http://www.freep.com/money/autonews/cars12_20040112.htm

As an aside, I REALLY hope one "little old lady's" comment to Dave Hill in the late 90's didn't affect him as much as the article implies, but the Corvette enthusiast's response to it is absolutely priceless....

 

that's a good read

 

Hmmm... while the 'little old lady' story is cute, I hope it's not real.

1) I have read that Mr. Peters said one of the hardest decisions to make was axing the concealed headlamps... this makes it sounds as though this choice was made back in 1996/7.

2) If one comment by one "little old lady", who in all liklihood is not a Corvette customer really had that big of an impact, I'd really be upset.

3) I can't picture a "little old lady" thinking pop-ups were old fashioned... to the contrary, from her point of view... they'd probably seem super-futuristic or something.

(concealed headlamps.... still a sore spot... sorry )

 

Excellent read.. thanks..

"visitors stealing bolts by the fistfull" gee I hope it's no one on this board.

 

The heck with bolts, I want to "borrow" an LS2 when I go down for the Bowling Green show.

 

The trick to redesigning the Corvette, designers say, is to tweak it, not make it over.

Evolution, not revolution

I though the new chevy slogan was "REVOLUTION", so give us a revolution by creating a new C6, not just a redone (evolution) C5.

 

The gill slit version was popular, but the ultimate decision came from Jerry Palmer, a legendary Corvette designer. Palmer, now retired, was executive director of GM's North American Operations at the time.

He decided against the gill slits, which would have made the car more of a revolution.


NOW WOULD LOVE TO SEE SOME PICS OF THOSE!!!! Anyone????

and it says more of a revolution??? Isnt Chevy's new theme
AN AMERICAN REVOLUTION??

 

Where in the article does it mention a "little old lady"?

A interesting read just the same.

 

I think the implication is the square look. Think of some lights of the 80's, hence the old-fashioned comment.

It is silly to believe the older lady had that much impact, but I think what happened was that she underlined what the designer ultimately suspected himself.

The bigger desicion making was when it came to new light technology being difficult to incorporate into pup-ups.

 

OK, I might buy that line of thought....


This is where I get frustrated, personally, because I think if 'pop-ups' (or as Dave Hill calls them, 'airbrakes') were such a concern, they could have come up with a new way to HIDE the headlamps without having ot have them POP-UP...

I supppose they 'sort of' did this by having the inside of the headlamps body colored...