C8 Corvettes Crushing the Front-Engine Competition at the Drag Strip

C8 Corvette makes use of the mid-engine layout to beat some much stronger competition.

The C8 Chevrolet Corvette is engineered to be a world-beating, all-around performance car that shines brightest on a curvy road course. However, the mid-engine architecture puts more weight over the drive wheels, making it a formidable drag car. The combination of the high tech launch system, the conveniently located engine weight and the quick-shifting dual clutch gearbox leads to stunning low-end acceleration figures. In fact, when using the launch control system, owners are getting deep into the 2-second range on a 0-to-60 pull. That makes the C8 one of the quickest stock production cars in the world.

More importantly, a stock 2020 Corvette Stingray is capable of covering the quarter mile in the low-11-second range. That allows it to compete with the quickest stock cars on the street, many of which have far more power. With that in mind, we dug through YouTube for some examples of the C8 kicking ass on the drag strip. We found two great examples and in one of them, the mid-engine chassis is proving its mettle on a slick track.

Corvette on a Sticky Track

The first video that we are featuring here comes to us from the Drag Racing and Car Stuff YouTube channel. It features a C8 Corvette in Accelerate Yellow racing at Milan Dragway in Michigan. The track crew at Milan does a solid job of getting the starting line good and sticky, and the racers in this clip benefit from that.

This video begins with the new Corvette taking on a Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye. We don’t know for sure that the engine of the Dodge is stock, but we can see that it has mismatched wheels. That leads us to believe that it has drag radial tires, along with 797 stock horsepower, so it has an advantage of about 300 horsepower on the C8. The Challenger gets out alongside the Stingray and slowly pulls away, running a 10.77 to the Vette’s 11.37. That is the last time that we see a Corvette lose in this video or the next.

The second competitor is a newer Mustang GT, which gets beaten brutally. The C8 runs an 11.19 to the Ford’s 12.50. A fourth generation Camaro is next, and while it puts up a good fight, the new Stingray takes the win. The C8 takes on a Challenger Scat Pack Widebody in the final run, and although it runs its slowest elapsed time of the video, the Stingray takes the win.

In all of these runs, both cars get away from the starting line pretty cleanly. This suggests that the track prep is solid.

The second video comes to us from the Zac LP YouTube channel and it features a Sebring Orange 2020 Corvette Stingray. This footage was captured at Coastal Plains Dragway in North Carolina. While we don’t have personal experience at this track, the video below leads us to believe that their track prep is not great.

The video begins with the Stingray taking on a new Toyota Supra, but it is barely a race. The C8 demolishes the BMW-powered Supra, running an 11.3 at 120 miles-per-hour. This LS2 is not stock, as it has a set of Kooks headers, and we know from the video commentary that they are racing in hot, unfavorable weather.

The real fun begins when the orange C8 takes on a bright red Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. The supercharged sedan does a massive burnout, but he rolls through the lights when staging. That triggers a red light and an automatic loss, but the Stingray driver still hammered down and made a full pass. This really isn’t much of a race, but the C8 has no problems with traction on the hard launch. After the race, the Charger driver asks for another shot, due to the red light and traction issues.

Meanwhile, the Corvette heads back to the track to take on a Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat. We don’t know anything about the Dodge, but as the two pull into the water box, we can clearly see that the Challenger has lightweight rear wheels and Hoosier tires. We don’t know if they are slicks or drag radials, but this Hellcat is clearly set up to shine on the drag strip. Unfortunately for the Mopar owner, when the green lights drop, those Hoosiers don’t help enough. The Challenger roasts the tires while the Stingray gets perfect traction. That leads to another C8 win with an 11.49 to the Hellcat’s embarrassing 12.12.

Finally, the Sebring Orange C8 takes on the red Charger once more. Once again, the Dodge struggles with traction while the Stingray cruises to the win with an 11.47. The Hellcat sedan is never really in contention on this one. There is no question that traction is an issue for many of the big-power vehicles in this second video, but the mid-engine design of the C8 Stingray allows it to put the power to the ground.