Shared DNA: The Corvette Parts You’ll Also Find on Other Cars

Is the Corvette unique? I think we all like to think of our Corvettes as something special, but while largely they are, there are many things not specific to the platform. Vehicle manufacturers are seemingly driven by bean counters and the cost of building a car is often scrutinized to the pennies.

That said, if a manufacturer can build a car and not take on additional expense of engineering, tooling, and additional production matters, they win – and the buyer wins, through a lower cost car. In the case of Corvette, a World-Class car at the best price point around.

But the parts sharing, it’s real. Looking beyond the obvious with many powertrain items shared, including ancillary items like a starter, alternator, etc., in some cases, it might be a radio or navigation unit. In other cases, it might be door handles or latches, seat switches, rear view mirrors, or even the steering wheel. Let’s look at an example of this from the mid-1980s Corvette.

The 1983 Corvette redesign which hit production in 1984 was a revolutionary design. The wedge-shaped Corvette changed Corvette performance forever and is largely credited with accelerating the horsepower wars through its production. But some design trim was shared between platforms.

Take the 1982 Pontiac Firebird/Trans Am and Chevrolet Camaro outside mirrors. They look familiar to the 1983 Corvette. Same with the 1984 Pontiac Fiero outside mirrors. They all shared the same shape, and even the 1986 Chevrolet Monte Carlo got in on the action, changing their earlier design shared with other GM G-Body cars from the earlier painted sport mirrors to the ones shared with Corvette.

The mirrors, which were approved for production, helped keep costs lower than if each used a unique design. Most wouldn’t give this much of a second thought, if noticed at all. And it worked – the design worked for each of those platforms. Functional, lent to the overall style, and the cars were reasonably affordable.

Steering wheel styles on the 6th Generation Corvette were often remarked as similar to the Malibu. Switches for the steering wheel, also the same. After living through vehicles of the 1960s and 1970s, this was not unexpected for me. In fact, the Hollander Interchange Manual which has been published since 1934 is considered the Bible of parts compatibility for vehicles.

What else is used between cars? Sometimes, it’s not even the same manufacturer using elements from another car or truck. Remember, it’s best cost – the accountants are watching…

At a car show, I noticed a familiar looking part on a Porsche 968 Cabriolet. The third brake light on the rear deck of the 968 Cabriolet looked like it was from a mid-80s Corvette. Upon closer look, it had all the markings to confirm. The wedge-shaped center high mount stop light (CHMSL), with “GUIDE” markings on the lens, was the same one used on 1986-1990 Corvette L98 coupes and the 1990-1995 ZR-1.

GUIDE was a General Motors company and supplied lighting product to the GM vehicle lines. The markings on the CHSML confirmed it was the same part, which upon further review, was used not only for the 1992-1995 Porsche 968 Cabriolet, but also its predecessor, the1989-1991 Porsche 944S2 Cabriolet. This same light was also used on the Ferrari Mondial Convertible, and on the Ferrari F40.

General Motors isn’t alone in this way of building vehicles. Lamborghini sourced headlights from the Nissan 300ZX for use in the Diablo when it went to a fixed light vs. pop-ups. Even the new Alfa Romeo 4C is rumored to use parts from Fiat cars.

In a smaller scale, famed Corvette specialty manufacturer, Callaway Cars, used taillights from the rather mundane Opel Tigra on its Callaway C12 supercar, as the taillights already were certified for roadgoing use, and in the case of their shape, lent well to a lip across the tail to further enhance the design of the car.

Callaway, for the C16 supercar used two of the four Corvette C6 taillights in the new body, and for headlights, molded an entirely new bucket – but utilized the factory projector lights. Clever, as those lighting elements were already approved for use buy the Dept. of Transportation.

A quick look on eBay shows the CHMSL from a Ferrari to be worth nearly a hundred times more than a clean used Corvette part. Forget the “Corvette Tax”, this is out of this World.

What have you seen over the years for parts bin engineering or applications on other vehicles from another? Comment below, as we’d love to hear your examples.

Source:
Photos by Chris Chessnoe

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