On October 1, 1996 the first Corvette in the fifth generation rolled off the
manufacturing line and across the street to the National Corvette Museum for
display. ...a red coupe, of course. (In All Corvettes are Red, James Schefter documented the
fifth generation. Published in January, 1998 the book details the creation
of the C5 and John Cafaro's, Chief Designer of the C5, production of a feline-like design with
soft, sensuous curves.)
The story actually began in 1988 when Dave McLellan was still
chief engineer. GM's financial woes dictated reductions in
budget which endangered the creation of the C5.
Competing designs were still in evidence in 1992 when three vied for
the C5 prize. The "momentum" architecture with a "front
engine, rear transmission, evolutionary style; a mid-engine Vette
(favored by Dave McLellan, and then GM President, Jack Smith); and
the "stiffer and lighter architecture" at the least expensive
pricetag. The "momentum" architecture won the day; however,
the financial shoals still needed to be navigated successfully
before the C5 could sail.
After the shortened production in Model Year 1997, each
successive model year produced sales in excess of 30,000 making the C5 the most
popular Corvette yet. The C5 generation lasted from 1997 through
2004 producing a performance model, the Z06, which first appeared in 2001, a new system for ride stabilization called Magnetic Selective Ride
Control (MSRC) and the 50th Anniversary pictured above as a coupe.
Both the coupe and the convertible increased in price by over
$7,000 during the generation's run. The base price of the
coupe was $37,495 in MY 1997 rising to $44,535 by MY 2004.
Convertibles, introduced in MY 1998, increased from $44,425 to
$51,535. The hardtop (or "fixed roof coupe") was
introduced in 1999 for $38.777. With the introduction of the
Z06 in 2001, the price jumped to $47,500. In the last MY of
the fifth generation, a Z06 would cost $52,385.
 Popular
Science's "Best of What's New Award" for 2002 in the Automotive Technology
category went to "Magnetic Selective Ride Control." MSRC
uses a shock-absorbing liquid, which is a
combination of microscopic iron particles and conventional fluid,
changes viscosity when exposed to a magnetic field. The change
happens without any mechanical valve movement and occurs five times
faster than a conventional shock's reaction. The resulting
improvement in control is impressive, with the system responding to the
wheel's movements hundreds of times per second."
Computers (modules) were used in the C4 generation but limited to running the
powertrain, chassis systems and the instrument cluster. In the C5
generation, 12 modules are used with a single bus allowing information to be
shared among modules. The 12 modules are for powertrain, body-related
equipment such as interior lighting, heating, ventilation and air conditioning,
the new magnetic selective ride control, diagnostics, antilock brakes, traction
control and active handling systems, AM/FM stereo radio with CD player, power
seats, keyless remote entry systems, instrument cluster and two modules (left
and right) for the door-mounted hardware such as power windows and locks.
In addition to the 12 modules, there are at least 10 standalone modules which
are dedicated to simple tasks such as raising the headlights.
The processors in each module run at speeds between 4.2 and 24 Mhz...painfully
slow compared to your desktop at home. An old PC by today's standards runs
at 700 - 900 Mhz or as much as 40 times faster than the fastest module in the
Corvette. The powertrain module requires the faster 24Mhz processor
to handle the data intensive operations required to monitor the 433 combustion
cycles per second of the Z06's LS6 engine as it approaches its 6500 RPM redline,
for example.
Memory (RAM) for modern PCs is usually defined in at least megabytes or
millions of bytes. The C5 requires 38 kilobytes or 38,000 bytes of RAM.
Programming code resides in 1.3 megabytes of read-only memory (ROM) while
another 91 kilobytes of programmable ROM exists to accept updates.
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