General Motors Vehicle Line Executive Tom Wallace will leave Corvette in November, according to Corvette Action Center, but no reasons for the departure were provided. Tom's decision was announced by Corvette Racing Program Manager Doug Fehan during an event held at Petersen Museum, but no other details were unveiled.
However, “Wallace's departure could be related to uncertainty surrounding the timeline for the seventh-generation Corvette. The car (originally slated for a 2012 model-year release) has reportedly been pushed back by at least two years, a span to which Wallace may have been unwilling to commit,” the aforementioned source wrote.
Tom Wallace was named the Corvette chief engineer on January 1, 2006, succeeding Dave Hill and becoming the fourth person in history to have this job. What's interesting is that Tom Wallace admitted that working for Corvette is a dream job, according to an interview for Corvette Racing so, a different reason than the one mentioned by Corvette Action Center is pretty inconceivable. Obviously, people are already talking about an offer coming from a different car manufacturer willing to pay more money to Tom Wallace than Corvette.
“Being a gearhead, Dave Hill and I had a great relationship. We'd bounce ideas off each other, and he'd ask me to drive an engineering development car for a few days and give him my opinion. Even before getting this job I was driving a Z06 because he knew I'd drive it hard. So, yes, it's a dream job, and it's still sinking in how awesome it is,” he said in the interview.
However, “Wallace's departure could be related to uncertainty surrounding the timeline for the seventh-generation Corvette. The car (originally slated for a 2012 model-year release) has reportedly been pushed back by at least two years, a span to which Wallace may have been unwilling to commit,” the aforementioned source wrote.
Tom Wallace was named the Corvette chief engineer on January 1, 2006, succeeding Dave Hill and becoming the fourth person in history to have this job. What's interesting is that Tom Wallace admitted that working for Corvette is a dream job, according to an interview for Corvette Racing so, a different reason than the one mentioned by Corvette Action Center is pretty inconceivable. Obviously, people are already talking about an offer coming from a different car manufacturer willing to pay more money to Tom Wallace than Corvette.
“Being a gearhead, Dave Hill and I had a great relationship. We'd bounce ideas off each other, and he'd ask me to drive an engineering development car for a few days and give him my opinion. Even before getting this job I was driving a Z06 because he knew I'd drive it hard. So, yes, it's a dream job, and it's still sinking in how awesome it is,” he said in the interview.