Italian Designer C8 Interior

JCWP

JCWP

AE4,D86, EFY, E60, FA5, J6N, N26,PDV, Q8T, Z51,FE4
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so the ugly car has to look like a european , now the ugly interior is foreign , might as well scrap the Corvette name and call it something else as it is less and less a north american sports car. Strange they didn't move the factory someplace else and just ship them here.
 
XFIRE82 said:
so the ugly car has to look like a european , now the ugly interior is foreign , might as well scrap the Corvette name and call it something else as it is less and less a north american sports car. Strange they didn't move the factory someplace else and just ship them here.
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OMG Man: the C8 is an awesome car - truly - maybe when you see and drive one. I can't wait to order mine: this will be my 5th corvette and each has been better than the first in many ways.
 
From the website: "We’ve followed some of the comments and reactions from high-end sports car owners who are seriously taking a look at the next-generation Corvette for the first time."

They are making the Corvette truly a "halo" car. So if they want to play in the sandbox of Mercedes, Audi, Ferrari, and Bugatti, then you hire the designers who work with those companies. I totally understand the feelings about losing something uniquely American, but they run a business.
 
Well said DDHR!! This looks like an amazing car from everything I've read: and I have read a lot - my youngest son (mech. eng.) thinks it is a game changer and can't wait to drive mine when I get it. problem for me is color? Should I go bold (orange, metallic yellow, new blue ) or conservative (white, gray, black etc). Decisions?? Z51 with FE4 for sure!
 
I was reading a post on another forum from someone who got up close and personal with the C8, close up photos included. The car was pre-production and had thousands of hands on it and butts in it. There were some issues with the interior quality. The suede on the steering wheel was quite worn, the seatbelt buckles were rubbing on the outside surface of the leather seats, wearing out the colour, window trim peeling away from the door panel ( it is glued on) and a few other minor issues. Again, this was a pre-production car that was shuffled around the US. The interior is where most of the wear and tear appeared.
I'm hoping that these and any other issues would have been worked out prior to full production. Faurecia makes parts for many auto makers, not only the high end cars. The parts in the C8 are likely not the same quality as in a $350,000 car.
The car does look awesome and the performance numbers substantiate that. It is a damn good bang for the buck ... but I'm going to wait 2 years prior to considering buying one.
 
It is OK to be skeptical. I AM 70 AND not WAITING 2 YEARS to buy this awesome car. I can afford a Ferrari; but, not stupid enough to spend that kind of money on a car I will hardly drive; on the other hand, a $100K I am OK with - super looks and performance.
 
meh.

I don't see the hubub about the interior. Looks kind of "dis-jointed" IMHO. Not that I have a lot of room to talk with that big old C4 “breadbox” staring at me where ever we go....

No doubt in my mind C8 performance limits will be very high, but for a ‘vette.........well.......meh. No doubt in my mind it would simply crush something like my old C4 either. I’m not that blind or nostalgic. Time marches on...

It just looks more european exotic than Corvette to me. To be honest, I’m not a fan of most new performance cars with thier strange sharp angles and attempts to make headlights and tail light look....”angry”.

I actually wish they had called it something else. Maybe one of the protoype mid engine models names. Or maybe Corvette “Mako”, “Hammerhead” or some other agressive shark name instead of just “Corvette”. Just something obvious to deliniate this major departure from the classical Corvette formula.

Personally, I always enjoyed it when the “cheap” Corvette would show it’s tail lights to exotics with the “ancient” front engine/rear drive layout, even if the engine was closer to mid point in the C4 and up cars. Kind of a big north american middle finger to the European engineering superiority complex they seem have....

Oh well, to each thier own....I’ll stick with my crappy old C4....for a tenth of the price of the C8.

I’m never going to push a C8 (or my C4 for that matter) hard enough to justify the expense. My “cherry” C4 vert gets all the head turning looks I could want (don’t particularly want any), so I don’t need a C8 for the “flash” effect either.

Not to mention: I’m an “80’s guy”. The C8 looks a bit too much 80’s bedroom wall “Countach poster” to me. Now a Countach? Yep yep yep! I’d have one of those in the garage if I could. But again, it’s an 80’s exotic and looks like one. It’s an orginal, not a copy of another “formula”.

Times change I guess, but that doesn’t mean I have to change with them! Lol!

;)
 
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All corvettes were/are great cars. My 79, 96, 03 & now my C7 were all great - loved driving them all; but, with each generation improvements were made. To be honest I thought my C7 was it - by far the biggest improvements to-date; I thought I would keep - and still might,if they screw me over and would be happy keeping this car. :Cheers2: Enjoy your car.
 
Since I wrote the above article for MECF that was used in the Corvette Blogger article I feel more info should be shared with my friends to the North.

The French company of Faurecia has a couple facilities near the cities of Molshiem and Mulhouse, France. Bugatti is based in Molshiem at the original location of Bugatti. Ironically, the two latest Bugatti's have interior design elements that somewhat parallel the C8. No doubt, Faurecia could have indicated to Team Corvette certain design details that they could pull off since they had already developed the fabrication processes to accomplish the look of those flowing designs. Layered IP binacle canopies, vertical alignment of control buttons, and colored recesses that flow up on the top surface of the dash are some of those design elements that parallel both cars.
 
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I asked this question to Tadge last year on the Ask Tadge Section on CF. This question and answer says it all.




Quote:
skank asked:
I'm very interested in the design, fabrication, and quality standards of the interior in the Corvette Line-up. Could you explain the process of utilizing companies such as Draxlmaier, Lear, JMP, Megatech, Magna, and Faurecia as partners in the fabrication of the Corvette interiors including instrument panels, switchgear, door panels, etc. I have debated with other sports car owners(Porsche) that the methodology of fabricating components with accurate tolerances by any of the above companies do not deviate whether manufacturing for Corvette or Porsche or any other high end manufacturer for that matter. The only difference is the material specifications relative to budget. It would be great to hear your perspective on the design and quality standards relative to your competitors.
Quote:
Tadge answered:
The development of cars is a very complex process. Interiors are no exception. It is simultaneously creative and technical and requires great partnerships with supplier companies like the ones you named. Generally speaking, there is a lot of overlap between OEM's and the interior suppliers they use. To describe the process in over-simplified terms: As designers create a "vision" for how a car's interior could look, engineers canvas suppliers for new technology that could delight customers. The interior is a highly constrained environment with many safety, packaging, functionality and legal requirements. The interior also has to maintain perfect harmony with the exterior of the car as I evolves (can't build a car with little windows on the outside but big windows on the inside). Suppliers are engaged as the design evolves to help us work on materials, manufacturability and panel break up. We work intensely on surface feel and appearance and dimensional quality. Remember most cars do not have one interior, they have hundreds depending on color, premium materials (like suede, leather, wood, carbon and metallic accents), and optional content. You mention switchgear which is a huge part of the interior. Those are really electrical components and they are typically supplied by a different group of companies but have to be seamlessly integrated into the rest of the trim.

I don't have specific knowledge about the dimensional tolerance differences demanded by various manufacturers. My opinion is that the interior suppliers do their best for every customer resulting in a kind of "industry standard" of quality at least in dimensional terms. As you say, the actual materials used is a function of the program's budget. In roughly ascending order of cost, interior constructions on mainstream cars start with molded plastic, then painted plastic, then wrapped components. These can be wrapped in vinyl, leather or suede and additional cost is based on sandwiching foam materials under the wrap to give parts a soft feel. Wood (not on Corvette) and metal (typically aluminum or stainless steel) are added as accent pieces. At the top of the price scale is real carbon fiber (there are a lot of carbon-looking applied finishes) which you only see on the most premium vehicles.
 

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