Wallace Discusses Building a Better Corvette

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Chief Corvette Engineer Tom Wallace talks to the Cleveland Plain Dealer about building the C7 Corvette. All options are currently on the table according to Wallace including right-hand drive, all-wheel drive, midengine, bigger displacement, swoopier styling and hybrids. While nothing earth-shattering comes from the article, it is always nice to hear the new chief talk about what may be in store for the new Corvette including the demand for more horsepower at a time when gas is $3.50 per gallon:

“Obviously fuel prices tend to make you step back from that once in a while, but the winners will increase horsepower and increase fuel economy. If you can do both of those, you can win. That is where we are going to continue to press. The Z06 is 505 horsepower and the only vehicle in the United States with 500 horsepower that doesn’t pay a gas-guzzler tax. ” said Wallace. When asked about supercharged Corvette, Wallace said “GM really knows how to supercharge and turbocharge engines. Clearly that is one of the alternatives we will continue to look at. You have to be careful about just continuing to increase displacement, because that does cost a lot of fuel economy.”
Wallace also confirms what Bob Lutz said about the production life of the C6 Corvette being around five years.
“We used to go eight, nine, 10 years, and that is too long. I keep thinking five or six years is about the most you want to stretch a major one in this segment. I think you start to get long in the tooth in the sixth year, and year seven and eight you’ll be in trouble.”
Read the entire article at the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
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1 COMMENT

  1. Audio of Christopher Jensen’s interview with Wallace — including some info that wasn’t in the print version — is now available online.

    Listen here:
    <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/business/audio/index.ssf?/business/audio/kroll4.html">http://www.cleveland.com/business/audio/index.ssf?/business/audio/kroll3.html</a&gt;

    or download the MP3 here:
    <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/podcast_files/kroll4.mp3">http://www.cleveland.com/podcast_files/kroll4.mp3</a&gt;

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