David Hill to Retire

[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

[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! "

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

Just my .02

Jim

[Aurora40]

Originally Posted by 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?

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!

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. 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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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