What Tadge Juechter Has To Say About The C3 Corvette: Video

It’s time for another episode of Car and Driver‘s “Car Nerds In Corvettes Getting Nothing.” With C&D‘s Don Sherman playing the Johnny Carson of the series and Corvette Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter serving in the role of Ed McMahon in this episode, the two spend their time within the confines of the third-generation Corvette C3 — specifically a 1972 Corvette convertible with the mighty LT1 and 4-speed Muncie transmission.

Unlike previous episodes, Juechter only has his opinion to share as he did not personally work on the C3. That means there are no juicy bits of gossip here. Still, as the man responsible for the latest and (arguably) greatest Corvette, his opinion matters. And what he has to say about the C3 may surprise you.

Collectors love the LT1, as it was the mightiest of the Corvette small-blocks. Produced between 1970 and 1972, the LT1 was never a high-production item, even among big-blocks. Air conditioning became available for the first time with this engine in 1972, and out of the 1,741 Corvette C3s built with the LT1, only 240 are reported to have been equipped with AC. Imagine how many of those were 4-speed ragtops.