Tadge Juechter, the Man Behind the Modern Corvette, Is Retiring

General Motors announced on Wednesday that Corvette executive chief engineer Tadge Juechter will be retiring this summer after 47 years, Detroit Free Press reports. Juechter has been seriously involved with Corvette development since the C5 and has been the lead on both the C7 and C8 generation vehicles.

Juechter began his career at General Motors back in 1977, working in the assembly division of the Lordstown, Ohio facility. He made the jump over to the Corvette team in 1993, where he then took on the role of assistant chief engineer under then-chief engineer Dave Hill. The pair were responsible for the C5 Corvette, as well as the C6.

Juechter assumed his current role during the C6 generation in 2006. That wasn’t a task that the engineer took lightly, regularly making himself available to fans of the brand. His team's work on the C7 earned a lot of praise from the media and fans alike, a trend that has continued with the C8. Juechter was also a leading force behind the decision to move the Corvette to a mid-engine platform, and has brought us the current crop of C8 offerings. You can thank Juechter for the PCOTY-winning Z06, the electrified E-Ray, and the recently teased ZR1. The latter will be the last car that will come under the direction of Juechter.