Podcast: GM to Le Mans Video
Corvette Racing's victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans was the result of planning that rivals the precision of a missile launch and the determination of the D-Day invasion. This time-lapse video shot in Corvette Racing's headquarters in New Hudson, Mich., documents the team's final preparations for the assault on Le Mans as tons of equipment and the two Corvette C6.R race cars were prepared to be airlifted to Europe for the world's most prestigious sports car race. Be prepared; it will take your breath away!
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We are racers. We love Le Mans. We totally respect the Corvette’s fantstic achievements there.
On the other hand, I we don’t get some product in the showrooms that people want to buy, we won’t have any money to race in the future.
I’ll say it again, if you’ll post it. Apply that level of talent and committment to developing, say, the plug in hybrid reported in last weekend’s newspapers, and you will garner 1 million times more positive buzz for GM.
Just a suggestion but I think these Corvette LeMans blog posts should be combined into fewer posts. As it stands all of them together don’t have as many replies as the last blog post by Mr. Lutz.
I hope the Corvette buzz can translate to positive PR for GM. The C6.R (that is a kind of corny “Gen Y” naming thing, I thought so with the GTO.R too) is an awesome piece of machinery.
Unless GM focus on quality, not hyping products that sell in the number of thousand per year, people will flock to Toyota in hundreds every day, to them, Toyota stands for “QUALITY AND VALUE”, and that should be the focus of GM, Solstice is very nice, so is Lucerne, but the sale is small compare to Chevy, so it is not surprisng GM lose marketshare every month even you have some hot products. I want to buy a regular sedan, cannot find any Chevy, so I bough a Camry today and feel sorry for GM. Please focus on Chevy!
I truly hope the relentless quest for excellence displayed by the Corvette racing program gets reflected in all things GM does. At this time, I don’t see it.
On the one hand, everybody knows what GM is capable of. On the other, we see how far GM still needs to go in providing excellent vehicles and services to their customers.
If all of GM worked like the team on the Corvette program, you wouldn’t be in the predicament you are in today.
Let’s see you put some meaning in “the mark of excellence” on your other programs.
Congratulations to the Corvette team!
I want to commend the GM designer for the 4L80E transmission. My 2001 Silverado 2500HD 4dr crew cab lwb has 583,000 original miles on both the motor and the transmission and is still going strong.
I do wish that GM would find a way to improve the fuel mileage for vehicles this size. Try as I can 15.25 mpg is all for the summer and the winter can get down to 11 mpg. I would love to see a GM hybrid this size that would save fuel as my truck is for work and my pov. ($17,000 last year for gas.)
Replacement parts have gone through the roof. I’m on my third EGR valve and every year the prices get worse. I’ve resorted to buying some parts off EBay.
It would be nice to have a choice in the seat width and the pedal height. That’s one thing I’ve always liked about the foreign cars…they are made for smaller people.
Toyota and Nissan may make trucks, but they have yet to produce an 8′ bed. GM has made the Chevy Silverado HD a tough and reliable truck. With proper maintenance I have no idea how long the motor and transmission will last before they have to be rebuilt or replaced. I’ve definitely have gotten my money’s worth.
Its great that Corvette won LeMans, but I agree with some of the postings here that the concentration needs to be on your bread and butter products. Few people would disagree that the Corvette is an amazing car, but Corvette sales won’t turn the company around. In the Chevy stable, the Malibu needs a restyle, and the Monte Carlo needs to look as exciting as its V-8 powertrain. The new Aveo needs to be released, and although I don’t think Hybrids are a long-term answer to the worlds problems, a hybrid version of the Cobalt that isn’t as overpriced as Toyota’s hybrid would balance your stance in the market against your over-hyped Japanese rival.
B-O-R-I-N-G
Congratulations to a great victory. I have to agree with some voices here, though. I think it’s far more important to build cars that people desire, rather than invest a lot of money into a racing project that would be better spent elsewhere.
I’m a huge fan of racing myself, and can only support any company that decides to go racing, but looking at the current GM line-up, I think it’s not gonna be Le Mans victories that’ll save the company. Apart fromt he Vette, I don’t see any car in the Chevy lineup that I’d buy, and judged by the salesnumbers, the Vette is one of the few cars in the Chevy lineup that do no need any further promotion. The car, and the raving reviews it receives all over the media, is enough promotion for itself.
Most other cars in the Chevy lineup are as boring s their competitors, but lack in other areas. Why is it that a Chevrolet Malibu does not at all offer an important safety feature like ESP, and other features like ABS and side and curtain airbags only if customers spend extra money. A Hyundai Sonata, not to speak of several other competitors, comes standard equipped with all these “options”.
This really is the place where GM has to start, if it wants to get back in the game. A Le Mans victory, at least, is not gonna dd to the safety of customers, and I really doubt that anybody would buy a Malibu or any other GM model apart from the Vette, because GM won Le Mans.
Corvette racing is, in my opinion, one of the finest racing teams in all of motorsport. Their dedication and focus is the kind thing GM needs throughout the corporation… you can see the results in the production Corvette and if that same focus is applied to the entire product line, look out competition.
Congrats are also due for the recent success of the GTO.R program… although we will be missing the GTO in the showroom. I hope this will be rectified soon so the program can continue. And PLEASE bring the GTO back to Canada… we missed an entire generation and there can be no excuse for that.
Ford is beating you on Hi-Breds, Ford Rocks.
This will sell like mad.
Great work GM.
I can’t wait to see the new Camaro, I think its even cooler than the corvette. Are you guys going to redesign the new corvette to resemble the old stingray?