Automatically New
The C5 Corvette hit the streets in January 1997 with the almighty LS1 V8 engine, daringly curvaceous styling, and a crisp 6-speed manual transmission, all for a base price of $38,000. Well, that’s not quite true; the manual was an $815 option. Ugh.
Chevy knew what it was doing. The automatic had a 70 percent take rate among Corvette buyers. Including it in the base price appealed even more to both the Corvette’s value play and everyday-supercar image.
Corvette engineers went with GM’s 4L60-E, a 4-speed, torque converter automatic which also saw duty in the Buick Park Avenue, among other cars. But it was tuned specifically for Corvette applications, shifting quicker between gears. Now, 350 lb-ft of torque can beat up a quick-shifting automatic pretty quickly, so the transmission computer would signal the engine’s ECU prior to each shift, and the ECU would briefly retard the spark to cut power during shifts. It was effective but not discernible, as the one-two upshifts could chirp the tires. Try doing that in a Park Avenue.
Special tuning isn’t unique to Corvettes. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul addressed a wide variety of sinful behavior that new believers participated in before they were saved: pettiness, unnecessary lawsuits, unapologetic promiscuity, and a general wickedness of the heart. That’s not behavior being practiced by some far-off people in some foreign land. It was all-too-familiar to the Corinthians:
“And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:11)
This is where heart-staining brokenness and soul-purifying righteousness meet. Jesus washed, sanctified, and justified you. You’re a new creation! But sin has a way of lingering longer than upshifts in a Park Avenue. You may feel like you’re waiting for God’s redemption to make you feel different, newer, cleaner.
This chunk of 1 Corinthians is all about the body: sexuality, food, and circumcision. You’re stuck with your body your whole life. The hands that hold your Bible today were with you during more sinful periods of your life. The feet that take you into church once took you down roads of regret and hopelessness. So you may not feel like a new creation. You might have the same car, same work schedule. Maybe even the same desires. Maybe, if you’re completely honest, some of the same behavior.
Listen: GM’s 4L60-E automatic in the Corvette might look the same on the outside, but it’s been revamped on the inside. So have you. You’ve been tuned, optimized, refreshed, updated, and upgraded. You’re restored, renewed, remapped, and revamped. “You were washed” was given in the past tense. It’s already happened. God completed his life-saving work in your heart. It’s secure. Yet he is still at work in your life, helping you navigate a sinful world with the aging and imperfect body you have, because his love for you today is just as strong as the love that sent his son to suffer in your place 2,000 years ago. Even if you feel old, you’re new. Even if you feel dirty, you’re clean. You’ve been specially tuned for a purpose, and God is with you at every shift point along the way.
For 1998 models, Chevy added a second-gear-start feature. At partial-throttle applications, you could take off from a stop in second (because of the 350 lb-ft of torque) to prevent excess wheelspin (also because of the 350 lb-ft of torque). Second gear would take you well into highway speeds, which means you could accelerate from a stop onto an on-ramp and onto the highway without a single shift. That’s a perk you didn’t know you needed. See, when something is made new, new and unexpected opportunities may just open up.
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