2020 Corvette Stingray
Entry price: $59,995 Price as tested: $89,560
alk about an exciting week! Thanks to the good folks at Chevrolet, my turn to finally test drive the all-new generation C8 Corvette finally arrived and I’ll tell all right now it’s one of the most impressive cars I’ve ever driven. Prior to this Corvette experience, it was a Porsche Carerra 911 that I test drove 10 years ago that held the top slot when asked which of the cars I tested was most impressive.
But that’s all changed as this Corvette, which starts at just $59,995 in entry 1LT livery, is now the car to beat and stands atop the long list of test drives that started back in 1994.
Riding on an all new mid-engine architecture with numerous functional air ducts to help cool and deliver air to the 495-horsepower 6.2 liter LT2 V8, the exterior design delivers a classic European supercar look that had some people wondering if it was a new Lamborghini or Ferrari. Numerous onlookers with phones in hand took hundreds of photos and videos and it seemed no matter where we took the Corvette it caused a crowd of onlookers that couldn’t control their admiration. By the time Chevrolet came to retrieve my tester, I had added 500 miles to the odometer during my week log test.
Delivered in Accelerate Yellow Metallic ($500 extra) in 2LT preferred equipment dress ($6,800 more), our Corvette was one of the first convertible models to arrive in the GM media pool. The convertible takes about 18 seconds to open and/or seat electronically, and if you are going 30 mph or less you can operate the top both up and down while on the road. The convertible model has a base price of $66,400 versus the coupe’s $59,995, both outstanding values for a supercar status mid-engine Corvette. (C8 equates to Corvette’s eighth generation since the C1 series debut in 1953).
This new design offers excellent front vision with a pronounced cab forward look thanks to where the engine now sits and a small rear trunk stretch. There are LED lights all around and the motif offers more passenger and legroom than the C7 generation it replaces. The seats also recline a bit more than the C7s and six seat belt colors are available. Very comfortable seating is standard fare on all of these new Corvettes, and our tester added to the seat factor with a GT2 bucket seat upgrade that adds $1,495 to the final tally. Overall, the interior is outstanding.
Corvette fans have been waiting for this mid-engine Corvette
for over 25 years. The mid-engine design was the hope of Zora Arkus-duntov, the Godfather of the Corvette who knew true sports car “supercar status” included a mid-engine design. And, being that all cars are complicated machines by nature, this mid-engine reality included a total engineering redesign of power delivery that the European supercars have perfected. The re-shuffle from front engine, rear drive theory to mid-engine delivery included what I feel was just one of Corvette’s main mechanical engineering challenges, i.e., developing a trans-axle to handle gobs of power with even more to come. Thanks to a Tremec and GM co-op, the new eight-speed dual clutch automatic shifts perfectly as Corvette successfully accomplished the task. Further, there is no manual transmission available so Corvette and Tremec had to get it right to appease those who like to shift. Thus, instead of the left leg and right hand in
unison, you’ll be moving your factor fingers via paddle shifters when manual mode is selected. To sum up the Tremec transaxle success, it’s similar to an Indy Car where the engine sits directly behind the driver and then via the transaxle delivers the shifting and axle movement as a single unit to turn the rear wheels. (Very impressive if not something new to high performance supercars… just new to the Corvette).
The overall advantage to mid-engine technology is better weight distribution, resulting in this Corvette handling better than anything I’ve driven before it. It also allows Corvette a “multi-personality” discipline thanks to six driver select modes.
Exotic, thrilling, even comfortable ... that’s the all-new, 2020 mid-engine C8 Corvette.
Greg Zyla writes weekly for More Content Now and Gannett Co. Inc. Contact him at greg@gregzyla.com or at 303 Roosevelt St., Sayre, PA 18840.