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How Did Harlan Charles Impact The Corvette? | Harlan Charles | CORVETTE TODAY #254
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May 8, 2025
In today’s video, we delve into the key aspects of Harlan Charles and explore how did Harlan Charles impact the Corvette. This video covers how did Harlan Charles impact the Corvette and discusses the following topics: - Harlan Charles Corvette career highlights - What made Harlan Charles’ Corvette career special? - How did Harlan Charles shape the Corvette? ******************** 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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0:00
[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
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Garrett thanks for listening and watching Corvette today the show that talks about everything Corvette and the
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only 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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from around the world my guest on this episode of Corvette today needs no introduction he was with GM for 37 years
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24 of those years were spent with Corvette he owns 11 patents he's made many many appearances here on Corvette
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today he's a personal friend of mine and a true friend of the show today we celebrate his career with General Motors
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and Corvette he's the former Corvette marketing and brand manager Harlen Charles harlon welcome back to Corvette
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today my friend 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
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that Corvette was your car yeah you know my dad was into cars growing up and I became think the cars you know I wanted
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to be Speed Racer watching that cartoon y he did a lot of traveling in Europe for his job and he would bring me back
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books on sports cars and there was these German card games and they always had
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pictures of a car and stats and the country that it was from uhuh and I noticed the only one with the American
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flag that was ever in any of these things was the Corvette and I always thought how cool is that here's an American car even all around the world
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is getting prestig I love sports cars that became like favorite car growing up I read everything I could about it I
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bought all the books I aspired to someday work for GM or Chevrolet and if someday my dream came true on the
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Corvette just reading everything I could including things like at that time when I was younger the Aro vet the for rotor
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as it was called back then right The Mid Engine and reading about Zora all that I was just totally geeked on it so
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eventually when L people say how do you know this history and stuff I just naturally learned it when I was a little
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boy really just reading all these books buddy you sound like me whenever I'd see a Corvette on a magazine I'd always grab
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that magazine I'd read everything I could as well that's the way it went yes hey before we talk about General Motors
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and Corvette and your career there tell me where you went to college what did you study and what's your degree in I
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get growing up I was fasinated with design I grew up in Florida and I really didn't know how to be a designer I
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remember reading that a lot of the designers start as Engineers I did study mechanical engineering at Drexel
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University which is in Philadelphia for those that don't know I also later on once I started working studied both
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Transportation design at CCs in Detroit and strategic marketing with University
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of Michigan business school wow nice and you know I always love hearing these backstories of how you got your
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interview with General Motors and then what your first job was tell me about that well coming out of school when I
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did in the late 80s it wasn't easy to get a job period let alone in the Auto industry but I just wanted to get in I
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actually have I think I still have it in my basement back then when we used to mail in resumés right I actually had 150
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rejection letters from all across the Auto industry and then finally I just never
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gave up I did get a job actually at Johnson Controls in the car seating division okay so my first job that got
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me to Michigan in the Auto industry I designed the structure for the rear seat in the first Ford Explorer huh I kept
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trying the GM design there was a gentleman down in Florida that my dad ended up meeting and he retired from the
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wood shop at design staff and he goes why don't you just write a letter to Charlie Jordan he called him it's Chuck
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Jordan VP of design then yeah and just tell him that Scotty sent you and you're a good kid and maybe I'll give you an
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interview so I did that I wrote I spent like you know a week writing this elaborate letter and I did get an interview and I did get to meet Chuck
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Jordan but I didn't get hired and right away but I would call about every week see what's happening and eventually I
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think I annoyed them so much one of the engineers I was interview said when I retire you're going to get my position
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wow that's what I did and I started in February of 88 nice and you were Concepts engineer in the design staff
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department right right it was really a great group that we had then it doesn't really exist now but our job was to come
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up with creative engineering solutions to solve design problems for example one of the ones I was proud of was Wheel to
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body relationship you know a car always looks better when the wheel sits right in its wheel openings and its fenders
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right nice stance it really makes a car look well put together performance but there's a lot of criteria in there for
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when it gets tested at Milford potholes things like that right this was the days before electronic suspensions were
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really the thing so I created a mechanical variable strut that would work in cars that had front mcferson
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struts that would restrict the travel on these aggressive Maneuvers like the pothole and driveway ramps and things
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like that that would allow a tighter Buel of body and I got several patents on that interesting now then you went to work as a product
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manager for the oldmobile Intrigue tell me about that yeah so actually right before that at design that group it
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seemed like it was being transitioned more to the conventional engineering and there was a strategic analysis group
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that worked with the Design Studios and we helped the studios react to the customer clinics we went to different
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clinics and they would look at the clay models say what they like dislike and it was always a balance of as appealing
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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 stretch it right but
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anyway that got me into the door with marketing and helped me get this job a few of the people from our group did end
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up going to oabel which at the time for some of the younger listeners are like oabel what are you talking about but at
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the time in the late 90s early 2000s oob was really trying to be GM's import
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fighter they had Saturn at the low end back then but in the higher end midsize and up o was going to take on condom the
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Toyota you know the hot Imports yeah and I think that was a really good midsize car actually it was very well received
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overall to the point where Dave Hill the Corvette chief engineer at the time actually bought one for his wife to
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drive and she loved it nice now since you were working on the Intrigue that was right down the hall from Corvette
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and that gave you that visibility exposure with Dave Hill didn't it yeah we were on the same floor right next
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door our midsize team with the sports car team actually at that time I had bought a 99 Corvette I had my 90 already
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I bought a 99 I was telling Dave Hill and the other people on the team about it I like someday I really love to be on
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this team and Dave was like well we're not doing anything right now but keep that in mind and he really would asked
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me questions about the Intrigue Corvette at that time was pioneering active handling or stability control which is
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common place today but it was on The Cutting Edge and the Intrigue was actually the first midsize car to have
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four-wheel stability control interesting that was a lot of the topics that we would discuss now in 2001 that was the
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big year because the product manager job became available I understand you were one of 200 applicants for that job with
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Corvette and you landed the job didn't you yeah so when that job came open actually by that time I had moved on the
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writing was on the raw for Olen so I was a Cadillac technology manager okay I landed there but I'd only been there
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less than a year but when that job came open I told my supervisor I go I I haven't been here that long this is my
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dream please let me go after it and he said okay nice and again I was worried that oh they probably post it maybe they
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already have somebody in mind but I went out you know with everything I had I was one of five people they interviewed and
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Dave Hill and Rick baldick who was the brand manager for the Corvette at the time interviewed me and they cut it off
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a little bit early which made me worry because I was the last one oh actually Dave was heading out to the Corvette
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museum think maybe it was The Bash or was going on I said wow maybe I'm not going to get it because why would he
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leave so early but I did get the job and one of the things I think that helped was I just told Dave that I really enjoy
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the day-to-day decisions and customer facing actions that we take as we're creating a new Corvette or any car and
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that I really wanted to get back in the game doing that and as a Corvette Enthusiast myself I really thought I'd
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be great for his team yeah and as they say the rest is history right buddy right that's cool well I tell you what
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let's take our first break when we come back we're going to talk about your time with Corvette in segment number two
12:03
we're talking with harlon Charles celebrating his career with GM and Corvette here on Corvette today we all
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14:05
stay for the friendships made along the way hi I'm Mark falter host of the retirement income Hour podcast in
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and now back to Corvette today with your host and my husband Steve Garrett thanks
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docomo Steve Garrett with me is my buddy Haron Charles the former brand manager of Corvette we are celebrating his
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career with General Motors and Corvette in the second segment we're going to talk about the time that harlon spent
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with Corvette Haron you started with the C5 Corvette give me an idea of what that was like to start with a car like a C5
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because that was a real big introduction for the Corvette yeah I mean the C5 really revived Corvette when I started
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we were just finishing up the 50th Anniversary MH and the plan was that the
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50th Anniversary would be the grand finale for the fifth gen okay and in ' 04 the six gen was going to come out but
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what happened 911 economy things like that so they shifted it out a year so
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Dave hill our chief engineer says you're the product manager you got any ideas you can't do a 51st anniversary car what
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do you want to do for the finale of the fifth gen at that time too we had 2001
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and 2002 our class at the 24 hours of Lama which we were very proud of yeah so
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then also I looked at the later C4s we had the Grand Sport and collector edition so kind of building off that I
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had this idea to celebrate instead of just doing a collector edition for the end of the C5 let's celebrate c5's wins
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at the 24 hours of L Mom we have this new blue color and I know had a Lon blue in the past and this wasn't exactly the
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same thing but I said you know what let's just this is the new one we'll call it Lon blue and we'll combine that
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with the Shale interior from the 50th Anniversary 50th Anniversary was red so it gave it a completely different look I
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think it was really upscale and then working with Kirk benan at design one of the things we heard a lot loud and clear
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was on the 03 there were some people that were disappointed we didn't do a Z6 50th it was only on the regular couping
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convertible mhm let's do something even more special for the Z6 and Kirk designed this stripe scheme for it also
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engineering said you know we wanted to look at carbon fiber for the future here's a good low volume chance let's
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try the carbon fiber hood that A supplier working on and this could be the first volume carbon fiber panel on a
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production car so that ZO6 version had the special carbon fiber part the only thing was it wasn't the carbon that
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people are used to where it looks like more of a linear carbon carbon yeah so we painted it and then the graphic on it
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denoted it was carbon fiber unfortunately some people thought that wasn't real I go no this is real carbon
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fiber the stripe is a stripe but the carbon under it is real that carb I think has its own status a lot of people
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love that particular car and it's became a collectible especially the ZO6 version of it I think we did finish 04 with a
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nice finale yeah definitely and you also came up with some really nice special editions like the Commemorative Edition
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talk to me about that because really Corvette was the one that came up with these special editions yeah so myself
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and Kirk Pion of design we would always be scheming things like this' 04 was the Lama Commemorative Edition so we did
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that one then later on when C6 came around we did cars like the Ron Fellows Edition we did the 427 tribute with real
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cookie the plant manager signed them all right and we did the GT1 which was a
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racing competition sport which was like your own special autocross track day cars as well as the Z6 carbon was a
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great one and the Centennial and of course finally we closed out C6 with the 60th anniversary and the 427 convertible
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yeah that's true let's talk more about C6 because you were in on the full development of that car weren't you yeah
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the coupe and convertible were partially underway and the ZO6 was just getting started the main thing about it was to
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take the fifth gen and make it leaner meaner of course more ties in with the racing team with the fixed lamps instead
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of the popup lamps and things like that but one of the things at the time the Z6
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was shown with a 6.4 450 horse engine was the plan and and that you think well
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that's pretty good that's really good for that era but Viper came out with 500 and I was talking to Dave Wickman recent
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Hall of Famer you know Corvette development at Milford right he whispers in my ear telling the young guy hey you
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guys at marketing you didn't ask for enough horsepower you shouldn't let Viper beat us I said you know what you're right so write a form we call
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them CR requests to make the Z6 500 horsepower at minimum and then talking
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with some of the powertrain guys they thought you could do it if you increase the displacement and we're kind of whispering well the race car had the 7
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liter tie it to racing and also 427 which is a magic number yeah so I wrote
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that request and at the time Tad and Dave were like oh we're going to push this to get as much as we want I don't
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know if we'll get quite there but we're going to push it then they were presenting their plan to Bob Lutz and
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Lut just said 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
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well how come you didn't do that when I wrote the request they go well you didn't do it at the right time but anyway at least they inserted the
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Catalyst to get everybody thinking about that and that actually came out 505 what a great car that is the 6G Z06
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lightweight naturally aspirated high revving small block what a great car yeah absolutely right and the ironic
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thing was is that Bob Lutz was kind of considered the father of Viper and he signed off on having horsepower that was
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five horsepower more than the SRT10 oh yeah you know once he was over he was very proud of the Viper don't get me
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wrong but I think he always envied that whatever they did the Corvette was always America sports car I think he
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realized that yeah that's kind of tough to battle at any point isn't it right
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you know the C6 highlights included like the creation of the Grand Sport model which turned out to be the bestselling
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version of the C6 and that was your idea yeah so when it happened six gen again
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like every Corvette generation seems to run longer than the original plan for it so we were given the opportunity to do a
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midcycle for 2010 I started think about it again going to Customer Events talk everybody loved the Z06 but it wasn't
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for everybody it was an aluminum frame at that time it was a fixed roof only no convertible no removable top manual
21:51
transmission only and of course it was a little bit more expensive so again working with my buddy Kirk we thought if
21:57
we change some of the car fiber like the fenders the6 have two conventional fenders new wheel design you know for
22:03
relatively low cost even less than doing a midcycle enhancement we could create a new model that people can upgrade to
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that gives you the stance the aggressive look of the Z06 plus the handling and
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the chassis of the ZO6 combine that with the standard LS3 engine and you could
22:20
get automatic get manual you get Coupe removable roof convertiable and we brought back torch red also back by
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popular band still always runs number one or number two on Corvette M brought that color back we had the convertible
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and torch red and we introduced that at the Corvette Museum and the fun thing was I think this was the first time
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there was no clue that anything like this was going on cool it was a true reveal and a surprise and I did like the
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calling it The Grand Sport again it wasn't a limited edition like the 96 Grand Sport but I thought in theory or
22:55
in concept that car had the Z1 WI rear track on it right using the standard
23:01
body MH you know we took the wider stance from the Z06 and put it on the standard car but we opened it up of
23:06
course you had to offer the hash mark on the fenders you get multiple colors any exterior any interior you could really
23:13
make it your own transport and it became the bestselling model for Corvette and really helped save us in some lean years
23:19
towards the end of the six gen it wasn't the best economy you know in 2010 to 2013 and it really kept the plant
23:25
running yeah it was really a great combination of the wide body of the Z06 and the stingray engine and the
23:32
suspension performance it was really an ideal car that's for sure also you revived the ZR1 for the C6 JM was a
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little hesitant I know that the C4 ZR1 didn't sell very well but you revived the ZR1 for the C6 generation which is
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an awesome car yeah so I can't take credit for the whole car obviously but the name I take a little credit for when
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we were working on that ZO6 Rick Wagner who was the CEO came in and the price point of that car and being about 65,000
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he goes I wonder what kind of car you could do if you had 100,000 yeah and he just said it like a flippant comment but
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Dave Hill said you know what let's show them what we can do that concept to do an even higher up ultimate performance
24:11
Corvette hung around to the point where Tom Wallace took over as chief engineer he actually executed that and it had
24:18
different names one time Chevrolet had this philosophy where they wanted every
24:23
model to have an SS performance model huh well maybe this would have been the Corvette SS yeah ultimately that wasn't
24:30
special enough actually it was some issues with export Europe and things like that and then at one time we looked
24:36
at Stingray and that would suck for a while to bring back that moniker in a different way as a top-of-the line
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Corvette but Ed wellburn had a design and I think he was right here he goes let's save Stingray for when we do a completely allnew Corvette a new design
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statement so what are we going to call it Tom asked me I go why don't we just call it ZR1 King of the Hill cuz I grew
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up the '90s ZR1 took on the best in the world you know King of the Hill Life Begins you know at 180 miles an hour
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right and there was a little hesitation from some because even though the Z1 was
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a great car there were some that remembered the tail end of it where it had some leftover cars that were hard to
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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
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the Z1 in the 90 had an allnew engine 32 valve engine and this was the first supercharged Corvette engine so design
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did a badge that had supercharged on it everybody seemed to Rally around that that that was really cool because it's
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not just the name sometimes it's the graphic and how it looks and we put the blue one on it for the Blue Devil in
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honor of Rick Wagner he was a Duke guy and that was always our internal code name for it yeah so we had blue accents
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and blue breakes and things like that ultimately became Z1 and I think now it's hard to imagine it being anything
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else we've done a couple more after that one so I think Z1 is kind of cemented it as the moniker that's the king of
25:56
Corvettes absolutely right you know I remember when that C6 ZR1 came out I saw that car at the Kansas City Auto Show
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and it was a big deal because that was the first $1,000 Corvette and it had the window in the hood where you could see
26:09
the supercharger yeah that was a great feature of the window in the hood and it actually helped the clearance because
26:15
you know we didn't want to hurt the downward Vision too much in the front and keep the hood as low as possible and
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the window is thinner than a conventional Hood material and insulation it was a cool thing cuz you
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could see the actual supercharg and also it helped keep the hood lower yeah that was awesome well buddy let's take our
26:33
final break when we come back we're going to talk about the miden engine platform for Corvette that's coming up next with Haron Charles here on Corvette
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investment adviser when you want to buy a Corvette or any Chevrolet for that matter get yours from Hendrick Chevrolet
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you're enjoying the only current podcast on Corvettes Corvette today thanks once
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again for listening and watching Corvette today the show that talks about everything Corvette Corvette today is
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brought to you by wheelcraft I know you want your Corvette looking its best so dress it up with bright Chrome or black
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or do a wheel exchange and you also get a 5-year warranty so visit wheelcraft
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decom today or just give them a call 833 639- 4231 I'm your host Steve Garrett with me
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is former Corvette brand manager harlon Charles we are celebrating his career 37
30:09
years with GM and 24 years with Corvette in this final segment we're going to talk about the mid eding platform for
30:15
Corvette Harlem before we get into that C7 was originally supposed to be the mid- eding car tell me what happened
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with that and how it got to be front engine yeah well actually when the C6 came out I wrote a thing like The View
30:28
from 2004 like should we start talking about C7 already one of the thoughts I had was we had done a good job at taking
30:34
away a lot of excuses for people to not buy a Corvette and it was no longer this cramped hard riding car that was
30:41
uncomfortable with no storage space it's a very usable sports car yeah and one of the last things left I thought was the
30:47
one thing the Corvette wasn't great at was driving it in the winter I thought two things the Mid Engine rear traction
30:53
would help the car be an allaround car in that way and also being even closer to The Cutting Edge of racing technology
31:00
all the top Motorsports you know you talk about Formula 1 and Leon winners the Ultimate sports cars were all
31:07
mid-engine designs I mean and reading Jerry Burton's book on Zora also just growing up reading about Corvettes and
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Mid Engine so we had a meeting again Dave Hill was the chief you know let's start talking about C7 what could it be
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and they were talking about minor changes maybe moving the wheels forward a little bit and then finally I guess I was feeling bold that day I said why
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don't we consider something something more 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
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said like what are you talking about what about Mid Engine or even considering all-wheel drive and he goes oh my gosh basically he said if
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Chevrolet meeting 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 present that so
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thinking oh my gosh I have to come up with a reason to do mid- engine in a week a lot of the Mid Engine had failed
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over the years because people thought it was super expensive very impractical can't do a convertible what kind of
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transmission do you use things like that so the concept was to do a car that nobody else in the world could do where
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we combine things people love about the Corvette its price point it's small
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block V8 it's easily able to drive cross country trips some luggage space
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tactical things like that but let's merge that with the Mid Engine Supercar exotic enablers like the center of
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gravity being around your body the low forward C for great visibility the rear weight distribution for better
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track times and acceleration and performance and funto drive aspect of it as well as a new proportion that put
32:37
Corvette and attract new buyers to the Corvette ultimately Dave Hill had said
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that you 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 packaging he was concerned
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about some of those cars have the cramp foot box you know the Lamborghinis and Ferraris of that time right could we do
32:55
something that has good accommodations and T actually gave me a look he said nicely done so that kind of cemented the
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seed a little bit both Kirk benan and Kim Lind were working on packages to see if they could be Corvettes you know with
33:08
proportion and Kirk was on board right away also with doing the mid-engine car because the proportion changed and
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things like that ultimately we got approved program it was going to be a 2012 but the late 2007 89 when the crash
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and bankruptcy things like that Tad called me we're just about to do mule cars start putting a plan together to
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build some T told me it was on Christmas break 2007 that they had paused the
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program basically canceled it and there was no new Corvette program at that time yet but when we came out of it we knew
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we had to do something quick for Corvette so the first idea was I'll do a major change to the C6 but you know how
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we 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
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got to the point where oh this is a C7 we changed so much of car which Chang almost every part that it became really
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a great car almost too good in a way where some people are still like you sure you want to do a that engine but I think we had cemented that in at that
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time yeah and you know the front engine C7 gave us the full spectrum of stingray Z6 grandport and ZR1 and I know that the
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ZR1 was not supposed to be a single-ear car but it did turn out to be I also remember Tad saying we have gone as far
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as we can with the front engine design for Corvette too didn't he yeah basically we were even learning that
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that it was hard to get better acceleration times even as much horsepower as you put at it you just run
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the limits of physics and traction with the weight distribution that we had one of the big wins for the seventh gen was
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we're going to go all aluminum frames before only the Z6 had it but I pushed hard and they did it to make it a
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convertible worthy so that we could do ZO6 convertible and open roof coupe
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right and manual and automatic on a Z06 so originally we weren't even going to have a grandport but because of the
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success of the six gen Grand Sport all I kept hearing was are you guys going to come out with a C7 Grand Sport when's
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that going to happen and eventually we did that also of course I said this got pushed out another couple of years it
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was so successful the idea to do a ZR1 again on that originally it was going to
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be probably a two-year car but we ended up doing a short 2018 and a very long 2019 model year that year yeah so even
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though it was one model year it was a very stretched out 2019 yeah and that was a great car that ZR1 was awesome the
35:29
whole C7 generation was awesome I had a manual transmission Stingray and absolutely love that car and that really
35:36
helped get to the eighth generation cuz we upgraded the interior the electronics we did the driver mode selector where
35:43
you could program the car on your own to be tour sport track weather things like that so a lot of those learning and
35:50
bringing aluminum into the factory really helped us with the eighth generation car yeah and then you brought
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out the eighth generation car in 2020 and it was under $60,000 everybody went oh my gosh that's
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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-figure car to start that
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we're just moving the car much more expensive but again that was part of the original plan was to keep the car
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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 drain car but
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you don't have to be a super wealthy Rich again not inexpensive but somebody that works hard should be able to afford
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America sports car yeah as cool as the ZR1 and the Z6 and the r-ray are the
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stingray is really still the most unique car in the market there's nothing else like it for that price yeah anywhere in
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the world agreed you know I remember when the C8 came out it was either Car and Driver or rodent track that said
36:52
Corvett has just flipped the middle finger to All European supercars right that's what we like to
36:58
do as Americans you know embarrass the European snobs around the world and crash the country club and just show
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what we can do with our Ingenuity exactly let's talk about some of the milestones in your career Haron you were
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the one that came up with the performance data recorder you named the r-ray the first production Corvettes to
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use carbon fiber hoods which was the C5 ZO6 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 eay talk about that real quick yeah so the
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performance data recorder actually I think it I proposed it 2007 I was
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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 well they're trying to be realistic to the
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real world why can't we do something from the Video Game World and bring it to the real car to do like your own
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instant replay so I basically used their instant replay screen and doctored it up
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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
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speed the g-forces RPM throttle and break what mode you're in whether the
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stability came on or not things like that that you could look at you could use it to improve your driving but also
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you know it was the beginnings of social media and things that you could share with people and there were some things
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like this in the aftermarket but everything was separate people were coming up with phone apps so the
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Innovation was let's have it all onboard the now it was difficult there's no performance day recorder group at GM at
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that time I mean there is now yeah we had the data in the car it could be done we added the camera and the microphone
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to it we have the screen we've had a SD card reader that we added but combining all that together took the integration
38:45
and it actually took until we couldn't do it for the sixth generation we wanted the new electrical system that the
38:50
Seventh Generation had we missed the first year but it came out in 2015 and it's still out to this day and we've
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been making improvements to it but I still think nobody else in the industry now it's 10 years now has a better
39:03
integrated performance data recorder that's easy to use fun to use and it has other uses too one of the things was I
39:10
read this article where somebody dropped their car off with a valet and went on a cruise and they found out it was a new
39:16
story that the valet people were using their car all week so we combined that what if people don't even go to the
39:21
track you not everybody does so you could use this just to record your tale of the Dragon trip or in a valet situ
39:27
ation you put a code in there you have a record of everything that happened on your car and you weren't in it so it gives you that peace of mind as well so
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you know had multiple usage cases and that's why we put the SD card in the lockable storage as well yeah that was
39:41
awesome talk to me about how you got the name r-ray okay so we were talking about
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early days of scheming the eighth generation car what models we would have this back 2014 2015 and one of the
39:55
concepts was we could do either conventional all-wheel drive or we are also studying doing a hybrid all-wheel
40:01
drive which timately what we did with the electric motor and I was looking through names in general you know because we had Stingray we brought back
40:07
for C7 which I love and there was some thoughts do we keep that do we do other things and one of the ones I came across
40:14
I was just looking at sharks and rays and Aquatic of course we had Manor Ray which was a show car we used makeo
40:20
sharks things like that but there actually was an electric ray was a real sea creature called the electric ray
40:26
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 uh shorten it to eay and we trademark that
40:37
back in 2015 for possible usage in the future and then when we started working on what became the eay and it stuck and
40:45
actually when the patent went out it was a good name because everybody instantly know oh they're doing some kind of electrified Corvette that's must be what
40:52
that name is for everybody knew right away what that meant also we have special editions we touched on on those
40:57
during the first segment the Centennial Edition the Lama Edition ronf fellows ZO6 carbon editions were there any
41:04
others besides those the Centennial I'm very proud of because nobody was really planning anything for the 100th
41:10
anniversary of Chevrolet I tried to get people you know why don't we share it why don't we do like a common theme
41:16
across all the cars right but one of the things I tapped into it was Louis Chevrolet who we're named after Was a
41:21
Race Car Driver right one of the arguments he had with Billy Duran okay back when they started the Chevrolet he
41:27
wanted to be a high-end performance company where Durant wanted to be a low price car that competed with the Ford
41:33
Model T so I thought if Louis Chevrolet was alive today he would be so proud of
41:38
the Corvette that it was a Chevrolet car yeah and let's use the iconic Lou
41:44
Chevrolet driving the race car in Indianapolis in 1911 and used that as
41:49
the logo for us and he also had the slogan never give up and the race team adopted that for the racing season that
41:56
year nice and then K came up with the red stripe wheels and the carbon flash
42:01
exterior it's really one of my favorite specials that we did agreed I like it too you also had personal options that
42:08
you brought to Corvette like seat stitching colored seat belts color brake calipers two-tone seating and a lot more
42:14
you know it's great because that really enables a Corvette Enthusiast to really specialize and make their Corvette their
42:20
own yeah they started pushing that towards the tail end of the sixth generation and just expanded from there
42:26
because we wanted people who buy any sports car you know Porsches Ferrari
42:31
Lamborghini whatever to consider Corvette and we don't want them to feel like they're giving up any choices or
42:37
any chances to make their own as well as Corvette customers that we already have asked for things like that as well they
42:44
were doing easy customization and things at different Corvette events so little by little we added these things the
42:51
thing was engineering generally doesn't want to do things like that not that they don't want to but it's added complexity it's added engineering and
42:58
validation right even if it doesn't people like well what does thread cost what does it cost to paying a cal even if doesn't there's a lot of cost but
43:05
when you look at we charge for some of these options again not huge but it more than pays for the extra work that we
43:11
have to do to do this it's a win-win customers love it the bean counters love it we were able to plan the Corvette
43:18
around it you can really make your own Corvette statement right from the factory with these choices you sure can
43:24
people really enjoy doing that absolutely right Buddy any closing thoughts you've worked with some of the
43:30
big people in the industry and I think the Mountain Rush mower of Corvette would be you Taj Kirk and maybe zor wow
43:38
yeah of course Dave Hill Tom mallace is Chief Engineers as well we have Josh holder still holding it down it's just
43:45
great to be associated with that and I really feel from the early 2000s to now
43:51
sixth seventh and eighth Generations I think is really a golden era that I'm really happy to be a part of have a lot
43:57
of Pride about I've really had the best life I could have ever dreamed of as a little boy to do all the things that I
44:04
got to do with Corvette it just makes me happy that customers are happy and I got to be involved in the early stages of
44:10
the engineering design and be a part of the scheming I just can't imagine a better life that I could have had so I'm
44:17
very thankful for the time I had on Corvette it's something that will stick with me forever buddy the entire
44:23
Corvette Community loves you we'll miss you I hope you enjoy retirement and I hope you're not a stranger you always
44:29
welcome on Corvette today please let us see you soon thanks I appreciate you and and the work that you do and you're like
44:35
family that's what I said before all these Corvette people they start as customers they become friends and they feel like it's the Corvette family is
44:42
just wonderful I received so many positive comments online people texting me personally people are just so
44:49
wonderful it just makes me so happy thanks again for listening and watching Corvette today and be sure to tell your
44:55
family friends and other Corvette enthusiasts about the Corvette Today's Show and thanks to our sponsors
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wheelcraft want to dress up your Corvette with bright Chrome or black chrome wheels visit wheel craft.com to
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models and it comes with a 5-year warranty visit wheelcraft
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usa.com thanks for checking out Corvette today on podcast and YouTube if you'd
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again for listening and watching Corvette today oh
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