How Chevrolet Started, Grew & Became $11.5 Billion Company
Success Secrets TV:
How Chevrolet Started, Grew & Became $11.5
Billion Company
The name Chevrolet originated from a Swiss-born
American racer Louis-Joseph Chevrolet, who
founded his company with William Durant in
1911, stayed for four years and then left
his own company to Durant in 1915.
The Chevrolet Company previously called the
Chevrolet Division of General Motors Company
and simply called the Chevy is the automobile
department of General Motors, a manufacturing
company in the United States.
How Chevrolet Began
Twenty years before Chevrolet, Durant was
the founder of a successful Durant-Dort Carriage
Company which manufactured horse-drawn vehicles.
And so Durant wouldn't even touch a car with
a ten-foot pole, let alone allow his daughter
to ride in what he called, "loud and dangerous
horseless carriages."
But as time passed he realized that there
were more cars than carriages on the American
streets; an experience that did not settle
well with the relatively tentative public.
As the government regulated cars for their
safety, Durant had other ideas.
Why not improve the security of these cars
instead?
In 1904, Durant approached a struggling Buick
Motor Company and became its controlling investor.
Within a span of four years, Durant demonstrated
his salesman attitude and transformed Buick
into a leading automobile name amongst the
likes of Ford, Oldsmobile, and Cadillac.
For Durant, however, it was only the start.
Durant figured he could further improve his
odds in the industry if he built a holding
company that would control several automobile
divisions, with each division manufacturing
their own car.
With the Buick's outstanding profits, Durant
had sufficient capital to found the General
Motors Company in 1908.
A year later, General Motors acquired several
car brands like Buick, Oldsmobile, Cadillac,
Elmore, and others.
Unfortunately,Durant got so carried away in
his "automobile acquisition crusade" that
GM suffered cash shortage with their sales
losing to Ford's.
And so, in 1910, General Motors showed Durant
the exit door.
But Durant did not give up.
Having regained his bearings, he reunited
with an old colleague from the days of the
Buick motor company, Louis-Joseph Chevrolet.
Durant knew the Swiss-born American as a man
whose competency for car mechanics matched
his passion for racing.
In 1909, Louis had participated in the Giant
Despair Hillclimb.
An oddly apt name, considering the Hillclimb
race was less about the racers themselves
and more about test-driving the competing
car brands they drove.
Therefore, when Durant offered a chance to
build more automobiles, Louis couldn't resist
signing his name on the dotted line alongside
Durant's.
In 1911, Louis co-founded the Chevrolet Motor
Company with Durant.
Durant used Louis’ racing status as a means
of building a motor company, and his way of
getting back at General Motors.
The first Chevrolet car, the Series C Classic
Six was designed by Etienne Planche with directions
by Louis.
The prototype was ready before the company
was incorporated even though the production
didn’t happen until 1913 where it was introduced
at an auto show in New York.
In 1914, Chevrolet redesigned its logo.
And so a "bowtie emblem" logo was used on
Chevrolet’s first produced cars in 1914:
the Chevrolet H series and L series models.
That same year, Durant and Louis argued about
their differing intentions for Chevrolet’s
future car designs.
Durant wanted simple and affordable cars that
would surpass those of Fords.
On the other hand, Louis preferred playing
it fast and loose, with luxury or racing cars.
These differences split these two associates
and Louis sold his shares of the company to
Durant.
Now alone at the helm, Durant was able to
focus on his next winning car design.
He achieved this in 1916 when the cheaper
Chevrolet Series 490 finally outpaced Ford
in sales and cemented Chevrolet’s place
among the big automobile names.
To say Chevrolet made huge profits during
this period would be a severe understatement.
Durant revisited General Motors as a controlling
investor, purchasing their stocks, which gave
him the leverage to launching himself into
leading General Motors once more.
By 1917, Durant had become the president of
General Motors.
All was right, now that Durant's "big automobile"
dream was back on track.
And of course, his first directive was merging
the highly successful Chevrolet into the parent
company General Motors as a separate division.
How Chevrolet Grew
In 1918, Chevrolet launched a new V8 powered
model, the Series D for open two-seat cars
and the touring cars that could seat 5 passengers.
These models didn't sell well though and they
were scrapped by the next year.
Given Chevrolet's successful track record
in the market, General Motors rebranded and
sold their commercial grade cars and trucks
as Chevrolet with similar appearances with
the Chevrolet’s vehicles in 1919 from Chevrolet
factories located in Flint, Michigan.
The automobile company built several branch
assembly plants in New York, Ohio, Missouri,
California, Texas, and Canada.
Somewhere between the 1920s and 1940s, Chevrolet
would see Durant's vision for "producing simple
and affordable cars" come true.
In fact, Chevrolet, Ford and Plymouth were
known to Americans as "the low priced three".
During this period, one of Chevrolet's most
notable cars was the Stovebolt introduced
in 1929, which was tag-lined "a six for the
price of four".
This and several generations of the car model
blew away the competition of Ford and Plymouth.
In 1953, the Chevy Corvette, a sport’s car
with two seats and a fiberglass body debuted
to become the first mass-produced sports car
in the United States, championing the "America's
Sports Car" appeal.
The appeal of the Corvette and other Chevrolet
passenger cars would be enhanced with the
first-time introduction of Rochester Ramjet
fuel-injection engine as a high-performance
option for the price of $484.
The Chevrolet small block V8 car design made
its debut in 1955 and remained in circulation
longer than other mass produced engines around
the world.
Modifications to the V8 engine including the
aluminum block and heads, the electronic engine
management and the port fuel injection gave
birth to the designs in production today.
In 1958, Chevrolet introduced the Impala series,
which went on to become one of the best-selling
American cars in history experiencing popularity
during the 60s and 70s.
The parent company General Motors introduced
Chevrolet to Europe in 2005.
With rebranded cars manufactured from the
General Motors branch in Korea acquired Daewoo
Motors.
The economic depression between 2007 and 2010
hit Chevrolet hard.
But the road to recovery began in 2010 with
the introduction of fuel-efficient cars and
trucks to compete with foreign automobile
manufacturers.
Within the same year, Chevrolet introduced
the plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, Chevrolet
Volt in America, which was sold under the
name Opel/Vauxhall Ampera throughout Europe
with a record 5,268 units soldand became the
world's best-selling plug-in hybrid electric
vehicle (PHEV) car in 2012, winning the award
for the North American Car of the Year, European
Car of the Year and World Green of the Year.
The series was then named the combined Volt/Ampera
that was sold across the world.
It exceeded the 100,000 unit sales milestone
in late 2005 and eleven years later the Volt
family of vehicles had become the world's
best-selling plug-in hybrid as well as the
third best selling electric car after the
Tesla Model S and the Nissan Leaf cars.
In 2011, Chevrolet set a global sales record
of 4.76 million vehicles sold worldwide
In late 2013, the Chevy brand was withdrawn
from Europe by General Motors leaving the
Corvette and Camero lines.
In 2016, Chevrolet unveiled the first affordable
mass-produced all-electric car the Chevrolet
Bolt EV.
This car too has won several awards.
Where Chevrolet Is Today
Chevrolet now has its headquarters in Detroit,
Michigan, and operates throughout 140 countries
in North and South America, Asia, Australia,
South Africa, and Europe with over two million
vehicles sold annually in the US alone and
a brand value of $11.5 billion.
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Chevrolet Bolt EV Traction Motor - Deep Dive
WeberAuto:
Hello, I'm professor John Kelly and this
is the Weber Auto YouTube channel.
In this episode we will be disassembling
the drive unit the electric motor and
gear reducer out of our 2017 Chevrolet
bolt on the hoist behind me here. now
this drive unit and electric motor
combination is is all one piece,
unlike the Nissan Leaf that has a drive
unit that unbolts from the electric
motor. This drive unit is rated at 150
kilowatts which is 201 horsepower, it is
also rated at 360 Newton meters of
torque which is roughly 266 foot-pounds
of torque.
Now let's let's talk about torque just a
little bit. That torque rating is what
the motor itself is capable of producing,
that is not the same as the torque that
ends up at the wheels of the vehicle, so
for example the Chevrolet Spark EV
produced by Chevrolet before the Bolt
here
actually had an electric motor that
produced 540 Newton meters of torque, the Bolt EV electric motor only produces
360 Newton meters of torque and so you
might be misled into thinking that the
Spark EV had more torque; well, the motor
did, but not the torque delivered to the
axles that drive the wheels. So the gear
reducer right here on the side of this
drive unit has an impact on that because
gear reduction is also torque
multiplication minus frictional losses, so
the Spark EV had a 540 Newton meter
electric motor but it only had a three
point one five to one gear reduction
unit which resulted in about 1700 Newton
meters of torque at the wheels, at the
axles. the Bolt EV electric motor
produces 360 Newton meters of torque a
whole 180 Newton meters less of torque
from the motor, but it has a seven point
zero five one eight to one gear
reduction through this gear reducer
which multiplies that 360 Newton meters
of torque by seven point zero five one
eight, which gives us over 2,500 Newton
meters of torque at the axles. So there
are other electric vehicles out there
that are being produced right now that
have higher torque higher motor torque
than the Bolt EV
but what would be interesting, I and
I don't know what their gear ratios are
yet, is to see what is the torque
actually to the axles what's the torque
to the ground because that's what you'll
feel when you step on that accelerator
pedal, that's the torque to the wheels
that makes the vehicle move. The design
of this drive unit this electric motor
it has a peak amperage draw of 400 amps
versus 450 as for the Spark EV so it
uses less current to provide more torque
so it's a more efficient better design
electric motor. The electric motor in
this drive unit spins clear up to 8810 rpm where the
Spark EV only spun up to about 4500 rpm,
and we'll take a look at some
differences in the electric motor design
and the stator winding design that
allowed it to spin at those higher rpms
without the AC losses that typically
occur at higher rpm. As mentioned in the
previous video on high voltage
components of the Chevrolet Bolt EV this
drive unit uses about 2.9 litres, around
3.1 quarts of Dexron HP fully synthetic
base transmission fluid automatic
transmission fluid. It also is cooled by
the General Motors Dexcool 50/50 mix
of coolant and deionized water. Okay
let's take a look at the outside of the
housing here of this drive unit. The
official name or designation of this
drive unit by General Motors is the
1ET25. The one means it's a one speed
trans axle, this doesn't shift, E means
it's electronically controlled, T means
it's a transaxle, and the 25 is a
relative torque rating. Alright, right
here on the front of the transmission is
the actual last eight digits of the
vehicle identification number and you
can see that MMF right there, that is
the three-digit regular production
option code the RPO code that you can
find on label in the back of the Bolt EV if
you take out the lower compartment
carpet and look in what looks like a
spare tire tub, there's a label on the
driver's side that has a whole bunch of
three digit codes on it
MMF just means that's which transaxle
or transmission this vehicle came with.
Okay right here on the top of the trans
axle is the transmission range selector
actuator and this is a brushless DC
motor with a gear reducer that actually
moves the shift lever to put us in to
Park reverse neutral Drive and low, now
technically inside of this drive unit it
there's really only park and not park,
but there is a position sensor in here
called an internal mode switch that will
monitor which position the transaxle
range selector is in so that the vehicle
can act appropriately. For example the
shifter itself on the center console is
not directly connected to the drive unit,
it's just an input to the computer that
controls this actuator, so when we go to
the reverse position for the neutral or
drive or low, there's a feedback on the
internal mode switch electrical
connector right here, that lets the
engine control module, even though this
doesn't have an engine, know which gear
range you have selected so that it can
request the trends axle act
appropriately. Also, right here by the
electrical connector for the internal
mode switch is the transmission fill
plug, so if you want to put fluid into
this transmission you need a 14
millimeter wrench or socket to take this
plug out and put the Dexron HP fluid
into the transmission. There are two
drain plugs on this transmission, one for
each side, so there's one down below on
each end of the transaxle the driver's
side and the passenger side, there's
there are two separate drain plugs to
get the fluid out of each side, now
there's only one fluid that goes
throughout this entire transaxle but
because of how its baffled and set up
inside to remove all the fluid you need
to remove both plugs.
Now speaking of fluid and fluid level
when you drain fluid at whatever the
recommended fluid change interval is or
if you're doing service work on the
transaxle here and you're adding fluid
you need to know when to stop adding
fluid, so on the other side of the
transaxle right here is the transaxle
fluid level check plug, so the drain
plugs right down here, the fluid level
check plugs here, the fill plug is on the
other side so you take the fill plug out
you take the fluid level check plug out,
and you add fluid until fluid comes out
over here, and then you let it sit and
stabilize for a minute add a little bit
more and make sure that fluid comes out
comes out to a slow drip, and then the
instructions tell us to put both plugs
back in and go drive the vehicle until
the transmission fluid temperature
reaches 35 degrees Celsius or 95 degrees
Fahrenheit and then double-check the
fluid level again to make sure that
comes out at a very slow drip. Alright,
while we are here on this side of the
transaxle we have an electric motor an
electric pump for the transmission fluid
so there's a big filter we'll see when
we take this thing apart down the bottom
center of this transaxle it will pull
fluid up from the filter and then put it
into what's called the oil sump so the
oil sump is basically just a great big
bathtub looking area up here that the
pump fills full of fluid and then there
are these little drain channels that
fluid drains down to cool the stator
windings and lubricate bearings and so
on and we'll see that once we get the
cover off so we have an electric 12 to 14
volt driven electric motor that pumps
fluid throughout this transaxle. From
what I read this pump only works when
you are in Reverse or Drive, it does not
pump when you're in park or neutral.
Alright, we have another electrical
connector right here, this connector is
for the resolver which measures the
angle of rotation the direction of
rotation and the speed of the electric
motor rotor itself, and then there's a
transmission fluid temperature sensor
that is in the bottom of this
transmission case cover here. All of
those are accessed electrically through
this electrical connector right here. As
you may have seen in my other video on
high-voltage components we have the air
conditioning compressor of the bolts up
here and then we have our coolant pipes
that go into what's called a coolant
sump in the bottom of this transaxle and
we'll see that here in a few minutes but
we have coolant going in coolant coming
back out and goes through a series of
cooling fins and cooling circuits to
absorb heat from the transmission fluid
right here on the back we have the
electrical connection for the
three-phase cables that come from the
the
single power inverter module that sits
two modules above here. Three-phase
orange cables come down to drive the
electric motor, there's a cover
the cables bolt on and then there's a
cover they'll holds the cable in place.
We have a transmission vent right here,
let's just take that vent off while we
vent tube off while we're here now you
can see the oil sump area again on the
top and the cooling sump coolant sump
area here in the bottom all right there
is one additional plug on the side of
the case with the electric motor and
there's nothing in the service
information to indicate this but I
believe this is a pressure test plug to
check the pump output pressure, but I
can't find any information on what that
fluid pressure should be. Okay, I'm going
to be disassembling this transaxle right
here on the workbench but there actually
is a special fixture to hold this
transaxle and allow you to rotate it and
disassemble different pieces of it and
still be able to rotate it for
convenience. I have this special adapter
as you can see here in this photograph
but the way it's mounted it's too high
and too difficult for me to disassemble
in that holding fixture being in a
wheelchair, so the workbench is where I'm
going to disassemble it, but I wanted you
to know there is a special fixture for
that and I tried it it just doesn't work
for me.
by the way this transaxle weighs about a
hundred and seventy pounds or 77.4
kilograms. Okay, well we're ready to
start disassembly, the first step is to
remove this oil pump the 12-volt power
oil pump, it has three bolts right here
and a few seals underneath it as you can
see here there are two seals that seal
the pump to the transmission case right
here there are two bolts that hold the
cover over the pump gears themselves
there are no instructions on
disassembling this so I assume we're not
supposed to disassemble it but that's
exactly what I like to do
take things apart I'm not supposed to as
long as I can get them back together and
make it work again here we go we've got
a Jew rotor style oil pump there's an
o-ring right here that needs to fit in
this groove to seal and then the cover
just bolts on okay the next thing on the
list is to remove the left-hand and
right-hand output shafts that go into
our differential side gears in the gear
reducer this is the left-hand side right
hand side over there it calls for a
slide hammer and a old pilot bearing
removal tool for a manual transmission
so this is the pilot bearing removal
tool right here and a slide hammer and
we are supposed to put this up inside
and put it into the snap ring groove for
the CV shaft and then pop it out well
come to find out the snap ring groove is
thinner than the tip of this tool that's
supposed to go into it and I didn't
realize that's what the problem was and
I had a hard time getting these output
shafts removed I finally got him out but
once I got a mound got looking at the
tool versus what they were supposed to
be grabbing I realized I need to grind
these down make him a little thinner so
that they'll actually fit into the
grooves of the her for these CV shaft
snap rings that are there so since I've
had this entire transaxle apart before
and I'll put it all back together
I've removed those snap rings they'll
hold these output shafts in place so I
can just pull them out by hand right now
this big long left hand output shaft
goes right through the center of the
rotor of the electric motor itself it's
it's hollow in the middle
and it has a big heavy-duty bushing
right here on the outside with the axle
seal and this is our left-hand output
shaft and then the CV shaft itself plugs
into here that goes to the left front
hub and bearing assembly and tire and
we'll assembly so there's our left-hand
axle shaft there's a snap ring that fits
in that groove right there typically and
I've just removed and I've just removed
that snap ring for ease for this
demonstration here obviously I'll need
to put that back in when I reassemble
so that's the left-hand axle shaft on
the other side we use the slide hammer
again and pull out the right hand axle
shaft as you can see this one is much
shorter than the other one and it has
the support bearing in the differential
case itself that holds it in place and
its own snap ring that I've already
removed and of course an axle sill here
on the other side as well okay the next
thing on the list is to remove this
transaxle case to remove the case I've
got to take the linkage off and our
actuator off and then we've got these
bolts to go all the way around and then
we'll be able to see the gear reduction
transfer gear and the final drive ring
gear and differential gear set so I'll
take the clip out and lift up for a
linkage on the shift actuator and then
take the bolts out
okay here's the shift actuator assembly
itself transmission range selector
actuator kind of a great big piece I
I've seen some of these that are smaller
right I'm not sure why this one is so
giant I'm not I've never seen one this
big but it obviously does the job of
mechanically shifting the transmission
range lever since you have an electronic
shifter on your center console alright
let's take these bolts out of the trans
transmission case okay I've got all the
bolts out of the transmission case now
we can attempt to slide it off it has a
couple of dowel pins they'll hold it in
place there's a couple of pry points
plus one right back here and another one
right here there we go
I'm going to come in with a plastic
mallet here and just tap lightly there
we go okay we can see inside of the
transmission case itself and the only
things in here of real interest are the
transmission internal mode switch right
here we got the electrical connector
right here harness right there that
connects to this outer blue connection
connector that will read which Range
Park reverse neutral low you have
selected with your transmission shift
lever and then we have the parking
linkage right here we've got Park
reverse neutral Drive
and low now of course normally
transmission fluid would would be
pouring out of here of whatever didn't
get drained out when you drained it
previously but I've had this apart and
cleaned everything up before we have our
ring gear right here and our
differential gear set and as notice we
have real nice ball bearings here these
bearings since their ball bearings
instead of tapered roller bearings have
to have in place shims so there's a
special shimming procedure to control
the end play of these bearings that will
have to go through when we reassemble it
so you're supposed to take these shims
off and throw them away well and then
replace them with new new ones when you
go back together I suggest that you take
them off and measure them and then hang
on to them because you might you might
need them again when I took these off
previously and measured them they were
almost all identical in the thickness so
there are six of these shims for the six
ball bearings that are in this transaxle
four of these shims measured exactly
half a millimeter in in with the other
two one of a measure one millimeter in
width and the other one measured 0.9
millimeters so you need to keep track of
what thickness shim you had where and
write those down so that you you'll have
an idea of at least what it was before
you took it apart now if you're just
going back together and you haven't
changed any shims or any parts inside
just reuse the old shims but if you're
changing a bearing or any of these
internal pieces you need to go through
the special measurement procedure that
we'll see when we go back together to
determine if these shims are correct
okay so there's there's special shims on
each of these
bearings I've measured all of them RIT
written their dimensions on the ziploc
bag here that I keep them in and will
refer to those when we go back together
all right now we just need to remove the
counter gear right here and the final
drive a ring gear and differential gear
set this is where our short little
output shaft plugged in right here and
then our long one came all the way
through on the other side okay before we
remove these gears there is a an
aluminum gasket with a rubber seal
embedded into it the instructions tell
us that is not reusable
there is also an oil baffle right down
here to channel transmission fluid away
from the ring gear to reduce losses as
it rotates into it and to splash oil up
into different channels to lubricate the
the bearings if we look in this case
half right here you can almost see what
looks like a funnel right there for the
fluid to drain back down and lubricate
this outer bearing and a similar one
here on this other other side for that
bearing so we've got a oil baffle to
remove all right I've got the oil baffle
removed on the other side of that is our
magnet for metallic particles from gear
normal gear wear and other malfunctions
okay now we're ready ready to remove
these gears pull out on the counter gear
and then pull out on the final drive and
it'll come right out if you don't pull
out on that counter gear first there's
not enough clearance for the final drive
Unit two clear so here's our final drive
you can see our open differential gear
set inside there here's our sim on the
other side as well
all right the instructions tell us that
we can if we won't want to remove the
park linkage in the internal notes which
I don't really care about that that's
just regular stuff that you'd see in any
other automatic transmission so let's
continue on with things that are unique
to the bolt
evie drive unit here the one ET 25
transaxle so let's turn the transmission
case around and we'll take off the
transmission case cover here on the
driver's side
now the SAE document the details the the
bolt evey drive unit here that I told
you about in the high voltage component
video tells us that the drive unit
itself was designed to be serviceable in
the vehicle that's why they have a case
removable case cover on one side and a
case cover on the other side for the
gear reduction unit you can leave this
Center portion with the electric motor
in it in the vehicle and just remove one
or both case covers to do service work
on components inside the case covers
seal replacements resolver replacements
internal modes with replacement and so
on but anyway we're going to take off
this case
cover next from the driver's side all
right this case cover is going to be a
little harder to get off than the other
one because the rotor that has internal
magnets embedded inside of it has now
magnetically pulled itself over to the
stator because we are no longer
centering it inside of the stator itself
and so it puts a it pulls it off to the
side just a little bit so there's a
prying
right here
and there's a pride point right down
here another prior point right here
there we go okay so here's our case
cover and it has an aluminum gasket
that's not reusable as well our case
cover has this long transmission filter
that's not serviceable without
disassembling things as you can see has
a temperature sensor down inside of it
right there and then this is our
resolver our serviceable resolver that
measures the position speed and
direction of rotation of the electric
motor rotor inside the transaxle here
let's turn this around oh by the way
down inside of the bearing housing there
is a shim for the ball bearing right
here on the rotor itself so we're
looking at the stator and the hairpin
six conductor deep stator design a
unique design we'll talk about that a
little bit more once we get the stator
out we have a lubrication channel right
here where fluid is going to drip out of
our oil sump and run along and drop down
on to the stator windings themselves and
cool the the stator windings it also has
a drip channel that comes over and goes
down to this bearing here to lubricate
it
so we've just got an 8 millimeter head
bolt holding the filter in place and as
you can see the filter just has an
o-ring seal on the one side and you can
see the pick up filter screen filter
element on the inside so this is going
to reach all the way in up underneath
the the stator itself to pick up the
fluid on the back side of it and on the
back side of it is the inlet of the
coolant so that would be the cooler oil
on the back side there all right then on
the resolver it just has eight three
eight millimeter head bolts to hold it
in place and one electrical connector
this resolver only bolts in in one
location it's not adjustable it has
automatic learn unlike the older Toyota
Prius resolvers that that would actually
come out of alignment
if you unbolted them and there was no
way for you to line them back up okay so
here is our resolver pull back on the
connector position assurance clip
depress the tab and remove the resolver
itself the resolver is a serviceable
unit when and if it ever goes bad but it
should should never go bad all right
then the remaining wire harness and the
pass-through connector here just goes
over to our temperature sensor okay next
on the list we need to remove what is
called the center support this is what's
supported the driver's side ball bearing
of our differential case assembly
okay this is our center support it's
held in place with six bolts and aligned
with two dowel pins right there now with
that removed there's nothing to stop our
transfer gear from sliding out it's just
a tight fit on the bearing in the bore
as it should be just pray lightly
sometimes these will just slide right
out and right in and other times they'll
they'll fight you here we go okay so
here's our transfer gear it's ball
bearing and shim so put that shit over
here with the others okay right here in
the end of the case we still have a
lubrication channel right here from the
oil trough the oil sump I mean right
there and then we have a cover for the
three-phase electrical connector right
here as well then on the other side we
have that oil distribution channel right
here that cools the stator so we've got
to remove that we are now to the point
where we are ready to pull this rotor
out but we just can't grab on to it and
pull it out it has some super strong
neodymium magnets multiple layers envy
configuration inside of this stator
you're not going to pull it out by hand
and you sure don't want to come in here
and start prying on it so the only way
to get that rotor out of there if you
want to remove it for service replace a
bit bearing on it or the gear on the
other side or another bearing or just
replace the rotor itself for whatever
reason loss of magnetism and trouble
code sets or whatever
it takes a special tool to pull it out
without having it rub on the stator
frame itself and without having it
injure you with you trying to pull it
out and it's pulling back in with all
its magnetic strength so true get that
out there's a special guide tool that
will hold it centered in the stator and
we need to set that up next and it
starts on the other side here so there's
a special tool kit that costs almost a
thousand dollars to Center this rotor as
you pull it out I found one on eBay for
a little bit less than that but but it's
a very expensive tool but if you want to
do service work on this transaxle you've
got to have it so let's bring in the
special tools okay so I brought in the
special tools to keep the rotor centered
there's a special spacer with a notch in
it to clear that notch right there this
is just gonna fit in there just like
that then there's a plate that bolts on
over the top of this to hold it in place
these don't need to be super tight
they're just holding that little spacer
in place so I'll just lightly Snug those
up then there's a sleeve here that's
supposed to fit down the center of that
rotor but these sleeves are a little bit
too big I've had to take sandpaper and
send them down to make them fit inside
of this rotor and I don't know if that's
because the tools were made for a first
design rotor and then they changed it or
if they just made the tools incorrectly
but these tools are from what used to be
can't more tools the special tools
supplier for General Motors it's now
Bosch service solutions so Bosch you may
want to take a look at this this tool
here the DT five two zero one one
- one - three because it doesn't fit
it's not doesn't Center up inside the
the rotor as well as it should
i've had to sand it down just a little
bit and then i'm able to tap it in a
little bit there but I think that it's
supposed to be if it's supposed to be a
tight fit but it should be able to slide
in by hand I believe then we have a
guide pin that's going to go through the
center of that then we have this outer
housing the bolts in place to hold the
guide pin in place so the blue sleeve
this one here because there's one for
the other side also centers the rotor
into this plate and then this sleeve is
centered into this plate so we've now
centered the rotor on this side of the
stator so now we need to go to the other
side to put additional tools in to get
it centered and then pull it up and out
okay at this point if I had the
transaxle mounted in that special
rotating holding fixture I would just
simply rotate it on its side and get the
get the rest of the tools hooked up but
I don't I'm not able to use that so I'm
just going to put some extra long bolts
in this side of the case to hold the
case up off of this tool when I tip it
over to support it as we pull the rotor
out
okay so here we go we're going to tip
the tip the whole thing up on its hand
just like that so now we've got
clearance for the tool underneath and we
can get the upper tools set up to pull
the rotor up and out all right while
we've got the transaxle tipped on its
side let's take this oil sump cover off
and show you what's inside of there so
it's just a big empty trough and you can
see has one two three four five six
holes in it where fluid is going to go
out and drip down on other parts inside
of the transaxle for stator cooling and
for the ball bearing lubrication the
cover itself has that same aluminum
gasket that's not reusable also while we
have this transaxle on its end let's
turn it over and take the coolant sump
off next okay here's our coolant sump
you can see this pipe right here is
where the coolant comes in and it has to
wind back and forth back and forth and
then come back out over here the coolant
sump which is visible from the bottom of
the car with the under car cover removed
also has that same aluminum gasket
that's not not reusable why are they not
reusable I don't know maybe the aluminum
crushes these I'm going to see if I can
buy replacement gaskets at the local
Chevrolet dealer it seems like I saw a
service bulletin saying that all these
parts are serviceable now and it gave
the part numbers for them but if not
none of these are damaged it only has 35
miles on it and I'll reuse them and see
what happens
okay so coolant sump oil sump so now we
are ready to pull out the rotor assembly
so to pull out the rotor assembly we
have a guide pin it's going to come in
and screw into that dowel they had a
threaded end on it all right so this
threaded guide pin did not line up
exactly perfect with the guide pin down
below I can't tell if we're just
spinning the whole thing there we go
all right it's screwed all the way into
that alignment dowel from below now we
have this tool that has three holes that
go over the holes where the stator bolts
are so we need to remove the stator
bolts next these stator bolts are not
reusable three stator bolts so we put
this tool over the top of that we want
to be very careful that we don't damage
pry lean or set anything on the stator
windings here that could cause damage to
them so we'll get that lined up just
like that now I'm going to reposition
the camera so you can see
how tall this next tool is that fits on
here all right we have two clamshell
type tools that are going to come in and
clamp down over the resolver cam rotor
there and this bearing they're gonna go
just like that except I need to split
them apart so I can get the next tool in
it says this big tall piece right here
that's going to go over and down into
our stator bolt holes so we've got this
threaded shaft we've got this adapter
right here that these little clamshell
tools are going to hook into and then
the threaded shaft with a nut on the top
of it we're going to tighten that nut
and pull the rotor up out okay so the
tricky part of giving this hooked up is
getting both of these
clamshell tools over this lip right here
so I have to loosen the nut on the top
and let it come down let me turn this
you can see what's going on
there we go okay so we slide that open
clamp the clamshells around it put this
sleeve over the top of it to lock the
clamshell in place snug up this nut to
hold the lock in place and then from the
top here we start to pull up on the
rotor itself I'm going to get
repositioned bring my chair up a little
higher here so I can reach that nut it
takes quite a bit of turning to pull
that out okay here we go thirty
millimeter wrench we want to turn the
nut and prevent the shaft from turning
so I'm just going to hang on down here
as it comes up those guide pins the
guide dowels keep it from rubbing on the
stator frame although although there's
almost a strange ratcheting sound as I'm
pulling this out that makes me think
it's barely contacting the the stator
laminations or the rotor laminations
anyway we'll pull it out and take a look
see if we can see any witness marks you
can see the top of the rotor now is
starting to appear
I think we're finally clearing the top
of the yes we are it all of a sudden got
real easy to turn the nut so we no
longer have the magnet pulling out or
resisting us pulling out okay you can
see the entire length of the rotor here
get another bearing down below it and a
gear below that now we're supposed to
just lift up on this and and pull it out
I'm not sure if I'm strong enough I may
have to bring in the the engine hoist to
pull it out of here but it's just
sitting on these three non-magnetic
aluminum poles here and we've got the
weight of the the rotor assembly itself
I measured it earlier but I can't
remember what it is at this moment but
let's see if we can lift this up and out
though I cannot so let me get the engine
hoist we have to lift it up high enough
to clear that alignment dowel so I've
got to lift it up probably four more
inches 100 millimeters or so okay I've
never tried this before it's just a lift
strap let's bring it up
okay the lifting or the tool was getting
stuck in one of the holes for the the
stator bolts there we go
okay here we go
and we've cleared the alignment dowel so
slide the case out of the way here and
we'll let that back down
oh let's see how much that weighs it
says it weighs 60 pounds with the tool
the tools probably 10 pounds of that
okay we have to remember that this rotor
is highly magnetic very strong eight
pole magnetic field around this thing
and so we need to keep it away from
anything any metal particles or any
tools or anything else that could cost
cause it to receive damage on its
laminations here in looking at the the
laminations from removing it I don't see
any obvious damage at all there let's
let this down and take the the tool off
and just look at the rotor itself
little clamshell pieces out of there
these tools are magnet earth iron some
some sorts so we got to keep those away
from the magnetic field as you can see
these blue bars are aluminum they're not
sticking to the the rotor itself and
then plastic of course works great with
the magnetic fields so now we've just
got our rotor we've got our drive gear
down here I've got a ball bearing and
another ball bearing there's another
shim down inside the case a bigger
diameter shim for this bigger diameter
bearing all right I'm going to get some
wooden blocks to put this in all right
here's the rotor for the bolt
evie as you can see this bearing seems
to have some sort of a gray coating on
the outer race where this one does not
and on the counter gear bearings they
also have this gray coating it doesn't
say anything about what that gray
coating is for I suspect it's to prevent
corrosion from the dissimilar metals
with possible induced currents going
through them with the the motor running
vehicle going down the road I've seen
this type of coating on universal joints
in universal joint caps universal joint
caps bearing caps in an aluminum
driveshaft the same color I don't know
if it's the same material but if any of
you know what this coating is for if
you'd please put that in the comments
below I'd appreciate that
I'm just speculating okay so we've got
the rotor out of the way this is a
serviceable piece now the last piece to
remove is the stator assembly itself and
it has three special guide pins that go
into the stator bolt holes and screw
into the transaxle case and then they're
tapered on the top here and that's to
allow you to slide the stator out
without it binding inside so I'll slide
that over there rotate it down and just
pull out slightly
here it comes just like that so here's
the stator for the Chevrolet bolt Eevee
if we zoom in close and look at the
stator windings you can actually see
there are 1 2 3 rows of these hairpin
conductors which means they are 6
conductors deep in this stator and from
what I read in the SAE document on this
new improved motor that helps reduce the
AC power losses at the higher motor rpm
a typical stator like in the previous
Chevrolet Volt had 2 rows instead of 3
so they were four conductors deep in the
Chevrolet Volts and six conductors deep
here and one of the people that was on
the original design team for the
Chevrolet Volt told me that when they
designed this electric motor and it's
designed for maximum efficiency and hand
power that there was no other motor out
there that could even match the
efficiency of this motor and they said
that they designed this motor to be the
next small-block Chevrolet so to say of
power trains so the small-block
Chevrolet was and still is a very
popular very powerful v8 engine and has
been for many many years and their
intent was to have this motor design
maybe even this drive unit be in
multiple platforms with the same high
power high efficiency motor system if we
look at the other side here of the
stator windings you can see the the
other end of the hairpin conductors and
then there's a drip channel right here
for oil to come out of that oil sump and
to drip down and go down and lubricate
the stator windings because these get
really hot this is the heat source
inside of the transmission and it and
although it gets hot it doesn't get as
hot as the fluid
although the fluid gets hot it doesn't
get hot as a normal planetary gearset
style automatic transmission and the
cooling system surge tank reservoir cap
was only pressurized to 5 psi for this
loop of the cooling system so much lower
amounts of heat compared to an internal
combustion engine with a torque
converter heat generating planetary
gearset style of automatic transmission
now just a couple of things to get
wrapped up with this disassembly video
because we will reassemble it showing
the special measurements for the shims
and everything when we go back together
but one thing I wanted to show you about
these electric vehicles is how simple
they are and when I mean when I say
simple I don't mean simple design
meaning it was easy to design these
simplicity is not necessarily easy but
if we look at the number of rotating
parts in this entire drive unit
there are basically three main rotating
parts we've got the rotor assembly that
then turns the counter gear right here
that then turns the final drive three
pieces no clutch packs no bands and no
sprags no roller clutches no Pistons
none of those hundreds of parts that you
would see in a typical automatic
transmission let alone the internal
combustion engine that this is replacing
of course there are three main moving
parts these pieces here but each one has
two bearings on it so there's six more
pieces so there's nine total and then
inside of the differential here we have
two side gears and two differential
pinion gears so that makes for a total
of 13 possible moving parts inside the
of this drive unit and only when you're
turning corners would the side gears in
the differentials
be rotating at a different speed than
the differential case so a real basic
very reliable system these electric
vehicles and and this one is is very
efficient and that the design is very
compact to where this left-hand output
shaft remember goes right through the
center of the rotor instead of being
offset like on the the Nissan Leaf and
other electric vehicles out there so
congratulations to Chevrolet and the
design team that came up with this
amazing and efficient and simplistic
evie drive unit and I think it's
absolutely beautiful so coming up I hope
to shoot a reassembly video with all the
measurements for this drive unit and
then we've got all of these parts out
the drive unit all of the electronics
and our and our Chevy bolt back here on
the hoist is totally empty yeah under
the under the hood so we've got to put
that all back together and and make it
work again even the battery is out the
whole thing is stripped as far as the
powertrain is concerned and we're gonna
put that back together and and make it
work and hopefully get it converted to a
DC fast charge thank you for watching
Best Gas Mileage Cars Chevrolet Cruze Road Trip
Will Tinney:
Alright, where are we going guys?
St. Ignace!
How much gas do we have?
One tank!
Whoa, St. Ignace on one gas tank!
Whoa, St. Ignace on one tank of gas!
160 miles to St. Ignace.
We are actually averaging 34.6 miles per gallon mpg right now.
We are taking a quick road trip break. We only have got an hour and a half or two hours to go. And we have over three quarters of a tank of gas.
Whoa!
Hey guys, are we almost there?
Well according to my phone we have two hours left.
We're in Mancilona at Mc Donalds… In our Chevy Cruze
We are just approaching three fourths of a tank… And we made it to Petoskey.
Petoskey welcomes you!
We are now exiting Petoskey and we are just, just under three fourths of a tank of gas. So, we are doing excellent with the gas mileage. It says we still have 381 miles left in the gas tank, which is great, I think we'll actually make it back to Grand Rapids, MI safely and not have to worry about gas.
Hey! We made it to St. Ignace and we are on Mackinac Island!
No, Mackinac Island is over there!
No, It's somewhere.
Guys… Over there.
Oh, Mackinac Island is over there! Whoa!
We are in St. Ignace now. We have averaged 37.7 MPG miles per gallon. We still have well over a half a tank of gas. We have 361 more miles we can go, yet we have already traveled 290.8 miles so far.
So we are currently heading back home to Grand Rapids, MI.
It was a lot of fun but I hope we don't run out of gas because I don't want to push the car.
Let me tell you we don't have anything to worry about we still have over a half a tank of gas, high five!
Yeah, my Jeep would never make this trip.
We are about to reach our final destination, Tinney Chevrolet. We still have an eighth of a tank of gas left and we have driven over 520 miles on one tank.
Yea! We are back at Tinney! Whoa! We made it on one tank of gas!
No pushing for me today.
Cesar Lozano & His 1963 Chevrolet Impala SS - Lowrider Roll Models Ep. 7
MotorTrend Channel:
(inspirational music)
- If you set your mind
to doing something,
nothing's impossible.
Everything's possible.
You could have whatever you dream of,
and if you keep continuing dreaming big,
you will get there one day.
(hip hop music)
You got to have a lot of patience,
dedication, and passion to
build one of these cars.
My first car was a 1963 Impala,
which I had purchased in Bakersville.
It was a project car.
The '63 Impala was a
car that was unrestored.
We took that car, stripped it all down,
frame-off restoration.
We painted it Candy Blue
with a patterned top.
It was called 'Juiced 63',
which was featured in
a couple of magazines.
So what happened when it got featured,
I got contacted a couple months
after the car got
featured in the magazine,
and they had offered me $40,000.00 for it.
And I said you know what, why not.
'Cause it was something
that I couldn't refuse.
I said, you know what, it's your car.
So, it went to Japan.
(hip hop music)
I love the cars.
Since I was a kid, like I said,
I've loved to see low riders.
There's different ways
of building a low rider.
To me, it's an art.
That's the beauty of low-riding.
Right now I'm currently
working on 1963 Impala.
A hard top.
Ive had it for 17 years and now,
I have the opportunity to try
to put it all together now.
I want it all original GM factory parts.
You know, all NOS parts,
which is New Old Stock.
It's going to also have a
whole bunch of accessories,
as it's a hard top,
it also has a few more options
that the convertible didn't come with.
This car is going to be fully loaded.
As a matter of fact, that's
what I'm calling the car, is
'Fully Loaded'.
And we should be done with
this car within the next month,
so people will see it out there.
They will appreciate it
just as much as I am.
(hip hop music)
I own a 1963 Impala
Super Sport Convertible.
When I seen this car,
it was a car that I just had to have.
It was a car that was fully
loaded with factory options.
It's very rare to find a
very optioned car out there.
When I bought that car,
I said, Im going to restore this car.
but a lot of people said,
"No leave it alone, dont mess with it."
Which i agreed with them.
I don't want to just yet go
into that full restoration
on this car because
you can still smell the old of it
when you're driving it.
It drives so nice, and it's real.
I didn't put them on there.
This car came with them already.
It's an original Honduras
Maroon, with black interior.
With a 327 engine, two speed transmission,
four barrel carburetor, with
fully optioned accessories.
Factory seat,
a cruise control,
four-way flasher,
autronic eye,
tilt steering column,
power windows,
trunk release,
tachometer,
compass,
vanity mirrors,
under the dash ashtray,
AM/FM radio,
padded dash,
power steering,
power brakes,
locking gas cap.
It was something that you just
don't see out there no more.
(light music)
when I was a young kid,
there used to be a shop down
the street from our house,
right there off of
Pacific and Walnut called
The Gold Exchange.
There used to be a guy there
that used to work there,
his name is Richard Silva.
He went by 'Ritchie Rich'.
He was the number one hopper at the time.
He was a champion for a lot of years.
He would give us money to wash his cars,
to clean the windows,
and just keep all the
kids in the neighborhood,
try to keep us off the streets,
teach us right from wrong
and talk about his cars
and the rare stuff that he had on there.
That's how I got the
passion of low-riding.
I come from a family of 11.
We learned a lot from each other.
My mom, my dad worked all
their lives just to support us.
My mom sometimes had to
work 2 jobs day and night
just to put food on our table,
clothes on our backs.
They couldn't give us everything we wanted
just because it was so many of us.
My mom was in the sewing business,
and she used to work
for a factory, sewing.
And my dad was a janitor.
It was tough once you get older,
you kind of realize what your parents did
to try to provide for you.
Once I got older, if I
wanted name-brand clothes,
I had to go work for them.
And, I found every little
way of getting out there
and hustling to try to make money,
so when we did go back to school,
I had money to buy the clothes
that I wanted, you know?
I went from collecting cans,
to selling raspados at the park,
from buying stuff at the 99-cent store and
selling it for more money.
I'd buy baseball hats
that they had one time
at the 99-cent store,
and I bought a whole bunch
of them for a dollar each
and go sell them at the
park for five bucks.
I didn't go out there begging for money,
I went out there and worked for my money.
I was a collector.
I would collect baseball cards,
hot wheels, action figures,
stuff like that that I would
go to the store and buy
a couple of the ones I
thought that were rare,
and then I was holding on
to them 'cause I figure,
one day, I'mma have a business where
I can make money with this stuff.
And my dad told me,
if you graduate,
I will help you on
whatever you want to do.
That was his dream, just try
to keep me out of trouble.
I was working for a guy at
the Santa Fe Spring Swap Meet,
which was selling the same
things I used to be a collector,
you know, baseball cards, action figures,
just stuff like that on the weekends.
I learned a lot from him.
After I graduated from highschool,
I said, that's what I want to do.
I want to have my own business,
I want to sell sports
car, to action figures,
collectibles.
I started at the outdoor
swap meet doing that.
With a small booth, $500.00.
That's how (chuckles) my dad
helped me out, with $500.00.
He didn't have much, but we
made it grow as it went on
and on and on and on and on
and it was just a weekly thing.
Once that business grew, I
got into the Compton Indoor.
The business just got bigger,
and bigger as I was in there
with more of the collectibles,
and stuff like that.
Baseball cards...
I love toys.
Maybe because we didn't get to have them
when we were kids.
We went to the store,
and all we could do was look at them
because our parents couldn't
afford to buy them for us.
When I got to a point where
I was already in junior high
and I was already making
a little bit of money,
I would go out there
and buy it and save it,
and appreciate what I had
and praise it,
like, oh, man, this is rare, this is good.
Because I didn't get to
have that when I was a kid.
I'm the founder of Collector's
Choice Toys and Hobbies.
We're located here in the
city of Paramount, California.
I started Collector's Choice back in '93,
with a simple $500.00 investment,
to being one of the biggest distributors
in the West Coast for toys.
We're a distributor,
and we're an importer, exporter of toys.
We distribute toys from
Mattel,
Revell,
Funko,
Jada,
Maisto,
McFarlane.
We sell products to customers in Mexico,
Australia,
Spain,
Japan,
you name it, world-wide.
Once we open all these doors,
we were able to sell to a
lot of mom and pop shops
that were doing what I
did when I first started.
(inspirational music)
I love what I do,
and it keeps me motivated
'cause it's fun.
It's fun and I see that
I could do more with it.
Because my toy business was so successful,
I was able to start DGA Tees
with David Gonzales,
the creator of the Homies,
which does all of this art work
which caters to the Chicano industry.
We do from T-shirts, to
seat covers, from blankets,
you name it.
There was a logo for the Lowrider Man,
but there was nothing made for him.
So I contacted Lowrider and
asked if there was an
opportunity to make this toy.
And I've seen an opportunity
to be able to license
the figurine for this Lowrider Man.
I asked Dave if he could
design me a figurine and
he was more than happy to do
it because he's always had
a passion for the brand.
He was really excited to
design the figurine for us.
Someone that doesn't get low-riding,
they're missing out.
When I'm driving my cars,
it's never bothered me
what other people thought.
Low-riding is an art.
And when I see people out
there driving a low rider,
and it's nice and clean,
you got to give it to them because
I know that ain't come easy.
My advice to a lot of the
people that are out there
that are going through the hard struggle
that I went through,
nothing is impossible.
And I encourage everybody
that's out there to not give up.
Everything is possible in life,
and you can do whatever you
accomplish yourself to do.
Just keep moving forward.
Keep opening them doors,
and once you get there,
you're going to see
the light shine on you.
My name is Cesar Lozano,
I'm an entrepreneur,
and I'm a Lowrider Roll Model.
(instrumental music)
Lordstown's last Chevy Cruze makes its way through GM plant
WKBN27:
GM announces $300 million investment at Orion Assembly Plant, new Chevy EV
Click On Detroit | Local 4 | WDIV:
The Best Chevy Ever Made
Scotty Kilmer:
rev up your engines
welcome to wacky Wednesday's where
everyone has a chance to show off their
car mods and here's this week's winner
1967 four-door Impala black I haven't
had this car for very long I've had it
for maybe three months it came from
Florida to Europe here's a flashback
from when I first laid eyes on the car
it was delivered home right to my door
like any other car you buy it always has
minor defects like a million of them and
they have to be addressed some defects
larger than others the first week when I
drove the car the rear brakes locked
three times twice in the middle of the
road and I couldn't for the love of God
move the car and one of those times it
ran out of gas at the exact same time so
I had to leave the car go away and
siphon some gas fuel it up and force it
off the road don't you love cars
when I got it the carburetor was miss
adjusted and the engine timing was off
completely off so it was guzzling gas
like crazy and the first week I ran out
of gas like three times and I had to
walk a lot and after a few months work
it was great and sounds fantastic
so let's take a look around the car when
I got the car didn't have corner lights
or bumper guards I added those later
together with a new distributor a new
dash cluster, the dash cluster that was
in the car was digital and looked
absolutely horrific it did not belong in
that car so we threw it out and replace
it with an original 1967 dash cluster
and speaking of minor faults and defects
this is my first drive with the car and
the horn was honking all the time
I was too stubborn to stop and was
running really bad I'm not a big fan of
having the bass in the back but if you
want good sound you you just have to
accept that there's a lot of air that
needs to be moved back in 1967 the
speakers weren't really that great so we
have to give and take so we get the
sound fixed pretty recently
maybe two weeks ago fix the horn there's
a blanket for my dog pretty nice
interior
it always looks better on camera but
still pretty nice here's the engine it
makes the car go the engine in this car
is a 350 Chevy engine so someone has
some point replaced the engine
because these 67 did not count with 350
engines been known for extreme
durability and not breaking down every
five minutes after some tweaking it runs
great sounds fantastic people complement
the sound more than the cars look and
that's true
my dad used to drive impalas so I
thought I might as well step in the same
footsteps for a car from 67
it handles surprisingly well I figured
that maybe when I get to 90 or 100 km/h
who will start to feel very unstable I
got up to over 150 km/h before I felt
the need to slow down so what about the
future the future plans for this car is
to it during the winter is to restore
the entire underside of the car and the
next winter restore the interior and
some smaller things here and there and
last but not least engine and gearbox so
that's it the journey has just begun
thank you very much for featuring me on
the Scottie Kilmer Channel
rev up your engines, well that was this
week's video and to have your car mod
shown on my channel here check this out
so if you never want to miss another one
of my new car repair videos, remember to
ring that Bell
GM removes made-in-Mexico Chevy Blazer from Comerica Park display
Click On Detroit | Local 4 | WDIV:
2017 Chevrolet Trax - First Look
Cars.com:
in just the third model year of its
current generation the chevrolet trax
get some updates that give it a more
sophisticated look inside and out plus
some new safety tech up front the tracks
get some more sophisticated look than
before
check out these headlights more creased
than they used to be with LED accent
lighting here on this premier trim level
at the Auto Show the grill still a
split-level unit again like before but
the lower level much broader much more
creased more well-defined I gotta say
looks a lot like the grill on the
redesigned chevy malibu and back more
similar look with an important
difference though in the lower bumper
which is now more body coloured than
before when there was a lot of great
cladding that kind of gave the tracks a
bit of a down market look now inside the
tracks is dashboard loses all of the
storage cubbies it used to have before
but it adopts a much more grown up look
very cohesive here with kind of a
stitched weaving that goes all the way
from the left side to the right side in
this car here at the Auto Show straight
forward controls here and a 7-inch
display which now incorporates apple
carplay or Android auto important for
all you take lovers one thing i do wish
Chevy had invested a little bit more in
where the door panels still lots of hard
kind of cheap plastic here one of the
things we didn't like about the old
tracks
you don't have to necessarily get that
in competitors like the honda hr-v but
you do here in the tracks on the safety
front of backup camera previously
optional is now standard and new options
include blind spot late departure and
forward collision warning systems
stay tuned for pricing closer to the new
tracks is on sale date this fall
The Secret Corvette Chevy Tried to Kill | Bumper 2 Bumper
Donut Media:
(engine revving)
- Zora Arkus-Duntov,
an engineer, a race car driver.
Most importantly, the
father of the Corvette.
In less than two years working at GM,
he transformed the docile 'Vette
into a fire-breathing sports car
that's the talk of the town.
Things are going great.
And then some guy named
Carroll Shelby shows up
and start racing his Cobra
against Zora's new Stingray.
And it's better.
Much better.
So what's a Duntov to do?
Well, he goes off and builds
a version of his beloved
'Vette to beat the Cobra.
A car built in secret, hidden
from the executives at GM.
Destined for the crusher.
Today, I'm gonna tell you
that story, and it's a doozy.
We're going bumper to bumper
on the Corvette Grand Sport.
This car shouldn't even be here!
(lush rock music)
Shout out to CuriosityStream
for sponsoring
this episode of Bumper To Bumper.
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They have over 2,400 titles to choose from
for only $2.99 a month.
That's less than a big ole' burrito
that you can get at a gas station.
Which is what I eat when
I watch my favorite show.
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The best part?
You, our Donut fam, get
the first month for free
if you sign up at
CuriosityStream.com/Bumper2Bumper
and use the promo code Bumper2Bumper.
Support our sponsors
because they support us.
Thanks again, CuriosityStream.
Now,
back to the show.
America is known for three things.
You got your big old sodas,
you got your pepperoni pizzas,
and you got your auto racing.
But in 1957, factory-backed auto racing
was taken away from us.
Kind of.
Unlike today, there were no
safety regulations enforced
or performance limitations
on new automobiles.
It was an all out free-for-all
for car manufacturers
in building the fastest
production cars money could buy.
But the tides, they were
changing in the 50s.
Partially due to the most disastrous race
in the history of racing.
The 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans.
- [Announcer] 79 men, women, and children
are dead or dying in the worst disaster
in mega-racing history.
So, in 1957, the AMA adopted a resolution.
An agreement between the car companies
that they would all stop
advertising the performance of their cars,
and focus (sighs) on safety features.
But the real meat and
potatoes of this resolution
was that they would all stop funding
their factory race teams.
But racing is fun and it drives sales!
People buy cars that win.
So this gentleman's
agreement lasted two seconds.
1962, Ford said "Frig it.
"I'm done with this AMA deal."
And Chrysler followed soon after.
Coincidentally, '62 would also be the year
that a little boy from
Texas named Carroll Shelby
would sick his (imitates snake)
Cobra on the competition!
Now after seeing Shelby's
new car out on the track,
Corvette Chief Engineer and
savior Zora Arkus-Duntov
got a little nervous.
You see, Zora had a red hot
desire to go win Le Mans
in the GT class with his 'Vette.
But his plump, overweight
Chevy was no match
for the Cobra. (imitates snake)
And here's where it gets tricky.
At the time, GM was the
automobile manufacturer
in the United States,
with 53% of all auto sales in America
coming from the Michigan brand.
But there's these things in
America called antitrust laws.
Basically, if GM's sales continue to grow,
the government would assume
that they were reaching a monopoly status
and would have to split the company up.
So because of this, GM couldn't
openly develop a race car
to battle the Cobra.
But Zora Arkus-Duntov was frigging smart.
And a little sneaky.
So he came up with the idea
of building 125 lightweight
Corvettes as production cars.
So Zora went to the general
manager of Cheverolet,
Bunkie Knudsen, sweet, sweet, Bunkie,
and pitched him the idea.
And Bunkie agreed to
help out and offered up
some unofficial assistance and a budget
to develop and build this
new, secret Corvette.
Project codename Lightweight.
Zora knew that if he
wanted to beat the Cobra
in his 3,200 pound fatty 'Vette,
it needed to be put on a Duntov diet.
So starting with the frame,
a new ladder-type, all
tubular frame was built.
They cut it off at the rear axle
and used thin-walled, larger
diameter tubing to save wieght
while maintaining strength.
They tackled the body next.
All of the panels were made of hand-laid,
paper-thin fiberglass that
were significantly lighter.
Anything that was steel got
swapped out for aluminum.
The door handles were from
a 1950s Chevy pickup because
they were made from aluminum
and easily accessible.
Zora even had them shaved down
and recessed into the door
for better aerodynamics.
Pop-up up and down headlights are awesome,
but Zora's 'Vette needed to save weight.
So he ditched the heavy
motors that operated them
and molded the headlight
housings into the nose.
If you look at the shape of
the nose of the Grand Sport,
it's essentially a wing.
And this cause the car to want to lift
at speeds overs 140 miles per hour,
which sounds terrifying!
To prevent the car from
literally taking off,
engineers needed to remove
air from underneath it.
So they just started
cutting holes in the body.
The hood got gills that helped
keep the front end down at high speeds.
But they didn't stop at the hood.
They went crazy and cut
slots in the side fenders,
rear quarter panels,
and read bumper to force
more air out from under the car.
Not only did these fins
help to improve the car's performance,
they helped the beefy Corvette
lose even more weight.
That's 60s engineering baby!
- Yeah, baby!
This car was built for FIA GT races,
which require the wheels and tire
to lie within the bodywork.
So special fenders were designed
to hang over the larger wheels.
The fenders weren't designed
just to satisfy the rules though.
Their shape was engineered
to force more air
away from the belly of the beast.
This car was pretty much an
airplane wing in disguise
and kept wanting to go fly.
Like an eagle to the sea.
Fly like an eagle, let my spirit carry me.
I want to fly!
Into the future.
Time keeps on slipping,
slipping, slipping.
It used the air flowing over
the car to their advantage
and put large scoops on
the rear quarter panels
to catch air and send
it to cool the brakes.
They even mounted a differential cooler
directly on the rear deck
to reduce the temp of the diff oil.
A typical '63 has a split rear window,
but that's more weight.
That was ditched.
They were replaced with
plexiglass instead.
Then they reduced the weight even more
by using magnesium wheels.
The Duntov diet was starting to work.
A stock '63 'Vette weighed
in at around 3,200 pounds.
But the Grand Sport?
1,900, that's 1,300 pounds less.
That is 9.84 mes.
I weigh 132 pounds.
Now cutting all that weight
doesn't do you any good
if you don't have a race motor to move it.
While waiting for an engine to be built,
a modified production
L84 fuel-injected 327
was put in the Grand Sport.
They took the car down to Sebring
to do some initial
testing, and it did good.
Good enough that the big wig GM executives
heard about the car all the way on the 104
and sent Duntov a message to shut it down.
And he did.
Well,
I mean, at least that's what he told them.
- [Male voice] I lied.
Not only was he told to halt
all the work on the cars,
but he was told to destroy them.
Send them to the crusher!
Get them off the planet!
So Zora did what any good father would do.
Like the father of Moses, Superman,
and the Penguin from Batman Returns,
he sent three of them down the river
for someone else to raise them.
Someone by the name of John Mecom.
Oh, and he also hid the other
two in a secret storage area
at Chevrolet's research center.
Before Zora sent three
Grand Sports down to Texas,
he loaned chassis 003 and 004
to two private tier racers
to get some racing feedback.
Chicago Chevy dealer Dick Doane got 003,
and Grady Davis from Gulf Oil got 004.
They put the new Grand Sport
through its paces at SCCA races
because the car wasn't
considered a production car
due to only five of them being built.
They had to race in the modified class.
The car had mixed results.
But after some modifications
and improvements,
Davis, with Dick Thompson at the wheel,
took the 004 Grand Sport
to an overall victory
at the 1963 SCCA
Nationals at Watkins Glen.
Boom diggity, this Cobra-killing mongoose
was starting to prove it's worth.
Side note: Dick Thompson got
the nickname The Flying Dentist
because he was a dentist.
He liked winning races
and filling cavities.
After finding out about the cars
being raced around the
country at SCCA events,
GM ordered them to be sent back to Zora,
and again, to stop working on them
and not race them.
But Duntov was notoriously
hard at hearing.
So he took the cars 003 and
004 and an un-raced 005 car,
and modified them even more
to reflect what they learned on the track.
All those vents and holes cut in the car
that we talked about before,
those were implemented.
Wider 9.5 inch wheels
and tires were put on.
And it increased grip from .9 G to 1.1 G.
They continued to work on the motor
that would power the Cobra killer.
That motor was the 377.
A 6.2 liter, all aluminum, small-block V8
with four 58 millimeter
Weber -- carburetors,
and a special aluminum cross ram manifold.
It made a claimed 550 hrsprs at 6400 RPM.
Enough power to scoot
the Lightweight Corvette
to the top step of the podium.
(engines revving)
Now that Duntov had a complete race car,
it was time to test it against the Cobra.
From '54 to '66, the Bahamas hosted
the Nassau Trophy Race.
Mecom entered all three Grand
Sports in the 1963 race.
The Grand Sports were almost
10 seconds a lap quicker
than the competition.
They were faster than Cobras, but also
faster than the Ferrari GTOs.
Duntov was quoted as saying
"Even though we designed
the Grand Sports quickly
"and they lacked proper development,
"Nassau proved they were more than equal
"not only to the Cobras,
but the Ferrari GTOs."
(funky bass music)
The Grand Sport was much more bare-bones
than the one that I am
currently sitting in.
Duntov had to install
production-looking interior because,
well, it had to be a production car.
But it was all for looks.
The Grand Sport team had
to save weight everywhere.
So the interior got slimmed too.
The doors were stripped of the hardware
and the windows, again,
were made of plexiglass,
held in place with a velcro strap.
A small, lightweight knob was used
to open the door from the inside.
And a small, baby finger-sized
indentation in the panel
was used for the door handle.
It had simple seats, a
dash, and thin carpet.
It was a race car in disguise.
(funky bass music)
After the Grand Sports
proved their worth in Nassau,
Duntov went to work on getting
chassis 001 and 002 ready for Daytona.
He cut the roofs off
and made them roadsters
to improve aerodynamics and
implemented a lot of the changes
that helped the coupes be so
successful in the Nassau race.
But again, GM got word that
Zora was still racing the cars
and five weeks after Nassau,
GM laid down the law.
Dude, if you continue to race this car,
you are going to get
this company split up.
Seriously, Zora, please stop
racing these (bleep) cars!
I mean it this time, dude!
Stop!
GM had the cars shipped
back and pulled the motors.
The five Grand Sports
would get shuffled around
at the various private
tier teams in the 60s,
eventually being pushed aside,
as GM failed to provide factory support
while the Cobra continue to evolve
and regain its supremacy.
If you're curious, what super
rare care like this goes for,
in 2009, chassis number two
was the only Grand Sport
offered in public sale.
The bidding got up to $4.9 million,
but still wasn't enough to bring home
the Lightweight Cobra Killer.
But lucky for you, you don't
need that kind of money
to get yourself a good Grand Sport.
You only need 200 grand.
And we have Superformance
to thank for that.
(car starts)
(laughs)
(engine revving)
(laughs)
I feel like one of those guys in the 60s!
Just, open-faced helmet, I
got a bandana around my face!
I'm just going door to door with Shelbys!
(coughs) That a wrap?
The car we have here
is not one of the original Grand Sports.
This is a GM licensed Superformance car.
It's not a kit car, it's not a replica.
It's an official continuation car
brought back to life by Superformance.
Built to the exact specifications
of the original '63 Grand Sport,
based on spec drawings by Zora himself.
The Superformance Grand Sport keeps
the original style steering wheel,
seat belts, pedals, shifter,
and handbrake lever.
It has updates like Wilwood brakes,
17 inch wheels in the front,
18 inch wheels in the back.
But the original chassis
layout and suspension
is 100% period correct.
The motor, well, you
can get anything really.
From a 350 horsepower ZZ4 small-block
to the all aluminum supercharged LS9.
And if you want to go old-school,
you can get a modern version
of the infamous, all aluminum 377.
This GS rocks a 650 hrspr LT4.
The same motor found in the C7 Z06
and the sixth gen Camaro ZL1.
The Grand Sport, a race car
that was never supposed to be built,
constructed within the dark recesses
of Chevrolet's research center.
The Lightweight Corvette was
designed to beat the Cobra,
and it did.
GM said no, but Zora
Arkus-Duntov didn't listen.
While he didn't get his
chance to win Le Mans,
Zora proved his point.
He could build a car
that could not only
compete against the best,
but would beat them.
It was a short-lived success,
but a success nonetheless.
(engine revving)
Big thanks to Superformance
for loaning us this car,
and big, big thanks to the
Petersen Automotive Museum
for letting us shoot here.
You like this story?
You want to learn more about Zora?
He's a really great guy,
that Petersen is hosting
a Zora tribute weekend
on July 27th and 28th.
I'll probably be here.
Say what's up.
And then there's a link
in the description below
to get all the information on that.
You want to learn more about Corvettes,
check out this episode of
my other show, Up To Speed.
You want to know more about going fast,
check out this episode
of my son Nolan's show.
You like me shirt?
Merch is back in stock.
You can get it at DonutMedia.com.
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and get 10% off of your first order.
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I love you.
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