Ex-Corvette Engineer McLellan Explores Accident-free Driving Concept at SAE 22nd Annual Brake Colloquium in Anaheim

WARRENDALE, Pa., Aug. 2, 2004 -- Do cars really have to crash? Can an expert system back up the driver, warn them of danger and at the limit, apply the brakes and steer the car to avoid a collision? According to retired GM chief Corvette engineer Dave McLellan, the technology needed to produce a "crash-proof" car is already under development.

McLellan will give the keynote address to automotive engineers on Tuesday, October 12 during the 22nd Annual SAE Brake Colloquium and Exhibition, which runs October 10 -14 at the Anaheim Marriott in Anaheim, California. The Society of Automotive Engineers annually conducts the Brake Colloquium event, which attracts brake and friction engineers from around the world to share their knowledge and advance this important safety technology.

David McLellan was the Chief Engineer of the Corvette from 1975 - 1992. After he retired from General Motors, he began writing a book about his experiences. His book, Corvette from the Inside is a guided tour through Corvette history by a man who was intimately involved with America's favorite sports car for seventeen of the most exciting years of his professional life. During McLellan's tenure over Corvette's design team, the All American sports car gained a reputation for massive brakes and prodigious stopping power.

Another featured session at the SAE event is an executive panel on the brake/friction industry, Moderated by John Brown, Senior Advisor with Nisshinbo Automotive Corporation. Panelists include David Bundred, President, TMD Holdings; Bill Hilbrandt, VP Research & Development, Akebono; Kazuhiro Iwata, President, Nisshinbo Automotive; Kenji Kakihara, Vice President, Brake & Chassis Systems, ADVICS Eric McAlexander, VP Global Friction Manufacturing, Federal Mogul; and Josef Pickenhahn, VP Braking, TRW Automotive.

Since 1982, the Annual Brake Colloquium and Exhibition has served the global brake/friction community by consistently delivering relevant, highly- specialized technology solutions, thus earning industry-wide recognition as the trusted source for technical knowledge.

The Annual Brake Colloquium Golf Outing will (shotgun style) start Sunday morning October 10 at 8:00 a.m. Reservation deadline is September 27. For more information on this special event see http://www.sae.org/events/bce/golfouting.pdf . For the latest information about the SAE 22nd Annual Brake Colloquium and Exhibition, see the web page http://www.sae.org/events/bce .

SAE is a non-profit engineering and scientific organization dedicated to the advancement of mobility technology to better serve humanity. Nearly 84,000 engineers and scientists who are SAE members develop technical information on all forms of self-propelled vehicles, including automobiles, aircraft, aerospace craft, trucks, buses, marine, rail and transit machinery. This information is disseminated through SAE meetings, books, electronic products and databases, technical papers, standards, reports, and professional development programs.