Tadge: GM Considered Selling the C8 & C7 Simultaneously

The C8 Corvette Chief Engineer and his team heard the requests from hardtop convertible owners who want to see their engines.

In one of the more informative and interesting videos we’ve seen in some time, Corvette Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter recently dropped by Jay Leno’s Garage to discuss the all-new 2024 Corvette E-Ray in detail with the comedian and lifelong car guy. This nearly hour-long discussion is chock full of amazing facts about the first-ever electrified version of America’s sports car, but as is usually the case, Juechter also provided us with a host of fascinating details about the C8 Corvette in general that are notable for a number of reasons, as we’ve outlined here.

GM Wasn’t Sure If Buyers Would Embrace the C8

Perhaps the most interesting revelation Juechter provides us with, however, is that GM wasn’t so sure if consumers would embrace the C8 from the start, and it had a backup plan in place in the event that it didn’t “What they’re talking about, there were a lot of skeptics early on, but that kind of disappeared now, not too many people are skeptical about the choice anymore,” he said of the switch to mid-engine. “I think I told you before that even inside GM even as the car was being developed we were two years into it and we were still planning on building the old car – the C7 – at the same time.”

“They were just not sure that everybody was going to embrace this. Some people thought well, sell the old car, we probably sell more of these. This will be more of a niche product. That’s what I thought, I thought that, you know, the C7 would be the $70,000-$90,000 car and this would be $125,000 or $140,000 or something like that. I was stunned when it came out at $59,995. It was unbelievable, we’ve taken some price since then, but it’s still in the low $60s for the base coupe and we do sell some of those. “People say, ‘oh you can’t get those,’ but I know people that ordered one and that’s what they ordered and that’s what they got.”

Clear Engine Cover for Convertibles

Near the end, Juechter also drops a bit of a bombshell on us in regards to GM’s controversial choice to cover up the engine in C8 Corvette convertibles, which will soon no longer be the case. “One of the few complaints we get about the convertible is that you can’t see that [pointing to the engine],” he said. “So we’re fixing that for 2024. We’re going to put a glass panel under the tonneau so when you go to a show and want to show off your engine – especially for Z06 people who want to show off that motor – you can open the tonneau and there will be a glass window in there that you can see.”

Advantages of Switch to Mid-Engine Layout

For starters, Juechter gives us a few more details as to why the C8 Corvette development team ultimately chose to go the long-awaited mid-engine route. Turns out, there are quite a few advantages to such a move, starting with the fact that the team needed a strong structural backbone since all C8s are essentially convertibles, as has been the case for a while. Thus, as we can see in the cutaway E-Ray here, some rather large body structure elements are present in the center of the car to help stiffen it up without additional bracing.

The mid-engine design utilized by the C8 Corvette also provided the engineering team with more room for things like the car’s headers and a pretty free-flowing exhaust system, along with a giant performance air filter – which helped them maximize output and lessen the need for aftermarket modifications like less-restrictive exhausts or low-restriction air filters.

Ultimately, however, the decision to go mid-engine was all about maximizing steering response, acceleration, getting power to the ground, and accelerating out of the corner on the track – the same things that pushed many race cars to make the switch years ago. The C8 Corvette also rides better than its front-engine counterparts, to boot, which enabled GM to use stiffer springs while retaining that ride quality.

Use of Exotic Materials

The C8 Corvette utilizes a curveted pultruded carbon fiber bumper beam – the first in the industry – in the rear, which reduces weight and provides crash protection while lightening the load on the rear end. As Juechter points out, this – along with the rest of the C8’s structure – is designed to be repairable, and those components. can be replaced without the need for a special welder. GM started with a convertible with an eye toward making the chassis as strong as humanly possible, too.

Leno, for one, was impressed by the extensive use to exotic materials like aluminum, magnesium, and carbon fiber underneath the C8’s skin, which are pricey for sure. However, as Juechter notes, GM was able to pull this off without substantially raising the price of the newest Corvette thanks to the economies of scale advantages of being a large automaker, something that boutique companies like McLaren can’t take advantage of.

Unique Exhaust System

The C8’s valved exhaust system is essentially a straight pipe setup that uses valves to reroute exhaust gases to create different sounds and volume levels, and it can bypass the attenuation parts of the exhaust and essentially make it an exhaustless open header setup at full tilt, as Juechter explains.

Production and Lineup Expansion

Facing tremendous demand, GM is currently building as many Z06s as it ever has – around 1,000 a month, according to Juechter – but more than half of the cars ordered so far are convertibles, even in spite of their additional 60 pounds of heft. The 2023 model year is also prime to become the highest production model year ever, as expected, with around 53,000 units ultimately leaving Bowling Green before things wrap up in the coming weeks.

While some have questioned GM’s desire to expand the Corvette lineup further, Juechter notes that the automaker wanted to create more variants to appeal to a broader base of customers and the way they use their cars. For now, the Stingray is the base car that’s a solid performer and weekend track toy, with the Z06 representing the hardcore, track-focused offering, and the E-Ray is more of an in-between that’s good at both.

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