community people
22:34
meant so much to me i think the vehicles that were generated during his period of leadership
22:40
will bear that out he was responsible for global design right around the entire
22:46
world tom let's take a quick break and let's talk in the second segment about your gm years on corvette today american
22:54
hydrocarbon your one stop shop for custom interior exterior and engine bay items for your c4 through
23:01
c8 corvette we can help you create a custom look for your corvette with carbon fiber or 10
23:07
different color patterns and styles we've served customers in over 28 countries all around the world
23:13
whether it's a custom-made engine cover for your new c8-bit engine corvette or custom-made c4 interior upgrades
23:20
american hydrocarbon can help you transform your corvette into a best-in-class show car our
23:26
products have been featured in vet and corvette magazines so give us a call 813-476-5638
23:38
visit our website at americanhydrocarbon.com or email us at pat
23:44
americanhydrocarbon.com let us help you make your corvette the car you've always wanted it to be
23:50
american hydrocarbon hey honey are you awake um i am now i can't sleep since turning
23:58
50 i keep dreaming of a red door and a blue door somehow knowing there are only choices for retirement
24:04
okay through the red door we outlive our money we have to rely on our kids we're stuck on a fixed income it's terrifying
24:11
yeah that would suck but through the blue door our money outlives us we retire on our terms our kids stay our
24:18
kids not our caretakers we make work optional yes that's much better that's what i want
24:24
too but what do we do we call true wealth and company at
24:29
913-653-8783 they specialize in helping successful people make work optional there are fiduciary blue door personal wealth
24:35
managers hey where are you going it's 3 a.m i can't sleep i'm going to check out true
24:40
wealth and company online at retirewithtrue.com that blue door is going to be our retirement 913-653-8783
24:47
visit us online at retirewithtrue.com investment advice offered through true wealth and company llc a registered investment advisor in the state of
24:53
kansas you're listening to the corvette today podcast with steve garrett
25:01
hey thanks for listening to corvette today the podcast that talks about everything corvette i'm your host steve
25:07
garrett with me is retired chief designer tom peters tom in this second segment let's talk
25:13
about your years at gm you were hired in 1980 by general motors talk about your first assignment what
25:20
cars besides corvette did you work on okay sure when they had the interviews chuck jordan actually came out and i
25:26
spoke with him and he's the one that actually hired me as you can imagine i was thrilled but i went into
25:31
the advanced area for the advanced studios i worked in advanced one they're in the
25:38
process of building a new wind tunnel at the time and so we did a lot of aero
25:43
vehicle research how could you mix that functionality and how could it affect the styling and
25:48
how a car looked even more so than it had previously throughout the years and eventually you became the chief of the
25:54
advanced studio the way the structure was at the time and it evolved
25:59
over time is that on the first floor there were several advanced studios
26:05
there must have been four or five advanced studios and they had production truck studio on the first
26:10
floor on the second floor of the design center building were the production studios
26:17
and the way that the advanced studios differed from the production studios is that and over the years there were
26:24
actual some production programs in the selected advanced studios but
26:29
primarily their function was to explore different design philosophies or
26:35
experiment for instance in our case we were focused on how could you integrate aerodynamic functionality with
26:42
aesthetics so it's pure concept exploration development very nice that
26:48
was the main goal so when you get into a production studio that is focused on producing an actual funded program
26:57
with a product solution and therefore you involve all the different entities just
27:02
to mention a few you've got serious production engineering you've got manufacturing
27:07
teams you've got marketing you've got brands aerodynamics of course and the varying
27:13
degrees even in advanced use you comprehend those but usually from a design perspective you know so you're left
27:20
to freely express future vision solutions you know and then to be allowed to create a vision that everyone
27:26
can agree upon it's a big decision to go forward with a design or a vehicle configuration
27:32
concept to make the decision okay we're going to turn this vision this concept car into a
27:38
real product that people can buy i can't express how important a decision like that is
27:44
and what it takes to get to that point that was kind of my understanding of the difference between advanced studios and
27:50
the production studios as a matter of fact tom talk about the difference between the advanced studio
27:56
and the gm performance car studio because you were chief of both of those but how do those two differ at one point
28:03
i was assistant chief in the pontiac studio actually and then after working for jerry palmer in the
28:10
chevy 3 studio for a number of years i started out in advance one and then moved to advanced three
28:16
the chief in that studio his name was amel zawada super town the designer and then assistant who became really
28:22
good friends his name was jim beak huge talent the other thing you come to realize early on
28:27
is how important the sculptors are and that's one thing you're drawing in sketching and as a kid building models not so i
28:33
understood that but what you come to find out and it was kind of a little bit frustrating at first and even in school you build your own models but when you
28:40
get in a professional environment you have these incredibly talented sculptors and again they are born with these gifts
28:46
of being able to interpret designs or ideas 3d and what happens within the journey
28:52
of moore's design is say chuck jordan or the leadership come across something significant in a model they would take that model
28:58
and put it on display we called it hollywood and vine it was on the second floor of design
29:04
staff and it's the intersection of the main hall that connected the two elements of the building one being kind
29:10
of executive part of the building this long glass corridor went by the library and the color studio and then it
29:16
entered in kind of a t intersection through these glass doors that would pull back when you approach them that would open up to the
29:23
production studio so right there at that intersection they would place a model and usually had a background on it that
29:30
showed sketches or a piece of artwork of what inspired that model or whatever so one of the models that came out of that
29:35
advanced three studio that was modeled by a friend hostile and again my leadership was jim beak i
29:41
put this model together put it up on display there and jerry palmer who was chief of the chevy 3 studio at
29:47
the time which was responsible for corvette camaro and beretta at the time noticed that and invited me to come up
29:53
to the chevy 3 studio to join the corvette team that was when i was first invited upstairs to
29:59
to join their team then i was promoted to assistant chief and then out of that
30:05
position i was given the opportunity to become chief right back in the original design advanced studio that i came from
30:13
never my wildest dreams i just worked hard i wanted to just do what i felt was the best for design and i was recognized
30:19
for it and you're working on corvette which is just absolutely incredible so all that thank you very much for chuck
30:25
jordan and jerry palmer oh yeah the first assignment i was really given in jerry palmer's studio really was born
30:32
out of that model that fred and i did in the advanced studio evolved and influenced actually the corvette indy
30:38
which was my first assignment working under jerry palmer in that chevy 3 studio so imagine this so
30:43
here's this young kid comes to work for gm came from louisiana gets his design selected and pulled up to
30:51
chevy 3 and chuck jordan had seen in that model at that very time they
30:56
wanted to do a design that highlighted and featured the illmore indy 32 valve
31:03
racing motor that's where the corvette indy came from so that little scale model kicked that off and we moved down into
31:10
studio x which is a whole other story you know gm design has this lore of studio x which was a number of different
31:16
locations by the way throughout the building again those were spaces that were created to have kind of quiet time we
31:21
didn't have a lot of interruptions and distractions where you could focus on expressing a pure vision
31:27
the corvette indie was one of those so here's again here's this kid designer given an opportunity to work on this fabulous
31:34
corvette concept car which there hadn't been a corvette concept car done in a while if you think back to the paris car the
31:40
aero vet and then maybe the 59 stingray those were phenomenal cars that influence
31:45
corvette's future i know that chuck jordan had created a contest for the next generation corvette
31:51
talk about that contest and what generation was that for corvette it was the fifth generation and again
31:58
that was after i was given the opportunity to lead an advanced studio and this is right when
32:05
they just kicked off the fifth generation corvette theme exploration and having had the background and done
32:12
some of that corvette indy concept car and some other corvette things that while being in chevy 3 it was natural
32:17
for us to you know chuck invited my studio and obviously john did some exploration
32:23
in the production studio which was entirely responsible for the production version of the c5
32:30
and then we had california studio i think it was under john chanella was the chief out there chuck also gave
32:36
them an assignment what would the next generation corvette could it be you know as a vision statement my studio
32:43
john's production corvette studio and the west coast was called acc advanced concept center
32:50
out in california they also developed one and it all culminated with a show which happened i want to say late
32:56
april but at any rate we pulled three cars together john did a theme and then i did a theme
33:03
the advanced studio and in the california studio so i thought oh you know what'd be really cool is to
33:09
have these models presented like an aircraft i i was thinking f-16 so i thought well you know maybe if i run by cherries
33:16
they'd give them an idea how we could do this and selfridge air national guard station is out here in
33:22
michigan not too far from us and it just so happened one of our aerodynamicists was a fighter pilot
33:28
i mentioned it to him and he approached them they said yeah we could probably work something out so
33:34
i don't remember the exact circumstances but anyway it was approved that we could deliver some cars out
33:39
there and stage them with an f-16 fighter we wanted to have a special occasion to represent the next
33:46
generation corvette and everybody knows how special that is to introducing a corvette so
33:51
chuck agreed to join us for that presentation without knowing what was really going to happen so we
33:58
hired a bus and the team got a board and john's team my studio team and then the team from
34:05
california flew out and they had you know they shipped the car out via truck and those were all being transported and
34:11
set up out at edwards air force base and then so we picked up everybody to design and then chuck came aboard the
34:17
bus not knowing what was going on other than it was something about corvette he didn't know where we were going or
34:22
anything so you take a busy executive like that out without the knowledge of where he's going is kind of
34:29
scary you know he went along with it he knew it was going to be something good we put a lot of thought into it so we drove out uh
34:35
pulled in and sure enough we pulled out of the tarmac and there was an f-16 with three cars covered with car covers
34:42
okay i'm looking at jerry and i'm looking at chuck and the other leadership that we're out there and taking
34:48
valuable time out of their day and you could tell they were like kids they were smiling and they were like whoa
34:54
this is really cool that's awesome we unveiled them one at a time i refer to john and my car he had a
35:01
black concept car that kind of inspired by gtp racing then you know i did one that was
35:07
kind of heritage inspired but in a modern way and then the california studio did one
35:13
kind of it was called the california stingray or stingray 3 and our two vehicles john and my
35:19
vehicles were static models they weren't full runners or californians they have a little bit more
35:24
freedom out there in terms of what they can do budget wise and resource wise they actually did a running concept wow and it was a v6
35:32
car that was smaller in size each team unveiled the car each individual cars it was just a
35:39
fabulous experience it all worked out better than i think anybody expected but anyway the cars were the stars and they
35:46
gave the tours they even had like an engine stand there where they had a jet engine and they fired it up and let it roar and they
35:53
gave a tour of the base and all that we just had a wonderful experience went back and it was delightful about the
35:58
cars back and displayed them in the design dome for everybody to come and see and again at the end of the day yes it
36:04
was a friendly competition in my view it was serious business because we were trying to establish the
36:10
direction for next gen corvette and from my standpoint i can tell you that yeah it was a friendly competition but at the
36:16
end of the day we were supporting john cafaro's assignment of creating the
36:21
next generation corvette so we shipped our model up as did california up to his studio and they were able to draw from
36:28
whatever they felt was appropriate to contribute to the final theme that was the c5 the
36:35
fifth generation corvette it can't be new just for different sake it's got to be new for significant sake and what
36:42
the history of corvette has always been is this wonderful integration and combination of
36:48
function and form had to be a beautiful dynamic sculpture but it also had to perform
36:54
spectacularly the customer expects that and even on another level is that it makes corvette unique is that
37:01
this is a serious high performance vehicle it's beyond just a
37:07
passenger car we're talking today here steve you know i still love the car we talked
37:13
about going back to our very young childhood and it's no different now other than i've had this
37:18
experience we have to understand the enthusiasts and our customer but you know what design this car for the 10 year old kid
37:25
if you do that you're going to get everybody else you get the attention the future customer inspired one way or another also you
37:32
were named the chief of design for c6 and c7 talk about the transformer corvette
37:38
that's my favorite concept corvette and then also talk about how you got ed welborn's permission
37:44
to call the c7 a stingray because it had been 39 years since we had a corvette stingray oh yeah
37:51
well those are kind of two separate stories the stingray concept car we had just
37:56
finished the c6 corvette i set a goal for myself you know what i want to bring back the stingray
38:02
i mean how huge would that be because it had been gone for a while and again it's such a
38:08
huge impression or character that corvette owns it means so much it
38:14
embodies so much imagery so how cool would that be to bring that back during the course of the c6 if you look
38:20
at some of the development photos of the c6 and various magazines or publications or some of the historical
38:26
data you'll actually see on the front fender you'll see little stingray badges and i
38:31
remember during that time i sketched up a little sort of a new stingray might look like and then i gave
38:37
it to our graphics department to kind of develop some badges right
38:42
but uh i i don't remember the specific review but i remember we had a review with ed one day and i proposed that to
38:48
him and he said um you know what knowing what we're having to work with on c6 i think we're not there yet because it's
38:55
more than just the way it's designed it's got to be the entire embodiment of the vehicle and
39:01
all the elements of it in order to warrant bringing back the name stingray he said that so yeah of course we're
39:08
disappointed we continued on and want to make the best it can be but not until the c7 did we
39:15
obviously bring back the name stingray more often than not i'd have whether with people
39:21
internally or outside to go to the corporate events why don't you guys bring back the 63 stingray you know what you guys do a
39:27
modern split window stingray you know and to us we always want to move on and do new things and explore new things
39:33
and all that but that had been a prevalent request and commentary and everyone acknowledged the timelessness
39:39
and how cool that split window is the 63 is i would like to touch upon the transformer what happened with that
39:46
in the movies once we had built that concept car the stingray michael bay who was starting production
39:53
of the transformers movie he was inspired by the camaro concept card that would become bumblebee it would be a
40:00
central figure in that movie there are a number of different vehicles that were characters in those movies and those stories
40:06
right that go all the way back to the cartoon series so he visited design staff one day hosted
40:13
by ed and so ed was showing him several different cars that he might be interested in incorporating
40:19
into his movie and we had the stingray on display and he just went bonkers he just loved that
40:26
vehicle he said this has got to be in the movie me and gm of course agreed so that became one of the characters within
40:32
the movie that's my favorite concept car as a matter of fact i saw that transformers corvette
40:37
here in kansas city at the kansas city auto show i don't remember what year it was but it
40:42
was maybe 2012. yeah i remember shooting it down there yes and i looked at that i thought
40:47
oh my gosh that is a corvette i've got to own and i saw those gullwing doors and i saw
40:53
the split window on it and i said to the representative in the booth is this going to be a real car and
40:58
they said yeah it is when we did the c7 because of the influence of that car as you know again
41:03
stingray concept that's when we fully expressed that new stingray logo did that logo on the
41:10
back panel and on the sides that's when ed said you know what this c7 model
41:16
it warns and it's worthy of the stingray emblem and let me tell you how profound
41:21
how momentous that occasion was i bet you were popping champagne weren't you absolutely at least in my mind i was
41:28
buddy let's take a quick break and when we come back we're going to talk about your years after gm and your new position with the national
41:34
corvette museum on corvette today vetfinders.com is the internet's original corvette classified
41:40
ads website with classified ads starting at just 25 and every ad runs until your corvette is
41:48
sold if you're in the market for a corvette betfinders.com has over 500 corvettes for sale from all around the
41:54
usa and canada and covering all eight generations visit vetfinders.com the internet's
42:00
destination for buying and selling corvettes that's v-e-t-t-e-finders.com
42:08
kc trends motorsports has been the midwest largest custom wheel superstore for over 25 years
42:15
they specialize in c8 wheel fitments from the top brands in the industry like hre vossen adv one avant-garde and
42:22
more they ship daily from their kansas city location to all upper 48 states with the best pricing
42:28
and inventory in the country need tires kc trends motorsports has you covered they have tires in stock from michelin
42:35
and pirelli plus they can help you with a customized wheel and tire combo for your corvette to truly make it one of a kind
42:42
and if you need wheel ideas no problem simply go online to caseytrends.com
42:47
for their car and wheel visualizer see the wheels on your corvette before you purchase also there's dozens of wheels and tire
42:54
combo pictures to look through online to spur your imagination and their expert staff is there to help you
43:00
with wheel and tire sizing and offsets for your c6 c7 and c8 corvette visit them online at
43:06
caseytrends.com see them on facebook and instagram make any corvette a one of a kind
43:12
with kc trends motorsports call them toll-free [Music]
43:17
877-962-5200 casey trends motorsports
43:22
and now back to corvette today with your host and my husband steve garrett
43:30
hey thanks for listening to corvette today i'm your host steve garrett with me today is tom peters the chief design
43:36
director for the c6 and c7 and c8 corvette in this final segment we're going to
43:41
talk about tom after his years at gm tom in 2019 you had the huge honor of
43:47
being inducted into the core of that hall of fame talk about that experience that had to be phenomenal you know see if it was
43:53
phenomenal again all that we've talked about here going all the way back when i was a kid 9 or 10 year old kid to
43:59
culminate a career with corvette let alone being hired by design center and then to be honored in a way
44:07
in the hall of fame at the corvette museum is a honor and just an experience that i
44:13
still don't know if i fully comprehend how wonderful that's been you know i've gone to the corvette museum over the years throughout my
44:20
career different events and different presentations and incredible people inducted into that
44:26
hall of fame and when you walk into that dome and you see all these people the men and women on these plaques that
44:32
surround in their dome structure to be associated associated with those people again is an
44:39
incredible honor having that nomination and then being inducted into the hall of fame there
44:44
the experience was it was kind of surreal i equated to almost to being at a huge wedding because it's sort of a blur you
44:51
know you're inducted in you have friends family colleagues during this event it's just spectacular and then to
44:58
stand up and accept that offer and look out over this crowd of passion enthusiasm
45:05
and talent and expertise it rocks you back i tell you it really takes you back
45:10
i mentioned holding back tears a few times and this was what i was like i had to take a deep breath they produce a video that kind of spans
45:17
your career mark royce jim campbell came down there for that jerry palmer obviously all those folks
45:24
that were my mentors those people's individuals men and women that meant so much to me
45:29
and influenced me inspired me throughout my career my life it's beyond words it was speechless and
45:36
i owe so much to so many people and this was an acknowledgement to that
45:41
in fact that really i had an opportunity to thank them well i saw the video and i saw your
45:46
acceptance speech and it was fantastic i it brought a tear to my eye as well tom talk about
45:51
your new position with the national corvette museum what is your job going to be there oh yeah exciting you know again a
45:58
continuation of honors direct moore and the board of director invited me to join
46:03
their team as a consultant curator for their exhibits
46:09
i didn't hesitate i said absolutely because in my mind i see that again as an opportunity to give back and to continue
46:16
to contribute to this entity this wonderful thing that is corvette and you are able
46:23
to co-curate the rat fink exhibit that was at the national corvette museum that had to be a blast oh that was so
46:29
much fun because you know among all the influences that we talked about here ed's artwork played such an important
46:36
role so i've had dialogue and contact with the roth family they are just such
46:41
wonderful people they were so willing and able to contribute and be part of this exhibit they contributed a
46:48
lot of the memorabilia stuff that was significant in his life his development even
46:53
elements of his shop obviously a lot of the cars that he had worked on over the years
46:59
so that all culminated in this fantastic display at the corvette museum which was
47:05
i think one of their most recent big events and you're going to be working with curator derek moore
47:10
from the national corvette museum derek has been a guest on the corvette today podcast what have you two talked about as far as
47:16
future exhibits and educational experience for the museum well again all i can tell you is
47:21
that until it's going to have a bright future and again it's just building on this growing enthusiasm from around the world
47:28
towards corvette and all the men and women the people that are behind it and developing that are
47:33
all part of it whether creating the car or racing or enthusiasm or enthusiastic
47:38
events we want to build upon that and keep it relevant have you guys talked about what
47:43
the first assignment you're going to work together on at the museum i can't speak too much specifically about future exhibits
47:49
what i am involved with is some upcoming displays that are in the works right now as well as even
47:56
some specific cars that kind of revolve around expressing the intent and what the museum's all
48:02
about so we want to make sure the visibility is out there and that there are visual and
48:08
educational experiences for everybody and i will tell you as i've mentioned here through our talk here today steve is that really
48:15
want to focus on the youth you know inspire that kid you know to go forward and to taking that to the next level and
48:22
give him something that he can project forward maybe not initially understanding what the impact is but
48:27
it plants a seed that could affect the life of a human being and then in turn how they can make life
48:34
better or impact the lives of others in a positive way going forward through this wonderful magic
48:39
machine that's called the automobile and a corvette absolutely now you're not going to be
48:44
moving down to bowling green though are you tom not the foreseeable future bowling green is a wonderful place i always look
48:51
forward to going down there for two reasons obviously we have corvette events revolving around the corvette museum but
48:57
the people are just wonderful they're warm and friendly and they're such genuine people
49:02
and so welcoming and there's something about the lifestyle i can't put my finger on it and maybe it's just the intensity of working in a
49:09
corporate industrial environment it's a beautiful environment i'll be down there whenever required and
49:14
i look forward each and every time we go down there it's not only a neat place to be i like driving down it's a beautiful drive
49:21
i bet it is from michigan down to kentucky i bet that's a gorgeous drone oh it is going through those hills and
49:26
then you see the rocks and the stone piercing through it's just beautiful tom any closing thoughts here
49:31
for everybody listening to corvette today first of all thank you so much for having me i still consider
49:37
every day an honor to even be associated with corvette and again that's just coming from my heart and the
49:43
fact that i've been one of those fortunate few that was given the gift to even not only have a corvette or you'd be
49:50
associated with but be part of a team members of these incredibly talented men and women that
49:55
generate these cars i feel compelled to give back to contribute back what each and
50:00
everyone has contributed to my life to allow me to have that experience with corvette i look for opportunities to
50:06
give back whether it's through organizations in minnesota where i grew up with new friends and friends i've had since
50:13
you know i was 10 years old to the corvette team and then obviously the corvette museum
50:19
the amazing adventure that is corvette tom thank you so much for being on the corvette today podcast
50:25
i can't tell you what an honor it is to have you and it's a pleasure to talk to you and living those stories with you again was
50:31
absolutely outstanding oh great i'm glad to hear that thanks for listening to corvette today and
50:37
thanks to our sponsors ctr america who makes chassis components for the c6 c7 and c8 corvette visit their
50:44
aftermarket items online at aftermarket.ctr.co.kr
50:50
also american hydrocarbon at american americanhydrocarbon.com and kc trends motorsports at
50:57
caseytrends.com and don't forget e-tec custom coatings at etekcustomcodings.com or call
51:07
three 913-745-3732 you've been listening to corvette today with steve garrett if you'd like to
51:13
contact steve with any thoughts on the podcast or ideas for guests on corvette today you can email him at steve garrett dj
51:21
gmail gmail.com that's stevegarrettdj gmail.com
51:26
garrett has two r's and two t's or connect with steve on social media on facebook
51:32
twitter or instagram using at steve garrett dj thanks again for listening to corvette
51:39
[Music]
51:48
today
52:02
you
#Autos & Vehicles
#Classic Vehicles
#Motor Vehicles (By Brand)
#Vehicle Shows