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2014 Man of the Year: Tadge Juechter
The man who got the Corvette right
From the January 2014 issue of Automobile Magazine - by Jason Harper
Tadge Juechter didn't blink as the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray blitzed through a series of tight kinks on a California back road. One wild-eyed journalist after another was putting the coupe through its paces for the launch of the seventh-generation car, and Juechter was stuck in the right seat. No worries for the fifty-six-year-old engineer, for he had total trust in his machine. And make no mistake, the C7 is Juechter's machine. Only the fifth chief engineer in the Corvette's sixty-one-year history, he's likely to go down in the books as the one who got it right. For that he is Automobile Magazine's 2014 Man of the Year.
Corvette critics can be harsh, and those complaints are rarely unfounded. Some will contend that Chevy's engineers should not be applauded for simply fixing all the stuff that was wrong in previous versions. But Juechter's team did far more than finally bolt in decent seats: the C7 is a top-to-bottom reimagining of what the Corvette could and should be. The car is full of thoughtful engineering, from the seven-speed manual with rev matching that is engaged by using paddles to sensors that know when the tires are properly heated.
The Stingray is also a clear manifestation of what happens when a postbankruptcy General Motors gets out of its own way and allows an effective leader to oversee a dedicated team. "People probably think that everybody at GM rallies around the Corvette, but it's not like that," Juechter says. "The corporation is structured around mainstream vehicles, and the Corvette is idiosyncratic, which makes some people uncomfortable. Getting the right support is a constant negotiation." Juechter should know -- he's been with the company since 1977 and has worked almost exclusively with Corvettes for the last twenty years, starting under then-chief Dave Hill. "It helps having worked on the C5 and C6," he jokes, "because you know where a lot of the land mines are."
Full Story: 2014 Man of the Year: Tadge Juechter- Automobile Magazine
The man who got the Corvette right
From the January 2014 issue of Automobile Magazine - by Jason Harper
Tadge Juechter didn't blink as the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray blitzed through a series of tight kinks on a California back road. One wild-eyed journalist after another was putting the coupe through its paces for the launch of the seventh-generation car, and Juechter was stuck in the right seat. No worries for the fifty-six-year-old engineer, for he had total trust in his machine. And make no mistake, the C7 is Juechter's machine. Only the fifth chief engineer in the Corvette's sixty-one-year history, he's likely to go down in the books as the one who got it right. For that he is Automobile Magazine's 2014 Man of the Year.
Corvette critics can be harsh, and those complaints are rarely unfounded. Some will contend that Chevy's engineers should not be applauded for simply fixing all the stuff that was wrong in previous versions. But Juechter's team did far more than finally bolt in decent seats: the C7 is a top-to-bottom reimagining of what the Corvette could and should be. The car is full of thoughtful engineering, from the seven-speed manual with rev matching that is engaged by using paddles to sensors that know when the tires are properly heated.
The Stingray is also a clear manifestation of what happens when a postbankruptcy General Motors gets out of its own way and allows an effective leader to oversee a dedicated team. "People probably think that everybody at GM rallies around the Corvette, but it's not like that," Juechter says. "The corporation is structured around mainstream vehicles, and the Corvette is idiosyncratic, which makes some people uncomfortable. Getting the right support is a constant negotiation." Juechter should know -- he's been with the company since 1977 and has worked almost exclusively with Corvettes for the last twenty years, starting under then-chief Dave Hill. "It helps having worked on the C5 and C6," he jokes, "because you know where a lot of the land mines are."
Full Story: 2014 Man of the Year: Tadge Juechter- Automobile Magazine
