BY JERRY BURTON PHoToS BY EVAN KLEIN

On tour in Maine, for a first drive of the 2008 Corvettes THE

MAINEEVENT

TThe sights of Maine include our Atomic Orange Metallic 2008 coupe outside the Mira Monte Inn in Bar Harbor, a radiator mascot from a 1934 Chevy at the Seal Cove Automotive Museum and still life of skiffs in Camden harbor. Opposite: Crossing the new Penobscot Narrows Bridge at Bucksport..

18 COrveTTe quarterly

he 2008 model year represents the 56th model year

that the Corvette has graced the planet. To fully

appreciate our bearings at this juncture, a little per-

spective is in order. With its new standard iteration

of the small block V8, the 6.2-liter LS3 — which

delivers a standard 430 hp and 424 lb.-ft. of torque

(436 hp and 428 lb.-ft. with optional exhaust) — the

standard coupe and convertible now deliver more

horsepower and a better power-to-weight ratio than

the stripped down, race car-like 2004 fifth-genera-

tion Z06 with its 405 hp and ultra-light curb weight.

These gains come despite new creature comforts

such as an optional custom leather-wrapped inte-

rior and standard OnStar and XM Radio. Add in

more precise steering, faster shifts on the 6-speed

automatic and a much better manual gearbox and

you’ve summarized the 2008 Corvette. It’s all tan-

gible proof of what Corvette Vehicle Line Executive

Tom Wallace’s statement to us a year ago: “If you’re

not moving ahead, you’re falling behind.”

We’ll buy that. We got religion during a maiden

voyage of 2008 Corvettes in coastal Maine near

Bar Harbor last May. We hit the area before tourist

season when the roads would be clear, but unfor-

tunately the weather wasn’t.

But when you’re strapped into cars like these

along the breathtaking Maine coastline, a few

clouds and raindrops aren’t going to spoil your

weekend. Especially when you’ve got compa-

ny like Wallace, chief engineer Tadge Juechter,

Corvette product manager Harlan Charles, plus

special guests Jerry Britner, Jack Matukas and Ben

Labaree. Labaree, a Maine native, best known for

his Corvettes Conquer Cancer crusade, served as

our trip planner and guide. Britner is former exec-

utive director of the National Council of Corvette

Clubs, and Matukas is currently a member of the

National Corvette Museum Board. Both Britner

and Matukas bid big bucks to hang with us and

benefit the NCM expansion campaign. But the

chance to drive these cars was a powerful lure.

Speaking of the cars, our fiberglass fleet con-

sisted of four 2008 Corvettes — a Victory Red Z06,

an Atomic Orange Metallic Z51 coupe, a Machine

Silver convertible with paddle shift and a Velocity

Yellow coupe with paddle shift. All the featured the

www.cqmag.com 19

20 COrveTTe quarterly

new custom leather-wrapped interior and all three

LS3-engined cars were equipped with a dual-mode

exhaust system very similar to the Z06 system. It

allows for a relatively unobtrusive sound during

normal operation, but its twin butterfly valves open

up when you crack the throttle to provide more

power as well as a beautiful, raucous sound .

The cars were all lined up in front of the Mira

Monte Inn in Bar Harbor, as we assembled in the

parlor. This B&B, built originally in 1864 is owned and

operated by Marian Burns and is typical of the beauti-

ful inns that made Bar Harbor one of the nation’s first

resort destinations way back in the 1800s. Dinner this

night is at the nearby and delightful Bar Harbor Inn.

Saturday morning over breakfast at the inn, I get

a chance to talk to Tom Wallace and Tadge Juechter

about the big changes for 2008, starting with the

LS3. “The displacement is increased to 6.2, with a

bore increase,” says Juechter. “No change in stroke.

With the bore increase we’re able to get larger valves

in the head. The intake valve goes to 55mm in

diameter, so they are over two inches just like the

Z06. We went with hollow valve stems, like the Z06

to keep the reciprocating mass down. Those valves

have higher lift, 1mm on the cam. The overlap is

actually reduced, which might sound a little coun-

ter-intuitive at first because that’s not usually the

way to higher horsepower. But we have more than

just the hp increase that we’re trying to achieve.

We’re also trying to improve the noise and vibra-

tion characteristics of the car as well as improve our

exhaust emissions.”

After breakfast, we fire up the Corvettes and

hit the road, leaving Mt. Desert Island where Bar

Harbor is located to head down to Schoodic pen-

insula, Schoodic is still part Acadia National Park

with a postcard view framed by rocks and pine

trees toward Bar Harbor across the Bay.

While more power is on everybody’s Christmas

list, the Corvette team also went head on at

improving some areas where customers felt the

Corvette could be better. One of these is steering

feel and the other is the smoothness of the manual

shifter. We’re here to report that the 2008 Corvettes

are significantly better on both fronts.

While the cars are prepped for photography, I

have a chance to corner Tom and Tadge to find out

more about the 2008s we’re driving.

Our fleet of 2008 Corvettes hurry through Acadia National Park, fortified by standard 430 hp engines in the coupe and convertible as well as optional dual-mode exhausts which raise power output to 436 hp.

(“The Tremec short-throw, six-speed manual that debuted with the 2005 models has been significantly upgraded.” Tom Wallace )

“The Tremec short-throw, six-speed manual that debuted with

the 2005 models has been significantly upgraded,” says Wallace. “The

case is the same but there are a lot of new technology around the

gears, the bearings, the shape of the synchros, the way that we do the

shifting. It’s pretty cool because it lowered the shifting efforts, which

allowed us to make it a little quicker.”

Juechter attributed the better isolation to the use of a urethane

coupling instead of a rubber coupling inside the shifter. ‘It makes a

big improvement in shifter rattle.”

The six-speed paddle shift automatic also benefited from quicker

shifting. “When you’re doing aggressive street or track driving, peo-

ple were finding that the old shifter wasn’t as fast as a Play Station.,”

says Wallace. “But more importantly, some of our competitors were a

little faster, so we went to work, reduced that shift time significantly.

It’s a couple of hundred milliseconds in improvement, which is a

lot.” The Paddle Shift cars will now turn zero to 60 in 4.3 seconds, a

significant improvement.

After some car-to-car photography we head back toward

Mt.Desert Island and the main section of Acadia National Park, but

not before stopping for lunch at a classic roadside lobster joint called

Ruth & Wimpys. Lobster is served in many different environments

in Maine, ranging from the seasonal roadside lobster pounds, were

you eat at picnic tables to fine restaurants. We’d call Ruth & Wimpys

somewhere in between, kind of a lobster roadhouse.

Car-to-car photography was the theme after lunch as we tucked in

into formation behind Evan Klein’s van, the lead car just inches off van’s

bumper. Late afternoon brings us to the Seal Cove Automotive Museum,

which contains an amazing collection of over 100 brass–era cars includ-

ing the only two Chadwicks known to exist. It is a treasure, although we

saw only one Chevrolet inside, a green 1934 coupe with yellow wheels.

Dusk and the hope of a sunset through the thick clouds takes us

up Cadillac Mountain, the highest point on the East Coast at 1,530

ft. The perch up here gives a spectacular view of the surrounding

water as well as a chance to marvel at the rocky terrain that has been

AD

22 COrveTTe quarterly

Clockwise from top left: vettes in the streets of Camden, Maine where the movie, Peyton Place was filmed; Jerry Burton savors lunch at ruth & Wimpy’s restau-rant; the Camden, Maine marina; Corvette product manager Harlan Charles stands proudly along the Schoodic Peninsula with his Aryton Senna edition reebok shoes; Tom Wallace savors a rare moment of sun-shine along the Schoodic Peninsula in his velocity Yellow convertible; buoys make popular decorations along the coast.

AD

sculpted by glaciers over thou-

sands of years.

More importantly for us, the

journey up and down gives us

a great opportunity to feel the

steering improvements. Efforts

were made to create a more lin-

ear feel to the steering. “The

guys went in and they spent

a lot of time/money on preci-

sion parts in the steering,” says

Wallace. “We didn’t make much

of a change in the rack and the

ratio remains the same. But we

used precision shafts, precision

bearings, precision gears, and

stiffened up some of the joints.

Our goal was to get where if you

turn the steering wheel a degree,

you get one degree of turn and if

you turn the wheel four degrees,

you’d get four times as much.“

Especially going down the

mountain, we could feel the abil-

ity to hold a line all the way

through the corner without hav-

ing to make steering corrections.

It’s a subtle difference, to be sure,

but a very satisfying one.

The other big addition for

2008, of course, is the leath-

er-wrapped interior. Corvette

product manager Harlan Charles

speaks about how the interior

has been the traditional Achilles

heel of Corvette compared to

other more expensive sports

cars. “We usually smoke them

in the performance, but one of

the things they’ll comment will

compare interiors,” says Charles.

“Some of those cars have $20,000

interior options. We wanted to

have an affordable alternative

but something that was very

premium, that we could go up

against, take away the one last

excuse that somebody has not to

go buy a Corvette.”

The Custom Leather Wrapped

Interior package includes two-

tone seats in either Black/Sienna

or Black/Linen colors with a

leather wrapped instrument

panel, door panel uppers, arm

rests, console cover and seats, all

with contrasting stitching. In

addition, a new console cover

includes a rich looking bias-pat-

tern design with contrasting

stitching along its perimeter.

Even the standard Corvette gets a

new cyber pattern console plate,

which raises the perceived level of

quality immensely.

Early evening, we are back

in the parlor at the Mira Monte

Top: The ‘08 convertible on the Bar Harbor dock, sporting its ebony/Linen Custom

Leather-Wrapped Interior Package. Below: Tom Wallace savors the steering improve-

ments for 2008 on the autocross course.

24 COrveTTe quarterly

AD

AD

Inn in Bar Harbor, talking about our day

before dinner at Gaylins, a traditional

seafood restaurant in Bar Harbor.

Sunday morning brings more rain as

we settle into the Corvettes for a two-hour

ride Southwest via Highway to Rockland.

The journey takes us along Highway 1

through the picture postcard town of

Camden, where the film version of Peyton

Place was shot on location.

Our destination is the Owl’s Head

Transportation Museum outside of

Rockland. This delightful institution fea-

tures the best collection of World War I

vintage aircraft we’ve ever seen including

a Tri-Wing German Fokker (think Snoopy

and the Red Baron), combined with a

very eclectic collection of automobiles

ranging from Model T Fords to a rare

Stout Scarab. Executive director Charles

Chiarchiaro gives us a personal tour of the

museum via his favorite mode of trans-

portation inside the museum, a Segway,®

sporting wide tires.

In the rest of America they serve hot

dogs or sandwiches for lunch; in Maine,

they serve lobster roll….let’s see, base-

ball, lobster roll, apple pie and Chevrolet

— no, doesn’t have the same ring. So

after our delicious lunch put on by the

museum, we head outside to an autocross

course to see what these Corvettes can

do around the cones. While the course

was very tight — first and second gear

stuff — we are able to further appreciate

the steering improvements as well as the

quicker shifting of the automatics. We

also manage to work in some accelera-

tion runs to see what another 36 hp feels

like in these 2008s. We don’t record any

formal times, but the officially advertised

zero to 60 time, however, is 4.1 seconds

for the manual and 4.3 last year for the

automatic. Top speed is 190 mph (versus

186 mph last year).

After several hours at the Owl’s Head

Museum on the autocross course, we

headed back to Bar Harbor, enjoying our

last couple of hours in the cars as the

sun peaks out. Dinner that evening is

at Havana, a trendy yet delightful Cuban

26 COrveTTe quarterly

restaurant in Bar Harbor where we land our own banquet room and

a waitress who has a fast answer for our irreverent questions. As has

become a tradition on these trips, we go around the table after dinner

to vote on our favorite car. The group consensus is understandably

mixed. Opinions are subjective and often get down to colors, wheels,

options and body styles. These cars are all unique statements.

But among the group, the Velocity Yellow convertible is a hot

item. “The car was tight,” says Wallace. “It was quiet with the 6-speed

automatic, yet with that exhaust, it could really make some noise

when you wanted it to. It really surprised me how good it was.”

“I liked the way the automatic transmission worked on the auto-

cross course, and it was very easy to drive,” says Tadge Juechter.

The Machine Silver Metallic coupe also garnered multiple votes

with its eye-catching Ebony/Sienna interior. “It’s very upscale but still

has that performance look to it,” says Harlan Charles. “It does every-

thing, it has the roof that comes off and it’s got the exhaust system.”

AD

Left: Owl’s Head executive director Charles Chiarchiaro demonstrates an evolution of engines to our group. right: Corvettes “rock” in Acadia National Park.

AD

Conquering Cancer by Corvette

Ben Labaree has a driving ambition. And that is to continue a campaign his late wife

Sandy began after she was diagnosed of cancer again in 1998, a disease she had

been living with off and on since the mid 1970s. During the final years of her life,

Sandy bought a red Corvette and began visiting Corvette events around the country

to raise money and awareness while she still could. After she died in March 2000,

Ben took up the battle. Between them, they put a total of 201,370 miles on a fifth-

generation Corvette. Last year, Ben, with help from many contributors, retired the old

Corvette for a new red sixth-generation coupe. And he hasn’t slowed down, having

raised over $300,000 to support the American Cancer Society.

Ben travels have taken him to an average of 20 events per year through all 48

contiguous states. Ben also does this on his spare time thanks to a very under-

standing employer, a computer company named CBE Technologies based in

Boston, which contributes all of his gas money. You can make a contribution by

visiting corvettesconquercancer.com — Jerry Burton

“I’d call it bad ass,” says our photo assistant, Matt Grayson. “You

know you put on a shoe that fits…it was just a great car.”

Ben Labaree opts for the Victory Red Z06. “What really impressed

me is how absolutely silky the clutch and shift were,” says Labaree.

“So smooth to drive…I could really live with that car very easily.”

Jack Matukas, Todd Kraemer any myself all opt for the Atomic

Orange coupe with Z51 and a manual transmission. “For me, it the

whole package comes together aesthetically quite nicely,” says Kraemer.

“The new engine and the new exhaust definitely make an impact.

I have to agree. My thinking is that the Z51 is just a great get-

down-to-business car that is still reasonably priced for what is does.

The next morning we say goodbye to the Corvettes and were soon

riding an early morning bus to Bangor — such a comedown — in

order to catch our return flights to Detroit. But Maine is a place we

will come back to, hopefully in sunnier conditions and in cars every

bit as good as these 2008 Corvettes.