Podcast: Looking Back at Le Mans
The 74th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the world’s greatest sports car race, is now in the record books. Corvette Racing scored its third straight victory in the GT1 class (and its fifth win in six years) against world-class competition in this grueling twice-around-the-clock endurance race in France. You can hear the comments of driver Oliver Gavin, who piloted the No. 64 Corvette C6.R to victory with his teammates Olivier Beretta and Jan Magnussen, in his audio podcast review of the race. Check out his podcast here.
For a different perspective, read driver Johnny O’Connell’s personal blog that he wrote after a star-crossed race in the No. 63 Corvette C6.R that finished seventh in the GT1 division.
Check back to Fast Lane for more Le Mans recaps soon.
Chris C.
What I feel is most incredible about this win is that the IMSA continues to penalize the Corvette team with added weight to the car to make them more competative with other participants. How about the other participants just build better cars? Very proud Corvette fan & American here!
Chris Hayne
Quick comment: GM needs to get great new like this out to the masses. I mean, other than reading this blog, who would know ?
Bwright
Two things on the Corvette victory at Le Mans:
First, Johnny O should not be so hard on himself as things happen in a 24 hour race. That’s why GM enters two cars. The important thing is for one of the two cars to be on the podium, preferably in first place, when the checkered flag drops. Mission accomplished. Johnny should be commended for helping to bring the sister car home.
What happened to Johnny O was reminiscent of what happened to Ron Fellows some years ago when he accidentally drove off the road in a turn (Arnage?) at Le Mans a few years ago. The team recovered. Same thing happened this year just Johnny played Ron’s role. Then, as now, good job by all.
The second point concerns a recent editorial on Autoextremist.com about the Corvette’s success. Autoextremist attributed the Corvette race team’s success to an unwavering commitment to excellence. Interesting observation and quite correct. Now let me tell you how this lesson will be lost on GM and the next Vette (C7).
As someone who has purchased two new Corvettes (1999 and 2005) the recent Corvette success story is not new to me. I read both ACAR and Corvette C6 by Phil Berg. With the C5 it is clear that Dave Hill’s insistence on spending money for the right technology to get the C5 made the car good despite a subpar interior relative to the competition it could dial on performance. The C5 Z06 started out conceptually as the “Billy Bob” Corvette. It was to be a lesser-priced Vette to juice sales. But GM thought it over and decided to move tentatively upmarket with the C5 Z06. The result was a resounding sales success. The only thing that stopped it from being a runaway success was the failure to offer the package on the C5 Coupe.
GM listened and the result is the staggeringly capable C6 Z06. It is a car that has taken the enthusiast world by storm with buyers across the spectrum - from Lamborghini, Ferrari and Porsche etc. - lining up to buy one. Two model years into its intro, the only thing being negotiated at local Chevrolet dealers is how much buyers will be paying above sticker. Why is this? Because like the C6.R race team no expense was spared in sharply ratcheting up the performance attributes.
So the C5 Z06 was a success because money was spent to make it a performance success, the C6 Z06 is a success because even MORE money was spent making it a performance success and the C6.R is a resounding success because an even MORE considerable amount of relative money is spent on the program.
And still the C6/C6 Z06 managed to debut with a subpar interior. GM did not want to spend the money on the interior don’t you know. It’s only the part where the owner will, for all intents and purposes, spend all of his or her time. GM just figured that if they dialed up the performance then nobody would notice their lack of courage. Despite multiple examples in the Corvette program of where spending the EXTRA money translated into significant critical success in the form of the C5 Z06, C6 Z06 and the C6.R. Even with those lessons GM cannot seem to fully grasp the simple point that you cannot cost cut your way to excellence. Even if it cost an extra $3,000 to carpet the door pockets, upgrade the carpet and mats throughout (see Jaguar), cover the dash, door panels and A-pillars in quality leather, add an alcantara headliner and make all the silver painted plastic on the console real brushed aluminum Corvette buyers would gladly pay it. Don’t think so? Try listening to the C6 convertible owners who so demanded the $2,000 power top option that GM was caught flat-footed trying to get the option in sufficient numbers to meet the +80% demand.
According to statistics available from Corvette Action Center, the $4,360 1SB option package was being selected by nearly 90% of Vette buyers. Why is it even an option? Why is the NAV system not standard? From a marketing standpoint GM could point out that no competitor offers one as standard equipment.
The Vette is GM’s flagship car. A good car, it stands out in the rain with its nose pressed to greatnesses glass for want of $3,000 on its interior. For shame.