Photo: Stefan Baldauf/SB-Medien
Even though the Corvette is now at its seventh generation, the idea of a mid-engine Corvette came to be in 1959 with the Chevrolet Engineering Research Vehicle I. Legendary automotive engineer and designer Zora Arkus-Duntov is the man behind the CERV I, which was unveiled to the public in 1960.
Bearing in mind the C8 Corvette will go into production in 2019 for the 2020 model year, you could say that it took General Motors six decades to make Zora’s vision come true. Spied time and time again, the mid-engine Corvette has been caught by the carparazzi once more, this time around in much greater detail than ever before.
First of all, check out that removable roof panel, spanning across the B-pillars! The bigger question is, does the C8 Corvette have a storage partition behind the seats or in the front trunk? Whatever Chevrolet has been cooking up here, let’s all rejoice the mid-engine Corvette can be enjoyed with the clear blue sky above our heads.
Further back, the flying buttresses and vented rear deck combine for aerodynamic and cooling reasons. The vertical rear glass with trailing C-pillar buttresses are similar in design to the McLaren 570S. The open-air deck with heat-extracting vents, meanwhile, ensures the V8 powerplant underhood stays cool regardless of weather and driving conditions.
Captured on the North South Straight Away at the GM Proving Grounds in Milford, the mid-engine Corvette also shows a flat-top steering wheel with a squared-off design. The steering wheel in the Aston Martin DB11 seems very round when compared to this unit, but when all is said and done, General Motors might have taken inspiration from the Pratt & Miller-designed C7.R endurance racer.
Last, but certainly not least, the close-ups of the wheels show more than just an interesting design of the alloys. Focus on the braking system of the rear wheels, namely the dual-caliper setup that maximizes the contact area for maximum braking power.
First of all, check out that removable roof panel, spanning across the B-pillars! The bigger question is, does the C8 Corvette have a storage partition behind the seats or in the front trunk? Whatever Chevrolet has been cooking up here, let’s all rejoice the mid-engine Corvette can be enjoyed with the clear blue sky above our heads.
Further back, the flying buttresses and vented rear deck combine for aerodynamic and cooling reasons. The vertical rear glass with trailing C-pillar buttresses are similar in design to the McLaren 570S. The open-air deck with heat-extracting vents, meanwhile, ensures the V8 powerplant underhood stays cool regardless of weather and driving conditions.
Captured on the North South Straight Away at the GM Proving Grounds in Milford, the mid-engine Corvette also shows a flat-top steering wheel with a squared-off design. The steering wheel in the Aston Martin DB11 seems very round when compared to this unit, but when all is said and done, General Motors might have taken inspiration from the Pratt & Miller-designed C7.R endurance racer.
Last, but certainly not least, the close-ups of the wheels show more than just an interesting design of the alloys. Focus on the braking system of the rear wheels, namely the dual-caliper setup that maximizes the contact area for maximum braking power.
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