Zac Quinn 
General Motors has just announced that Tadge Juechter, the Corvette executive chief engineer, will be retiring this summer after a legendary 47-year career at GM. His replacement has not yet been announced, but whoever takes his place will have some big shoes to fill.
Tadge Juechter And The Corvette
Juechter, aged 67 and the son of a fighter pilot, began his career at GM in 1977 in the company’s Assembly Division in Lordstown, Ohio. He took on a number of roles for the automaker throughout the years until joining the Corvette team in 1993 as the assistant chief engineer, some 31 years ago. Juechter worked on the fifth-generation C5 Corvette, which was manufactured between 1997 and 2004, and the sixth generation C6 between 2005 and 2013 while working under Dave Hill, who was the chief engineer of the Corvette program during that period.
After launching both generations of America’s Sports Car, Juechter was appointed executive chief engineer for Corvette in 2006, which, according to Detroit Free Press, he described as “the promotion of a lifetime.” In this role, he led the development of the seventh—and eighth-generation Corvettes, and of course, we all know the C8 Corvette as the revolutionary switch to a mid-engined configuration.
Juechter’s most recent product is set to be unveiled this summer when GM debuts the C8 Corvette ZR1, which we know will be the most powerful Corvette yet, making use of a twin-turbo version of the LT6 engine found in the Corvette Z06, codenamed LT7. This will be the most capable version of the Corvette yet, which has already been tested around the legendary Nürburgring. Both horsepower and downforce numbers are expected to exceed the C8 Z06 significantly. How significant? According to Chevrolet, it will be “unthinkable.”
Juechter has long been a figurehead in the Corvette community, and his role as chief engineer will be missed, though we’re sure his replacement will continue pushing the Corvette to even greater power and performance.
