IN A WORD: STUNNING
We still don’t know everything about the mid-engine C8, but we do know it’s gorgeous
LOS ANGELES Here’s what we know, what we think we know and even what we don’t know we don’t know about Chevy’s new C8 Corvette.
Rumours that GM execs were worried the Corvette’s traditional audience — old, male and shirtless, according to one brutally honest wag — would hate the new mid-engine C8 were absolutely spot on. Indeed, according to Tadge Juechter, the C8’s chief engineer, rumours Chevy would produce the C8 and C7 simultaneously were at one point true.
But, as Juechter tells it, as soon as they saw the first rendition of the new C8, all plans for a C7 continuation were dropped. According to Automobile magazine’s 2014 Man of the Year, that’s because the new mid-engine ’Vette is gorgeous.
Oh, there will be critics. A few naysayers will compare it to a Mclaren-cloned this or deride it as an Nsx-derived that. Then there will be those who will call the styling too American-centric, as if that were an insult. They would be dunderheads. The new C8 is, in a word, stunning.
The only truly solid power plant information we have is about the base 6.2-litre small-block V-8. Juechter cites compact dimensions (important for space considerations in a mid-engine car), a low centre of gravity (centre of gravity is allegedly right around the driver’s inner hip to allow better steering feedback), and sufficiently attractive looks as reasons to stick with the small-block engine.
It’s unlikely anyone will be disappointed with the performance. Thanks to a new intake system and a wild set of immaculately crafted individual equal-length “up-andover” headers, the LT2 pumps out 495 horsepower (at 6,450 r.p.m.) and 470 pound-feet of torque (at 5,150 r.p.m.), the highest for any entry-level model in Corvette history. It will be mated to a new Tremec-sourced eight-speed dual-clutch transaxle.
No, there will not be a manual offered. As with previous Corvette gearboxes, 7th and 8th gears are essentially overdrives, the LT2 loafing as low as 1,200 r.p.m. on the highway. Second through 6th, meanwhile, are track-ready close ratios, for minimal r.p.m. drop between shifts.
Officially, GM claims the new C8 will break the three-second barrier to 60 miles per hour (97 km/h). On the spec sheet at least, the base C8 would seem a challenge to lesser Mclarens and Lamborghinis.
We’re basically certain Chevy is sticking with the overhead-valve layout, at least in the base car, so loyalists will be comforted by the rhythmic clickety-clack of the pushrods they know and love. As for rumours of twin-turbo, double overhead camshaft hybridized V-8s to rival the Laferrari or Mclaren P1, they’ll stay rumours for now.
The frame, much like a C7’s, is mostly aluminum, only with the engine moved back and the cabin pushed forward. That said, there’s now virtually no welding in the frame.
“It’s almost all structural adhesives with redundant mechanical fasteners,” says Juechter. The result is a chassis “substantially stiffer than the competition’s open cars” and vastly more rigid than the current Corvette.
The C8 will ride on basic double wishbones at all four wheels. The most radical departure in the suspension will be that the traditional transverse rear spring is no more, having been replaced by coil springs.
And there will also be a lift kit that will momentarily raise the front end by some 40 millimetres so you don’t scrape the lower bumper skirts.
As for its dampers, the C8 will rely on GM’S tried-and-true magneto-rheological system (rather than mechanically altering the shock absorbers’ valving, Magnetic Ride Control alters the viscosity of the shock’s hydraulic fluid).
While no discussion was allowed on the Corvette’s ultimate performance, Juechter did say the base C8 with standard, passive suspension and Michelin Pilot Sport ALS all-season radials — 305/30ZR20 in the rear and 245/XR3519 in the front — will generate almost 1.0 g in corners.
It’s no secret the interiors of Corvettes past have been a little, well, outre. The C8 puts much of that in the past. Sure, the squarish, two-arm steering wheel looks a little retro (and not in a good way), but the rest of the cockpit is pretty avant-garde.
And not only does the new C8 have a rear trunk — unique among mid-engine supercars — it’s large enough to carry two (smallish) golf bags. Take that, Ferrari!
I know the base C8 is going to be a success.
As for the much-speculated hotrod versions, I still don’t know what I don’t know.