Chevrolet Hopes 2014 Corvette Will Spark Brand Boost





<DL style="WIDTH: 359px" class="wp-caption alignleft caption-alignleft "><DT class=wp-caption-dt><DD style="TEXT-ALIGN: right" class="wp-caption-dd wp-cite-dd">General Motors Co.<DD style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" class=wp-caption-dd>2014 Chevrolet Corvette</DD></DL>
By Jeff Bennett and Joseph B. White
DETROIT—General Motors Co. on Sunday took the wraps off a seventh-generation Chevrolet Corvette sports car that the company hopes will become the poster child for a 2013 product blitz designed to buff GM’s top-selling Chevrolet line.
Chief Executive Dan Akerson and North America chief Mark Reuss have presided over GM’s return to record profitability in its home market but haven’t been able to halt a market share slide. The auto maker finished last year with just 17.9% of U.S. car and light truck sales, the lowest level since the 1930s, amid a paucity of new models.
“We squandered the market position we had in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s,” Mr. Akerson said. “Now we have to get it back.”
Putting Chevrolet back on car shopping lists in America and overseas is the linchpin of GM’s strategy. Chevrolet accounts for 70% of the auto maker’s vehicle sales in the U.S.
The 2014 Corvette will carry the “Stingray” name for the first time since the 1970s—harking back to a classic generation of the car that inspired many of today’s target customers—Baby Boomers in their 50s, when they were in their teens.
The entry level 2014 Corvette will have a 450-horsepower, V-8, a 0-60 time below four seconds, and will use lightweight materials, including carbon fiber in the roof and aluminum in the frame, to deliver better fuel economy than the departing model’s 25 miles per gallon in highway driving.
“We want to reinforce the fact that it is a halo product and tie it closely to the Chevrolet brand,” said Chevy vice president for marketing Chris Perry.
The new Corvette will also offer options designed to help drivers perform better when racing the car on a track, including software that will automatically match the engine’s speed to the gear that the driver wants to select.
The car’s interior also is getting what GM officials describe as a significant upgrade, responding to complaints from owners of the sixth-generation car that the quality of materials and styling in the car didn’t match its price, or the sophistication of rival European sports cars.
GM hasn’t announced prices for the new Corvette. The current model starts at just under $50,000.
With the U.S. Treasury preparing to sell its remaining GM shares during the coming year, Mr. Akerson is under pressure to rev up sales and profit in the U.S., particularly since Mr. Akerson says GM’s European operations aren’t likely to generate profit until the middle of this decade.

 

January 13, 2013 at 9:00 pm
<!-- HEAD -->Improved 2014 Corvette earns classic Stingray name





























The 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray is unveiled Sunday, Jan. 13, 2013, at the Russell Industrial Center in Detroit. (Steve Perez / The Detroit News)

<!-- pagination off --><!--setting a global variable for a Promo type external link--><!--end variable-->The Stingray is back.
Chevrolet's seventh-generation Corvette, unveiled Sunday night at a private gathering for VIPs and automotive journalists in a rambling, old industrial building on Detroit's east side, will wear the historic name introduced in 1963 but unused for the past 37 years.
"One of the last decisions we made on this car was whether to call it the Stingray," said chief engineer Tadge Juechter, indicating it was left to Ed Welburn, head of GM design to decide whether the new Corvette was worthy of the Stingray name again. "It wasn't a question at the end."
The 2014 Corvette is more powerful, more capable, more comfortable — and surprisingly, more fuel efficient.
It also is more curvaceous, restoring a bit of the classic Stingray look of the 1970s with a slim waist, bulging hood, raised front fender, and a fastback. Despite rumors, the new Corvette doesn't return the famous divided rear "split window" that appeared only on the original 1963 Sting Ray coupe.
Yes, Sting Ray was two words from 1963 through 1967. It became one word 1969 through 1976. Chevrolet trademarked the Stingray name in 2010 for a potential comeback.
Paul and Diana Haack of Crystal Lake, Ill., paid $1,200 to attend Sunday night's reveal inside the Russell Industrial Center. The National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky., where Corvette is built, sold 150 tickets online as a fundraiser; they were gone in 10 minutes.
More than 1,000 VIPs, media and enthusiastic Corvette fans cheered and applauded when the pounding rock music and flashing videos stopped and the covers were pulled off the car
"I remember sitting in a brand new 1963 Corvette Sting Ray in dealers' showroom when I was 12 years old," said Mike Julien, a retired accountant from Grand Rapids who has owned seven Corvettes and put a deposit on a 2014 model 18 months ago.
"To the younger people, Stingray is going to be an exciting-sounding name. To those of us who have owned and loved Corvettes, this is a wonderful link to that heritage," Julien said.
The Corvette is still a V-8 powered, front-engine, rear-wheel-drive two-seater that can match or exceed the performance of far more expensive exotic sports cars. A turbocharged V-6 engine option was considered and rejected. Although each new generation of the Corvette is introduced with basic models, engineers claim the C7 Vette will perform on a level equivalent to the previous generation's high-performance edition Z06. It will do zero to 60 mph in under four seconds. The new body produces less drag yet more stability at high speed.
Racing-inspired air intakes and extractors are all over the car to aid engine, differential and transmission cooling. Tall, vertical extractor vents built into the outside edges of Corvette's rear fascia give a slimming look to the car's famously broad backside. Gone are the round tail lights, replaced by square LED lamps that align with Chevy's designs on cars like Camaro. Even the Corvette's crossed flags logo is updated into a stronger, bolder V-shape.
A lighter, stiffer aluminum hydroformed unibody frame resulted from lessons learned building the previous generation's supercar versions, Z06 and ZR1. Bonded aluminum, carbon fiber and composites have replaced the old fiberglass body panels, including standard feather-light removable roof panels. There is no convertible — yet.
The Corvette has a new-generation 6.2-liter V-8 engine. It produces 450 horsepower and 450 pound-feet of torque, but also has the ability to deactivate up to four cylinders to save fuel while cruising. The Corvette comes with a seven-speed manual or six-speed automatic transmission. The electrically adjustable suspension has multiple settings for cruising, bad weather and several levels of high performance. An optional Z51 track package will add competition grade driveline, cooling and aerodynamic enhancements.
The interior is vastly improved with dramatic new styling and special attention paid to seating comfort and performance support — a weakness in previous Corvettes. Interior materials and the latest infotainment technology have been upgraded on par with luxury-level cars.
The reveal came just four days short of the 60th anniversary of the showing of first Corvette prototype at the New York Auto Show. The new car will be on display Monday and through next week's public run of the North American International Auto Show at Cobo Center. No figures were given for fuel mileage or anticipated pricing when the car comes to dealers in the fall.

 

That is one sexy Camaro Viper.

 

I think it looks great!

 

Technical and interior wise it sounds like an improvement.

Not sure about the exterior especially the back. I have to see one in person. I would love to test drive one but I am glad I have the last year of the C6.

 

I'm undecided about the body style also. I'll be swinging by the dealership this coming weekend while out and about to see if they have one I can put an eyeball on in the flesh.

 

I like it the back side is the worst part in my opinion.Not a fan of the red though the grey looks sweet need to see it in black.

 

I really like it. Seems like they are going after the German market.

Production model I don't think will have that many sharp lines, and they will probably change the rear-end up a little.

 

The 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray arrives with edges sharpened

<CITE class="byline vcard">By Justin Hyde
Senior Editor of Motoramic</CITE>


In a rational world, the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray wouldn’t exist. The very idea of launching a two-seat sports car named after a World War II ship powered by a truck-sized V-8 goes against every trend line on every chart in every automaker’s boardroom. Yet here it is, the seventh generation of America’s most venerated sports car, sharpened in all dimensions by racing experience toward out-hustling the best sports cars in the world. The question will be whether it can outrun history.
After 60 years of production, General Motors could have found ample reasons for waving the checkered flag at the Vette. Thanks to GM’s bankruptcy, the Vette has soldiered on longer than it should have without a major update; GM sold 14,132 last year, well off the 30,000 a year it sustained for much of the past decade. New U.S. fuel economy rules hit sports cars head-on, demanding the same measure of efficiency improvements in hot rods as in compact family sedans.
Slideshow: 60 Years of Corvette HistoryMore importantly, the Corvette has lost much of its cultural currency from the heyday of NASA astronauts drag-racing their free Corvettes on the beach, falling into the tar pit of an old man’s car competing for young people’s attention. From “Transformers” to the “Fast and Furious” movies, Hollywood prefers the new Chevy Camaro and those Vettes the astronauts drove. A survey from the popular Forza racing video game of the most-driven models found the modern Vette didn’t crack the top 40. And while you can still buy Barbie her classic pink Vette, it’s a far less popular choice than sending her off with Ken in a Mini Cooper.
On first view, the makeover wrought by Corvette chief engineer Tadge Juechter and team appears evolutionary. Yet every piece of the Vette has either been re-engineered or updated, from the new all-aluminum frame to the sharper, “shrink-wrapped” exterior to the 6.2-liter, 450-hp, 450 lb.-ft. V-8. That engine can now be paired to an optional Tremec 7-speed manual, a GM first, that will automatically match the engine’s RPMs to the anticipated gear in all shifts.
The biggest improvements come from applying modern electronic controls throughout the car for the first time. The Vette will have five driving modes that alter 12 different systems, from the optional electronic limited-slip differential that’s part of the Z51 track package to launch control. In “eco” mode, the all-new V-8 will shut off four cylinders for maximum fuel economy, while in “track” mode, Chevy engineers say the new Vette will pull more than 1 g of cornering force and run to 60 mph in less than 4 seconds. (Chevy vows to release exact figures, including prices, closer to the car's launch this fall.)
The interior, long the weakest part of the car, has been renovated to modern sports car standards. In place of Barbie-quality plastic, the dash comes wrapped in leather and carbon fiber; the heated and cooled seats have bolstering built for track use. The Vette also finally gets the requisite HD LED screens for the center console, but Chevy wisely keeps separate radio and air control switches instead of touch screen controls.
Much of the Vette’s improvements began as lessons learned from the Le Mans-winning Vette C6.R endurance racing team, such as the new fender intakes by the rear window that cool the transmission and differential. Purists have already begun to exclaim over the loss of the Vette’s trademark round taillamps; the new squarish units take that shape because their frames double as a cooling vents.
While Corvette enthusiasts often dream of more radical changes, the Corvette engineering team has six decades of experience arguing against such moves. Moving to a smaller V-8 or turbocharged V-6 as in the Nissan GT-R would have added more weight while doing little for fuel economy; Chevy expects the new model to easily surpass the previous generation’s 26 mpg highway rating. A mid-engine super Vette would lose the sizable hatchback space that makes it more livable as an everyday car or grand tourer than a Porsche 911. And the unique suspension, with its transverse leaf spring rear axle, sacrifices little on the track while weighing less than the alternatives.
Some compromises were inevitable. Even with a new carbon-fiber roof and hood, and a frame that’s 99 lbs. lighter, the new Vette will weigh about as much as the old one, due to added pounds from the engine, interior bits and crash safety — although it keeps its perfect 50/50 front-rear weight balance and sports a lower center of gravity. The new 7-speed manual will still have a skip shift that forces higher gears for better city mileage, and a revised six-speed automatic remains standard.
But the greatest challenge for the new Stingray won't come from rivals like the new SRT Viper, the GT-R or the 911. As Zora Arkus-Duntov, the famed "father of the Corvette" wrote in 1954: "If the value of a car consists of practical values and emotional appeal, the sports car has very little of the first and consequently has to have an exaggerated amount of the second." The engineers behind the new Vette hope the revival of the Stingray name for the first time in 37 years and years of knowledge gained from the track will spark that emotional connection with a new generation. The most apt answer for why the 2014 Vette exists already exists in an Internet meme: Because racecar.
Top photo: Jim Fets


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" I think I like `it" Will someone buy me one
I will buy a lotto ticket & keep on `dream'in
The Slide Show in above post has some better pic's