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The mid-engine\u00a0Chevy Corvette C8 arrived in California’s Orange County\u00a0on Thursday night like a cyborg from the future. It is the iconic supercar\u2019s first production model with the engine bolted behind the driver\u2019s ear.<\/p>\n
Incredibly, it\u2019s an idea that has been germinating inside General Motors\u2019 tech center for more than 60 years.<\/p>\n
Since the late 1950s, GM engineers have debated the advantages of a mid-engine layout. They produced multiple prototypes, and GM even green-lighted a mid-engine car for production in 2007 before the financial crisis put an end to that.<\/p>\n
The decision to finally produce the\u00a0eighth-generation\u00a02020 Corvette with a\u00a0mid-engine was the result of a perfect alignment of engineering, marketing and financial wherewithal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe seriously started thinking to do it with the sixth generation,” said Corvette Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter at an interview in GM\u2019s Warren design dome with fellow team members ahead of the C8’s Thursday reveal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 2009 ZR1 had 638 horsepower. Even (the generation) before that … we knew that we were stretching the limits of what we could do from a performance standpoint with a front-engine car.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued, walking around a Sebring Orange C-8: \u201cIt\u2019s the same reason that race cars in elite categories migrated from front to rear engines in the 1960s. Zora knew that. He was a huge advocate for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cZora\u201d is Zora Arkus-Duntov, the so-called \u201cfather of the Corvette\u201d who took over the sports car program in the 1950s and molded it into an icon.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knew already that\u00a0if you want to push the performance envelope of the \u2018Vette, you had to push in that direction,\u201d Juechter said.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t just a handling issue in the early days. It was also a question of driver comfort. Writer Don Sherman has covered Arkus-Duntov and the mid-engine car\u2019s development for decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt came to him after Corvette had dropped out of the Sebring 12-hour race in 1957 …\u00a0because driver John Fitch\u2019s feet were being cooked by exhaust pipes\u201d from the engine mounted in front of him, said Sherman. \u201cPondering that, Zora told me … that he had concluded that the heat source had to be behind the driver.\u201d<\/p>\n
Multiple prototypes followed.<\/p>\n
In 1960, Arkus-Duntov built the single-seat, mid-engine Chevrolet Experimental Research Vehicle \u2014 the CERV I \u2014 with a powerful V-8 driving the rear wheels. The prototype hit 206 mph at GM\u2019s Milford Proving Ground and would ultimately inspire the second-generation, production Corvette C2\u2019s independent rear suspension.<\/p>\n
The CERV II, a mid-engine, all-wheel-drive roadster followed in 1964. In 1968, GM dropped jaws at the New York Auto Show with the sleek Astro II, which was a response to Ford\u2019s Le Mans-winning GT40 mid-engine racer. More GM prototypes were born including an aluminum-body XP-895 in 1972, the 1973 \u201cAerovette\u201d and the 1986 \u201cIndy,\u201d which was\u00a0also known as the CERV III. There was even a V-12\u00a0Cadillac Cien concept car in 2002.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Zora tried to do it, GM would say: \u2018But the (front-engine) car is doing great as it is,\u2019\u201d said\u00a0Corvette marketing guru Harlan Charles. \u201cThe horsepower levels weren\u2019t where they are today, and they had all these packaging challenges that they didn\u2019t know how to solve, but we know how to solve now.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why now is the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finally, in 2007, the passionate Juechter and team got the green light to produce a seventh-generation, mid-engine ‘Vette.<\/p>\n
The Great Recession and GM\u2019s resulting financial emergency squashed it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn retrospect, it was probably a blessing because\u00a0there were a lot of things we had to learn with the aluminum body in addition to learning production the mid-engine car,\u201d\u00a0 Charles said.<\/p>\n
Instead of producing a mid-engine C7 post-bankruptcy, the team stuck with the front-engine architecture. But for the first time, they crafted it from aluminum. That meant GM brought aluminum construction in-house for the first time, a huge investment in know-how that would ultimately benefit the C8.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s glued and screwed, as we say,\u201d said Juechter. \u201cYou build the running chassis, then you put the exterior panels on last like a race car. We learned those construction techniques from the C7.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps most significantly, the bankruptcy \u2014 for all its stress \u2014\u00a0honed the team\u2019s mid-engine pitch to go back to leadership for a second bite at the mid-engine apple.<\/p>\n
The Corvette team knew its demographic was aging. New generations of car buyers aspire to mid-engine cars: Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche. But the typical Corvette buyer also worried about losing the practicality the \u2018Vette offered: affordability, interior room, cargo space.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe took a step back. What if we could make this a unique, mid-engine car?\u201d said Charles. \u201cKeep the things that people like about the Corvette:\u00a0the small-block V-8, the power-to-weight ratio, the ability to take it cross-country. Add the exotic experience of a mid-engine car … with the road in your lap, quick steering, no weight on the front.<\/p>\n
“If we can put those attributes together, and make it attainable …\u00a0 you really have a car that no one else can match.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mid-engine supercars are cool. But cool isn\u2019t a business case. Management liked the team\u2019s business pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had no \u2018cool\u2019 description in any of our presentations. It was tactical, business, functional, physics-driven,\u201d remembers Juechter. \u201cHere\u2019s why it makes sense for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The C8 was on.<\/p>\n
The engineers and designers rave about the car\u2019s state-of-the-art attributes: dual-clutch automatic transmission, aluminum spine, upscale interior and that mid-engine athleticism.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole car rotates better\u00a0\u2014 it\u2019s just pinned in the back,\u201d marvels Juechter. \u201cIt\u2019s surprisingly stable, it feels super nimble. It\u2019s actually better than we anticipated.\u201d<\/p>\n
For all its modernity, there is also a nod to the middiecar’s GM history.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe kept (the old prototypes) in the studio for inspiration. The Astro II is one of our favorites,\u201d exterior designer Kirk Bennion said. \u201cWe had the Aerovette out, the Indy, we had them all out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The men behind the machine: The 2020 Chevy Corvette Stingray was developed by, from left, Mike Simcoe, exterior designer; Mike Murphy, interior designer; Tadge Juechter, chief engineer; with Harlan Charles, marketing boss.\u00a0(Photo: Henry Payne, The Detroit News) The mid-engine\u00a0Chevy Corvette C8 arrived in California’s Orange County\u00a0on Thursday night like a cyborg from the future. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24007"}],"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=24007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24007\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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