Up next in 10
Who Invented The Corvette Head-Up Display? | Corvette Display CORVETTE TODAY #218
May 9, 2025
To learn more about who invented the Corvette head-up display and the Corvette display, please feel free to visit our YouTube channel.
This video covers who invented the Corvette head-up display, along with the following subjects:
- Origins of the head-up display in cars
- How the head-up display was developed for Corvette
- Corvette innovation
**********************
I don't know about you, but I love having a Head-Up Display in my Corvette!
But did you know that the HUD's didn't come into existence
for Corvette until the C5 era?
On this episode of CORVETTE TODAY, you'll meet Steve Stringfellow, the inventor of the Corvette Head-Up Display! Steve joins your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett, to talk about the origins of the Head-Up Display and what it took to actually get it into Corvette and the trials and tribulations thereof.
It's a fascinating episode...get up close and personal with the inventor of the Corvette HUD, Steve Stringfellow!
********************
Explore our other video content here on YouTube where you'll find more insights on who invented the Corvette head-up display along with relevant social media links.
Website: https://corvettetodaypodcast.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2718423201763136
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CORVETTETODAYThePodcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corvettetodaypodcast/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-bell-garrett-a1047b7/
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/SteveGarrettDJ
********************
Our video explores, who invented the Corvette head-up display, origins of the head-up display in cars, how the head-up display was developed for Corvette, and Corvette innovation.
Regarding who invented the Corvette head-up display, have I addressed your curiosity?
Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below. We're keen to hear your perspectives on the following: origins of the head-up display in cars, how the head-up display was developed for Corvette, Corvette innovation, and who invented the Corvette head-up display.
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music] welcome to Corvette today the show that
0:06
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
0:27
Garrett thanks for listening and watching Corvette today the show that talks about everything Corvette and the
0:33
only current podcast dedicated to Corvette I'm your host Steve Garrett I appreciate you tuning in Corvette today
0:39
is brought to you by wheelcraft want to dress up your Corvette with bright Chrome or black chrome wheels visit
0:44
wheelcraft decom and learn about their Advanced PVD chrome finishing they can refinish your wheels or offer a wheel
0:50
exchange for most models and it comes with a 5-year warranty visit wheelcraft
1:00
4 you can listen to Corvette today on all podcast platforms you can also listen on your smart device just say hey
1:06
Google or Alexa play the podcast called Corvette today and you're connected and
1:11
be sure to visit the Corvette today website it's Corvett today.com you can access everything there including the
1:17
Corvette today merchandise store you can also join our Corvette today Facebook group there as well also make sure you
1:23
sign up for the Corvette today emails notifications and updates at Corvett today. ck. page and if you like YouTube
1:31
be sure to subscribe to our Corvette today YouTube channel see all Corvette today episodes on YouTube as well and be
1:38
sure to patronize our Flagship sponsors of Corvette today mid-engine Corvette forum.com The Forum that focuses on the
1:44
new mid-engine ca Corvette meet a lot of fellow Corvette enthusiasts like yourself at mid-engine Corvette
1:51
forum.com Soul Performance Products developed and manufactured in the United States the soul Performance Products
1:57
exhaust portfolio has been tailored to Elevate the experience of the world's most exciting sports cars including the
2:03
latest generation of the Corvette soulle Performance Products at spp.com the official performance exhaust
2:11
of Corvette today aari Wheels a true forged wheel with over 20 unique styles
2:16
to choose from for your C8 and widebody versions of the C7 C6 and C5 Corvette
2:22
it's an amazing value starting at only 2388 for a set of four fully forged
2:27
wheels and use the promo code T t111 and get $100 off your purchase visit aol.com
2:34
that's a r o l a r r i.com and use the promo code ct1111 for your $100 discount
2:42
coka Corvette if you're a Corvette Enthusiast and I know you are since you're listening and watching Corvette
2:47
today then you need to know about coka Corvette they're based in Atlantic City where you can find over 100 new and
2:53
pre-owned vets on the lot and inbound coka also ships Corvettes all over the country custom order to your
3:00
specifications they're staffed with experienced Pros who can answer all your questions so don't compromise visit coka
3:06
corvette.com that COC CCAC corvette.com and find out more Chevrolet together
3:13
let's drive and a shout out to Canadian Corvette forum and Corvette forum welcoming Corvette enthusiasts from
3:19
around the world my guest on Corvette today created and invented the head-up display for Corvette now head-up
3:25
displays have been very popular safety features in modern cars but it wasn't always that way as a matter of fact Huds
3:32
were introduced by GM 11 years before becoming enormously successful on the Corvette and we're going to talk about
3:38
that today my guest is Steve Stringfellow Steve welcome to Corvette today thank you for having me Steve you
3:45
bet you're here in studio this is great Steve lives in the Kansas City area I don't get a chance to have people in
3:50
studio that much so it's great to have you here first of all Steve let's talk about your childhood tell me where you
3:56
grew up and did you come from a car family well I was originally born in Santa Monica California in 1956 and I
4:02
grew up in palis Fes California back then it was kind of a Rancho and farmland it's not really that way
4:07
anymore right I guess my mother's first car was a beautiful white 1962 Chevrolet
4:14
cor o so close almost but at least we were in the
4:20
Chevy family there yeah and I remember there were lots of Elden and Mattel Engineers who had families and own homes
4:25
in the area so I grew up with lots of influence of Hot Wheels and slot cars and anything with a Cox nitro 049 engine
4:33
that's pretty cool yeah so was Corvette the car for you when you were growing up oh gosh yeah Corvettes were always a
4:39
childhood dream growing up and I think it was the same dream for every kid who followed the Space Race back during the
4:44
Mercury and Gemini and Apollo programs oh yeah my Cub Scout scrapbook was full of pictures of astronauts driving
4:50
Corvettes and I don't remember seeing any in the neighborhood unfortunately I would definitely have remembered that
4:56
yeah and oh by the way guess I did own a Schwin Stingray bike though that's close you know for a kid that's as close as
5:03
you're going to get to a Corvette right you beta what did you want to be when you grew up were Corvettes part of your
5:08
childhood I was kind of a tinkerer as a kid and I guess I still am I build lots of models we had a workbench and tools
5:15
on our garage and somehow I just kind of had this snack for taking things apart and learning how to fix them and just
5:20
kind of seeing how they worked but I think the biggest influence a of motive wise was my childhood friend Bill his
5:27
grandfather had a family-owned auto parts store to California as we got older and began to learn how to drive we
5:33
kind of got jobs delivering parts to garages and repair shops throughout the southern Los Angeles area sometimes i'
5:39
drive across town to deliver just a small set of ignition points or sometimes I'd have to deliver a big
5:45
orange painted 180 lb Chevy short black you so we unloaded the trucks and
5:51
stocked everything we worked the catalogs at the counter helping customers find obscure parts and
5:56
fasteners and sometimes we worked in the Machine Shop you know sand blasting the surfacing heads grinding and installing
6:02
valves and springs or turning break drums there was always work to do and lots to learn about cars and even though
6:08
we were teenagers we were never bored we always got our hands really dirty and came home exhausted well that's a good
6:14
thing I think right oh yeah so where did you go to college what did you study in school well the Vietnam War was raging
6:21
at the time and I signed up for the draft at 16 and my father really didn't save for my college at all and I guess
6:27
he was a bit uncertain about what my future would be after the war ended to be honest at 18 years old I didn't know
6:32
what I wanted to do after a while my father decided to use part of his retirement savings to send me to college
6:39
I was accepted at the University of California at Santa Cruz where I took my GE classes and dabbled a little bit in
6:45
physics and architecture and environmental design related subjects although I like designing structures and
6:50
it was beautiful up there up in the trees oh yeah I could tell it just wasn't the right place for me to be I was more kind of geared towards product
6:57
and transportation things like car and airplanes yeah that makes sense so what were your degrees in Steve so after
7:04
moving I took a big student loan I moved to California State University at Long Beach and after four years and working
7:11
part-time I got my Bachelor of Science degree in product design engineering i' really finally found my calling that's
7:17
really cool well I tell you what buddy let's take our break right now when we come back we're going to talk about your
7:22
career in the business World which included Hughes aircraft along with GM that's coming up next with Steve
7:28
Stringfellow here on Corvette today we all know that Wheels make the car wheelcraft PVD chrome finish in bright
7:35
Chrome or black chrome will take your Corvette to new levels and it comes with a 5-year warranty durability is a
7:41
defining feature of the wheelcraft finish their PVD chrome is superior to traditional Chrome with a finish that is
7:46
breake dust resistant and cleans effortlessly with soap and water wheelcraft offers Factory wheel exchange
7:52
for select C4 through C8 models or they can apply the pbd Finish to your current Wheels no matter what generation you own
7:58
wheelcraft will transform the look of your Corvette with every Corvette comes a unique story and wheelcraft has
8:04
embraced this idea when you purchase your new set of wheels you receive a lifetime membership to the wheelcraft
8:09
pit crew granting you access to your own page on wheelcraft website where you can post pictures and tell your Corvette
8:15
story visit our website at wheelcraft decom or call 833 639- 4231 AR in style
8:23
with wheelcraft the radiator Grill store offers protection for your C front
8:30
radiators and side intakes they also carry front strut Tower covers to prevent rusting and pooling water all
8:35
with do-it-yourself installation get 10% off your total purchase with promo code ct10 see the full line of products at
8:42
radiator Grill store.com the National Corvette restorage Society is celebrating its
8:48
50th Anniversary this year 50 years of affirming and promoting the preservation and restoration of the Corvette 50 years
8:55
is the foremost Corvette collector car Organization for building value with its prestigious Awards have you ever
9:01
considered joining ncrs over 70,000 people have were so much more than just
9:07
the nuts and bolts the ncrs flight judging program can and often does increase the value of America's sports
9:13
car by researching and Publishing the leading Tech manuals and judging guides for the 1953 through 2007 Corvettes by
9:20
training the best judges and by hosting local Regional and National judging events and when you join you'll get
9:26
award-winning magazines like Corvette restore and drive light and all throughout the year joining is simple
9:31
and easy just go to ncrs.org and sign up there are ncrs chapters all throughout
9:37
the US and all around the world chances are there's a local chapter near you so join ncrs today at ncrs.org we come for
9:46
the Corvettes we stay for the friendships made along the way when you want to buy a Corvette or any Chevrolet
9:52
for that matter get yours from Hendrick Chevrolet Shaunie Mission located in Kansas City Hendrick Chevrolet is the
9:57
largest Corvette dealership and showroom in the midwest with a knowledgeable sales staff and Corvette sales
10:02
Specialists on hand they'll help you build the Corvette of your dreams and they ship Nationwide with Corvette
10:08
certified Master mechanics on site and a huge parts department with over 24,000 parts and $2 million in inventory Henri
10:15
Chevrolet is well equipped to take care of your every need from sales to service to Collision Repair Hendrick Chevrolet
10:21
has you covered visit Chevy usa.com or call 913 3841 1550
10:29
and now back to Corvette today with your host and my husband Steve Garrett thanks
10:36
for checking out Corvette today on podcast and YouTube it's the only current podcast dedicated to Corvette
10:42
Corvette today is brought to you by wheelcraft you want your Corvette looking its best don't you we'll dress it up with bright Chrome or black chrome
10:49
wheels visit wheelcraft tocom and learn about their Advanced PVD chrome finishing they can refinish your wheels
10:55
or do a wheel exchange and you get a 5-year warranty so visit wheelcraft decom today or give them a call 833 639
11:04
4231 I'm your host Steve Garrett with me is Steve Stringfellow Steve created and vented the head-up display for Corvette
11:12
in the second segment we're going to talk about Steve's career in the business World Steve where did you work right after you graduated college back
11:19
in 1979 I was working part-time with a small startup called Robinson Helicopter
11:24
Company it's not that way anymore they're huge now they're huge and I was a technical illustrator well in college
11:30
by the time I was out of college and doing the R22 helicopter Illustrated parts catalog I knew every part nut bolt
11:37
and washer on that helicopter I knew how it went together and I knew who made it I became a member of the then very small
11:44
engineering staff when I graduated in 1981 that Robinson helicopter one of the first things that they had me do was do
11:50
Landing skid extensions on the R22 helicopter so it could land in snow and mud cool then I designed big floats so
11:57
it could land on Water I redesigned the instrument console for the beta model adding more gauges which is now there's
12:02
an example of it displayed in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum wow I just found that out I built an even
12:08
bigger more complex instrument panel so the helicopter could be used for IFR training that's of course flying in
12:14
clouds right I redesigned the seats to create more Headroom and improve crashworthiness I also designed an
12:20
auxiliary fuel system increase the fuel capacity by almost 11 gallons wow I did
12:25
the exhibits for trade shows I even did the paint schemes for all the our 22 models that's cool and oh I also paid
12:32
off my student loan in about 1984 I began working
12:37
directly with Frank Robinson on the exterior aerodynamics and interior layout for the r44 model which basically
12:43
was the R22 multiplied by 1.3 and remember at this time this was all on paper Robinson didn't have
12:50
computers for design back then so so it was a lot of work a lot of erasers and starting over again and redrawing lines
12:56
very complex work and very hard to do as a s note Robinson are now the highest selling civilian helicopters in the
13:02
world they are they really are now after Robinson helicopter tell me about your transition to Hughes aircraft yeah being
13:09
a helicopter company it had its proverbial ups and downs no pun intended
13:14
right we had layoffs and FAA work stoppages and sometimes us Engineers were cut back to three days a week at a
13:20
40% cut pay ouch yeah I know I needed to find something better Joe deso who is a
13:26
Robinson engineer I work with closely departed Hughes aircraft a few years earlier he contacted me about some side
13:32
Contracting work that Hugh was designing a head up display night vision helmet for an advanced helicopter program so
13:39
while I was still at Robinson I started Moonlighting at Hughes while learning about Optics and head up displays yeah
13:44
after several months I finished the helmet project which also allowed me to get to know the Hughes staff and them to
13:51
get to know me a little bit that's cool so talk about the time when GM bought Hughes aircraft and how that affected
13:56
you and your job well that was a key turning point where I really decided to make the jump in the summer of 1985 GM
14:03
bought Hughes aircraft for the purpose of transferring Technologies from Hughes to GM vehicles cool GM wanted to acquire
14:10
things like the hu satellites for vehicle emergency communication which eventually became OnStar oh no kidding
14:16
oh yeah and then satellite video streaming which became Direct TV and radar for use in a new technology called
14:23
adapted cruise control which is almost ubiquitous nowadays right to an important degree acquisition of head
14:29
displays for cars I guess then used radar systems in Elsa gundo which was
14:34
about 5 miles from my apartment at Rosa Beach called and asked me if I was interested in becoming the project
14:40
engineer for the automotive side of this new program so with a little bit of hesitation you know then came to carrot
14:46
they said GM had just provided them a new red 1986 Corvette for use as a
14:51
project development car and asked if I was interested I think I put in my two-e notice at Robinson the following day
14:58
yeah that makes sense no question I can imagine well buddy let's take our final break when we come back we're going to
15:04
talk in segment three about the nuts and bolts of the head-up display for Corvette coming up next on Corvette
15:12
today are you ready for a better insurance policy without the Corvette tax with agreed value protection the
15:18
value of your collector vehicle will never change plus you'll save money get a quick quote at NCM
15:25
insurance.com Yogi bar once said if you don't know where you're going you probably end up there at true wealth and
15:31
Company we take that to heart see at true wealth and Company we believe your retirement lifestyle travels through two
15:37
doors door number one The Blue Door gives you more options Financial Freedom your money outlives you every happiness
15:43
you wish for in life is through the blue door door number two the red door is where you outlive your money you rely on
15:49
family friends or even the state to take care of you at true wealing company we're not just financial planners the
15:55
best way to walk through the blue door is to have a written plan make a work optional lifestyle or reality with our
16:01
proprietary true lifemap formula look towards your future with anticipation not apprehension having a rock solid
16:07
fiduciary partner like true wealth and Company is essential to effective financial planning there's no winging it
16:13
there's nothing left to chance look we don't want you to become another Yogi bar ISM give us a call today at 913 653
16:20
true visit us online at retire with.com start your financial Independence and
16:25
work optional lifestyle today 913 653 8783 visit us online at retire with
16:31
true.com investment advice oper through true wealth and Company LLC a registered investment adviser in the state of Kansas vet finders.com is the internet's
16:38
original Corvette classified ads website with classified ads starting at just $25
16:44
and every ad runs until your Corvette is sold if you're in the market for a Corvette vetf finders.com has over 500
16:51
Corvettes for sale from all around the USA and Canada and covering all eight Generations visit vetf finders.com the
16:58
internet's destination for buying and selling Corvettes that's V finders.com
17:07
you're enjoying the only current podcast on Corvettes Corvette today thanks once
17:13
again for listening and watching Corvette today the show that talks about everything Corvette Corvette today is
17:19
brought to you by wheelcraft you want your Corvette looking its best we dress it up with bright Chrome or black chrome
17:24
wheels visit wheelcraft decom and learn about their Advanced PVD Chrome finishing they can refinish your wheels
17:31
or do a wheel exchange and you get a 5-year warranty so visit wheelcraft decom today or give him a call 833 639-
17:40
4231 I'm your host Steve Garrett with me is the man that created and design the head-up display for Corvette his name is
17:47
Steve string phillow in this final segment we're going to get into the nuts and bolts now Steve you tasked with the
17:53
job of adapting the Hues technology into the C4 Corvette talk about some of those hurdles that you encountered during that
18:00
adaptation well at first I just joined Hughes aircraft and I had a lot to learn I had a great mentor named John ferer
18:06
who was a guru with Optics and he loved to build models like me John had some ideas on how we might do this but we
18:12
needed to use the Corvette to see if the concept worked I needed to get drawings from GM get the windshield angles and
18:19
driver's eye position and any information I could about what the space was underneath the dash the HUD had to
18:25
fit I must admit that I had to do a little bit of automotive product evaluation drives while I waited for the
18:30
drawings to arrive that was a lot of fun and I guess the the rush of adrenaline really proved to me that the Corvette
18:36
really needed to have a Hut in it yeah so that kind of enthused me to go along with the job and kept me going of course
18:42
this was super exciting but I guess when the drawings arrived I started drafting the design on my board this was getting
18:48
great I actually had a Corvette on my drawing board and I was designing a HUD for it wow this was so cool yeah I
18:54
couldn't think of a better job I put together a list of specifications from our human factors folks and Drew a box
18:59
around the Optics that could provide the right size of image and the right position yeah John showed me the sight
19:05
lines and we calculated the reflection angles and put where the HUD needed to reside to fit properly but from the
19:11
drawings I could see that the space was being occupied by the frost ducks and structural brackets and wire harnesses
19:17
too many things in the way which concerned me a little bit we moved the C4 up to the top floor of the radar
19:22
systems parking structure where facilities had fenced off a secure area for us to use as an Automotive
19:29
Development Area we had a glass company come out and remove the windshield for us and we ordered several spares just in
19:35
case out came the tool boxes and it was time to remove the dash and get started starting to dig into it besides cutting
19:41
a hole in the dash pad you know it's pretty obvious that there was a few ducks and steel brackets that needed to
19:47
be sacrificed to really get the Hut in but that was my job it was funny cuz I was working late one night and security
19:53
saw sparks flying in the Upper Floor of the parking structure and rushed up to see real
19:59
quick what was happening and there he was wearing a lab coat and goggles holding a die grinder cutting into a
20:05
Corvette you should have seen the questions that looks on their face were just Priceless anyway I kept on going
20:11
after that but I had to come down and tell management what happened in the night before sure but they were glad I
20:16
was putting in the extra hours and working light in the following days we got the coated glass mirrors and we mounted them into the box an electrical
20:23
engineer had wired up a bright blue green vacuum fluorescent alarm clock display to accept the vehicle speed
20:29
signal okay kind of put all this together and then I snugly mounted the HUD model into the car which really
20:34
consisted of only two mirrors and a display got that into the front of Dash and I made all the necessary power and
20:40
Signal connections turned it on and it worked amazingly that night I drove up and down the six-story parking structure
20:47
doing 180 degree turns at each ramp level and I think there were like two turns at each level so there was about
20:53
12 turns over this whole thing I was using the HUD to see how fast I could go between the next turn i' start out at 25
20:59
and maybe get up to 28 or 30 and pretty soon I found myself stopping on the breaking hurry up and making the turn
21:05
but I could see what that speed was when I hit the turn going around that area of the parking structure luckily it was
21:10
night and there were no cars in there yeah one time I looked down big mistake I looked down at the speedometer
21:17
really to see what the speed was that way and I scared myself to death I realized never look down in critical
21:22
situations huh and it really told me that I learned the safety benefits of the headup display you this is the
21:28
coolest thing and gu one thing I did notice on the HUD at that time this one of the first times that we really kind
21:33
of thought about this was there was a second ghost reflection behind the first one that had kind of come and go
21:39
whenever I moved my head around we really had to find a fixure of this it wasn't right to have that two ghosts in there sure so the next day I showed Ron
21:46
Smith who was one of our holographic scientists what was going on with this and he calculated that there was a very
21:51
small set of waves in the windshield glass and the ghosts would appear and disappear on one side of the wave and
21:57
pop out on the other side and go up and down depending which side of the wave you were on huh then he calculated the
22:03
angle of the wave which is a very small number kind of intensive Miller radians a Miller radian is about 5,000 of a
22:09
degree wow so these are very small numbers and the calculations were very dependent on the windshield angle and
22:15
the thickness and the curvature yeah and it really required the anti-active layer that's between the two layers of glass
22:21
to be thickened at the top about the thickness of a garbage bag and so that's about all it took wow so he eventually
22:28
applied for a patent on the wedge windshield which is found in all the hug cars nowadays it was kind of fun because we organized management reviews after
22:35
that we had test drives my management confidently reported to GM that we now had a HUD to show them the CEO of
22:41
General Motors Roger Smith who was key in the purchase of Hughes aircraft arrived and witnessed it for himself he
22:47
gave it the thumbs up for a production program wow that's pretty cool to have Roger Smith there and give you the
22:52
thumbs up I mean that's the big guy right you bet you he was very important wow now since it didn't fit in the SE
22:58
four what other GM cars got the HUD at that time Roger saw how simple it was
23:03
compared to other Huds that he'd seen that were more expensive than the whole car and I think he saw that this design
23:08
was Within Reach and could be affordable since the Corvette was GM's leading technology platform it was really a
23:15
shame that there had to be too many changes that were necessary to make it fit sure but the next cars in the GM
23:20
pipeline were the W platform 1988 Olds Cutler Supreme and pony at Grand Prix
23:25
yep so myself and several other Hugh's managers traveled to Detroit to see the new car we wanted to see what this W car
23:32
was all about we gathered some information we talked to the platform engineers and we even had our HUD
23:37
Corvette shipped to GM for them to see what all the excitement was all about while we were at the GM Tech Center I
23:43
had the opportunity to show the car to Pete Collegian who is the interior designer for the Corvette okay we drove
23:48
around the lake and I could tell that he was thrilled the best part was parking in the design staff garage Pete said
23:55
that the biggest complaint that he had about the co4 Corvette was parking he could never see the front of the car
24:01
when I told him that the HUD was calibrated to the front bumper and he could use it as a parking Aid he was thrilled so I told him to park the car 4
24:08
in from the wall he stopped got out and looked sure enough 4 in from the wall he
24:14
was literally in tears that's so cool you can see the influence of the Hut on Peter's 1991 Corvette interior redesign
24:21
that lower Notch that you see in the middle of the instrument panel up on the top that's where he visualized the future HUD being he was a true visioner
24:28
he was amazing that's a cool story talk about how Delco Works into this HUD story wow well in about 1986 we learned
24:36
that GM had merged us Hughes with Del Electronics we really created an independent subsidiary called GM Hughes
24:42
electronics or GM Hughes a and I guess the thinking was that Hughes didn't really do high volume Automotive
24:48
Productions like Delco right the merger might help bring Hughes Technologies like the HUD to Market quicker so now we
24:55
had two really large companies and one HUD for the the W car that became a key
25:00
project suddenly my little HUD project now became huge conference rooms full of suits and
25:06
ties and I know there was a lot of negotiation and organization that needed to take place and I could tell there's a
25:12
lot of dollar signs flying around in there sure but eventually Delco Electronics in cooko assigned a great
25:19
team of really talented production Engineers to work with us everyone understood that the world had never seen
25:25
a real Hut in a production car before now the race was on to make this the first when I say real HUD I mean
25:32
optically projected to the front of the car not just a reflection off the inside of the windshield like Nissan tried
25:38
gotcha much of the Gen one HUD work was done at the advanced vehicle engineering center in Pontiac and in cook with he
25:45
was surprisingly kind of taking more of a technical advisory role interesting the world's first production Automotive
25:51
HUD was introduced in the 1988 old Mobile cutless Supreme Indie pace car
25:57
which was driven by famous test pilot Chuck jger who of course was the first to break the sound barrier yeah that's
26:02
pretty cool oh yeah this HUD was soon to be followed by the W platform 1989
26:08
Pontiac Grand Prix following all that excitement I began working with the windshield suppliers and was also tasked
26:14
with designing a small HUD based on the automotive design for the Hughes corporate jet oh wow it's a cessa
26:20
citation beautiful jet they had me designing various Advanced Huds did several one-of aind Huds for different
26:26
cars I did the first Bonville HUD Proto type and I even did a HUD for a land speed record sruck wow the biggest issue
26:33
with the genwood Huds when they first came out was the bump that it created apparently the negotiations that were
26:38
made later on with the HUD space and the IP with the w Engineers wasn't very successful huh and the Hut became a
26:45
large styled box on top of the IP the images were not exactly shaped and positioned as planned because the
26:51
windshields didn't really match the drawings that Hughes was provided to do the Optics there was also a considerable
26:57
hi up between oldmobile and Pontiac twin windshields basically from the same platform they were supposed to be but
27:04
since they were made at two different glass plants the shapes were entirely different one glass plant was an electric oven and the other one was a
27:10
gas oven something like that but as it turned out they were completely different that kind of created further
27:15
misalignment between the two cars wow so the Gen one HUD became the first ever Automotive HUD but it had Growing Pains
27:23
so what happened after that in 1989 I was sent back to Detroit and to the glass plant several times to assist with
27:29
a lot of the problems then eventually with the carrot of the HUD and the future Corvette I was asked if I wanted
27:36
to move from the beaches of California to Detroit as a resident engineer for Hughes technology transfer oh I kept
27:43
thinking Corvette Corvette yeah and my fiance's parents lived in Pennsylvania
27:48
which is close by so she agreed to making that move to Michigan might be a good thing for us sure we got married
27:54
and we made the move and I guess after several years I had spent a lot of time with the Design Studios you know doing
28:00
high-tech looking Optical displays for show cars which was a lot of fun but my attention was grabbed by rumors of the
28:06
C5 Corvette that was being conceptualized at the advanced stages about then the GM Advanced electrical
28:12
group asked me if I would consider becoming a michigander and want to know if I wanted to join GM full-time they'd
28:18
give me a company car and everything and wow this was great and so my wife and newborn daughter they both agreed we
28:24
would stay nice so now was my chance you know I guess the Corvette being my goal I knew we had to plan ahead no bumps on
28:30
the dash no brackets or ducks in the way no vibration and a windshield that was a really good Optical match you know now
28:37
is a chance that we could do it and do it right nice so ironically GM had other cars with a Hut already let's talk about
28:43
them and how they fared with the HUD well by now several years had gone by and Delco had done a smaller bump Gen 2
28:50
for the Grand Prix Bonville and the Park Avenue by cutting the glass mirrors down to about 60% of the original size so
28:57
this thing got a lot smaller but had a compromise of eye box and image size sure also they were doing a larger gen 3
29:04
HUD that was underway for the 1994 Grand Prix besides vibration the problem was
29:11
all the Optics the main Mirror the full mirror the cover lens they were all made of injection molded plastic oh the
29:18
design was good but the tools and the molding processes introduced lots of adative distortion between all the parts
29:24
so Huds were not getting the preise and the sales that I would have expected I was watching all this really closely I
29:30
attended many meetings involving the future cars only to see the HUD scratch from the content list due to high price
29:35
and perceived low demand huh so to keep the HUD technology alive then you needed to do a HUD in the next Corvette and it
29:42
had to be the Best Optical quality possible I'm sure you bet Steve the world is going to see this car and this
29:49
seemed to be like the last chance to get it right huzzard generational if it didn't get into one generation of
29:54
vehicle architecture it might be 5 to 10 years before the there be another chance to get one in sure luckily in 1992 the
30:02
advanced Vehicle Group heard I was the HUD guy and asked me to work with a designer to try and package a HUD into
30:08
the future Corvette architecture now is it this is really getting exciting yeah I was told that they had been given a
30:14
cad model of the HUD from Del electronics and that's what they were required to use but it didn't fit oh
30:20
they were told the Corvette couldn't afford to Tool a new HUD because the sales volumes were going to be too low
30:26
huh I didn't think that was really the case because 25% or so of 32,000 cars is
30:31
8,000 Huds which seems like a lot but back in those days you had to have a good business case and had to be able to
30:37
make a lot of parts to make the business case work sure a Grand Prix HUD wasn't going to work in the next Corvette so I
30:44
started a new design just for the C5 no more Huds on drawing boards we were Now using high-end computers with accuracy
30:50
and speed and the designer that they gave me was really talented on the computer and was able to follow my
30:55
directions really closely the design was looking really good and there was a big crosscar beam originally in the way of
31:01
the perfect position where I wanted to put the HUD which got kind of frustrating I didn't know what to do then but then I found the structural
31:07
engineer and his name was Roger Johnson fantastic guy and he told me that his wife had a Hut in her car and she loved
31:14
it and so he offered to change the beam shape and create a pocket for me in the front of dash for the HUD to fit nice
31:21
his main reason he was that someday he could take a Corvette home to his wife and shore of the HUD yeah yeah so thank
31:27
you Mr and Mrs Johnson if you're out there if you're listening to Corvette today thank you very much they were very
31:33
helpful anyway I had successfully designed a low and flush HUD package for the C5 with no big bumps or
31:40
interferences and presented my effort to the vehicle integration team following that meeting Fred gash from the
31:45
Chevrolet central office sent a voicemail to chief engineer Dave Hill encouraging that i' be maintained in the
31:52
Y platform saying that when others had said the HUD couldn't be packaged I had found a way to do it than thank you
31:58
again Fred if you're listening that HUD design became the critical placeholder while I was brought into the Corvette
32:05
electrical group in 1993 I took over the C4 cluster responsibilities and then we
32:10
transitioned to the design of the new instrument cluster for the C5 and I knew very well that the HUD was literally
32:16
right behind it there was a lot of debate over digital versus analog speedometer and at the launch Center
32:23
there was a big decision made to have the cluster be analog and the HUD would be provided to provide the digital speed
32:29
okay then I needed to Bear my soul to the team about the windshield shapes and timing I was concerned if we introduced
32:35
the HUD the first year that we wouldn't really understand the new windshield shape and in time to design and Tool a
32:41
new Hut optic to be able to match it we bring the HUD Optics to the Bowling Green and designed to match the computer
32:47
Surface and the glass would come to the bowling green plant having its own kind of unique shape sure they wouldn't match
32:53
each other and the optical quality would probably suffer from that point on I guess the analogy to that was kind of
32:59
like you're investing a lifetimes worth of prescription glasses for a baby that's not even born yet yeah yeah
33:05
everyone of the meetings understanding that I got the nod and it was decided that the second year being the
33:10
convertible the HUD would be offered in 1999 as a new feature that would give the glass plan in Elizabeth Town plenty
33:17
of time for the glass shape to settle down okay I could then laser scan the actual production glass surface to
33:24
design the optics for a perfect match plus I had accurately know the radius of curvature the angle and the thickness to
33:30
be able to calculate the wedge and the glass to eliminate that ghost I was concerned about right out of the gate this was fantastic wow next was the
33:37
sourcing what supplier was I going to trust and select for the HUD this was really important to me for me it was the
33:44
optical quality delivery timing and cooperation to do whatever it takes to make this HUD the best for purchasing of
33:51
course it was price I think we had about a half a dozen qualified biders I work with Delco and nipon SEI who were the
33:58
chosen suppliers to work for the CI blackl instrument cluster okay and we had a lot of others from Germany and
34:04
Japan who were all very qualified but I guess during the technical interviews We Had Each supplier bring an example of
34:11
their best quality main mirror for all of us to review to see who was really going to be able to do the best parts
34:16
delko and SEI brought actual HUD likee examples but the delko part was still the injection molded part from the Gen 3
34:23
huh the siky part was like nothing I'd ever seen before it was a perfect surface with no Distortion at all nice
34:30
it was very impressive I think to everybody we did everything we could to lower the price of this HUD you know we had to make this whole thing work and if
34:36
it was too expensive it may not fly sure you know we even removed the need for a processor and we ended up plugging the
34:42
HUD into the back of the instrument cluster since they share the same information the cluster could run the HUD and the data would always match that
34:49
makes sense I guess in the end nipon SEI came in with the lowest price and they agreed to match all the purchasing
34:55
targets and they were very intent on learning and following my directions really closely coincidentally I think
35:01
they're now the world's largest producer of Huds wow and the C5 HUD started production in 1999 and Grew From really
35:07
a predicted volume of 25% to over 90% when we offered it as a free flow option
35:13
this is before the HUD was packaged into a lot of the higher trim levels right HUD was not offered originally on the C5
35:20
Z6 but became standard equipment due to the popular demand I recall Dave Hill being asked during a meeting one time
35:27
how come the HUD was not there for the first year of the Z06 we were concerned about weight the second Year Dave I know
35:33
you were concerned about weight why did you put the HUD back into the Z06 and he said how much does the HUD weigh about
35:39
as much as a hot dog and a beer that's funny so we foro the hot dog in the beer
35:44
and you you'll have your weight savings there you go as far as a most requested option C5 HUD became second only to the
35:52
manual transmission wow that's really cool what was the display on the final version of the head-up display for the
35:58
C5 we tried to add all the important content into the C5 how to made sure we had a good way of being able to display
36:05
it all so of course we started out with speed and because the speedometer went up to 200 M an hour we had to be sure we
36:11
had an extra two-digit in there so the speedometer actually when it goes into kilomet per hour we put in the
36:17
speedometer that would go all the way up to 299 km per hour we also have of course turn signals highbeam tachometer
36:23
and shift light check gauges warning fuel gauge oil pressure gauge coolant gauge all these are reconfigurable you
36:30
can add and subtract content as you need I bet there was a lot of great content from some of the Corvette websites about
36:35
the HUD as well weren't there oh that was really fun I'll read some of these for you that I have written down here I get a kick out of reading these things I
36:41
guess the first one here it says at first I figured it was just gadgetry but really is nice from a use standpoint
36:47
here's another one this one's great my HUD saved me from a bunch of tickets I can see that yeah yeah I can too here's
36:54
another one here it's possible the best option offer on Corvette without a doubt it is not only a convenience to the
37:00
driver but promotes safety every moment you're behind the wheel of the car that's a great statement I agree with
37:05
that 100% a Corvette keeps one eyes where they're supposed to be on the road yeah here's another one once you've
37:12
driven a car with a Hut option cars without it seem to be missing something definitely and everybody has told me
37:18
that it's said gosh I got into my other car and I didn't have it and I missed it yeah here's another one here the Hut is great it takes a week or so to get used
37:25
to but after that you won't want to drive without it it as others have said it makes driving safer since you do not
37:31
have to take your eyes off the road to see the speedometer and the other gauges yeah that all makes sense now at the
37:36
last count head-up displays are found in how many vehicles well last I heard there were over 130 different models and
37:43
now I've had up displays from over 30 different car manufacturers that's pretty amazing buddy that's really cool
37:49
Steve thank you so much for taking the time to be on Corvette today this has been so much fun and so cool thank you
37:55
for having me Steve it's been a pleasure thanks again for listening and watching Corvette today and be sure to tell your
38:01
family friends and other Corvette enthusiasts about the Corvette Today Show and thanks to our sponsors
38:06
wheelcraft want to dress up your Corvette with bright Chrome or black chrome wheels visit wheelcraft decom to
38:11
learn about their Advanced PVD chrome finishing they can refinish your wheels or offer a wheel exchange for most
38:17
models and it comes with a 5-year warranty visit wheelcraft
38:24
docomo Performance Products at s lp.com the official performance exhaust of
38:30
Corvette today coka Corvette at COC CCAC corvette.com true wealth and Company at
38:37
retire withth true.com also aari Wheels get $100 off your purchase with the new
38:43
promo code ct1111 at AOL.com and Hendrick Chevrolet in Kansas City at
38:48
Chevy usa.com thanks for checking out Corvette today on podcast and YouTube if you'd
38:55
like to contact Steve with ideas for Corvette today you can email him at Steve Garrett DJ atgmailcom Garrett has
39:03
two RS and two T's that's Steve Garrett DJ atgmailcom also sign up for email
39:10
notifications at Corvett today. c. page follow Steve in the show on social media
39:17
on Facebook Instagram Twitter LinkedIn and threads at Steve Garrett DJ thanks
39:23
again for listening and watching Corvette today [Music]
Online Video
TV Shows & Programs
Autos & Vehicles
Classic Vehicles
Vehicle Shows