Jim Perkins passed away last Friday

[WARP TEN]

This article from Automotive News (https://www.autonews.com/) was posted on another forum this morning and I thought I would share it. I have also added my post on that forum about my experience with Jim. He was a great and important person in the story of the Corvette and especially the ZR-1.-Bob

Here is the article:

Quote Originally Posted by AutoNews
Jim Perkins, who led Lexus launch and rescued the Corvette, dies. By RICHARD TRUETT

Former Chevrolet General Manager Jim Perkins, the wily, free-speaking, cowboy boot-wearing Texan who helped launch Lexus and then returned to Chevrolet and saved the Chevrolet Corvette from being axed in the 1990s, died Friday in Charlotte, N.C. He was 83.

Perkins began his General Motors career in 1960 the hard way – when he couldn't get an interview at Chevrolet's regional office in Dallas, he hung out in the lobby and approached anyone who would speak with him. Finally, he begged his way in to Chevrolet by taking a warehouse job scrapping parts returned under warranty.

That start was all it took. Perkins, who fell in love with Chevrolet as a child and dreamed of owning a Chevrolet dealership, was on his way.

During Perkins' first tenure at Chevrolet – chronicled in a 2011 profile published in Automotive News' 100th anniversary commemoration of the Chevrolet brand – he earned one promotion after another over the next two decades until, finally, he landed the top job at Chevrolet, general manager.

In 1984, Toyota came calling. Perkins was wooed away to work on the launch of the Japanese company's Lexus luxury division.

Return to Chevy
Five years later, Perkins returned to Chevrolet as general manager to help shore up a division that was plagued with a lineup of vehicles that had fallen far behind the competition in quality, value, performance, fuel economy, safety – nearly everything customers deemed important.

One of those troubled vehicles was the flagship for the entire corporation, the Chevrolet Corvette, which was about to be given the axe. Sales had fallen to just over 20,000 units per year by 1989 and GM had deemed the Corvette to be "nonessential," recalls Ralph Kramer, Chevrolet's director of public relations at the time.

"It was Perkins who found the money to go ahead and get the prototypes built," Kramer told Automotive News. If it wasn't for that, that car was destined to be shelved, he said. "He had the opportunity to move some funds around and he did that surreptitiously, causing no end of anguish among the auditors."

Perkins diverted marketing dollars, Kramer said, to pay for the early versions of what would become the fifth generation of the Corvette. That car debuted in 1997, and from 1998 to 2008, global Corvette sales were never lower than 32,000 units per year. But saving the Corvette was only a small part of Perkins' second act at Chevrolet.

In the 1990s, Perkins stoked truck sales, pushed Chevy to five NASCAR championships and six Indy 500 wins and was famous for handing out Chevy bow tie lapel pins featuring the word "Proud."

New career: Retail
In 1996, at age 61, Perkins retired for good from GM and returned home to Fort Worth, Texas. But that didn't last. Ninety days later, Perkins was in North Carolina, running Hendrick Automotive Group's 100 stores, which at the time made it the nation's largest dealership group.

Perkins remained CEO at Hendrick until 2005, when he named COO for all of Hendrick's various retail and racing operations. In 2009, Perkins took on a new role at Hendrick, leading a venture that dealt with reconstructing classic cars and retired race cars. The venture also built high-performance Chevrolet Camaros.

Late Friday, tributes to Perkins began appearing on social media.

The National Corvette Museum on Facebook paid its respects to Perkins: "Jim was an instantly likable person, who could relate to anyone, no matter where they were on the social ladder, With a down-to-earth way of looking at things, he had an innate ability to cut through difficult problems to find solutions (even occasionally unorthodox ones), inspiring great respect and loyalty to those around him."

The tribute continued: "He was able to save the Corvette from cancellation by marshaling resources and talent in ways that he freely confessed (with a grin) 'could have gotten me fired or worse.' Under his leadership, however, Corvette would go from the chopping block to being the 1998 Motor Trend Car of the Year, paving the way for all Corvette's since."

Pontiac historian Jim Mattison wrote on Facebook: "Jim was one in a million, a true gentleman and one hell of a Chevrolet general manager."

[WARP TEN]

And here is my little bit, also posted on that other forum recently. I am sure many of you will have similar stories.--Bob

Sorry to hear that he has passed. He was a very important person in the story of Corvettes. My experience with Jim Perkins is also partly related to a book, but this book is the story of the development of the 90-95 ZR-1 motor (the original LT5), called The Heart of the Beast by Anthony Young. Jim was kind enough to sign it for me when we were all down in Bowling Green in April of 1995 for the production of the last ZR-1 and its installation in the Museum. (The book was also signed by author Anthony Young, Corvette Chief Engineer Dave McLellan, Gordon Killebrew and a number of other important people in the ZR-1 story). But besides the autograph, my best memory of Jim Perkins was at the ceremony rolling the last ZR-1 (1995 #448) off the line and the subsequent trip to the museum across the street. We had gathered about 300 ZR-1s at the plant for this special time so there was a huge crowd of the cars planning to parade over to the museum. Jim wanted to have a special lead for the group in the form of a red, white and blue Corvette. Jim drove the red one, #448, Larry Merow (the late founder of the original ZR-1 Registry club) drove his white ZR-1 and my Quasar Blue '93 was the blue car. I even video taped the procession--try driving a ZR-1 6 speed while holding a video camera in your right hand! That somewhat shaky tape now resides with the current owner of my '93. But it was a very memorable time for all of us.

By the way, the Heart of the Beast is a great read for anyone interested in Corvette history and their engines. It was quite something for produce such a spectacular motor, designed by Lotus and manufactured by Mercury Marine in Stillwater, OK, under the umbrella of GM's bureaucracy. It is well written and a fascinating read.--Bob

[-=Jeff=-]

bummer.. God speed to his family, but he truly lived a full life

[-=Jeff=-]

https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/20...ibund-gm-dies/

https://www.autonews.com/executives/...-corvette-dies

[phrogs]

RIP

[Hib Halverson]

Besides the "savior of the Corvette", Jim Perkins was many things to Chevrolet true believers during his tenure as Chevrolet General Manager. Back when I covered a lot of new Chevrolet products, I met Mr. Perkins many times. He was one of the few high-level GM executives who always remembered my name. I don't mean that in a egotistical manner. It's an observation about the guy's character. He knew the value of treating people with respect and that meant remembering names. He, also, knew how to relate to Chevrolet fans, no matter who they were. Even after Perkins retired from GM and went to work for Mr. H., there were a few times when we ran into each other. We'd always exchange warm greetings then, briefly, sit and talk about the "old days" when he was at Chevrolet (1988-1996) and I was covering Corvette, Camaro and other Chevy performance cars for several magazines.

If I had to identify one single act of Jim Perkins which contributed greatly to the longevity of the Corvette brand it was his "back door" funding of the CERV 4 development vehicle. CERV 4 was the C4-bodied precursor of the C5 which validated the backbone-type structure, the front-engine, rear-transaxle powertrain layout and the control arm rear suspension which have all been used on Corvette since 1997. In a huge compliment to the engineers who developed it, that basic platform is still used, today, 22 years later, on the C7. That platform has lasted three years longer than did the C2/C3 platform–pretty amazing.

I remember seeing the CERV 4A one time at in the Corvette development shop at Milford. This was probably in '92 or maybe early '93. I was walking through that area with Heinricy and Minniker and noted a somewhat-strange looking, black C4 convertible with gold BBS wheels and four exhaust pipes coming out the back under the license plate mount. I asked John about it and got this nondescript answer about "future product". Then John quipped, "Now that you've seen that, we're going to have to shoot you."

At the time, I had no idea that this car was how Perkins saved the Corvette. I didn't learn that until several years later when I read a pre-publication review copy of Jim Shefter's book All Corvettes are Red.

Rest in peace, Jim.
Say "Hello" to Zora and stop by and have a beer with Jim Van Dorn and Doug Johnson.