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What Was Kirk Bennion’s Impact On Corvette Design? | Corvette Design | CORVETTE TODAY #260
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May 9, 2025
Are you ready to embark on a life-changing journey exploring Corvette design and discovering what was Kirk Bennion’s impact on Corvette design? In this video, we delve into what was Kirk Bennion’s impact on Corvette design, covering all the exciting details from his legendary career. - How Kirk Bennion designed the Corvette - Kirk Bennion Corvette designer interview - Evolution of Corvette exterior design ******************* In this special episode of CORVETTE TODAY, we celebrate the career of Corvette's Exterior Design Mnager, Kirk Bennion. Kirk spent 41 years at General Motors and 37 year with Corvette. Your CORVETTE TODAY host Steve Garrett, reminisces with Kirk about his career, how he got his job at General Motors, how he started working on Corvette and the development of the C5, C6, C7 and C8 Corvettes! Kirk shares some of his favorite stories about Corvette and GM and talks about some of the icons he's worked with over the years. It's another very special edition of CORVETTE TODAY that you don't want to miss! *******************
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[Music] welcome to Corvette today the show that
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talks about everything Corvette with your host Steve Garrett lifetime member of the National Corvette Museum
0:13
president of the Corvette club of Kansas City Missouri and radio disc jockey at the number one radio station in Kansas
0:20
City for over 45 years here's Steve
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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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wheelcraft tocom and learn about their Advanced PVD chrome finishing they can refinish your wheels or offer a wheel
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world on this episode of Corvette today we celebrate the career of the man who designed what your Corvette looks like
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today Kirk benan has worked at GM for over four decades three plus of those on
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Corvette he was on Corvette today number 34 way back in December of 2020 today we
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look back at his illustrious career Kirk welcome back to Corvette today buddy Steve so happy to be here thanks for
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having me you bet it's always good to have you on the show Kirk before we celebrate your career let's talk about
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your education career where did you go to school what was your degree in I went to the Cleveland Institute of Art that's
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a five-year private art college very high-end much like ccs Art Center those
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are all great schools for young designers so my major was industrial design I have a minor in graphic design
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I also have a minor in figure painting which you might think is kind of strange but I had a really good art teacher when
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I was in high school and the thing that she would push is building your creativity was part of it but also
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developing a Keen Eye and if you want to have a Keen Eye obviously drawing or painting the human figure that was part
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of that equation at Cleveland I would go in I would paint a portrait every two weeks I could pretty much knock him out
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in six hours wow that's pretty amazing buddy I've learned something new about you today yes yeah that's really cool
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all right so after you graduated school what was your first job so my first job was being hired in at GM oh okay I was
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still at the Cleveland stute of art so we had Chuck Jordan the Chuck Jordan wow come down to our school to interview
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myself and my other there's about 20 of us and actually Chuck was the main guy who hired all the creative designers you
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know back into the 60s and the 50s and that he knew what he wanted in a designer you know he wanted passion he
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wanted conviction he wanted designers that were going to work hard for him he really set the bar that's really cool I
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love these Back stories about your conversations in your interview with GM tell me more about when you and Chuck
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got together and how you got hired so for me we had Chuck come down and Chuck drove one of his Ferraris down wow you
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know he's a very passionate car person in that and obviously doesn't have anything against Ferrari in that but
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that was just part of his passion as you can appreciate being at a five-year school and everything like that I did
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not want to leave anything up for question so I was working very hard on a portfolio getting ready for Chuck's
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interview what I ended up doing was securing the art gallery for myself and my friends so we could put our artwork
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up in this really beautiful scenario in that so he's looking at everything because he's a vice president so we
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wanted everything to be highend quality and that Chuck comes up to me and he looks at everything I have I had
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350 sketches on the wall I had four portfolios and I had two mid-engine hard
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models and I'm going to tell you one was a typical side by side Mid Engine but the other one was a four and a half Mid
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Engine so it was kind of more missile shaped you know we wanted him to see stuff that he'd never see before Chuck
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stood there and he looked up and across he waited about five seconds and he says you're hired wow I think it was probably
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the fastest interview you could have at General Motors at the time that's amazing what a story Kirk yes that's
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incredible now you spent 41 years with General Motors what was your first job when you got into GM obviously I don't
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think you started with Corvette but what was your first job once you got into General Motors so once I got hired in in
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those days we had five Advanced Studios I was being placed in advanced three now
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lo and behold when I walked into Advance 3 There's Tom Peters there wow you know
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Tom had been hired in for about a year and a half closer to two and Jim Beak was our design manager that's where my
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career started with Tom Peters Tom and I would exchange different spots depending on what we were doing there was a time
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where I was in Pontiac so then he went to Pontiac and then I went to Chevy 3 so we swapped back and forth after that
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like 1999 I would be by Tom Peter side for the rest of my career that's really
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cool now you did a lot of exterior design for more than just Corvette talk about some of the other GM vehicles that
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you did design for okay so when I was in Chevy 3 and like I said we were actually
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sketching C5 and we were doing C5 Scale Models the C5 was getting its
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architecture and its business case restructured things like that so we we kind of put that on hold for a little
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bit so I transitioned to Bill Davis Bill Davis was our chief designer he had
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basically everything that wasn't already big trucks so we ended up working the next night years on S trucks on the
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full-size van the Suburban the Tahoe there's a little s truck in there that
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had the sport side those were real popular at the time was working on those with John Moss within your portfolio GM
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you know they always like you to have truck experience and like I said having that experience for nine years was pretty eventful it also led to some of
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our crossover Vehicles like the Traverse you know that was huge right the Outlook the Arcadia and I was happy to say that
8:58
at that time we were actually ahead of the curve with our crossovers that's really cool now you also worked on
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Camaro didn't you Kirk yes yes and actually when I was in chevy3 and here again we were under Lloyd Roy in those
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days and you know Lloyd was really great he'd come in and he'd loved seeing the new guys in the studio you know he's
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very passionate but he knew that we were going to bring in new energy and new ideas and he just loved to see that
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collaboration that's really nice you know and especially a guy like Lloyd coming from him that's really cool yeah
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so while in that studio we were sketching on like I said C5 but we were also working on what you know as the 91
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Camaro and then the 93 Camaro that was a big deal for me I was a lead designer on that did all the arrow work you know
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under Randy with Team guys I was working with in the studio all those guys would eventually be Hall of Famers but yeah I
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still have one of those 93 Camaros today it's heartfelt it was neat to be a part of that and the car is still relatively
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modern with its rear hatch things like that you know I call it my Home Depot car I can go to Home Depot and just put
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anything I want in the back yeah that's true that's really true that's a great car that is for sure well buddy let's
10:03
take our first break when we come back we're going to dig more into your career with Corvette that's coming up next here
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and now back to Corvette today with your host and my husband be Garrett thanks
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docomo Steve Garrett with me is Kirk benan the former exterior design manager for Corvette we are celebrating his
13:43
career with General Motors and Corvette in this segment we're going to talk a little bit more about his time with
13:48
Corvette Kirk you really started with the C5 when you came in C4 was already done talk about some of the highlights
13:56
of the C5 generation C5 there was some challenges that we had with the business
14:01
case the package Arrow was a big part of C5 under Dave Hill and there was also
14:06
some good positives with C5 we got the bigger Wheels 18s and 19s you got the
14:11
wider track we also had the hard top and the convertible so it was a very compelling car we just needed time to
14:17
work through some of those issues will cookie was part of that he came to the charge and he was part of that car being
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real as well they was a big part obviously of that car he was part of every piece that was being developed for
14:29
that was pretty much under Dave Hill and then Tator at the time yeah we would later do the 2004 C5 as a collector car
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you know that was the first car to get an all carbon fiber hood it was painted carbon fiber but that was still us
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stepping into the carbon fiber Pond that was really good for us at that time yeah that was a significant thing too let's
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talk about C6 real quick basically same question talk about some of the highlights of the C6 generation for me
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well the C6 obviously there was some learnings there the biggest thing I could tell you that happened on C6 was
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we started collaborating with Doug fand and the Pratt Miller race team right from the very beginning there was some
15:10
things on the C5 you know like the center plate didn't translate as well for racing we started off with Doug and
15:17
his team on the racing effort and that meant getting a front end that was more efficient for taking an airflow break
15:24
cooling things like that and of course you know Dave Hill is a big supporter of that as well cuz his model was always
15:29
bring racing to work day the C6 we did the initial car you know which was really good for low drag things like
15:36
that spaciousness in the inside was huge we were still in our interior development with that car and doing what
15:43
we would nickname as the widebody cars doing the high performance cars yeah that was huge for C6 and I would tell
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you those early widebody cars are still coveted oh yeah absolutely right the one that I worked on the most was the 2009
15:57
ZR1 you know here again we're going through business challenges we're still working on bigger wheel sizes things
16:03
like that the thing that we ended up having to do the business case wasn't lined up yet so I would work on that car
16:09
underground I mean I worked on it underground for four and a half years wow we always felt that that would be an
16:15
epic car you know it was supercharged it had the arrow package it had Magnetic Ride it had all these customer features
16:21
and then we did finally come out with it and then we were at the auto week car show downtown in Detroit we took first
16:27
overall with that car car that's incredible I think we surprised a lot of people with what we were able to get the
16:33
carbon ceramic brakes that was a big wi for us at the time yep that turned out to be a big surprise and then we would
16:39
follow up with what you know is the 2011 Z6 carbon where we kept the drivetrain and everything like that we had a
16:46
normally aspirated engine we weren't worried about it being supercharged back then and and of course that car it was
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always about being light weight and having those Magnetic Ride features yeah now I know the C7 was supposed to be the
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mid-engine car car but that got pushed back talk to me about how that affected you and your team with the development
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of the C7 yes C7 was a good car for us we were able to make it different enough
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early on in the development of that car you know we were guarded we would refer to it as maybe c6m I would tell you I
17:17
put together a grocery list of what I felt needed to be on the car for us to
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consider it to be a C7 so I had 12 items on there basically Tor gave me all 12 of
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those items wow unique rear hatch wheel sizes Arrow Parts all that was supported
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by Tad the c7s are still very popular today when I attend some of the shows like Watkins Glen things like that I
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still see what I call the widebody c7s I still see those as being very popular cars absolutely yeah wonderful
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proportion you get newer Tech you get the high-end interior and then we were doing special additions of those cars
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too that was always for Harland and I part of our recipe it was to give the customer personal Fe features that they
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could tag and apply to their car and put it in a personal venue that was just for them yep I love those special editions
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the collector edition with the blue that was awesome yeah yeah the red white and blue cars were pretty popular that was
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true buddy tell me something when did you really start in Earnest working on a mid-engine Corvette good question I'm
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going to surprise you here because we started on that that was probably 2004 we were in La we were conducting a
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clinic we brought in a 275 feri and a stradali mid engine stradali car we made
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this look like this was a Ferrari Clinic yeah is what most people felt they were walking into what we were trying to find
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out was what did our customers think of a mid-engine car versus a front engine car going through that clinic it was
18:45
neat because we would space out some of the groups you know we'd have like a European group we did an all Corvette
18:50
group oh and we asked them of these two cars the stali has better 0 to 60 than
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the 275 12 for 12 12 Corvette people in this Clinic all 12 raised their hand and
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said I want the Mid Engine they wanted the 060 times and also they could see that that proportion that architectural
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change looked like a more exotic car that was really huge for us so we kind of took that learning and I would tell
19:14
you in 2007 we had a full-size Corvette now in that 07 car some of our
19:19
challenges were transmission was bigger than it needed to be we had interference issues with that and the muffler we just
19:26
weren't ready it wasn't until T tell we start started working on our own transmission that was a huge enabler for
19:32
the mid-engine car interesting I tell you what let's take our final break Kirk when we come back we're going to talk
19:37
more about your C8 design in the mid-engine car coming up next here on Corvette
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23:05
docomo Steve Garrett with me is Kirk benan the former exterior design manager for Corvette we're going to talk more
23:11
about the C8 design Kirk let's talk about that C8 Corvette because moving that engine in the back had to create
23:18
some major obstacles when you guys were designing that car talk more about some of the logistics that you had to go
23:24
through when moving that engine into the back you know obviously that was a big deal I would tell you in those days a
23:30
gentleman by the name of Kim Lynn and Ed Moss those two guys were probably the most influential in making that happen
23:36
for design we were all for it like I said it was changing up the proportion the other big news was we went to bigger
23:42
wheels in the back so we improveed The Stance of the vehicle that was a win but obviously within this new architecture
23:49
cooling was a big metric we've done a lot of cooling with C7 C6 of course but this was a different animal and getting
23:56
air to the back of the car getting it into the rear quarters and you can see in our current zer1 that we've modified
24:02
and updated some of those airflow paths that was huge to the car back then and then part of that proportion was having
24:10
the right spacing for the driver MH I would tell you my good friend Ed pych was our template it was our goal for him
24:16
to be able to fit in the car and still wear a helmet that's why today you'll see some taller customers that are 64
24:23
depending on you know their torso proportion or whatever we've been able to put larger customers in the car
24:29
that's really important because I know that it gave you different weight balance it moved the seating position 16
24:35
12 in forward yes talk about some of those other design features that were highlighted for the C8 Corvette well I
24:43
would tell you for the front end here again getting back to the cooling aspect having those heat exchangers on the
24:49
front Corners that was a big deal and getting to package those and you know when there was Pedro criteria that we
24:55
had to do for export and obviously the pushes to still keep the car beautiful through the collaboration of the team
25:02
you know obviously guys like Josh holder Tad's Jor were huge and helping us get
25:07
some of the packaging Chris pillo friend of mine was also key in getting radiators packaged to the front and also
25:13
having heat exchangers in the rear quarters that was all a big deal and and then we had Pratt and Miller using their
25:19
technology and we were studying airflow paths and what was the most efficient way to get air to the rear of the car
25:25
it's a huge collaboration then especially when you're talking about cooling the the car because that's one of the things you just can't fall short
25:31
on here again with this architecture being brand new we needed a robust cooling map for this car to make it on
25:36
the road yeah talk about the wind tunnel for me Kirk because I know you're big on working in the Wind Tunnel tell me about
25:43
the wind tunnel with the ca Corvette so let me back up a little bit on the Wind Tunnel because when I was a young man
25:49
and I was working in Chevy 3 and like I said these were Lloyd Royce days I would work with rainy with te in the Wind
25:56
Tunnel that was a big part of the collaboration John cafero his requirement for me as a
26:01
young man back then was that I would learn to work the wind tunnel I would also learn to drive cars on the track
26:07
the big thing was learning to work with Engineers when he did my cap review for those at the time those were three big
26:13
things of me that he wanted me to be a part of so that's how I always got involved with the arrow it started with
26:19
really John cafero having the vision to say hey we need designers who can understand aerodynamics on Corvettes
26:25
that's really cool now when you think about the final design of the C8 talk more about the advantages that the C8
26:31
Corvette has over other miden engine cars I would tell you the the big Advantage you know the windshield
26:37
placement as you can appreciate in our world we went back and forth and tried different positions and that but getting
26:42
that downward Vision we felt was key and then it was also very key to the design
26:47
you look at that windshield it's very fast it's got nice curvature it's really a handsome part of the car yeah
26:54
definitely you know and it's got to make you proud seeing all the c8s on the streets and how popular they are plus
27:00
bringing a new and younger generation to the Corvette family doesn't it yes and I would tell you the stingray really
27:06
carries itself on the road I got a few of my neighbors that usually driving around you know you look at them and
27:11
they got a huge smile on their face it's like they're driving a Ferrari every day yeah because that Mid Engine proportion
27:16
just resonated on the stingray it turned Stingray into a huge hit for us absolutely high volume wise orders
27:23
things like that you know customers real happy with it now the other thing that of the architecture that is key was not
27:28
only did we have the heat exchangers up there but we also had the frunk up there so we were giving the customer front end
27:34
storage as well as the rear storage now somebody will always tell you well we designed the back end for golf clubs
27:40
well we didn't we designed it to fit two Delta bags one of taj's wishes was he could go to the airport leave his car
27:47
there and still be able to go back and forth with Luggage in that it just by coincidence that we're able to get get
27:53
golf clubs back there and that's a huge win for me as a golfer for a client tell's golf yeah I remember when the C8
27:59
came out everybody said this is a great design but can I get my golf clubs in the car and you left room for not one
28:05
but two bags in the back yes two small bags versus maybe depending on what
28:10
you're golfing you know I have a regular size but it still fits in there very well and what's not to like that here
28:16
again you can go to your favorite golf course and drive your favorite car and pull out your best clubs it's all a great experience exactly right buddy
28:23
let's get some closing thoughts from you first off just know that the entire Corvette community loves you they
28:29
respect you we thank you for everything that you've done for Corvette now you get to hang out with us at some of the
28:34
upcoming events you will sorely be missed give me some final thoughts about your career with General Motors and
28:40
Corvette well you know I would tell you for my career Jim I feel very fortunate I was at the right place at the right
28:47
time with people like Tom Peters and John cafero I got to work on some very impactful programs I think when you if
28:53
you were look at my talent card I had 50 plus different programs that I worked done I worked on crossovers with Jack
29:00
folden Jack was a wonderful gentleman as long as I kept his work going he would let me work on the Corvette stuff
29:06
underground didn't matter as long as everything was still getting done wow that was a huge benefit and I kind of
29:13
done that through my career where I would bounce into different programs they might have been crossovers they
29:18
might have been trucks but I always had the support from my leaders if Corvette needed anything they'd look the other
29:24
way let me get something done here so that was always huge enabling people like Ed welburn you know he was always
29:30
key to having positive design work going on in the workplace one of my favorite Ed welburn stories was go back to C6
29:37
days we had the Ron Fellows car that was at the Chicago Auto Show at the McCormick Center it was our first
29:43
special edition special chrome wheels special Graphics the red interior we had
29:49
that there and lo and behold we ended up taking first place at the Chicago Auto
29:54
Show with the Ron fell car now of course Harin and I are standing there we get a visit from Bob Lutz and Tom Wallace Tom
30:01
Wallace is the vle yeah where' this car come from well har I we just kind of put this special edition together oddly
30:08
enough somehow the memo didn't get to those two guys that they knew we were doing that that's awesome so the next day we
30:15
have Ed welburn in the studio in front of harlon and myself Ed is a real savy guy in that he's just a wonderful
30:22
gentleman to work for so Ed comes to us and he goes all right that was nice that car did really well thanks for doing
30:27
that guys you know maybe we could communicate a little bit better on the next one that's awesome then he said looked
30:34
at harl I goes I want a special edition Corvette for every year wow that's the
30:40
ne thing about it is he saw the wisdom in how well that Corvette did and we're up against all these other new cars and
30:46
all these other brands and everything like that but that car still transcended all those competitors that's how and why
30:53
we got into those special editions cuz they do resonate so well and are huge customer Pleasers that's awesome what a
30:59
great story buddy thank you so much for everything you've done for us in Corvette Community take care don't be a
31:06
stranger with Corvette today oh and believe me Steve when I say I will be there I'm looking forward to attending
31:12
some of the track events and then now that I have a little more time on my hands I can do more of that you know I've got my son-in-law and toe we'll be
31:19
having a good time and you'll see me around at the bash like I said I'm Consulting with the RSC guys they're a
31:25
wonderful group they're in the C8 and if we can do some things that are newer and still keeping C8 relevant you know I
31:31
think that's still in the cards that's awesome that sounds fantastic look forward to seeing you soon buddy all right thanks Steve you bet thanks again
31:37
for listening and watching Corvette today and be sure to tell your family friends and other Corvette enthusiasts
31:43
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32:38
today on podcast and YouTube if you'd like to contact Steve with ideas for Corvette today you can email him at
32:45
Steve Garrett DJ atgmailcom Garrett has two RS and two T's that's Steve Garrett
32:51
dj@ gmail.com also sign up for email notifications at Corvett toay . ck. page
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33:12
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