CPhelps

Tadge,
Now that the C8 has been revealed with coil springs, can you speak a little about the design tradeoffs and benefits compared to the previously used transverse composite leaf spring, and what factors drove the change in spring design for the best 'Vette yet?
Thank you,
Chad

jvp

I'll bet a paycheck the primary reason is: packaging. If you look at the rolling chassis photos where you can see the guts of the car, along with the photos of it on its side so that you can see the underside, you'll note there's not a whole lot of room for a chunk of fiberglass to run across the front or the rear. Given the entirely new layout of the car and new chassis design, the packaging for coil overs actually worked a lot better than that for the leafs.

That's my bet, anyway. ;-)

CPhelps

That was my thought as well, but I still thought it would be interesting to hear it from TJ, especially with all the "coil over vs. leafs" threads there are, I figured having some technical statements from the crew would be useful.

Edit: since posting this I have seen several articles that mention packaging, so you're right. Would have been great to hear it directly from TJ for all the spring war threads, but I agree with it already being answered it doesn't make sense to send to Tadge at this point.