Journey to 2020 Corvette Began with Mid-Engined Holden Ute

Popular Mechanics reveals story behind ‘Blackjack,’ which was the first of several cars involved in the development of the C8.

For six decades, the promise of a mid-engine Corvette had been in the air. Every prototype brought us all closer to July 18, 2019, when the promise, in the form of the 2020 Corvette and the start of the C8 era of America’s sports car, was fulfilled at last.

And the last leg of that journey began with the wildest ute Holden never built. Popular Mechanics has the story of the original development mule for the new Corvette, a widebody Commodore Ute with a big wing and an engine in the bed.

“Before, we could disguise development work by tweaking a current car,” Corvette chief engineer Tadge Juechter said. “You can’t do that with mid-engine proportions, so we decided to make it look like a ute.”

The Corvette mule ute, built in 2013, was a mashup of the Commodore’s front clip and bed with a C7 cabin. Dubbed ‘Blackjack’ by the team, the mule was used to help organize the foundation stones for the new mid-engine machine. The bed held a V8 paired with a Porsche PDK transmission inside, covered up under a hard tonneau cover and an upside-down big wing to help add lift to the backside while developing the suspension.

“You still see some C7 structure here, where we could use it,” said Juechter of the next C8 Corvette mule, built in 2016. “Like the doors. One thing that’s really challenging is sealing. You’re going to be testing in the rain, the car needs to be sealed.”

The second mule had both the LT2 V8 and eight-speed dual-clutch now available in the new Corvette, and was one of 12 built at the time. Meanwhile, other Corvette mules were used to test individual pieces, including the ‘squircle’ steering wheel, which began as a handful of 3D-printed prototypes.

“When you’re used to driving these development vehicles and get into one of these from the production line, it’s different,” said Corvette vehicle performance chief Alex MacDonald. “And you go, OK, why? It’s all the same parts. But it’s balanced differently on the track, the ride and handling has subtly changed. So you figure out what changed and what you need to do to get it back where you want it.”

The next few cars pulled everything together from the 12 C7/8 prototypes and other mules into the first prototype C8 Corvettes, the first of which was built in two weeks. From there, some 400 issues were recorded, ranging from how smooth the shifts are, to whether there’s room for those at Bowling Green to assemble the new car. And to think it all began with a bit of Australian magic.

Photos: Popular Mechanics

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