The Chevrolet Corvette C5’s composite body panels were deliberately engineered with slightly different thermal expansion coefficients than the underlying steel frame, so the fiberglass would expand and contract at different rates during temperature swings—creating microscopically varying panel gaps throughout the day that Chevrolet engineers accepted as inevitable rather than solving, because attempting to minimize the differential expansion would have required exotic materials that would have made the car prohibitively expensive.
Car Fact #133 — October 26, 2026
