46 Search results

For the term "Dave Hill".

C5 Corvettes / C6 Corvettes / Corvette History / Corvette People

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Corvette Chiefs: Pt 3 Dave Hill, Cadillac Man

Dave Hill once said, “My favorite Corvette is the next one.” Mr. Cadillac insisted on three key things; state of the art performance and technology; passionate design; and tremendous value. In an interview with c6registry.com, Hill said, “Being involved with Corvette brings out the best in all of us who have the privilege of working on it. It represents the best that GM has to offer; along with the best America has to offer. The Corvette is very personal. We’re not talking about transportation here; we’re talking about a product that changes someone’s lifestyle, and that causes us to be enthusiastic about our duty.”

C6 Corvettes / C6 ZR1 Corvettes / Corvette Chassis

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Dave Hill Delivers an Evolutionary Superior C6 Z06 Corvette

Corvette fans have been frustrated for years with Chevrolet’s evolutionary Corvettes. The “pie-in-the-sky” mid-engine Corvette has been around since the 1960s and anything less was evolutionary. The pending C8 aside, the C5 was the most revolutionary Corvette; because of the hydroformed steel perimeter frame, center backbone, all-aluminum LS1 fuel-injected engine, and transaxle. The C5 was the most solid Corvette ever offered and allowed engineers to vastly improve the basic suspension, the Z51, and the Z06. The racing C5-R won its class at Daytona in 2001 and 2003; won its class at Sebring in 2002, 2003, and 2004, and won its class at Le Mans in 2001, 2002, and 2004. This never would have happened without the superior basic C5 chassis. Dave Hill’s team got the C5’s chassis design so right that by 1999 they determined that a C6 needed to be started.

C5 Corvettes / Corvette Chassis / Corvette News & Opinions

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How Dave Hill Reinvented the C5 Corvette Chassis

Joe Spielman ran GM’s Midsize Car Division in 1992 and was responsible for forty-percent of the engineering and manufacturing of GM’s auto production. It was a bad time for GM and despite the Corvette’s iconic status; its future was in jeopardy. Spielman created the “Decision Makers” that included himself, Carlisle Davis, John Cafaro, and Dave McLellan. Three possible formats for the C5 Corvette were created. The first format was the “Momentum Architecture” that featured a stiff backbone, front-engine, rear transmission, and an evolutionary body style. The second format was the “Mid-Engine”, favored by McLellan and GM President Jack Smith. The 1990 CERV III wasn’t just a dream car, it was built with manufacturing in mind, but was going to be complex and expensive. The third format was “Stiffer and Lighter”. This would be the least expensive and was a stiffer, lighter version of the C4. Fortunately, the team went with the “Momentum Architecture”.

C3 Corvettes / C4 Corvettes / C4 ZR-1 Corvettes / C5 Corvettes / Corvette History / Corvette News & Opinions / Corvette People

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Corvette Chiefs, Pt. 2 of 5 – Dave McLellan

When Dave McLellan took over as Corvette’s new chief
engineer on January 1, 1975, it was whole new world. The prevailing trends went from performance cars to safer cars with reduced emission. Not even Duntov could have made a difference in the ‘70s. But as performance went down, Corvette sales went way up! The sales department was happy, but the Corvette was really getting old. Dave McLellan was an unknown to the Corvette community and many wondered what he would bring to the brand. It turned out; he brought a lot!

C4 Corvettes / Corvette Chassis / Corvette News & Opinions

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Corvette Chassis History, Pt. 3: Dave McLellan’s C4 Chassis

One of the C3’s endearing features was the T-top roof. The design wasn’t just for aesthetics; the T-bar connected the A-pillar windshield frame to the B-pillar frame “roll bar” and provided significant structural stiffness. The initial design of the C4 had a T-bar connecting the A and B-pillars, but with a one-piece, roof panel. It wasn’t until the first prototype was built in 1981, when Chevrolet general manager Lloyd Reuss made the decision to eliminate the T-bar to open up the cockpit. This single decision impacted the C4 design such that the biggest complaint about C4s is the tall side frame sills that make ingress and egress challenging. To compensate for the lack of the important T-bar, the side frame sills had to be made extra tall. As the years rolled by, C4s, especially the convertibles, took heat for not being as stiff as their competitors. Those two elements, plus the fact that progressive Corvettes kept getting better and better, are part of the reason why C4s are today the least desirable of all Corvettes.

Corvette Legends: The Great, Dave MacDonald, Part 2

C1 Corvettes / C2 Corvettes / Corvette People / Corvette Racers / Corvette Timeline Tales

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Corvette Legends: The Great, Dave MacDonald, Part 2

Being hired by Shelby made the MacDonald’s life almost as fast as the cars he drove. In the 17 months between the beginning of ‘63 through to the ‘64 Indy race, MacDonald raced in 44 events. The ‘64 Indy crash was the first time the 500 had ever been stopped because of an accident. The media at the time, would regularly make big headlines over any auto racing mishap, and were all over the crash. While Indy officials quickly concluded that there was no driver error, the race was hotly debated for decades.

C6 Corvettes / C6 ZR1 Corvettes / C7 Corvettes / C7 Z06 / C7 ZR1 / C8 Articles / Corvette History

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Corvette Chiefs, Pt. 5 or 5: Tadge Juechter

All five Corvette chief engineers contributed mightily and in their own unique ways. But only Tadge Juechter has the distinction of having done hard engineering on five generations of Corvettes. When Juechter went to work in 1993 as chief engineer Dave Hill’s right-hand-man, there were two objectives; keep the then-current C4 fresh and interesting; and design and develop the most revolutionary Corvette to that date, the C5. After Hill’s retirement, Tom Wallace was Vehicle Line Engineer (VLE) and chief engineer for the Corvette. Wallace accessed that because of Juechter’s 15 years of experience, he was the right man for the chief engineer position.

Corvette News & Opinions / Corvette People

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Corvette Chiefs, Pt. 4 of 5 – Tom Wallace, Racer C6 Chief Engineer

Dave Hill was the VLE of Performance Car that included Corvette, Cadillac XLR, Saturn Sky, Pontiac Solstice, Opel GT. One day during a group vehicle-program review meeting with Bob Lutz; Wallace heard Hill outlining the Z06 with 505-horsepower and a dry-sump oil system, he said to himself, “What the!” Wallace said to Lutz, “My goodness, this is unbelievable. Do you know what Dave is about to do?” Wallace said that some of the VLEs had no idea what Hill was talking about. When Wallace expressed real concern about selling 505-horsepower cars to novice customers, it was explained to him that only select dealers get Z06s. These dealers understand performance and coach customers to have respect for the car and help get them into a driver’s school.

Vette Videos: 1997 C5 Corvette TV Commercial “WHAT IS IT?!?”

C5 Corvettes / Vette Videos / Videos - C5 Corvettes

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Vette Videos: 1997 C5 Corvette TV Commercial “WHAT IS IT?!?”

The C5 Corvette was supposed to be out years before, but financial troubles at GM kept pushing back the release date. While this was frustrating for Corvette fans, the positive part was that it gave the Corvette team the time to make the car as good as they could. The basic design of the C5 platform was started by Corvette chief engineer Dave McLellan. When mcLellan retired in 1992, former Cadillac engineer, Dave Hill was made the third Chief Engineer for the Corvette. The C5 was so well designed that by ‘99 engineers determined that they had done nearly as much to the car’s platform as they could, without designing a new platform. This naturally paved the way for the C6 Corvette.

Corvette History / Corvette Timeline Tales

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Corvette Timeline Tales – August

The only thing hotter than an August day in Michigan was the all-new, 1963 Corvette Sting Ray. The GM Proving Ground was first opened in 1924 and was the industry’s first dedicated automobile testing facility. Located in Milford, Michigan, the facility is huge and today has 4,000 acres, 107 buildings, and employs around 4,800 people. Some say that in the summer months, out on the 4,000 acre black asphalt surface, the temperature can reach 140-degrees!

Car Shows / Corvette News & Opinions / Corvette People / Corvette Shows

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Meet Mr. Bloomington Gold; Guy Larsen

Recently we had a conversation with Guy Larsen, the current owner and CEO of Bloomington Gold. What started out as a regional Corvette parts swap-meet in 1973, quickly became a force of nature that added a depth of credibility to mostly-original Corvettes. When the event started, it wasn’t called “Bloomington Gold”, it was simply “Corvette Corral”, and was held in Bloomington, Illinois.

To put this into perspective, in our interview with Guy, he said, “People lament that the Swap Meet part of Bloomington Gold isn’t what it used to be. Well, of course not. Back then, if a Corvette owner was looking for missing parts, he had to hunt and scratch around at swap meets because it was the only way to find parts. Everything changed when the internet and eBay started and Corvette parts started to become available online.”

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