The auto industry is always rife with rumors, but one particular topic has kept the rumor mill working overtime for decades. And it’s finally come true.
General Motors finally ended what has been one of the biggest mysteries in the auto industry, posting a link on its website and on social media announcing the “next generation Corvette reveal event” on July 18, along with photos of a barely camouflaged car that would be the first-ever mid-engine version of the Chevrolet sports car.
“The Next Generation Corvette is the most anticipated Corvette ever. It’s the sum of each generation before it, but will stand alone as the new standard of performance,” the company said.
It might seem like a dry topic, the sort of thing gear heads would debate over a case of beer while changing their own oil, but the news has set the automotive Twitterati ablaze.
While the Corvette may not generate the sort of sales you’d expect of a Chevy SUV like the new Blazer, it has long been billed as “America’s sports car,” giving a halo not just to GM but the American auto industry, as a whole. The latest version, known to fans as the C7 – for the Corvette seventh-generation model – is an impressive and well-respected piece of machinery, but not quite a world-beater. The C8, it is widely expected, will be the first version to give a serious challenge to the likes of Ferrari, McLaren and Lamborghini.
Corvettes, up until now, have put their engines upfront, pretty much like anything else that you’d find in your typical showroom. With rare exception, all of those European brands traditionally mount their engines amidship, or even in the rear, layouts that translate into markedly better vehicle dynamics. With its big V-8, the Corvette is plenty quick. It just can’t keep up with the likes of a Ferrari sweeping through the corners.
It’s not that GM hasn’t thought about building a true world-beater. Coming up with a mid-engine model was the one unfulfilled dream of Zora Arkus-Duntov, the Belgian-born engineer widely known as “the father of the Corvette.” Since the first ’Vette was produced 66 years ago, in fact, there have been any number of prototypes, none making it into production.
The Corvette itself nearly went away during the automaker’s economic collapse a decade ago. The current model, the C7, was officially put on hold as GM went through bankruptcy, though a secret “skunkworks” team kept plugging away until the automaker could loosen up the purse strings again. The current model has widely been hailed as the best Corvette ever — but ever so slightly short of being that true Ferrari challenger.
