Mid-Engine C8 Corvette to Pack 1,000 Hybridized Horsepower?
Mid-Engine C8 Corvette to Pack 1,000 Hybridized Horsepower?
Mid-engine C8 Corvette looks to break into exotic hypercar territory while also casting tradition aside.
After decades of waiting, it looks like a mid-engine Corvette is finally going to happen. Perhaps no news is as red hot in the automotive world at the moment, either. We’ve drooled over renderings, mule spy photos, and leaked details. But now, it looks like Car & Driver is taking a stab at it by revealing some seriously juicy tidbits about the forthcoming mid-engine C8 Corvette. Juicy like that perfectly cooked steak you grill for the fam on a long holiday weekend.
Most of the details are not too surprising, of course. The mid-engine C8 Corvette will have a mostly aluminum frame and fiberglass body – only a few exotic bits here and there. After all, it has to be relatively affordable. Weight should come in at around 3,500 pounds, a touch heavier than the C7. The base engine will be an updated LT1 making 500 hp. Only one gearbox, a Tremec 8-speed dual-clutch, will be available.
Boring, right? Well, things escalate from there. C&D says Chevy will roll out a 600+ hp 5.5-liter, flat-plane, 9,000 rpm screamer later on. Then, an 800 hp version of the same engine with twin-turbos. And then, total insanity (blasphemy?) a couple of years later – a hybrid version of that same car packing a 200 hp electric motor driving the front wheels. Which essentially elevates the mid-engine C8 Corvette to Ferrari LaFerrari status, albeit at 1/10th of the price, probably.
Exciting stuff, indeed. Well, except maybe the lack of a manual gearbox option. But the mid-engine C8 Corvette is clearly designed to break with tradition quite a bit, offering an American alternative to exotic hypercars. Heck, C&D even says it’ll have active aero and coil springs in lieu of the traditional transverse composite leaf springs. Blasphemy, or badass for America’s original sports car? We’re personally leaning toward the latter!
