General Motors has made another significant personnel move within the Chevrolet Corvette team, cutting its product marketing manager of 24 years, Harlan Charles.
In addition to helping lead the team responsible the iconic American supercar for the past two dozen years, Charles served a further 13 years in other departments at GM, where he racked up a total of 37 years of employment.
Charles played a key role in the market development of the latest generation C8 Corvette – the first mid-engined version of GM’s answer to Ferrari – as well as the previous C7 and C6 models.
The news was confirmed by Charles on corporate media platform LinkedIn earlier this week.
“My Corvette dream is over – my bubble burst,” wrote Charles.
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Australian C8 Corvette lineup
“After 24 years on Corvette and 37 at GM, I was informed my time is up and I will no longer be your Corvette Product Manager. I am now retired.”
Charles is not the only high-ranking executive to have left the Corvette team in recent times. Tadge Juechter, former Corvette chief engineer, left last year after 18 years in the role.
It has also been speculated on the Mid Engine Corvette Forum that Chevrolet has axed a second big-name executive as part of the latest wave of personnel changes.
The departure of Charles casts doubt over the future of the Corvette nameplate, which dates back over seven generations to 1953, despite the sales success of the eighth-generation model.
First launched in base Stingray form in 2019, the C8 Corvette lineup has since expanded to include the high-performance Z06 and hybrid-powered E-Ray.
The new twin-turbo flagship ZR1 will enter production in 2025, though Australia isn’t in line to receive it. It will be the most powerful Corvette ever made, producing up to 783kW at 7000rpm and 1123Nm of torque at 6000rpm.
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Corvette Zora render
Chevrolet isn’t done with the C8 just yet, though, given reports that an even more extreme take on the Corvette formula is in development, coined the Zora.
Named after the Corvette’s original chief engineer – Zachary ‘Zora’ Arkus-Duntov, who became known as ‘father of the Corvette’ – the Zora would sit right at the top of the range, above the ZR1.
In order to usurp the ZR1, Chevrolet may look to combine its twin-turbo V8 with the hybrid system from the E-Ray, for a combined power output surpassing 850kW.
Chevrolet has yet to confirm the Zora, although if previous Corvette variant launch cadence is anything to go by, a global reveal can be expected within the next 12 months.
Whether the project will go ahead in the absence of Mr Juechter and Mr Charles remains to be seen.