When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
The C1 was rushed into production because the 1950 Ford made Chevys warmed-over prewar cars look as outdated as grandma's iron skillet... a "Blue Flame" 6 and 2-speed Powerglide for $500 more than a Jag? It sold like Ebola.
While the C2 was a breakthrough, that same chassis stayed in production until 1982, and as a C3 owner would argue that car was obsolete 10 years earlier....
The '84 was an ambitious design, but, sheesh, everybody knows that story, and the C6 is just a re-warmed C5....
If you want to criticize.... you can always find a way to criticize.... or you can celebrate the fact that some clever people with a shoestring budget, can cobble together some mediocre production parts, and produce a pretty neat car.
That's managed to outsell all the competition and has been in continuous production since 1953.
That's managed to outsell all the competition and has been in continuous production since 1953.
If you consider how many total careerist, self-entitled, mediocre, bleep-holes were promoted into worthless, highly-paid, entitled, aristocratic executive indulgences, in GM over these decades, it's amazing that a company that survives pimping out ridiculously over-priced pick-up trucks, can actually produce a fine sports car... it's a miracle.
Both of these gentlemen are personal friends. I have a couple of Hwasup's signed C8 concept drawings hanging on the wall in my home office.
Thanks, Jeremy.
Lee's silver concept drawing is beautiful. The rear is much more in proportion with a lower rear deck, and the all the other design features play well together. Unfortunately, concept designs are almost never faithfully replicated in production models for various reasons. The new Supra is the poster child for how far off the mark it can go. In C8's case, it appears to the decision to maximize cargo capacity.
Last edited by Foosh; Jun 30, 2020 at 11:23 AM.
Reason: edited for clarification
Thanks, Jeremy. Lee's concept drawings are beautiful. The rear is much more in proportion with a lower rear deck, and the all the other design features play well together. Unfortunately, concept designs are almost never faithfully replicated in production models for various reasons. The new Supra is the poster child for how far off the mark it can go. In C8's case, it appears to the decision to maximize cargo capacity.
Looks like an extremely faithful production model... all the lines are there all the proportions are similar.
Yes, similar but all a bit off proportionally, making the production car look less attractive to my eyes. Front, roofline, and rear deck are all significantly different.
Yes, similar but all a bit off proportionally, making the overall look less attractive to my eyes.
Hi
I was about to say that Lee's sketches look more attractive to me. Different strokes for different folks?
I'm more of a fan of "organic" design and less the fold, crease and slash school, but of the latter school I find Lee's more attractive than most
Wonder what he's up to now?
Last edited by Kodiak Bear; Jun 30, 2020 at 12:33 PM.
BTW, my comments above pertain to Lee's drawing of the silver car. The drawing of the red car does look closer to the production version. My guess would be they were done at different phases of the development process. Thus, I edited my post above for clarification of what I was thinking, but didn't clearly articulate above.
I totally get it that engineering, safety, and consumer preference items often dictate changes to early design concepts.
2. Seeing the different badge placements is most interesting. They clearly have a flags emblem on the rear hatch and are experimenting with the Stingray on the door or on the b-pillar sail panel.
Last edited by RapidC84B; Jun 30, 2020 at 12:53 PM.
Here are some additional C8 conceptual drawings and models...
Thanks. Who's signatures appear above? I love drawing cars but I always draw them with construction or production in mind. The initial 'theme' sketches have a purpose I suppose, but they are so far from the final product that I find pointless. I create a 1/4 scale models from sketches but the actual prototype is never quite turn out the same. The production car is even more of a deviant. That happens to big manufactures also. The C8 appears to have been altered severely from the concept due to various execution constraints. There is a Japanese publication, 'Auto and Design' that examines various production cars from beginning to end. I have always wondered why Corvette has never been selected for these pages. Ask your buddies. You can subscribe to on line magazine.
You sure are a Corvette guy.
I was at an Autoweek Design Forum held a day before the Detroit Auto show at the Cobo Center when Giorgetto Giugiaro had a bunch of his famous designs on display. Someone asked him how the rear hatch opened. GG said it doesn't, it is a concept car.
All the years I have been going there, I've never seen a Corvette win 'EyesOn Design Award for Design Excellence'. Maybe the C8 would have won this year but the show was cancelled last week.
Hwasup Lee will go down as one of the best Corvette designers ever. He has both C7 and C8 designs attributed to him. I also think there is a split window detail that will be planned for the ZORA coupe model. Last year I talked to a Corvette exterior designer at the Monterey Historics at Laguna Seca and told him about a thread I started on this forum about the possible split window design element that could be integrated on the top C8 ZORA model. We discussed the two recessed crease lines that create a centered recess area on the coupe. I asked him about those two lines and the fact that the vented window frame incorporates a rear view camera with a recess at the camera location and also at the bottom of the window frame. Those two recess crease lines follow over the top and down to the front hood as well as down the front fascia to the front splitter. This is a perfect opportunity to create a 90 degree centerlined book matched carbon fiber detail that was on the C7 ZR1. Pagani, Bugatti and others have historically used this centerline design to create amazing details. Retired Ed Welborn went on record indicating he wanted a centerline feature detail that paid homage to the 63 split window coupe. There is a split window schematic design on the sketches above on Thread #31 at 3rd set of sketches. Lee has numerous patent applications indicating he is heavily involved in the C8 design and he is seen in many of Jag's photos above.
This is a design by Hwasup Lee and shows his outrageous talent on the split rear window concept. His history of design on the various models is undeniable! Certainly, the Zora could have this characteristic!
"There's many the slip between the cup and the lip"
The "dummying" down of a design concept into a production product has always bothered me. I know there are packaging issues, materials limitations, etc BUT those are to me no excuse but rather challenges. The products I have been involved in were too many times compromised to satisfy someone's ego or for someone to justify her/his position. If the creator was presented with challenges rather than had solutions imposed I was always in awe of the results.
Even "customer clinics" or whatever they are called, are valuable if the proposed solutions are ignored but the reactions are analyzed critically.
All of which is a long way of saying, Lee is definitely a creative genius.
He's currently the Exterior Design Manager at GM.
