An interview with the new Corvette's designer shows promise for the latest C7
Maybe it’s in the passionate way its makers speak about it, the promise that it’s been very much designed with Europeans in mind, or just in the way it looks so good, but there’s something about the new Chevrolet Corvette Stingray that does it for me in the way no other big American sports car gets close to.
I caught up with its designer, Ed Welburn, at the Geneva motor show today and the way he spoke about the car was enough to put a big smile on any petrolhead’s face: he is a man that loves cars, knows all about cars, loves designing cars and is passionate about designing great cars.
“The ‘Vette has such a wonderful history, and I don’t want to be the designer to screw it up,” he told me on how he went about the project. “You start by understanding the history and what makes the ‘Vette so iconic. But you also need to understand how to make it relevant today and into the future, thinking differently but without forgetting the past.”
The Stingray makes all the right noises on the contemporary front: “lighter, leaner, more athletic, more youthful looking, more aerodynamic” are some of the words Welburn uses to describe the design brief for the new C7.
Once that had been decided on, Welburn, who oversees design at every single General Motors brand, challenged every one of his 2000 or so designers in 10 GM design centres around the world to submit a design for the ‘Vette.
“This helped us see what the new car should not be as much as what it should be,” he said. “It was fascinating to see what the car means to different designers around the world.”
Welburn pinned “hundreds and hundreds” of sketches on the walls of where his “core” design team in Detroit were tasked with coming up with the final look. “This was not an easy project, but it was smoother than most,” he said. “We had challenges, but I think we’ve created something really special here.”
Welburn is particularly proud of the interior – “there was lots of improvement” over the old C6 here, Welburn noted.
Is he concerned the more contemporary look of the car would be a switch off to the ‘Vette’s passionate following? “You can still design for a new audience and keep the fans happy,” he said. “We certainly didn’t want to alienate the fans in appealing to a wider, bigger audience. But we’ve shown it in public to current owners and they love it – the reaction has been great and we couldn’t be happier so far.”
The global debut of the convertible version in Geneva has just passed, along with talk of a big part of its development taking place at the Nürburgring, was a deliberate ploy to show just how serious GM is about enhancing the ‘Vette’s appeal outside of the US. “We did research on what European sports car buyers want, and had strong input from our designers in Europe,” he said.
The Chevrolet brand is gaining traction in Europe, and it’s hoped that this new “icon for the brand”, as Welburn puts it, can have a positive effect on the looks of the rest of the range. “This will have a very healthy influence on the rest of the Chevrolet range,” said Welburn.
As ever, the proof in just how ‘iconic’ the new ‘Vette is will be in the way it drives. But if the engineering department has had as much passion for the new car as Welburn’s design team, then the ‘Vette has its best chance ever at going global.