C6 Corvette: Reality or Restraint?
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Its always interesting to sit back and read all the love/hate mail thats published in car magazines after a new generation of Corvette is unveiled. As soon as the fake body panels, plastic shrouding, duct tape, and plastick chincks are remeoved from the prototypes and the final production version is shown to the public, the Corvette community mutates into a frenzy of blood thirsty sharks nipping and tearing at the newest Corvettes tucked and tightened body.
The lines are immediately drawn and the camps develop. On one side you have the enthusiasts who love the car. On the other, you have the enthuisasts who now consider themeselves ex enthusiasts, taking every chance to bemoan, belittle, and incinerate the car, engineers, Chevrolet and all of GM.
Did Corvette engineers fail with the new C6? Did they do a poor job of designing the next generation of our pride and joy? Couthe they have gone much further with it? Should they have? Lets take a look at the history of Corvette Design .
In the 53 -62 Corvettes we saw some significant Changes in design. The 62 model looked nothing like the 53. The 63 -67 models were once again a drastic change in design from the first gerneration models. In 1968, the third generation of Corvette hit the streets and featured a radical design change from the previous generation..
In 1983/1984, the fourth genreation Corvette was unveiled, and yet again we saw another extreme change in design. Not as radical as the C2 to C4 production , but it was a significant redesign in Corvette history.
In 1997, the firth gernation of Corvette was unveiled to the public and as expected, response was mixed. It featured an obvious redesign compared to the C4 generation, but could it truly be considered radical? In some ways , Yes, and in some , NO...From an engineering perspective, it was a radical change, but from a design perspective, you could still see the evolutionary changes in the skin from the C4. The "visiual " redesign was not as radical as from tthe C2 to the C3 , Is it possbible we could be seeing a slow down in the Corvettes Evolutinary design?
Now that the sixth genration of Corvette is prancing around in its birthday suit, a large group of enthuisasts are stark raving mad. Why? Because even though its a new generation, visually it doesn't look much different from the previous generation. Regardless of what it may look like, as Corvette engineers have stated, 80 percent of the parts used in the car are new. They basically stated all along it would not be revolutionary , but evolutionary in design. For all intents and purposes, the redesign isn't radical at all, and nowhere near the degree of change we've seen from previous generations.
In my opinion, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Lets face it: the C5 is a dam good Corvette and until the C6, its the best Corvette yet. It does a tremendous job meeting the needs and demands of a finicky segment of the market, and you can't deny its the best bang for the buck out there. Thats's one thing the Corvette has always been known for. From the hydroformed steel frame rails to the chassis/suspension setup, Chevrolet has one hell of a winner on its hands and they know it.
If you have a winning product, why look a gift horse in teh mouth? Why invest an astronomical amount of money into developiniong a complete and radical redesign when alll thats really needed is a makeover that will greatly improve upon what has already been established.?
A couple of the main goals of the Corvette engineers for the C6 were to continue getting the weight out and increase quality, features and potential wihtout adding more weight. From the preproduction prototypes we've seen so fari, its fair to assume they're not too far off the mark.
Sow what if there is a apparent similiarity between the look of the C5 and the C6? Is this really a bad thing? For 40 years, Porsche has been building incredible sports cars capable of attracting many differnt customers from all types of income levels. From the Boxster to the $400,000 plus Carrera GT, one thing remains visually apparent design. You cna't mistake the obvious look of a Porsche.
In looking at the design changes of the Porsche 911 over the years. I think its fair to say the model has never really seen a radical redisgn like the Corvette has during its lifetime. Yet the Porsche continues to win on the street, the track and in the hearts of its owners and enthusiasts. You could say Porsche has a winning and accomplished design theme on its hands.
So isn't it possible that maybe , just maybe, Corvette Engineers have a winning and accomplished design theme for the first time in Corvette history! I think so!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rob Loszewski! Site administrator of Corvette Action Center.(he wrote this excellent letter to Corvette fever and I wanted to share it with you guys)
Excellent... and very well said imo!
How about you?
Do you agree or disagree?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Its always interesting to sit back and read all the love/hate mail thats published in car magazines after a new generation of Corvette is unveiled. As soon as the fake body panels, plastic shrouding, duct tape, and plastick chincks are remeoved from the prototypes and the final production version is shown to the public, the Corvette community mutates into a frenzy of blood thirsty sharks nipping and tearing at the newest Corvettes tucked and tightened body.
The lines are immediately drawn and the camps develop. On one side you have the enthusiasts who love the car. On the other, you have the enthuisasts who now consider themeselves ex enthusiasts, taking every chance to bemoan, belittle, and incinerate the car, engineers, Chevrolet and all of GM.
Did Corvette engineers fail with the new C6? Did they do a poor job of designing the next generation of our pride and joy? Couthe they have gone much further with it? Should they have? Lets take a look at the history of Corvette Design .
In the 53 -62 Corvettes we saw some significant Changes in design. The 62 model looked nothing like the 53. The 63 -67 models were once again a drastic change in design from the first gerneration models. In 1968, the third generation of Corvette hit the streets and featured a radical design change from the previous generation..
In 1983/1984, the fourth genreation Corvette was unveiled, and yet again we saw another extreme change in design. Not as radical as the C2 to C4 production , but it was a significant redesign in Corvette history.
In 1997, the firth gernation of Corvette was unveiled to the public and as expected, response was mixed. It featured an obvious redesign compared to the C4 generation, but could it truly be considered radical? In some ways , Yes, and in some , NO...From an engineering perspective, it was a radical change, but from a design perspective, you could still see the evolutionary changes in the skin from the C4. The "visiual " redesign was not as radical as from tthe C2 to the C3 , Is it possbible we could be seeing a slow down in the Corvettes Evolutinary design?
Now that the sixth genration of Corvette is prancing around in its birthday suit, a large group of enthuisasts are stark raving mad. Why? Because even though its a new generation, visually it doesn't look much different from the previous generation. Regardless of what it may look like, as Corvette engineers have stated, 80 percent of the parts used in the car are new. They basically stated all along it would not be revolutionary , but evolutionary in design. For all intents and purposes, the redesign isn't radical at all, and nowhere near the degree of change we've seen from previous generations.
In my opinion, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Lets face it: the C5 is a dam good Corvette and until the C6, its the best Corvette yet. It does a tremendous job meeting the needs and demands of a finicky segment of the market, and you can't deny its the best bang for the buck out there. Thats's one thing the Corvette has always been known for. From the hydroformed steel frame rails to the chassis/suspension setup, Chevrolet has one hell of a winner on its hands and they know it.
If you have a winning product, why look a gift horse in teh mouth? Why invest an astronomical amount of money into developiniong a complete and radical redesign when alll thats really needed is a makeover that will greatly improve upon what has already been established.?
A couple of the main goals of the Corvette engineers for the C6 were to continue getting the weight out and increase quality, features and potential wihtout adding more weight. From the preproduction prototypes we've seen so fari, its fair to assume they're not too far off the mark.
Sow what if there is a apparent similiarity between the look of the C5 and the C6? Is this really a bad thing? For 40 years, Porsche has been building incredible sports cars capable of attracting many differnt customers from all types of income levels. From the Boxster to the $400,000 plus Carrera GT, one thing remains visually apparent design. You cna't mistake the obvious look of a Porsche.
In looking at the design changes of the Porsche 911 over the years. I think its fair to say the model has never really seen a radical redisgn like the Corvette has during its lifetime. Yet the Porsche continues to win on the street, the track and in the hearts of its owners and enthusiasts. You could say Porsche has a winning and accomplished design theme on its hands.
So isn't it possible that maybe , just maybe, Corvette Engineers have a winning and accomplished design theme for the first time in Corvette history! I think so!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rob Loszewski! Site administrator of Corvette Action Center.(he wrote this excellent letter to Corvette fever and I wanted to share it with you guys)
Excellent... and very well said imo!
How about you?
Do you agree or disagree?
