[VIDEO] GM Discusses C6 and C7 Corvette at Sebring

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[VIDEO] GM Discusses C6 and C7 Corvette at Sebring

Becoming an annual tradition, Corvette Product Marketing Manager Harlan Charles and Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter made the trip down to Sebring Florida last weekend to show off some cool Corvette concepts and several 2011 regular production cars as well as give a couple seminars with Corvette owners. The first seminar was held Friday afternoon and the topics were the latest updates on the 2011 Corvette as well as some non-specific C7 Corvette news.

Regarding the C7 Corvette, Tadge and Harlan have become quite adept at dodging the C7 “future product” questions and this presentation was no different. Tadge took some time to make sure Corvette owners are again aware that car magazines are in the business to sell magazines and held up the latest Car and Driver which showed a red illustrated C7 prototype on the cover as well as rendering inside of a C7 with a rear end similar to that on the Corvette Stingray Concept. He assured us that both designs missed the mark and that there are no employees of any magazines walking around the design studio checking out the next-gen Corvette.

Another magazine article that Tadge discussed was the April 2011 Consumer Reports that listed the Corvette Z06 as a “recommended buy”. Consumer Reports hasn’t been a friend to Corvette in the past but as Tadge stated, they could no longer overlook the data and customer surveys.

Tadge did take an informal customer surveys to gauge what Corvette owners are looking for in the new C7 Corvette. Questions were in the vein of “revolutionary vs. evolutionary”, “Front Engine vs. Mid-Engined” and “V8 vs. Turbo V6”. As you may have guessed, most voted for an evolutionary designed front-engined V8 Corvette.

When it was Harlan’s turn on the microphone, he talked about the latest 2011 news including the new blue convertible top and color stitching options and the open ordering for the 2011 Corvette Z06 Carbon limited edition. He also spent some time talking about several of the concepts that were at Sebring including the 2011 Grand Sport Jake Edition and the 2011 Corvette Z06X track concept that were both displayed at the SEMA show last November.

The team spent nearly twenty minutes or so doing a Q&A with owners and overall it was another informative session. For those of you interested in 2012 Corvette news, Tadge says they’ll roll that information out at the Museum’s C5/C6 Bash in April.

Youtube.com is now allowing us to upload videos longer than the standard 10 minutes, so thee good news is that we can share the full 46-minute seminar for you.

Saturday’s seminar with Tadge and Harlan was very similar but much shorter due to the time constraints with other speakers that morning. As we continue to go though our material, we’ll decide whether or not its worth posting. The video above shows the date as being March 19, 2011 but this is the Friday afternoon seminar that was filmed on March 18th, 2011.


Related:
April 2011 Car and Driver Mag Fuels C7 “Transformers” Corvette Speculation
First Look: New Convertible Top Color and Interior Stitching for 2011 Corvette
Jetstream Blue Metallic to be Phased out of 2011 Corvette Production

 



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7 COMMENTS

  1. Having been at the presentation I was impressed at the effort Chevrolet is making to produce a Corvette that will win races as well as sell in a very competitive market. The informal survey was terrific and allowing for the fact that the tent was filled with Corvette racing enthusiasts I’d guess both Tadge and Harlan were somewhat surprised as to the unanimity of direction the attendees want for future Vettes.

  2. no offense, but the excuse for the seats was piss poor. Other companies can produce cars with decent seats, and basically his excuse was, it’s hard on a corvette. Come on……

  3. I don’t really have an issue with the seats on my 2009 C6. I and many like me just wouldn’t be able to own a Corvette if the price point was much higher. If I wanted a better seat, I would just buy an aftermarket seat.

  4. We’re adults, we don’t want to be driving around in a c7 that looks like a kids transformer toy.

  5. The Corvette Corral Sebring 2011 was an awesome event. Great Corvette Family atmosphere. Very interesting discussions. I am from Germany and I believe it would be fantastic to have Corvette Corrals of this quality and GM participation over there. The German Corvette community is steadily growing and could contribute in an important way to further improve Corvette’s already excellent standing in the group of high performance cars.
    OK, Its a very difficult balance act to produce a car that’s half price of the competitors, but plays in a class where a every detail is important.
    The more important it is to set the right priorities where to invest money. For high performance cars, the best, I believe is race technology. Interior, somehow, may come second. Nevertheless the 2008 model was a big, big improvement.
    Technology-wise a double-clutch gearbox is essential to stay in the technological competition.
    Concerning the discussed engine choice, I think, keeping the V8 would be the right choice as performance and cost efficiency is combined in an ideal way.
    Moreover, a Turbo V6 may be even more costly, would mean less character and risks to downgrade the Corvette in the perception of the buyers in a lower class.

  6. A transmission with one or more automatic clutches, or even a sequential transmission, would be a big improvement for the ZR1.

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