NEXT-GEN CORVETTE CONVERTIBLE REVEALED
Chevrolet chose to reveal the C8 droptop in the Kennedy Space Center’s Rocket Garden
The launch of the 2020 C8 Chevrolet Corvette held, we have to admit, plenty of surprises. The car will be priced starting at around $70,000 in Canada and promised a zero-to-96 km/h time of under 3.0 seconds.
We expected the C8 to be competitive, but I don’t think many were expecting that.
But the reveal of the C8 convertible? Not so surprising. Chevy chose to reveal the C8 droptop in the Kennedy Space Center’s Rocket Garden in Orlando, Fla. That’s partly because rockets are just plain cool, but also because astronauts have been driving Corvettes for almost as long as there have been astronauts. Alan Shepard, Alan Bean, Neil Armstrong and many others famously owned examples of the classic plastic sports car.
But let’s talk about the car itself. For starters, it gets the same 6.2-litre 490-horsepower V8 as the coupe, which makes it the most powerful Corvette base model ever. The top is a folding hardtop arrangement, and no soft-top will be available. According to engineers, the top’s six motors, linkages and hinges add a reasonable 35 kg to the total weight of the C8.
Like most modern convertibles (and especially mid-engined ones) there are twin “nacelles” behind the driver headrest. Chevy says they hearken back to the faired-in headrests of 1950s prototypes and visually connect the top of the windshield to the rear of the car, but we think the less-sexy reason for them is simply to provide more rollover protection. Nonetheless, they are well-executed and not an eyesore.
While the C8 coupe shows off its engine under glass, the convertible obscures it, because the roof is stored on top of the engine compartment when folded down. To accommodate the thermal demands this covering-up adds, some rather stylish vents have been sliced into the top of the rear deck for engine cooling. And, yes, even with the top stored, you can fit two sets of golf clubs in the C8. Sigh.
Impressive numbers? Well, the C8 convertible has plenty. The coupe starts at about $70,000 in Canada, and the new convertible will begin at $78,998 when it arrives here. Production of the C8 will start in January, and deliveries will happen two months after that.
But that wasn’t all Chevy revealed among the rockets; it also pulled out a very fierce-looking C8 R race car. Flared and spoilered, wearing massive slicks and roll cage, the C8 R is very much the real deal. Chevy was reticent to divulge technical details about the C8 R, but said it would compete at Petite Le Mans soon.
One thing to note about it: It sounded for all the world like a flat-plane-crank engine. We don’t know what’s under the hood, but it does not sound like a typical crossplane V8.