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Corvette kit

Design to him was something that had to be functional and not just for show. He wanted aerodynamics, so that’s something that he pushed the envelope on even back when aerodynamics weren’t thought of, I think they didn’t see that as a big deal, you know, or they didn’t spend the money on aerodynamics when he intuitively knew about aerodynamics.

So the Corvette kit I talked about earlier, he had done such a god job that when they put the car, they let him run the car in the wind tunnel, even though he didn’t work for General Motors at the time, he got wind tunnel time, which is very expensive. And he put the car in the wind tunnel and it actually improved the coefficient of drag.

And so it...the problem that he had with that though was, typically Larry, is that it did such a good job that it ticked off the current group of designers. So they kind of pushed him to the side again because it did, they had told, Larry had told me that they had gone to the board and said, "We have to have a new Corvette because the current Corvette, we can’t modify it anymore to be better, to make it better aerodynamically." And here comes Larry, an independent, with his kit basically that you could add on to the current Corvette and improve the numbers. So, you know, that wasn’t a good thing.


aerodynamics automobiles Chevrolet automobile Corvette automobile design Larry Shinoda motor vehicles sports cars

Date: September 14, 2011

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Akira Boch

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

After graduating from high school in Anaheim, Ron Kusumi earned his degree from Cal Poly Pomona, and worked in the automotive industry for 20 years with companies such as Nissan and Mitsubishi. It was while working on a project developing an aluminum alloy wheel at Nissan that Ron met famed designer Larry Shinoda, whose brief comments about the project impressed Ron with a keen eye and genius for knowing the essence of style and function. The two shared a mutual passion for sports cars and became friends. For the past fifteen years, Ron has run an independent film studio in Long Beach, California, writing, producing and directing programs for cable television. (September 2012)

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