March 2013 - Page 17 of 17 - C6Performance Journal

March 1, 2013

SANLUIS Rassini Two-Piece Brake Rotors Chosen for 2014 Corvette Stingray

SANLUIS Rassini Two-Piece Brake Rotor Chosen for 2014 Corvette Stingray

Chevrolet has packed a lot of new technology into the 2014 Corvette Stingray, and now comes word that the carmaker has selected a Plymouth, Michigan company to produce the industry’s first-ever brake rotor with a ductile iron hat and gray iron brake plates for the C7′s Z51 Performance Package.

The Corvette engineering team chose SANLUIS Rassini, the world’s largest producer of suspension components for light commercial vehicles and the largest fully integrated brake disc producer in the Americas, to produce the unique two-piece rotor design, which offers significant weight savings and extreme performance at high speeds.

By using the unique combination of ductile and cast iron, the Corvette team was able to garner up to 18 percent weight savings while also improving the car’s heat management capabilities, making the Corvette’s already superb stopping power even more reliable and consistent.

As part of the Z51 package, the Rassini dual-cast braking system makes sure that drivers will have extreme confidence they will be able to stop their Stingray, which with its 6.2-liter engine will go from 0 to 60 in less than four seconds.

“By optimizing both the design and the materials used in the rotor, we are able to achieve weight savings and performance improvements that were not attainable before,” said Eugenio Madero, CEO, SANLUIS Rassini North America. “This technology was developed for high-performance vehicles like the 2014 Corvette that require better heat transfer capabilities at lighter weights.”

The rotor, which has an I-Beam extension design instead of a solid extension design, is the only composite rotor on the market that can accommodate a drum in hat, a rotor design in which the internal surface of the hat serves as a brake drum.

The I-beam design increases air flow through the vent and offers better thermal heat transfer. Using the stronger ductile iron in the hat allows Rassini engineers to maintain structural performance even while using thinner sections of metal. The system gets optimal air flow, too, thanks to the use of the center connection to the hat, better dissipating heat and reducing the stress normally present in a conventional full-cast design.

Source:
PR Newswire

March 1, 2013

End of an Era: The Last C6 Corvette Rolls Off the Production Line in Bowling Green

Early Thursday morning just after 8 am, an Arctic White 2013 Corvette 427 Convertible rolled off the assembly line at Bowling Green’s Corvette Assembly Plant. Not only was it the final Corvette of the 2013 model year, but it was also the very last C6 Corvette made.

A total of 215,100 Corvettes were produced during corvette’s 6th generation which began in 2005 and ended with this 427 Convertible.

Chevrolet produced a total of 13,466 Corvettes during the 2013 model year with around 2,400 of them being the one-year only 427 Convertible. Although wearing just the Arctic White exterior at the factory, this Corvette will be outfitted with the 60th Anniversary package which includes the full length body stripe before it heads to its final destination – the GM Heritage Center in Warren, MI.

Each of the 7.0L LS7 engines that go into the 427 Convertibles are assembled by hand at the Performance Build Center in Wixom, Michigan. The engine that went into the final 2013 Corvette was assembled by none other than Corvette’s Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter.

“Leading up to the production of the last C6 has been all business,” said Bowling Green plant manager Dave Tatman. “We take our job seriously and consider it the privilege that it is. But you can’t do what we do and not get emotionally attached to the car.”

Although its a fairly big deal when the final car for a model year and a whole generation of cars is completed, for the workers at the Bowling Green Assembly Plant, it was a 30 minute celebration before returning to the business of preparing the plant for the launch of the all new 2014 Corvette Stingray.

“The last C6 rolls off the line at 8:04 a.m. and Iâ€™ll have people in here at 8:30 a.m. to start tearing down and putting in new tools,” Tatman said.

And now that production has ended for the C6 Corvette, a crew of around 120 workers will spend four weeks to ready the plant for the C7 Corvette. When the regular employees return back to work on March 25th, they will have to learn the entirely new process for building the 2014 Corvette Stingray.

“As I always say, we donâ€™t build cars, we build dreams,” Tatman said.