We’re Sure It’s Tadge Juechter on That ZR1 Window, Ma’am, Not Frank Sinatra
With good reason, automotive journalists have explored most every nook and cranny aboard the 1064-horsepower 2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 since its global introduction in Miami on Thursday. But there’s something many of them missed, also with good reason: It only takes up about half a square inch, located on a left-hand corner of the ZR1 coupe’s split rear window.
It’s a tiny, round, in-shadow profile portrait of Tadge Juechter, Corvette’s executive chief engineer, who has been working on the Corvette program since 1993 and running it since 2006. Juechter is retiring this summer after 47 years with General Motors.
In the decal, placed next the all-capital-letter mandated legend of the LAMINATED SA ACOUSTIC glass, the portrait looks a little like a 1970s-era Frank Sinatra.
So ZR1 owners may occasionally be called upon by mere civilians to answer the question: “Whose little picture is that on the back of your car?”
And here’s what to say: It’s Tadge Juechter (pronounced Juck-ter, but say it any way you want, they won’t know the difference), Corvette’s chief engineer, one of only five since the car debuted in 1953. He took over from Dave Hill, and is being replaced this summer by Tony Roma, who is not the Tony Roma who founded Tony Roma’s, the restaurant chain famous for baby back ribs. That Tony Roma died in 2003. This Tony Roma was chief engineer on the Cadillac Blackwing duo and Celestiq before he got the big movin’-on-up call from the front office.
As for Tadge Juechter, he was born in Laredo, Texas, the son of a fighter pilot. He and his family moved around a lot. He landed at GM’s plant in Lordstown, Ohio, in 1977, likely just in time to see the last Chevrolet Vega roll off the assembly line. He continued to move around within General Motors, until he stopped moving in 1993 because he had been promoted to the Corvette team.
![2016 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 action](https://hagerty-media-prod.imgix.net/2022/09/2016-Chevrolet-CorvetteZ06-040.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=crop&h=427&ixlib=php-3.3.0&w=640)
Juechter, who has an MBA from Stanford, joined the Corvette program working alongside Hill, newly minted as Corvette’s chief engineer in 1992. Juechter’s first job at Corvette was the see the C4 out the door, and help create the C5 era, which began in 1997. C5 begat the C6, and C6 begat the C7.
All along, Juechter, who grew up in a Porsche family, had been lobbying for a mid-engine design, and got his wish with Corvette’s eighth generation. It debuted on July 18, 2019, in Tustin, California, inside the U.S. Navy’s atmospheric 17-story wooden blimp hangar, built in 1942, destroyed by fire in 2023, despite all the “no smoking” signs.
![NCM C8s racing on track action](https://hagerty-media-prod.imgix.net/2024/02/NCM-30th-Anniversary-08-C8s-battle-at-NCM-Motorsports-Park.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=crop&h=427&ixlib=php-3.3.0&w=640)
After the C8 coupe came the convertible, then the Z06, and the E-Ray. Beginning with the 2025 models, all will get the little Sinatra-looking portrait of Juechter, which Chevrolet calls an “icon of appreciation,” on the front windshield glass and the front tunnel reinforcement panel. Juechter follows Zora Arkus-Duntov, Corvette’s first chief engineer, whose dime-sized portrait, in which he is wearing shades, possibly Ray-Bans, is currently featured on all production Corvette windshields.
The outgoing Juechter should certainly be proud of the ZR1, which is Corvette’s crowning glory—at least till Chevrolet actually builds the long-rumored, pre-legendary Zora model, a name it copyrighted in 2018. But where do you go, after 1064 horses?
As is always the case with Corvette: Stay tuned.
![2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 ZTK carbon fiber](https://hagerty-media-prod.imgix.net/2024/07/2025-Chevrolet-Corvette-ZR1-17.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=crop&h=427&ixlib=php-3.3.0&w=640)
And a University of Rochester graduate. 1979 Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
Didnt know Frank Sinatra went to such a prestige school.
Yep. He and Hedy Lamarr collaborated on sonar research during WWII. A little-known side of Ol’ Blue Eyes.
Gee I have a Zora decal in my window of my Vette. I guess I will have to change.
The Corvette has been in amazing hands with Dave Hill and Tadge.
Dave brought a solid chassis and true performance to the brand after years of GM neglect and mis management. The c5-6-7 all were the car that GM could and should have built sooner.
In fact the C6 was about the end of the road for front mid engine. The C7 only existed due to the bail out and the mid engine needed more time and money than was available.
So Tadge continued to develop the C7 and 8 at the same time. Quite an achievement.
He started the work on the C9 already and it is time for Tony to fill some big shoes. He should do well as he knows his stuff and I expect Hill and Tadge both will remain available for advice.
Even after Zora left Chevy he was always there.
It is Tommy Smothers.
Frank S is that u trying to disavow the sticker on the window
it’s a nice little tribute to him, but it does look like he’s going to be singing some Sinatra song in that little icon.
I just saw a new Vette. I thought it was a Ferrari… Damn sweet!
Maybe, maybe not. Until the C8, I could spot a Corvette anytime, anywhere, from any point of view. Now I have to wait until it is less than 50 feet away to know if it the right time for the “Corvette Wave”. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just the way it is.
I’d like to see a picture of Mauri Rose on there, but I guess it would have to be on the nose.