n8dogg

Tadge,

You've been with General Motors for almost 40 years, 23 of those in Corvette. You've played a tremendous role in evolving the Corvette into the performance monster that it is today. Congratulations! I hope to one day shake your hand . One could not compare the C4, when you first started in Corvette, to the C7 today. The only other Chief Engineer that has had a significant impact in Corvette performance is Zora Arkus-Duntov.

Do you believe it is fair to compare you, Tadge Juechter, with "The Godfather of Corvette", Zora Arkus-Duntov? If so, what developments or improvements were you single-handedly responsible for during your tenure as Chief Engineer of Corvette and what nick-name would you want to be remembered by?

Kind regards,
Nate Chandler
Rochester, NY

Corvette-Master

No No No No No No No No!

n8dogg

Please elaborate

69427

I doubt that GM is structured like it was in the 50's and 60's. Duntov was a hands on kinda guy, and I suspect the Corvette team was quite a bit smaller back then. My experience is that most (but I'm open to correction if wrong) chief engineers at GM are full on management types (paper shuffling, presentations, and feeding engineering reports from their team up to the next layer of management). Chief engineers don't do, and don't have time to do, any actual engineering.

Not trying to be unkind or unpleasant here, that's just how our division of GM operated. YMMV.

n8dogg

I'm curious to know if this is true or if Tadge truly deserves recognition for what many call "his work".

69427

Sincere question here, as I don't know anything about the guy. (I'm an engineer, not a people watcher.) What's "his work"?

My personal experience with the Corvette group was always with the guys in the trenches, and very little with management.

Early in my career I had the opportunity to talk to Jim Ingles about suspension stuff at the proving ground one day. Despite him not knowing me before (and catching him without an appointment) he was kind enough to talk to me for a few minutes. He struck me as a pleasant, very knowledgeable fellow.

Talked to one other well known Corvette guy on the phone and at the racetrack. Nowhere near as pleasant of a fellow engineer as Ingles was.

Tom400CFI

with 69427's thoughts on this.


Is this for real? I'd say that Dave McLellan had a pretty significant impact on Corvette performance; he steered the direction of the car from the mid-high 100's hp cars of the 70's to the ZR-1 and LT4/GS. HP doubled during his tenure for the base car. Look what happened to handling, braking, structure, amenities and technology during that same period. It was a "significant impact", if you ask me.


.

Clairvoyantwolf

McLellan doesn't get enough respect.

69427

Really?

Do you know the name(s) of the suspension engineer(s) who designed the C4 or C5 suspension? Probably not. How about the brake guys?
Do you know the name of any of the engine designers? Still a blank, huh?
How about the dyno/calibration guys who dialed in the fuel and spark maps for all the engines?
How about the manufacturing engineers who have the tough job of figuring out how the hell to actually manufacture some of the wild things some of the design guys pull out of their ***?
Nothing again, I take it.

I can think of a lot of the Corvette crew who don't get enough respect.

Tom400CFI

Brian Decker.


I don't know any of the rest though. You're right that there are many unsung heros in the Corvette engineering groups. Clairvoyantwolf is right too, though, that McLellan is generally underappreciated for the dramatic advancements he brought to the Corvette product.

Clairvoyantwolf

Indeed and I agree.

...However, since in the entire corvette history none of those people have ever risen to any degree of prominence I guess that makes them all pretty much each equal in their lack of recognition. That being said, for Chief Engineers who DO receive wide and long lasting recognition for the efforts of their respective teams, McLellan doesn't get the respect he deserves (in my opinion) in relation to his and his team's accomplishments as compared to other Chief Engineers. I'm quite surprised that needs to be explained.

And while we're on the subject of unsung heroes and prominence. While the rank and file of the corvette team don't get much credit for corvette's successes, they also don't get any blame for corvette's failures. I'm quite certain Tadge, McLellan, and the rest, will happily name the individual responsible for a particular facet of the corvette. I'm also quite certain they would take personal responsibility for any failing of the car and NOT lay blame on whoever designed, built, or tested that particular aspect of the car (to the public).

69427

That's my point. The guys who actually design/test/develop the components (you can always figure out what the guy is working on by what pile of parts are on his desk) are regarded as nameless faceless entities, and rarely get credit or exposure (ie: just small cogs in the big wheel). That's just never sat well with me.

Clairvoyantwolf

Once again I agree with you. But taken another way how well known are the chief engineers of other marques? Even with other performance cars, few are as well known as the chief engineer for corvette. I can't name one engineer of any sort for the Porsche 911 or Ferrari 488.