INDIAN RIVER CORVETTE CLUB
NEWSLETTER

President • Rob Callery • Vice-President • Bill Ulisky • Secretary • Betty Brousseau • Treasurer • Ro Bryant

February 2005

1st - Freddy Cernuto, 9th - Richard Powers, 15 - Terry Smith,
17th - Tom White, 25th - Dan Bryant, 25th - Karl Steene,
25th - Toni Dolan, 30th - Terri Crawford, 31st - John Mulligan
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU ALL!

On February 11, 2005 the Indian River Corvette Club held its 59th regular meeting. Vice-President Bill Ulisky conducted the meeting in Robs absence. 30 members attended the meeting.
Balance in the account is $2105. A motion carried to buy a large brick at the National Corvette Museum. We are still trying to convince Service Chevrolet to be a sponsor. Our meeting place for the Mystery Dinner Runs has been moved to TJ Max in Miracle Mile. We are all looking forward to the Economy Run/ Poker Run on Saturday Feb 19th. Crystal Hoffard won the 50/50. We then caravanned to Terry/Sue Smiths for dessert. Thanks Terry and Sue

Terry and Sue put on a great event on February 19th. Meeting at Riverside Park for instructions, 32 club members/cars and 4 members/cars of C.O.O.L. from Okeechobee made their way to Fellesmere for lunch. Along the way, each participant gathered cards to make a poker hand and at the same time kept a light foot on the accelerator to maximize gas mileage. Lou and Sandy posted a fantastic 34.1 mpg on their C-5 6 speed. Keslers won the C-5 automatic class with 28.7 mpg. Harry won the C-4 standard with 20.4 mpg and Terry won the automatic class with 28 mpg. Melanie Heaton from C.O.O.L. won the ''Leadfoot Award'' in C-4 class and Dan Bryant won for C-5s. Poker hand winners were Rob & Cathie with 3 Jacks, Ernie & Dianne with three 10's, Crystal with three 7's, and Keslers with a pair of Aces. Thanks to all the C-2 and C-3 folks who manned the check points

Thanks Harry for the great dinner run to Governors Grille in downtown Ft Pierce. 22 members enjoyed the cruise and dinner

THEY ARE PROUD NEW OWNERS OF A BLACK ON BLACK ON BLACK 2005 C-6 CONVERTIBLE. BEST OF LUCK WITH THE NEW BABY

FOR THOSE WHO MISSED IT...WE HAD A C-1,C-3, C-4'S ,C-5'S AND THE NEW C-6 IN OUR CRUISE TO DINNER. THE ONLY ONE MISSING WAS A MID-YEAR C-2. QUITE A SITE!

The first information on the 2006 six speed automatic has now been released to GM service technicians. Designation of the transmission is 6L80-E.

First, many speculated that the new six speed was actually a derivative if the 5L50-E that is now in the XLR, this is not the case. This 5L50 was actually a similar design of the older 4L30 that was in the older Catera. The case was actually given an extension housing to accommodate the additional ratios. The 6L80 is a brand new casing, with a very high torque capacity

Preliminary torque values will be as high as 580 ft lbs. I say as high as, because there will be several variants of this unit. Some with lower torque capacities, to accommodate other drive lines.

Control: The controls of the transmission are similar in layout to the Allison transmission in the GM HD pickup trucks. The valve body, which actually changes the fluid flow to shift the transmission between the gears, is very similar to the Allison. There is an upper half, a lower half and the 'control solenoid' assembly

Apply components: This is referring to the clutches and components that hold the planetary gear set to give a certain ratio. In older transmission designs, there were bands and multiple sprags to apply, not so in the 6L80. Once again, similar to the Allison, there are only clutch packages and one sprag. This tells me that the initial torque surge, as associated with drag racing, will be better handled without breakage

The components are: 1/2/3/4 clutch, which has 5 fiber plates
3/5 Reverse clutch, which has 4 fiber plates
4/5/6 clutch, which has 6 fiber plates
2/6 clutch, which has 5 fiber plates
Low/reverse clutch, which has 5 fiber plates
Low/reverse sprag