skank

The $5,000.00 estimate was purportedly given during the 2006 meeting with then CEO Rick Wagoner. Here is a Hagerty report on that.

After Dave Hill’s retirement in 2006, Juechter had little difficulty selling his mid-engine idea to the new chief engineer, Tom Wallace, an inveterate road racer. Product boss Lutz was at first skeptical of the seemingly radical move, but he, too, was convinced by Juechter’s logic. The three-man team then took their PowerPoint presentations to GM chairman Rick Wagoner, who granted the requested go-forth-and-conquer approval.

Unfortunately, Wagoner was soon distracted by a greater issue—the bottom falling out of General Motors. When the financial crisis hit in 2008, all Corvette development funds were canceled as part of a futile bid to avoid bankruptcy. When GM plunged into a government-assisted Chapter 11 reorganization, Wagoner, Lutz, and Wallace left the building. Juechter was left standing in a debris field while the feds dictated the company’s fate.



https://www.hagerty.com/articles-vid...-in-the-making

ltomn

OMG! And, among many other things, an overly conservative estimate like $5k to create an ME may have contributed to the atmosphere that permeated GM then. Eventually leading to the dreadful era of bankruptcy.

skank

Pimp, you continue to promote the hairdressers car, Ok. There's no comparison between the two! People comparing these two together are clueless in understanding the heirarchy of automotive engineering and design.

ltomn

Pimp, the Cayman was no more then Porsche's effort to get prices down to where a hairdresser or secretary could afford one of their cars. They cut all sorts of corners to build these things to get into that price range. Zora Duntov is rolling over in his grave listening to you compare the Cayman to the pending ME.

RapidC84B

You do realize most drivers prefer the experience of the Cayman to the 911 right? The dynamics are such that Porsche's 911 RSR racecar at LeMans etc. is now a mid-engine 911 which doesn't exist in a production street vehicle. They basically made a big Caymen because it's better and called it a 911 to not upset anyone. To say they "cut a bunch of corners to build the car" is patently false.

skank

We have a reported 1,000hp ZORA coming our way that can go toe to toe with a 2 million dollar La Ferrari on the racetrack and Pimp is comparing it to a Audi TT competitor. That is nuts !!!!!

RapidC84B

Base Stingray - $57,000 w/ 455 horse

Z06 - $85,000 w/ 650 horse

ZR1 - $140,000 w/ 755 horse

Why can't the standard C8 be a $65K car while the super fancy one is a $170K (Zerv's purported price) LaFerrari competitor? You can have both.

There is no FE C8 coming. The C8 will start with a 6 as the first digit. I'm guessing it's $63K to $65K starting.

skank

Dream on Tool Hoarder

Foosh

Prepare to disappear from the forum, Skank.

Shaka

If you physically moved the engine, or any other component on the chassis, that would be weight transfer. Under acceleration, the load transfer would be more advantages with the change in location of the engine toward the back for a FE and toward the front with a rear ME. Should the gearbox be between the engine and differential in a rear ME car?
Anyway, where did Lutz say that?
Another thing, had Tadge moved the engine back, the car would have to be built heavier because the chassis would be loaded adversely, the problem with mid engine designs. The CG of the engine would also influence load transfer, so OHC would help in acceleration and braking, but the roll couple it causes, alters load paths in roll adversely. IE: cornering.
Tadge explained that the chassis is as stiff as he could get it to meet weight objectives. Long wheel bases aggravate rigidity resistance.
Note the correct usage of the words, weight and load, critical in engineering considerations.

ltomn

I grant you the premise of a base model escalating to a lion tamer! The part that Tool Hoarder doesn't get is just what a base model is! It is a Me and, potentially, a Zora. It will have certain components that all cost dearly to have in a car. I say it again, re-read the list thread:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-corvette.html

RapidC84B

I'll bet you $100 to St. Jude's that there is no front engine C8 Corvette.

I'll bet you $100 to St. Jude's the standard C8 will have a base price under $70K.

RapidC84B

We've seen test mules with basic solid iron rotors and basic Brembo calipers. The car is not some halo hyper-car fighter in base form. GM isn't dumb enough to alienate 90% of their buyers by making a $90K and up car and telling the rest of us to "just buy a Camaro... trust us the 7th gen is really close to what you want!".

Shaka

Read post 94 in this thread. The ME Vette is going to be much lighter, stiffer and cheaper than the C7.

skank

We have a gambler again. Great !

RapidC84B

No it won't... GM is going to tout all these advanced materials and production techniques and 3D printing and crap and it'll magically be a 3,500 lb car because GM. They forgot how to make light cars with the C6Z06 and C5Z06 because they realized the market wants content and gadgets in their cars and doesn't actually care about weight.

RapidC84B

Put your money where your mouth is.

skank

Tool, are you talking about the dual rear calipers that are the latest craze on cars like the million dollar McLaren Senna?

http://gmauthority.com/blog/2018/05/...heel-calipers/

RapidC84B

Wait... do you not realize that other caliper is a parking brake?

Zaro Tundov

So these engineers you spoke with told you they had created the molds/dies for two different fascias?

How do you know it was for two Corvettes of different engine configurations instead of one set being for the base model and another for the ZO6/ZR1/Grandsport/whatever?

Not that they would give such info to a random caller, especially after the random caller said "I'm going to post what you tell me on a popular Corvette internet forum."