Jim Perkins, Savior of the Chevrolet Corvette Dead at 83

Jim Perkins

Jim Perkins, the savior of the Chevrolet Corvette when it faced the chopping block the '90s, passed away on Friday in Charlotte, North Carolina at the age of 83 years old.

The Texan with a penchant for cowboy boots got his first job at Chevrolet by hanging out in the lobby of GM's Dallas regional office and talking to whoever would listen to him. He first landed a crummy warehouse job, but it got his foot in the door and kicked off what would become a significant and influential automotive career. One promotion led to another, and in about 20 years, Perkins was the general manager of the Chevrolet brand.

After leading the Bowtie and putting in a few years at Buick, Perkins jumped ship in 1984 for a lucrative job at Toyota where he led the launch of its new luxury brand, Lexus. Perkins played an important role in giving Lexus a fabulously successful American debut, but his stint at Toyota didn’t last long and he made a surprise return to General Motors in 1989.

Back in the helm once again, Perkins was inheriting a brand that wasn’t at its best. When you think of Chevrolet in the late '80s, you probably don’t think about a high-quality, high-performance brand. Things were so bad in the late '80s that the brand’s flagship sports car, the Corvette, was planned for discontinuation.

Perkins moved enough money around to fund some prototypes for the C4 Corvette’s replacement which would eventually become the C5—which was a big sales success. If it wasn’t for Perkins finding the funding for those prototypes, the Corvette likely would have ended with the C4 model. Perkins spent the rest of the '90s at Chevy pumping up truck sales and putting a bigger priority on motorsports resulting in five NASCAR wins and six Indy 500 victories for Chevrolet.

Shortly after the turnaround at Chevrolet, Perkins retired to Texas. That didn’t last long, and he soon relocated to North Carolina to lead Hendrick Automotive Group’s network of 100 dealers. In 2005, he transitioned to lead retail and racing options for four years, then headed up a new Hendrick operation dedicated to restoring classic cars, race cars, and high-performance Camaros.

Perkins will be especially missed by the Corvette community, and the National Corvette Museum has already shown support with legions of fans on social media. His profound influence at Chevrolet and Lexus will carry on for many years.