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Orange County, California \u2014\u00a0<\/em>Chevrolet officially introduced the first-ever mid-engine Corvette supercar late Thursday night, and there is nothing middling about it.<\/p>\nAfter a patriotic\u00a0homage to\u00a0the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11\u00a0moon landing, General Motors President Mark Reuss drove the 2020 Corvette C8 onto the stage of a\u00a0World War II-era blimp hangar outside Los Angeles. The radically new\u00a0car,\u00a0he said,\u00a0“represents\u00a0one giant leap for Corvette.”<\/p>\n
Then he rattled off numbers that made the 1,400 Corvette fans, dealers and journalists\u00a0in attendance gasp:\u00a0zero-60 mph in less than 3 seconds at a cost of less than $60,000.<\/p>\n
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GM President Mark Reuss introduced the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray late Thursday in Tustin, California. Reuss said the first-ever mid-engine Corvette can accelerate from 0-60 in under 3 seconds, and will start at under $60,000.\u00a0
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Those acceleration numbers are on par with the front-engine, supercharged, 650-horsepower Corvette Z06\u2019s 2.95-second time. They are comparable to the $270,000, 640-horse, mid-engine Lamborghini Huracan costing more than\u00a0four times as much.<\/p>\n
The most anticipated car of the year, the long-rumored Corvette C8 (for eighth-generation) carries the legendary \u201cStingray\u201d badge. It looks to be a tour de force of sculpted styling\u00a0with state-of-the-art electronics.<\/p>\n
Even as the C8 relocates the engine amidships like an Italian sports car in a move to give it\u00a0more nimble handling, the car does not lose its signature\u00a0V-8. Like ‘Vettes of old, the engine will deliver 495 horsepower to the rear wheels.<\/p>\n
Nor does the Corvette lose its signature value-play:\u00a0supercar performance for an affordable price. Alleviating concerns that the exotic mid-engine technology would balloon the sticker price, the new C8\u00a0is priced\u00a0only a few thousand dollars above the current\u00a0C7’s $56,000 price tag.<\/p>\n
This is as good a value as any performance car ever,” raved Kelley Blue Book auto\u00a0analyst\u00a0Karl Brauer.<\/p>\n
Added Reeves Callaway, founder of the renowned Callaway Cars that modifies and races muscle cars: “Corvette\u00a0has cracked the code. No other automaker does better a great auto at a low price.”<\/p>\n
The mid-engine design will serve to\u00a0give better rear-weight distribution over the C8’s\u00a0rear Michelins. The car adds launch control, and there’s a\u00a0standard dual-clutch\u00a0eight-speed automatic\u00a0transmission (brace yourselves, purists: there is no manual option).<\/p>\n
“The traditional front-engine vehicle reached its limits of performance, necessitating the new layout,\u201d said Reuss, a race-licensed motorhead who was key to pushing the revamped car. \u201cIn terms of comfort and fun, it still looks and feels like a Corvette, but drives better than any vehicle in Corvette history.\u201d<\/p>\n
The C8\u2019s design avoids\u00a0the awkward proportions that often plague mid-engine cars (the rear-heavy\u00a01990 Acura NSX and sideburn-clad Audi R8 come to mind). It bears comparison to mid-engine lookers like the Lotus Evora and Ferrari 488.<\/p>\n
“We felt this had to be something new \u2014 beyond\u00a0\u2014 and still look Corvette,” exterior designer Kirk Bennion said.\u00a0“The new proportion is key …\u00a0with\u00a0the cockpit forward 16 inches, a whole new centerline and a faster windshield. That really sets up the car.”<\/p>\n
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