| NCM 60th Anniversary Party 06/28/12 |
Extremely busy week! I only captured the highlights.
Chevrolet’s Corvette officially turned 60 this weekend and the NCM celebrated the birthday party in style.
It was June 30th, 1953 when that first Polo White two seater left the Flint, MI assembly plant.
A few of our club members visited the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green KY, and some attended the NCCC Convention also in KY. And some lucky ones took the first tour of the newly re-designed Corvette Assembly plant in its preparation to create even more dreams with the new C7 Stingray.
Then on Friday we actually became part of history and attended the groundbreaking event at the location for the new NCM Motorsports Park!
We quickly realized that this is actually much more than just a place to have fun and race a few Vettes, but an amazing place that will eventually be capable of supporting itself and create new jobs and return our Corvette racing team back to its home.
The creative design of this course was done in such a way that incorporated features and turns that will be as good as if not better than any course in the world!
More here... www.motorsportspark.org
Video HERE & HERE
And if that wasn't enough, GM held another reveal at the museum, the unveiling of the 2014 Corvette Stingray Premiere Edition Coupe.
It has a special paint/stripe, new wheels and matching Vette luggage! Only 500 will be produced and only one automatic.
More HERE.
These photos of the exiting new C7 Stingray were taken inside the museum.
There were two Lime Rock Green Vettes, and one each of the Cyber Grey, Blade Silver, Velocity Yellow and Black Stingrays. A few other colors were spotted in the neighborhood.
We found out many more details of the C7 - they actually did a COMPLETE REDESIGN of EVERY feature on this car. See below for a few of the engineering innovations we learned about!!
|
More about the C7 Stingray's innovations...
A main theme to improve strength and aerodynamics and reduce weight.
(The engineers worked on the rear view mirrors for another 3 months just to reduce the air friction by 1% more).
The Z51 Package that includes improved exhaust, 5 more horses, 5 more pounds of torque, heads up display, rear spoiler, larger wheels, better breaks, & electronic limited slip differential.
New Bose Sound system with microphones in each door for improved noise cancelling sound, (like the headphones).
Optional Sub-woofer in the rear on the coupe.
Other parts like the battery have moved to the rear for better balance.
Transmission cooler, ELSD - Electric Limited Slip Differential, etc.
Active Hatch Vent in the rear that was specifically designed to enable an easy closing rear hatch.
New air intake vents in the hood, sides and by the rear deck -
Designed so that anything that can fit through the opening will come out the back end.
(Phil called it the acorn test - any acorn that fell into this must come out the rear)
Improved break rotors with more vents.
Improved seats that are heated AND air conditioned.
New aluminum frame with more channels for strength at less weight.
New Crush Cans to absorb front and rear impact energy in case of a crash.
Hollow suspension parts and control arms.
New magnetic ride control shocks - no need to make special changes to autocross!
The manual transmission features active rev-matching on both up and down shifts.
(Buttons on steering wheel to turn on or off)
|
|
