This is the summer when everything changes in a
major way for the famed Corvette, and the C8 roars out of the gate in confidence for
good. This video was shot recently of final testing at the Nurburgring, and
this past week Motor1.com showed us here some new angles of the model. All of us on staff
here at Jim Butler Chevy of St
Louis have not seen any evidence of the car at the Nurburgring since
summer of 2018, and being able to brag about how much faster the new generation
is on the track would absolutely be a prime asset for the marketing team!
This monumental machine is expected to debut with
a 6.2-liter V8 making around 460 horsepower and incorporating a dual-clutch
gearbox. It's quite possible that a dual-overhead-cam V8, Cadillac's 4.2-liter
twin-turbo Blackwing V8, and eventually even a hybrid variant cranking out
nearly 1,000 hp could later join this lightening-fast lineup. The exciting
debut takes place on July 18 in Tustin, California, where Motor1.com
will once again be present to cover the release. Standing at 17 stories tall
and 1,000 feet long, the twin blimp hangars constructed in 1942 here are a few
of the biggest wood structures ever made.
Production for the C8 will take place in the plant
that consistently brandishes All-American pride with quality in Bowling Green,
Kentucky. Prototypes of the mid-mounted 'Vette saw their way onto design tables
and other forms of conceptualization as far back as the early 1960s and could
have been potentially been cleared for production around 2007 if the Great
Recession had not occurred. As early as 1955 Corvette production developer Zora
Arkus-Duntov was convinced that a mid-engine platform was preferable. Two years
later, the Corvette was forced to drop out of the Sebring 12-hour race in 1957,
because driver John Fitch's feet were being burned by the exhaust pipes. Zora
then immediately began to ponder the logic of placing the heat source behind
the driver.
At GM's Milford Proving Grounds test facility in
mid-2016, heavily-camouflaged C8's were first caught in action by photographers
on the hunt for spy shots. Sources then told the Detroit News that GM was
pouring nearly $800 million into the assembly plant at Bowling Green and
another paint facility to successfully create the new car. All of us
high-performance fans are so excited about the mid-engined Corvette being able
to stay alive and survive the brand's shift in priorities to crossover SUV
production.
Next January, the Daytona 24-hour race will see
the debut of the C8 racing version, set to do battle with other mid-engine
competitors such as the Ferrari 488. In the supercar world of today, we
understand fully that purists still have a high amount of love for the manual
transmission, but the crazy fast automatics of today simply provide less
complication without the need for designing a mid-engine transaxle. A legend
will surely be born just six days from now in California, and the C8 will
surely have the stamina, stealth aggression, and speed chops to instill fear in
any ferociously-sworn rival on the track!