bagwell

love it

Cruiter

Aggghhh, was getting ready to post it and ya beat me. Good job

Motor

I'll let you have the next one.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

oh hell yes... awesome

Motor

Motor

bagwell

http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2...ampaign=weekly

“As far as the Stingray coupe and convertible, we haven’t announced any changes. Everybody is speculating that we’re going to put the eight-speed in that. The question would be: ‘do you do it in 15 or 16,” Corvette chief engineer Tadge Juechter said.

Chances of the new eight-speed reaching Chevrolet’s lesser sports car in the 2015 model year aren’t good.

“We’ve got a lot on our plate to get done,” he said.

Specifically, his team has the Corvette Z06 to build. The car shown earlier this month in Motor City still has a year of development to go through before it’s ready for sale.

There are probably more than a few people willing to violate Geneva Protocol to know exactly what it is that Juechter’s team is up to behind closed doors. Hiss if you will at the idea of a torque converter automatic, but if he has misgivings about packaging the transmission, they’re impossible to spot.

“Our development guys say it’s like driving a sports bike. Zing, zing, zing,” he said while grinning and flicking a set of make-believe paddle shifters during an interview at the Detroit Auto Show earlier this month.

The Corvette is already a low-volume product for Chevrolet and the Z06 will make up an even smaller sliver of the car’s overall sales. It was expensive to develop the new eight-speed and General Motors is eager to expedite the amortization of that cost by using it in more vehicles. Ideally, that would mean an eight-speed Stingray would already be waiting in the wings, held back by little more than model year formality. It’s much more complicated than that.

“You would think, ‘OK you’ve validated the high horsepower one, so validating the low horsepower one is like falling off a log, you just judge it.’ But that’s not true.”

There’s one little word to blame: validation. Swapping the Corvette’s transmission will be a complicated and vastly expensive process that the company won’t treat lightly.

“You’ve got to recalibrate everything. People think, ‘oh well its powertrain calibration’, but its more than that.

“It’s all the stability systems because you’re managing torque. So traction control, launch control, performance traction management, all that stuff has to be re-done when you just change the transmission.”

The level of computer involvement in modern sports cars makes incredible performance milestones possible, but it also means long hours for people like Juechter.

“Things that used to be mechanically simple are now electronically complex,” he said. The car will also need to pass GM’s battery of extreme temperature tests, all of which soaks up time and resources.

Meanwhile, key decisions about the Z06 including damper tuning, when to de-activate four of the blown 6.2-liter LT4’s eight cylinders and much more are still up in the air. There will be many more record-setting laps at the Milford proving grounds before Chevrolet shores up the production Z06.

There are also other products that would benefit more from the added gears than the Stingray can. The North American pickup truck market is the most hotly contested segments GM plays in and gas mileage is more important now than ever before.

Ford unveiled its 2015 F-150, emphasizing fuel economy gains by taking a big risk by building much of the body with aluminum. The choice will shed hundreds of pounds and bring about better fuel economy.

General Motors truck engineer Jeff Luke all but admitted on the Detroit show floor that the Silverado will share the eight-speed automatic very soon. Further underscoring the transmission’s impending truck future, Juechter said that re-packaging the eight-speed for a non-transaxle application is relatively easy.

The Stingray isn’t hurting for two more gears and it sure seems like the people responsible for making that change have other fish to fry… for now.

Cruiter

I sort of suspected that. The A6 had been tweaked for the 2014 and there's nothing whatsoever wrong with it. Mine shifts much faster than anyone with a manual could shift, gets excellent fuel economy, and is quicker than the A7. That being said, the Z06 and C7R are different beasts with a different engine. I listened a lot during the Rolex 24 and really liked the shifting sounds (very quick). Now there's that little anomaly to fix with the half-shaft seal in #4 but things like that happen with the terrific stress of 24 hours of pure punishment.

On a side note, I have nearly 4600 miles since delivery and my RPM's and acceleration have been such that the computer is saying I've used about 60% of the life of my oil yet (I get on her a lot) mileage since delivery ('B' ODO hasn't been re-set since delivery) is 19.6 mpg. Not too shabby. I'm happy with my A6 .

Motor

Cruiter

Tommy Milner had a GoPro strapped to his helmet. Great sound too. Not sure how many gears the tranny had, but he only used six of them. Anyway, you get the drivers perspective of all aspects of the race. If you go full screen and hi-def, watch the center display screen. It's a rear facing camera and has computer arrows telling what the approaching cars are doing.

It's as close to driving it at night yourself as you're going to get, great 15min+ video.

Motor

Where's the drool smiley?

bagwell

corvetteforum has it!!!

hlee12

basically same old narrative. vette is a fun bargain, but can't match the king. been like that, well forever.

bagwell

king? king of what, $$$$ ?? I'd rather have 3 vettes than 1 overpriced 911 (base on the S is $99K....options on that car were $60K).

Even the Z06 will be priced less the the 911....wanna bet who wins that round?

hlee12

porsche is just a better car. drive one and it will just blow your mind. and i still love its timeless design.

if money was not a concern, i'll take 911 s over vette. i mean it's not even a debate. and will take turbo s over zr1. but yes, vette is hard to beat at $60k. it's a great bargain. but again, it's no porsche. that's just me.