S2 Tail
I plan on replacing the rear 12" or so of the street tail with a custom piece. I retained Kevin Richards from Surfac3D to create the sketches and 3D models.
Key Design Elements
This section outlines the key design elements which are subsequently described in detail.
Unique tail lights: While the tail lights provided in the kit are OEM, I think the car deserves something better. I don't want anything round.
More vents: The engine compartment gets hot and more vents are functional, plus they look cool.
Remove duck tail: A dynamic wing that will be mounted above the tail section. The duck tail conflicts with a wing both aesthetically and functionally.
Fixed diffuser: The diffuser is molded into tail and it provides the mounting points for the hinge. This means that you need to elongate the holes for the exhaust tips to clear. While removable bezels can cover the holes, they are a pain in the ass. If the diffuser is fixed and the exhaust passes through it, there is no need for elongated exit holes or bezels. In addition, the current molded-in diffuser doesn’t appear all that functional when compared to the race tail. Lastly, the diffuser can project out the rear further which will provide more room for the exhaust (the current diffuser clears the ground by less than a quarter of an inch when the tail is in the vertical position). The diffuser could be aluminum, fiberglass or carbon fiber.
Exhaust: The exhaust should exit through the diffuser, ideally with a crossover and a single Lambo-like exhaust tip. I like the external appearance and sound of Peter's exhaust, but I'm thinking of mounting the mufflers low and parallel to the ground.
Hinging: A fixed diffuser requires a custom hinge that mounts to the top of the suspension cross brace. Given that the diffuser is fixed the pivoting piece of the tail will be much lighter.
Show some tire: The tires are hardly visible at all from the rear and I'd like to see a little rubber.
Lambo LigHTS
My first attempt was to modify some aftermarket Lambo-like sequential lights from Buddy Club as shown in the video below. I spent a bunch of time cutting them out of the huge casing, designing a 3D printed bezel and making a mold to vacuform a clear lens.
Kevin did some sketches which looked great, but when he saw the light in person he mentioned that the LEDs were pointed in a weird direction, so we powered it up and they were clearly designed to project light 20 degrees different that how they'd be mounted on the SL-C. While they'd look great, I decided that it was dangerous to have the brake lights set up sub optimally. Too bad, as they would have provided me with a completely unique look.
C7 Lights
So I spent a lot of time looking for another set of DOT approved tail lights. The challenge was finding something unique, but was flat enough to work with the SL-C... you'll note that most modern tail lights wrap around the side of the car. In the end, I decided to go with C7 lights with the "fang" in the bezel cut off. Kevin did the following sketches 2-8 are based on C7 lights:
I liked the look so I bought a set. They're a hell of a lot bigger than the Lambo lights so I had my son hold them up to see what they'd look like. In the picture below the bottom of the horizontal blue tape is where the top of the tail will be when the duck tail is removed.
I had 3D Scansmith scan one of the C7 tail lights and bezels. Sean did a great job and he provided a closed model which even included the connectors.
In the pictures below you the tail light and bezel scans have been incorporated into a mesh scan of another builder’s SL-C. The first picture from the back is bad ass! I'm not as crazy about the profile because the tail now bulges outwards in the middle. This is due to the curvature in the tail lights. More space back there is a good thing and I think that the stock tail is too flat in the back. I haven't decided if I like the profile or not...
Note that body split line in the spider was carried over to the tail section resulting in the splitter and tail lights remaining fixed.
Below are some exhaust tip renderings. The first one is a stainless aftermarket Lamborghini part that might be able to be modified. Note that some pictures have black tail light bezels whereas others are white. I think I'm going to go with the bottom left (i.e., simple oval).
Morimoto makes my day
Morimoto has released Aventador-inspired tail lights for the 2014-2019 C7 Corvette. They’re DOT-compliant and feature optional sequential blinking. I’m not sure why they’re not listed on their website, but I ordered a set from Vette Lights. I’m planning on using Morimoto parts to create custom headlights and I’ve found their stuff to be top quality, so this is going to be a great solution. The one wrinkle is that they placed the backup lights in the “fang.” In looking at the installation video on the Vette Lights website they are integrated into the bezel, so I have several options;
Leave the fang. I’m not sure that it’s going to look right because it will droop down and nearly touch the black piece below it. That said, it’s the easiest option… but that’s not the way this build has been rolling.
Cut the fang and put the backup lights somewhere else.
Modify the fang so that it’s flush with the bottom of the tail light. That might provide enough space to retrofit some backup LEDs into the lower outer corners. Filling in that corner may also make the lights appear more fit for purpose.
Wires:
Black: Ground
Red: Stop
Yellow: Turn
Blue: Park
White: Backup
Green:Turn Return????
Orange/Brown: disconnected=sequential