WARREN, Mich. — When you first lay eyes on the new 2020 Corvette, a modern version of the classic American sports car isn’t the first thing that pops into your head.
Instead, you think Lamborghini, Lotus, McLaren.
The eighth-generation ‘Vette, dubbed C8, is radically different from its predecessors, which for 66 years had the engine in the front. This time, engineers moved the General Motors’ trademark small-block V-8 behind the passenger compartment. It’s so close to the driver that the belt running the water pump and other accessories is only a foot away.
Also gone are the traditional long hood and large, sweeping front fenders, replaced by a downward-sloping snub nose and short fenders. In the back, there’s a big, tapered hatch that opens to a small trunk and the low-sitting all-new 6.2-liter, 495 horsepower engine.
So why change the thing?
“We were reaching the performance limitations of a front-engine car,” explains Tadge Juechter, the Corvette’s chief engineer, ahead of Thursday night’s glitzy unveiling in a World War II dirigible hangar in Orange County, Calif.
With a midengine, the flagship of GM’s Chevrolet brand will have the weight balance and center of gravity of a race car, rivaling European competitors and leaving behind sports sedans and ever-more-powerful muscle cars that were getting close to outperforming the current ‘Vette.
“We’re asking people to spend a lot of money for this car, and people want it to be the best performer all around,” Juechter said.
GM President Mark Reuss said the C8 will start below $60,000, 7 percent more than the current Corvette’s base price of $55,900. Prices of other versions weren’t announced but the current car can run well over $100,000 with options, still thousands cheaper most than European competitors.
Corvette sales aren’t huge. Through June, the company sold just under 10,000 of them. But industry analysts say the car helps the company’s image, showing that it can build a sports car that performs with top European models.
GM says the new version, with an optional ZR1 performance package, will go from zero to 60 mph in under three seconds, the fastest Corvette ever and about a full second quicker than all but one high-performance version of the outgoing ‘Vette.
The “cab forward” design with a short hood looks way different, but GM executives say they aren’t worried that it will alienate Corvette purists.
