Reeves of Callaway Cars fame and I go way back to the time in 1986 when we made the decision to go for a naturally aspirated 4 cam engine (the LT5). We shared with Reeves the work we had done up to that point to develop a twin turbo Corvette. Reeves took this and made it his own, producing the Callaway Twin Turbo Corvette. This lead to the 250 + mph Sledge Hammer and an ongoing series of Callaway Corvettes, the latest being the C16.

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The biggest issue facing the Corvette into the future is being able to maintain its extraordinary performance against the threat of fuel economy legislation. In this Podcast, I interview Peter Wright, ex Chief Engineer of the Lotus F-1 program, co-inventor of active suspension and now a consultant to F-1. We’re going to talk about design optimization in the digital world and F-1s mandate for energy recovery systems on board the race cars just one year out.

Peter and I are fellow inductees as Fellows of the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers). 20 to 25 Fellow grade memberships are conferred each year from a membership of about 80,000. Peter has written two books on F-1 racing which I highly recommend. Formula 1 Technology and Ferrari F-1, Under the Skin of the Championship Winning F-1 2000.

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This episode is in honor of Maurice Olley. Dave gets Bill Milliken on the phone to tell us about Maurice Olley. Maurice is going to be inducted into the Corvette Hall of Fame this Autumn.

Click here to see an article from August 4th, 1948 titled “An Engineer At The Grand Prix”

Books Mentioned In This Podcast:
Chassis Design
Equations Of Motion
Race Car Vehicle Dynamics

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Video Footage of NCRS Steamboat 1995

In this episode, Dave shares a video that was done at the NCRS National Event in Steamboat Springs in July of 1995. Video includes footage of some of those behind the scenes in Corvette History.

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In this episode, Dave interviews John Fitch. During the 50s and 60s, John had a racing career that included driving for Mercedes-Benz and the Briggs Cunningham team. He celebrated major wins in the Argentina Grand Prix, the Mille Miglia, and Sebring. He was the first racing team manager for Corvette in 1956 and 1957.

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In this episode, Dave is in Sebring, Florida for the “Twelve Hours Of Sebring” endurance race. Standing at turn seventeen, the last turn of the track before the cars head down the straightaway in front of the pits, Dave uses his digital audio field recorder to capture the atmosphere of the even through sound.

Please have a listen and be sure to leave a comment and let Dave know what you think.

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Zora Arkus-Duntov, the Corvette SS and The 12 Hours of Sebring, 1957

After Zora drove a 1956 Corvette at 150 mph on the sand beach at Daytona Florida, his Chief Engineer, Ed Cole, wanted him to take the Corvette racing. After a fitful first start in the 1956 Sebring 12 Hour race, Zora showed up the following year with the car he really wanted to go racing with, the Corvette SS. Sebring was a race that attracted the world’s best race drivers and the manufacturers who sold their cars based on their racing success. The white test “mule” for the SS was a sensation in practice. Juan Manuel Fangio was faster in it than the previous year’s lap record. As you will see in this video it was also driven in practice by Sterling Moss. The late arriving Corvette SS is also featured with its eventual drivers, John Fitch (Corvette Hall of Fame) and Piero Taruffi. A total lack of testing before the race plagued the SS and led to its early withdrawl. Zora’s plan to race the SS in the Le Mans 24 Hour race that June was dashed when GM agreed to the Automobile Manufacturers Association (AMA) ban on racing.

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Dick Guldstrand races. Even at 80 he still races. He first started racing Corvettes in the late ‘50s when Zora began Chevrolet’s clandestine support of Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) racing. All these years Dick has been a friend of the Corvette and has enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with the marquis. We built them and he jazzes them up for his customers all over the world. Dick is a proud member of the Corvette Hall of Fame.

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Dave Ferguson is one of the National Corvette Restorers Society (NCRS) judges for his favorite Corvettes the ‘53 through ’57 models. Dave was imprinted with a love for the Corvette in high school. Two careers later he is back. Along the way he enjoyed careers as a fighter pilot, as a test pilot and as head of flight operations for the Lockheed Skunk Works where he flew the U2, A12, F117A and had first flight in the YF22.

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In this fourth episode of the Corvette Chief Podcast, Dave shares his thoughts on the most recent High Performance Corvettes. We are very excited about the launch of the Corvette Chief Podcast and the response from each of you in the comments area of the posts. Dave is already working working on the next round of podcast episodes as well as a few video installments as well.

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