The Mid-Engined 2020 Chevrolet Corvette C8 Is Real, GM Confesses, and It Will Debut July 18
Chevrolet
- It's officially official: the next-generation 2020 Chevrolet Corvette will make the switch to a mid-engined layout.
- Like the many spy shots we've seen of the car, these photos show a prototype of the new Corvette C8 with camouflage—but this time, it's coming directly from General Motors.
- The new Corvette C8 makes its debut July 18, 2019, and will go on sale by the end of the year.
At long last, General Motors is admitting that the Corvette will reach another generation and has confirmed that the car—yes, the real, bona fide 2020 Chevrolet Corvette C8—will make its official debut July 18. We've spilled plenty of ink (and pixels) about the upcoming C8 for the past five years (not to mention our relentless and breathless coverage of the idea of a mid-engined Corvette spanning several decades), and now Chevrolet is finally ready to talk about it as well.
Chevrolet
While spy photos showing the C8's low-slung silhouette and vastly different proportions have circulated on the internet for years now, what you're looking at are the first real photos of the car that Chevrolet has supplied—and the first time the company has even acknowledged the existence of what might be the auto industry's worst-kept secret. GM CEO Mary Barra is making the announcement at the Siller Foundation charity gala in New York, and she was lucky enough to get a ride in the Corvette, driven by Corvette chief engineer Tadge Juechter.
While Chevrolet is keeping mum on any specifications for the next few months, we know plenty about the C8's powertrains and have even seen glimpses of its interior thanks to our intrepid spy photographers.
Chevrolet
This first Corvette C8 model we will see in July is the base Corvette Stingray, which will kick off the lineup. Initially, the C8 will use an upgraded version of the current car's pushrod 6.2-liter V-8, which we suspect will be upgraded to produce somewhere around 500 horsepower. The engine will also be renamed LT2 to reflect its new location in the car. A dual-clutch seven-speed automatic gearbox supplied from Tremec is slated to be the only transmission choice—unfortunate news for #savethemanuals diehards like us.
Multiple high-performance variants are set to follow in quick succession, including Z06, ZR1, and a range-topping hybrid that may use the Zora name. The current thinking is that the Z06 will have a DOHC 5.5-liter V-8 with a flat-plane crankshaft, while the ZR1 will add twin turbochargers to that engine, and the Zora will get the twin-turbo V-8 and an electric motor in the front axle to cement its place as the most powerful C0rvette, with a combined power rating that could approach 1000 horsepower.