David Hill to Retire

[zr1mom]

FOR RELEASE: 2005-10-27




GM Announces Corvette Chief Engineer David Hill to Retire Tom Wallace to lead performance car team


DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. announced today that David Hill, currently GM vehicle chief engineer (VCE) for Corvette and vehicle line executive (VLE) for performance cars, will retire effective Jan. 1, 2006 after more than 41 years of dedicated service.

Tom Wallace willreplace Hill as vehicle line executive - performance cars and vehicle chief engineer for the Corvette. Additionally, he will assume responsibilities for compact rear-wheel-drive performance cars including Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky. Wallace currently is VLE for small/midsize trucks.
Lori Queen, currently VLE compact cars and the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky , is appointed VLE for small/midsize trucks, replacing
Tom Wallace.

"David Hill has taken the Corvette to heights that few of us can
imagine. In terms of performance, refinement and value, he has truly
helped to make Corvette second to none. Dave is a true car guy who
will take his rightful place among the legends of Corvette lore," said
Bob Lutz, General Motors vice chairman, global product development.


"What do you do to replace a guy like Dave? You do your best to get
another one. Tom Wallace also is a car guy and racer who will make a
perfect choice to lead the Corvette and Performance team. Besides,
Tom was Dave's choice too. That should tell you all you need to know,"
Lutz concluded.




Hill has a rich history with GM since joining Cadillac Motor Car
Division in 1964. He moved through various engineering positions and
was named an executive in 1979.




In 1982, he was named chief engineer of the Cadillac Allante.
Following the introduction of the Northstar engine in 1992 in the two seat
luxury roadster, Hill assumed chief engineer responsibilities for the
Cadillac Deville and Concours.


Hill was named in 1993 as chief engineer for the Chevrolet Corvette,
only the third chief engineer for the sports car in the vehicle's 53-year history. In 1995, Hill was named vehicle line executive for performance cars and led the development of the fifth generation


Corvette and the introduction of the Cadillac XLR.

Last year, Hill launched the latest sixth generation Corvette
followed by the introduction of the new 505 bhp Corvette Z06 for 2006.


Hill holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from
Michigan Technological University and a master's degree in mechanical
engineering from the University of Michigan .




Wallace has been with GM since 1966 when he joined Buick Motor
Division in Flint , Mich. He was named to an executive engineering position in 1980 while still with Buick and was later named to the GM Truck Group in 1995. Wallace holds a bachelor's in mechanical engineering from Kettering University (formerly GMI), and is a Sloan Fellow, earning a master's in business administration from Stanford University .


Wallace and his team were responsible for the development and launch
of Chevrolet TrailBlazer, GMC Envoy, Buick Rainier, Chevrolet Colorado, GMC Canyon and Chevrolet SSR. Additionally, he led the highly successful launch of the Saab 9-7X and the HUMMER H3.

An avid performance car enthusiast, Wallace has enjoyed competing in
both amateur and professional road racing, rally car and drag racing.
He started racing with the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) more
than 30 years ago and has raced in a variety of Sedan and GT classes with race-prepped Oldsmobile, Buick and Chevrolet models.


Queen received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from
Kettering University (formerly GMI). She recently led the launches
of some of GM's most successful products currently in the market:

Chevrolet Cobalt and HHR, Saturn ION, the Pontiac Solstice and the
soon to be released Saturn Sky.

Queen has been with GM since 1974 and has held numerous Engineering positions, including vehicle chief and VLE assignments for both cars and trucks.

General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), the world's largest automaker, has been the global industry sales leader since 1931. Founded in 1908,
GM today employs about 325,000 people around the world. It has
manufacturing operations in 32 countries and its vehicles are sold in
200 countries. In 2004, GM sold nearly 9 million cars and trucks
globally, up 4 percent and the second-highest total in the company's
history. GM's global headquarters are at the GM Renaissance Center
in Detroit . More information on GM can be found at www.gm.com (http://www.gm.com/).

[tomtom72]

Bravo Mr. Hill. I hope Dave has a fun & rewarding retirement! Thanks for keeping the faith!
:thumbsup: to Dave

Good luck to the new team. Thay have a tough act to follow. :cheers:

[WB9MCW]

IT SURE WILL BE AN UPHILL BATTLE TO REPLACE HIM...PUN INTENDED..LOLOL

[Kevin]

can't say I'm sorry to hear it

[RICHARD TILL]

IF TOM WALLACE HAS BEEN WITH GM SINCE 1966, ADD IT UP. HOW LONG MIGHT HE BE GOOD FOR? GOOD OR BAD?

[Patton]

What’s up with the CAPS LOCK people? I mean I can understand wadsworth,.... That’s just part of the awesome wadsworth package for christ sake, wouldn’t have it any other way. But lets draw the line somewhere,... For everybody else, save wadsworth, AS PER VERY VERY COMMON TYPING EDIQUETTE CAPS LOCK MEANS YOU ARE YELLING... Read closely, hopefully you will detect a difference...

Hey buddy, how’s it going?

HEY BUDDY HOWS IT GOING?

One was calm and one LOUD... see? Give it a shot. ;)

[WB9MCW]

PATTON FIGURED ME OUT,,, DAMN IT,,, I ALWAYS YELL A LOT....i think he is sensitive to all this yelling stuff cause he is in the mans army...jimo :mrgreen:

[Patton]

Hey good thinkin wadsie,.. Cause most of us Jarheads are really sensitive creatures when it comes to yellin... or not. But hey quick, everybody take a screenshot!! Wadsworth has typed using freakin lower case letters!!!
that is a miilestone my friend, you and your family must be proud.

:thumbsup:

Dont worry wads, I got your back on the whole caps thing. I just dont want to see droves of just any ole jack biting off your styles. ;)

[RICHARD TILL]

hey PATTON. i`m just an ole country boy who types with 2 fingers and may even spell words wrong. didnt mean to step on and "YOUR" toes.

[tomtom72]

Just curious since for the past 20 yrs I didn't pay much attention to Hi performance cars. Is the vette in trouble from an engineering to reality point of view? In light of GM's financial difficulty there has to be an impact somewhere. I was thinking the other day that Chevrolet as a company probably could stand up by itself? Maybe Caddy also? I doubt any of the other divisions would have enough market share to carry on alone?

Did Dave have to do too much politicing & that took away from leading the engineering of corvette? The C5 & 6 platforms were his projects, weren't they? I remember when the C5 was announced & it even woke me up out of my slumber when I saw the chassis details. Ofcourse I thought to myself...it's so old it's new...the backbone type frame was used by Lotus on the Europa twin cam, 4 valve DOHC cars of the seventies. I know there isn't but so much you can do on a production line but at least it looked like GM was at least listening to the engineers at corvette.

Just curious. I'm not throwing rocks at anyone. :mrgreen:

:cheers:
Tom

[yellowz]

3cheers
i hope this new guy has more savoy and is more personal then dave hill was.
he may have been ah ok as cheif care taker of the corvette,but as far as im concerned he was once and still is a cadillac man.im sure some of you c5 owners
think what hes done was great remeber this what dave mcclellan was greater
he gave us the 78 style fastback look,then car of the year in 1984 voted by motor trend and his greates acomplisment was the zr1.Dave M had the balls
to take the zr 1 leve higher by acheiving what no other car even this new z06
and that was the record run.So im glad to see dave hill gone .If the air apparent to him has what dave mcclean has and gave us ill defintly add something to the stable but not any era of dave hills.
AS THEY SAY WHEN YOUR TEAM IS GETTING BEAT
NANANA NANANA HEY HEY GOODBYE:cool:

[WB9MCW]

that is a gud ? TT I'll let others more in the know and who knew Dave Hill in person answer that one!!!

[Jim Jones]

Well, it just seems to me that all of the chiefs to lead Corvette have given something to it and made it better. I think that under Hill they made the C5's more comfortable and while it isn't the most stunning Corvette to look at, I think it's a good progression and I really like the C6. And he is trying to squeeze alot into America's only pure sportscar. I agree that Cadillac did benefit from the Corvette's engine, but I also think that in today's world, they should share information to make all the cars better in the General's line-up. It isn't going to be too long before the Asian car companies are going to force some major changes in the US car manufacturing segment.

I say "Congrats Dave Hill to a great career at GM! :cheers: "

Mr. Wallace has a whole closet full of enormous shoes to fill.

Just my .02

Jim

[Aurora40]

Just curious since for the past 20 yrs I didn't pay much attention to Hi performance cars. Is the vette in trouble from an engineering to reality point of view?

Just my thoughts, but I'd say the Corvette was in much more trouble/danger back in the late 70's and early 80's. There was a lot of desire to share platforms, etc to make Corvette more "profitable". I use quotes because gutting a platform/nameplate for a short term gain isn't really profitable in the big picture. Imagine if they had shared platforms or put a turbo 4 in the 'vette back then. Would the car even still be around now? If it were, would we care enough about it to post on a forum? Maybe, maybe not.

While I think the C5 is nice, though I still don't care for the look, I think it was probably designed with a lot less resistance than other Corvettes. And once the C5 took off (in sales, mag reviews, etc), I doubt the Z06 and C6 were hard to fight for.

I do think the C5 represented a shift from an all-out balls sports car for joe everyman though. It's just that it still happens to have a lot of balls. Corvette was about image and desire as much as about its performance. With the possible exception of the new Z06, I don't think the C5 or C6 were about that, they are about a fast car that you don't have to make compromises to drive.

I dunno, I'm rambling...

[tomtom72]

Hi Bob, I agree with alot said by you. After, or before you buy a sports car you must be excited about it & I think looks & creature comforts come into play just as much as performance. I guess I think like a blue collar guy in that if I'm gonna spend 45K+ on a car I want it all, and at the lowest price! :mrgreen:

I agree about the near death late in the C3's life span. Heck I know I used to laugh at people who had C3's after about 74 because they were so under engineered & underpowered comparred to my 72 LT-1. I mean they kept the same chassis since 63! DM saved the car as a sports car & did the C4 & ZR-1 so hats off to DM!

I still think that looks left aside that Dave Hill made sure the C5 had a better chassis, not just different from the C4 & it took care of some major sore points, ingress & egress not the least among them. He didn't do too bad in the motor dept. either. I would like to drive a C5 & live with it awhile to see how improved it is. I follow enough of them around on our cruises that my curiosity is aroused. I can't afford one of them let alone the Z06 but the advances in the chassis & motors are real. Gotta give Dave Hill credit for building on the rescued reputation that DM rebuilt. You can't say it was status Quo like the C3's were. I think that in the high price sports car market your package must have most all of it or it will not sell. I feel the C5's & C6's offer as good a total package in terms of value than anything at that price point. I also think that they compare very favorably to things that cost twice as much but I'm a bit biased. :o JMHO.

[95ZR1#418]

So, will Tom Wallace do justice to the cause? :???:

[ZR-1 Mack]

I only saw him once at Carlisle last summer. He was presenting the design details on the ZO6 and GM had 3 or 4 there in different colors.

I think he took alot of pride in the new ZO6 and probably that is the car that will be his legacy. In comparison the ZR-1 design was much more innovative.

[Kevin]

I only saw him once at Carlisle last summer. He was presenting the design details on the ZO6 and GM had 3 or 4 there in different colors.

I think he took alot of pride in the new ZO6 and probably that is the car that will be his legacy. In comparison the ZR-1 design was much more innovative.

The C6 Z is to Hill what the ZR-1 was to McCelan(sp) I would assume.