The News reported in August\u00a02016<\/a>\u00a0that Chevy was developing the eighth-generation Corvette as a mid-engine car.<\/p>\nIn addition to spy shots of the mid-engine car testing in Milford, the project was consistent with GM’s investment of\u00a0nearly $800 million in upgrades to its Bowling Green facility where Corvettes are built.\u00a0Production is expected to begin there in\u00a0fall 2019.<\/p>\n
The iconic Chevy \u2013 dubbed America\u2019s \u201caffordable supercar\u201d for performance rivaling\u00a0$200,000 Porsches and Ferraris at half\u00a0the price \u2013 has traditionally been a front-engine car. In order to make the next performance leap, however, program managers determined a\u00a0mid-engine layout was\u00a0necessary.<\/p>\n
Mid-engine cars have better balance and handling than their front-bay cousins. That handling is not only important on road, but is key to keeping Corvette competitive at the summit of international motorsport\u00a0where it faces stiff competition from mid-engine Ford GT and Ferrari 488 supercars. Even Porsche’s 911, Stuttgart\u2019s rear-engine racing icon, has moved\u00a0it engine amidships to keep pace.<\/p>\n
A mid-engine layout also opens\u00a0options for Chevy to take advantage of new technology like locating an\u00a0electric motor\u00a0up front for all-wheel drive.<\/p>\n
Bob Lutz, GM\u2019s former product chief \u2014\u00a0who received approval for a mid-engine\u00a0Corvette\u00a0in 2007 before it was sidelined by the Great Recession \u2014\u00a0speculated to The News in 2016 that the C8\u2019s long lead time foreshadowed\u00a0\u201celectric motors at the front (that) would enable limited AWD capability.\u201d<\/p>\n
Car and Driver magazine has reported\u00a0that a hybrid, twin-turbo V-8 version of the Corvette C8 is planned that could generate 1,000 horsepower with all-wheel drive.<\/p>\n
The drivetrain changes are reported to include \u2014\u00a0in addition to a reliable,\u00a0entry-level pushrod V-8 \u2013 a high-revving, Ferrari-like, flat-plane crankshaft V-8. The higher pitch of the camouflaged Corvette\u00a0lighting up the Sebring night seems consistent with this option.<\/p>\n
The mid-engine car\u2019s absence from this January’s show\u00a0has led to speculation that the project base been delayed.<\/p>\n
Hagerty magazine’s\u00a0Don Sherman, a veteran tracker of\u00a0the mid-engine car\u2019s development, said, \u201cThere may have been some issue that had to be resolved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like finding\u00a0Moby Dick, it\u2019s hard to know all the details. Bringing\u00a0an all-new sports car to market together with\u00a0new engines and global race programs requires a lot of coordination.<\/p>\n
The white whale is getting closer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is the auto industry\u2019s white whale: the elusive, powerful, long-rumored mid-engine Corvette C8. Chevrolet refuses to acknowledge its existence despite numerous sightings at General Motors’ Milford Proving Grounds and race tracks like Wisconsin\u2019s Elkhart Lake and Germany\u2019s legendary N\u00fcrburgring. Whale-trackers were sure it would breach the surface at this year\u2019s Detroit auto show where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23175"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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