Live: 2014 Corvette Revealed!

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Hmmmm ...

I haven't found a version of this picture that I can embed. And, I realize that this picture shows Ford engines, and we are talking GM here ... but GM doesn't have an overhead-cam V8 (perhaps with good reason, as you shall soon see). Look about halfway down this thread for the picture that I am talking about.

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1880105

On the left, is a 4.6 Ford DOHC V8 "mod motor" with the valve covers removed. On the right, is a Ford 5.0 pushrod V8 with the valve covers removed. Wee bit of difference in size, isn't there? Even though the 5.0 has a larger displacement.

Say what you want about pushrods ... but the traditional American pushrod V8 is packaged very well. It puts a whole bunch of cam-actuation nonsense into the valley (space that is otherwise pretty much good for nothing) that the DOHC engine needs to have out on top, where it adds to the height and width of the engine.

The Corvette's Gen 5 Chevrolet V8 might have pushrods, but it also has direct injection, variable valve timing, and cylinder shutdown at part load. It is a darn good design.

No, you can't make a pushrod engine do 20,000 rpm. But for the rev range in which practically every automotive engine operates ... it's irrelevant that it won't do 20,000 rpm.

As for the leaf springs ... There is precisely zero similarity between the Corvette's independent upper-and-lower-wishbone front suspension in which the spring acts only as a spring (and plays no role whatsoever in guiding the path of the wheel spindle or in steering), and the horse-cart solid axle leaf spring "suspensions" that gave leaf springs a bad name. In the Corvette application, the transverse leaf spring packages very well by not needing tall struts extending above the top of the front wheel (thus allowing a low hood) and it fits across the chassis below the front of the engine in a place that wouldn't otherwise be used for anything. You can tune a transverse leaf spring to serve both the spring function and an anti-roll function by careful placement of the pivot points - can't do that with coils.

This is indeed GM tech at its finest. And that's intended as a compliment, not as a bash.

Disclaimer: I've never owned a GM vehicle. That doesn't mean that I don't give credit where it's due.

FWIW ... The Vette engine makes more horsepower bone stock than any street-legal, emissions-legal, automotive engine Honda has ever built!

Word. I couldn't have explained it any better.
 
I like the fact that it still has a proper manual tranny and that red is hot as hell...
 
I like the fact that it still has a proper manual tranny and that red is hot as hell...
+1. Not a fan of all this fancy electronic shifting. Sure, it's cool to have paddle shifters and the like, but I would rather have a clutch under my left foot and a solid, tight shifter in the right hand... I want to drive the car.
 
Hmmmm ...

I haven't found a version of this picture that I can embed. And, I realize that this picture shows Ford engines, and we are talking GM here ... but GM doesn't have an overhead-cam V8 (perhaps with good reason, as you shall soon see). Look about halfway down this thread for the picture that I am talking about.

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1880105

On the left, is a 4.6 Ford DOHC V8 "mod motor" with the valve covers removed. On the right, is a Ford 5.0 pushrod V8 with the valve covers removed. Wee bit of difference in size, isn't there? Even though the 5.0 has a larger displacement.

Say what you want about pushrods ... but the traditional American pushrod V8 is packaged very well. It puts a whole bunch of cam-actuation nonsense into the valley (space that is otherwise pretty much good for nothing) that the DOHC engine needs to have out on top, where it adds to the height and width of the engine.

The Corvette's Gen 5 Chevrolet V8 might have pushrods, but it also has direct injection, variable valve timing, and cylinder shutdown at part load. It is a darn good design.

No, you can't make a pushrod engine do 20,000 rpm. But for the rev range in which practically every automotive engine operates ... it's irrelevant that it won't do 20,000 rpm.

As for the leaf springs ... There is precisely zero similarity between the Corvette's independent upper-and-lower-wishbone front suspension in which the spring acts only as a spring (and plays no role whatsoever in guiding the path of the wheel spindle or in steering), and the horse-cart solid axle leaf spring "suspensions" that gave leaf springs a bad name. In the Corvette application, the transverse leaf spring packages very well by not needing tall struts extending above the top of the front wheel (thus allowing a low hood) and it fits across the chassis below the front of the engine in a place that wouldn't otherwise be used for anything. You can tune a transverse leaf spring to serve both the spring function and an anti-roll function by careful placement of the pivot points - can't do that with coils.

This is indeed GM tech at its finest. And that's intended as a compliment, not as a bash.

Disclaimer: I've never owned a GM vehicle. That doesn't mean that I don't give credit where it's due.

FWIW ... The Vette engine makes more horsepower bone stock than any street-legal, emissions-legal, automotive engine Honda has ever built!



Please stop it with all the facts and information. Bias is absolutely a valid reason to mock things you know nothing about.

The 'vette has always been the bang-for-your-buck super car, and that's clearly going to continue in spades. LOVE the new re-design! Kudos to Chevy
 
FWIW ... The Vette engine makes more horsepower bone stock than any street-legal, emissions-legal, automotive engine Honda has ever built!

Oh c'mon now Brian, Honda wouldn't have any trouble stuffing a 800+hp 3.0 liter V10 F1 derived engine in the back of a car being redesigned from a clean sheet of paper.

Rather, they are aiming for "big V8 performance with better than four cylinder fuel economy" with the new Sport Hybrid AWD combo. 480+ hp total, 3000lbs curbweight, 0-60 in 3.0 seconds are the targeted benchmarks. *drool*

One other thing. At the moment, the next NSX is vaporware. Any guesses how the price tag will compare to a Vette? I'm thinking higher ... probably a lot higher.


The NSX plan was shelved for 2+ years when the economy was tanking. This is around the time when Honda (and BMW and Toyota all pulled out of F1) , and some makers stretched their new model releases.

It's shrewd decisions like these that saves a company from having to beg the gov't and taxpayers for $$$ to bail them out. ;)

If you're following the 2013 Detroit autoshow, you'll know that the NSX development is "on again" and very real.

http://www.leftlanenews.com/acura-nsx.html
 
FWIW ... The Vette engine makes more horsepower bone stock than any street-legal, emissions-legal, automotive engine Honda has ever built!

And more torque than any four of them combined.
 
Oh c'mon now Brian, Honda wouldn't have any trouble stuffing a 800+hp 3.0 liter V10 F1 derived engine in the back of a car being redesigned from a clean sheet of paper.


So you are saying that Honda can theoretically build a better engine than one that is in a mass produced economical sports car?

WOW!

Good one.
 
It's shrewd decisions like these that saves a company from having to beg the gov't and taxpayers for $$$ to bail them out.

https://webcache.googleusercontent....&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&gbv=1&ct=clnk

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/mo...8/Honda-Racing-seeks-government-bail-out.html

Not quite on the same scale as the Big 3, but Japanese corporations aren't shy about taking public money. The Japanese government is usually pretty enthusiastic about bailouts too:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/26/us-tepco-idUSTRE80P04B20120126
 

Maybe you should read the content of your own links beyond the bold headlines before posting?

:laughing3:


"U.S. car makers such as GM are seeking government fund aid as they could run out of operating funds any time. But the aim of using government loans [for Honda and Toyota] would be strategic moves" to boost sales, said Yasuaki Iwamoto, an analyst at Okasan Securities."

"Unlike their U.S. counterparts, Japanese car makers have plenty of cash on hand, "


The Japanese were nowhere near Bankruptcy, like GM was and didn't require a bailout to save their @$$.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/mot...-bail-out.html


"Honda Racing could apply for a bail-out from the British government in order to secure their survival."


They "could" have, but they wanted out. They were confident they would find a buyer and they did.

"The Honda F1 team became the UK's first high-profile casualty of the global credit crisis after their Japanese parent company withdrew funding."

Honda wanted out of F1. They voluntarily withdrew, they werent forced to do this. They felt it wasn't worth the cash they were blowing. Toyota and BMW did the same thing.
 
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You do realize that the Japanese govt threw out GM from Japan many decades ago, and then protected their car industry? To this day only 4-5% of vehicles are imported to Japan (Korea is similar). The Japs have got plenty of govt support.
 
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Wow. This conversation is like stepping back to 2000, in the center of the Fast & Furious riceboi invasion. Carry on.
 
So, the non existant NSX that's may be built in 2015 is better than the new Vette because.....

1. Steel spings are cutting edge technology and advanced composite material leaf springs are not.

2. A non existant and unproven engine that needs two electric engines to assist it is better than a curent pushrod engine that wins international endurance racing events.

3. The NSX that was cancelled because nobody wanted it is going to be a hit even though the second attempt at the CRX (that was cancelled because nobody wanted it) was a dismal failure that even KIA could mock.

4. Honda's such a big deal in F1 racing that Honda pulled out of F1 racing.

I'm sold. :)
 
So, the non existant NSX that's may be built in 2015 is better than the new Vette because.....

1. Steel spings are cutting edge technology and advanced composite material leaf springs are not.

2. A non existant and unproven engine that needs two electric engines to assist it is better than a curent pushrod engine that wins international endurance racing events.

3. The NSX that was cancelled because nobody wanted it is going to be a hit even though the second attempt at the CRX (that was cancelled because nobody wanted it) was a dismal failure that even KIA could mock.

4. Honda's such a big deal in F1 racing that Honda pulled out of F1 racing.

I'm sold. :)

5) will undoubtedly cost two-to-three times the cost of the base 'Vette.
 
You do realize that the Japanese govt threw out GM from Japan many decades ago, and then protected their car industry? To this day only 4-5% of vehicles are imported to Japan (Korea is similar). The Japs have got plenty of govt support.

In fairness, this is not quite true. The Japanese market is reasonably open to any foreign manufacturer that wants to build a vehicle that Japanese consumers will buy. Japanese cities are very congested and there are tax breaks for "kei" vehicles that are below a certain size, and that is one of the biggest market segments in Japan. The Americans don't like the Japanese "kei" rules and they don't build anything that fits within those rules. But they COULD ... they just don't. Also, if you want to sell in Japan (or Australia or the UK or Thailand or a few other places) ... right hand drive!

The Volkswagen up! A-segment minicar is reasonably successful in Japan - because it's a compact, space-efficient hatchback that suits being used in congested cities (be it Europe or Japan). It doesn't have a huge market share, because EVERY Japanese manufacturer has multiple entries in that segment. You MUST have a vehicle in that segment or you ain't gonna be a major market player. Well, guess what, the VW up! is smaller than anything built in North America. It is two size classes smaller than a VW Golf. It is smaller than a Chevrolet Sonic. It is comparable to a Chevrolet Spark ... but that's built in Korea.

You can't sell Ford F150's to Japanese consumers ... you just can't. You could have the freest free trade you can think of. Japanese consumers won't buy them. What's the point of buying a vehicle that won't fit where it has to go?

And there's another reason the Americans haven't been able to sell vehicles in Japan: There is a natural tendency to buy home-market vehicles ... everywhere you go in the world. German roads are filled with VW, BMW, Mercedes, Opel (GM!), and other European brands. French roads have lots of French cars. Italian roads have lots of Italian brands. American roads have lots of American brands. Japanese roads have lots of Japanese vehicles. Korean roads have lots of Korean vehicles. If you live in France, why would you buy a Chevrolet when you could buy a Renault?

The Japanese and Korean brands have a very small market share in Europe. It's not at all surprising that American brands have a very small market share in Japan. It's just the way it is, and no amount of free trade will change it.

If anything, the American brands themselves are to blame for the Japanese having such a large market share in North America. A couple decades of crap will do that - the home-market bias will only go so far before people get fed up with garbage.
 
"The Ford Motor Company of Japan was established in 1925 and a production plant was set up in Yokohama. General Motors established operations in Osaka in 1927. Chrysler also came to Japan and set up Kyoritsu Motors. Between 1925 and 1936, the United States Big Three automakers' Japanese subsidiaries produced a total of 208,967 vehicles, compared to the domestic producers total of 12,127 vehicles. In 1936, the Japanese government passed the Automobile Manufacturing Industry Law, which was intended to promote the domestic auto industry and reduce foreign competition; ironically, this stopped the groundbreaking of an integrated Ford plant in Yokohama, modeled on Dagenham in England and intended to serve the Asian market, that would have established Japan as a major exporter[citation needed]. Instead by 1939, the foreign manufacturers had been forced out of Japan".............

"Prior to the mid-l970s, trade policy had not been a priority on the auto industry’s political agenda. During the mid- and late 1960s the U.S. auto industrry actively pursued access to the Japanese market, seeking both lower tarriffs" etc etc

Those tariffs and restrictions no longer apply in Japan but they served their purpose. Koreans have protected their home car industry Much more resently.
 
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5) will undoubtedly cost two-to-three times the cost of the base 'Vette.

6) The NSX will be made in America. Yes, made in OHIO likely using a very high percentage of parts from North America as well. Then'll we'll have a real "American" sports car bristling with the latest advanced technology available, that Americans can truly be proud of. As for the vette? It'll make a great winter beater.
 
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