26 mile! 95 ZR-1 on BaT

[bb62]

Originally Posted by Mystic ZR-1

One of the commenters stated that the leather for the seats was
provided by Connelly? Never heard that one before? And, I don't believe it...
If true, maybe Connelly had a bunch of defective cows that they pawned off on GM?

I was that poster who stated that the 94 freshening used Connelly Leather. For what it's worth, my neighbor was the interior manager for the 94 freshening project for GM. I confirmed that Connelly leather was used. Why was it not advertised or in any way noted on the vehicle? Because GM was not willing to pay the royalty payments that would have been required to advertise the Connelly name and the purchasing controllers office had the final say as to the pricing targets for the interior components. Therefore, no Connelly logo was included on any of the leather imported by GM.

As an ex-Ford manager (although in the powertrain world), I've seen this type of thing often. The vehicle office has to make trade-offs between cost and function or marketability. From a GM marketing perspective, they probably had a choice between using the Connelly name and using those royalty dollars on something else that they thought would bring better value to the Corvette buyer in those days. Believe me or not, I don't really care.