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GM: Mid-engine Corvette cometh July 18

2K views 22 replies 18 participants last post by  Vagon11 
#1 ·
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/b...d-engine-corvette-july-18-release/3443887002/


The worst-kept secret in autodom is out.

The dam broke Thursday night when General Motors confirmed through multiple venues that it is making the long-rumored mid-engine Corvette - and it will break cover on July 18.

The first production Corvette to sport an engine mounted behind the driver, the next-generation Corvette will be called the C8 and will debut as a Stingray with a 500-horsepower, push-rod V-8 engine.

In a not-so-cryptic notice on GM's website, the company posted to customers: "Don't get left behind. The Next Generation Corvette is the most anticipated Corvette ever. . . . Sign up to receive updates straight from the source and be the first to know about the Next Gen Corvette. "

The post was followed by pictures of GM CEO Mary Barra and Corvette Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter in a camouflaged C8 tooling around New York's Times Square as Barra announced the car's existence at a Big Apple charity event.

The icing on the cake came shortly after when GM performance-car advocate and President Mark Reuss posted pictures of the C8 on his Facebook page.

Rumors of a mid-engine Corvette have been around for years as the current car pushed the boundaries of front-engine performance - and competitors like Ford and Acura moved to mid-engine platforms. The Detroit News first confirmed the existence of the mid-engine car in August of 2016 and spy photographers have taken multiple shots of the car testing on race tracks and roadways around the US.
 
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#8 ·
It would be interesting to learn where Autocar is getting its "information." The notion that GM would continue to sell the C7 alongside the C8 had been the subject of speculation during the early days of C8 development. However, that speculation has long since been dismissed as idle speculation. Reports about an auction of the last C7 to roll off the assembly line in Bowling Green would seem to put to rest any residual notion that C7 production will continue past the start of production of the C8.
 
#6 · (Edited)



C7 was a great car, the C8 mid-engine sound like a better balanced better handling car but will be a bit of a pig to maintain had a friend that owned a couple of mid-engine Ferrari's use to do all the work on it himself was always moaning about it's awkward maintainability.

Hope GM Corvette Design Engineers try to built the best possible maintainability into it if they are going racing with it, should be a winner Corvette on the track at Le Mans again. Great to see both Corvette & Ford's GT (that is mid-engine) winning Le Mans GTE Pro in recent time let hope Corvette will steal the crown back from Porsche 911 RSR with the C8.
 
#10 ·
Interestingly enough the porsche 991.2 s model with dct is 8 tenths of a second quicker than the sa,e vehicle with a manual transmission.

Should that delta hold true for the corvette...

The c8 dct with even the same 460 hp and ~3500 lb curb weight as the c7 M7...should accelerate to 60 mph in 3.1 seconds...

Add in an additional 40 hp to around the rumored 500 hp lt2 engine...and maybe even a 3400 lb curb weight and zero to soxty in 3.1 seconds seems possible...

I think for 70 grand the c8 z51 fe4 with 3.80 rear gears should be impressive.

Btw autocar is a whore of a european magazine. They just make stuff up for headlines. No more front engine corvettes after june will be build.

Hey time marches on and with todays active handling controls rear mid engine cars dont have to be tuned to understeer like pigs to keep the lawyers happy...

With anything over 400 hp active handling and a rear weight bias comes in handy for maximum track times. The dct transmission will allow the jughead automotive journalist to achieve maximum acceleration consistently during press reports...

The days of auto journalists being able to jump into manual transmission cars and extracting consistent acceleration times has long passed. Today we are all pleasantly spoiled by the more consistent and perfect execution by computer controlled dual clutch transmissions..

Im ok with it...we are all human and I view dct s as I view abs brakes and active handling

The c8 z51 fe4 should be amazing and it should meet and exceed the mclaren 570 s on car and drivers lightning lap comparision...(considering the c7 grand sport already matches the mclaren 570s)

With a starting price of 70 large the c8 z51 fe4 should be a hell of a sports car to own...other options would of course raise the price by my calculations to about 104 grand...

Thats not cheap but its not mclaren or nsx money either...

Should make for a fun comparision testing in all the magazines...for at least a year...
 
#17 · (Edited)
Btw autocar is a whore of a european magazine. They just make stuff up for headlines. No more front engine corvettes after june will be build.
Pretty much all car magazines and online car sites are guilty of doing this. We’ve read from other sources that the C7 will go out of production when C8 arrives, and the last ZO6 will be auctioned off.

What if the C7 actually gets an MCE, and only the ZO6 (and perhaps the ZR1)is deep sixed and the the auction car would actually be the last C7 ZO6?

So 400 new hires to build the C8. That seems like a lot of extra workers, considering they’ve somehow been building the C7 with 400 less.

You’d think the goal would be to improve profit margins versus the C7, and 400 new hires certainly isn’t going to help the bottom line. Obviously there is more to this news than meets the eye.
 
#11 ·
I really hope they reconsider adding a manual option later. I am actually excited for this car and would actually consider buying one, the first time I can say that about a Corvette since the C6 Z06 came out.
 
#14 ·
1981 and a 2020 Vettes in the same driveway would be cool to see! I won’t be able to buy one, but to me the new Vette looks like it will be the second “aspirational” GM car along with the CT6-V: can’t afford it but want it.

(I’m hoping to swing a new CT4, if it comes with manual, but that’s another story...)
 
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#13 ·
I wonder how the companies that do the C1 retro kits for the Corvette are going to add C1 retro flair to the C8?

The 1953 grill and circle tailights old style "Corvette" cursive nameplate and color scheme are going to look terrible on the new Vette and I can't wait to see it!.
 
#16 ·
The big question for me is, as my retirement fund is depleted going forward, will the value of a used 2020 C8 come down fast enough in the future to intersect with the remaining fund balance of my IRA so I can get one before I kick the bucket.
 
#19 ·
The C8 will well, and truly change the game for everyone in this space including Porsche. Which is faced with an unenviable position in which their much notable 911 can not go mid engine to compensate.
 
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