Shad Balch – Corvette Peeps You Should Know

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a job with no bad days? For Shad Balch, Product Communication Manager at General Motors, such an occupation exists. We first noticed Shad when he appeared on Jay Leno’s Garage driving around town (and getting pulled over by the fuzz), in a new Corvette Z06 with the former “Tonight Show” host.

He’s a very busy guy, but we managed to connect with him, and got the 411 on Chevrolet with an emphasis on it’s prodigal son, the Corvette. He was very gracious and spoke with us about what’s going on at the Bow Tie Division these days.

First, let’s get the backstory on how Shad came to work for the mighty “General.” He was first brought onboard to help with the launch of the 2010 Chevrolet Volt. It was in the depths of the “Great Recession” and Shad and his team had their hands full navigating a path littered with legacy issues from the EV1 electric car and overall skepticism from the public about electric cars and GM. That was a tough sell back in the day, but Shad’s performance caught the eye of the top brass and his position evolved into his current role overseeing the entire Chevrolet line-up on the West Coast.

Although he’s a big proponent of GM’s “moonshot” cars, the Volt and Bolt, don’t dismiss him as a single faceted, Birkenstock-wearing greenie. He’s owned two C6s and currently has a brand new, red Stingray as his company car. He says even in car-crazy LA, “heads swivel when I drive that ‘Vette down the street…”

Shad says he has a “dream job” and his days are spent rounding up “All of Chevy’s new cars, pickups and crossovers and showing them off to the media and consumers all over the West coast. It’s very rare I have a bad day at work…” Although he’s mostly overseeing Chevrolet, he also has a team under him that manages product communications for Buick, Cadillac, and GMC as well.

With the formalities out of the way, we got down to it and asked three questions regarding the latest and greatest from Corvette, Chevrolet Performance and Corvette Racing.

We started off with a state-of-the-union of Chevy’s two-seater. Shad plugged the virtues of the new 2017 Grand Sport hitting the market in a few weeks saying, “It occupies the sweet spot of the Corvette lineup.” With wide, factory body panels, naturally aspirated LT1 motor, and a mellower personality than the Z06, it’s “The best of all worlds.”

That was all fine and dandy, but we were itching to ask the $64,000 question. We threw caution to the wind and asked if he could illuminate us on the future of the Corvette. While getting any info regarding the direction of the C8 would be quite a coup journalistically–and would elevate our status to Jimmy Olson of auto scribes–but alas, a mid-engined Corvette was neither confirmed nor denied.

He did throw us a crumb by saying, “Looking back at the C6 gives us an idea of where the C7 is headed. There were many different models introduced over its product cycle and we can expect that with C7 as well. There’s great new products coming soon.” Spoken like a true company man.

Next we asked what was the latest and greatest at Chevrolet Performance. He talked about the new ZL1 Camaro and how it will be the third recipient (after the Z06 and Caddy CTS-V) to get the LT4 mega-motor. The Camaro will get a slightly detuned version of Corvette’s LT4 V-8 that powers the Z06. When installed in the sixth-gen, the LT4 6.2-liter V8 engine has intake and exhaust features that are tailored specifically for the pony car application.

With an estimated 640 horsepower and 640 lb.-ft. of torque, ZL1 is the most powerful Camaro ever produced. Although a mere 10 horsepower separate the two cars with the same motors, protocol requires that the pony can’t outrun the horse. For you DIY guys, a crate motor LT4 can be yours for a cool $15,625.00

Last but not least we talked about Corvette Racing and it’s recently attained 100th win milestone. Shad reiterated that every ounce of intellectual property from the racing program is baked into the production Z06. Most Corvette fans are aware of that connection, but the technological march of progress isn’t slowing and Balch says with a nudge,  “All the success in racing is not only a huge win for the team, but a huge win for future Corvettes…”

We’ll leave it there for now. What’s your vision for future Corvettes? Let us know in the comment section.

About the author

Dave Cruikshank

Dave Cruikshank is a lifelong car enthusiast and an editor at Power Automedia. He digs all flavors of automobiles, from classic cars to modern EVs. Dave loves music, design, tech, current events, and fitness.
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