Chevrolet has been making the Corvette since 1953 and it’s been an American icon for power and luxury.
The recipe for the corvette has always been pretty simple, LS V8 in the front, long nose, power going to the rear, no downforce, and a delightful exhaust note. This has been chevvy’s go fast recipe for corvettes till the C7. The C7 made many many boomers mad as it didn’t look classic and old school anymore. It was now a proper modern sports car. Yes, sports car, not a super car. A super car is exotic, its from Italy, England, Germany, Japan and others. A super car is light, it attracts crowds, its got high tech features like rear-wheel steering and active aero, and it uses advanced materials like carbon fiber. The Corvette just isn’t any of these, it doesn’t have any aero except for that wing on the C7 ZR1, its heavy (the ZR1-the track focused car -is heavier than the regular car), it doesn’t really attract any crowds, its made of simple sheet metal with a metal chassis and its from America and its got a very basic GM style black leather interior.
Don’t get me wrong, the Corvette is a great budget option to get into the high horsepower, high speed territory but don’t expect to be anywhere near as fast as other super cars in a straight line and much less on a race track with turns.
So, that brings me onto the C8. During the time of writing this, there’s about 9 hours till the C8 is officially revealed to the world even though we know a lot already. The C8 is chevvy’s first attempt at a mid engined super car.
As you can see from these spyshots, the car is very clearly mid engined with a much shorter nose and a longer, sloping tail. Of course, there are some more leaks that show the car in its launch color
So, what’s the problem now? Chevrolet is finally making the corvette a mid-engined super car right? Well, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that and kudos to them for trying but here’s what you probably haven’t noticed. The biggest problem with a mid-engined car is the fact that there is no fresh air coming directly to the engine as it sits behind the cockpit whereas in a front engined car, all the air that hits the nose can be directed to the engine to cool it. Now, getting air in isn’t the only problem and it seems like GM have done a pretty good job at carving out large holes in the sides just in front of the rear wheels to let the V8 breathe. The real problem that I see with the C8 is venting, and more specifically getting heat out and venting air for more downforce. If you take a look at the following picture, you’ll see a pretty straightforward rear end that looks like an elephant sat on the back end of a Camaro.
So, what’s wrong with that back end then? Well, going back to the point of releasing hot air from the engine bay, have a look at the rear end of the C8 and you’ll see 2 tiny vents which might even be fake vents on the far sides. Compare this to any other mid engined super car and you’ll see the “lack of venting” I’m talking about.
All its competitors are completely open in the back either for releasing heat from the engine bay or for better aero with a diffuser and a wing which brings me straight to my next point; Aero. Have a look at how the McLaren 720 is perfectly sculpted to use air to its advantage by having an active wing that shoots up under hard braking to provide a large airbrake, has a double layered door with a huge air channel going straight through it and looks like it would slip through the air at high speeds. Now compare this to the C8 which has a very very stupid looking rear wing that is honestly probably just there so the rear end doesn’t look empty(er). Furthermore the diffuser is incredibly rudimentary with no fins to control air flow and it doesn’t really look like there’s much aero around the rest of the car. It just looks like a turbulent mess to be completely honest.
Lastly, it just doesn’t look that good now does it? Look at a McLaren, look at a Lamborghini, or even look at a Ferrari, they all have smooth, beautiful, and sexy lines running all around the car. The C8 looks like the design team at Chevvy was given a pen, a ruler, and 1 piece of paper and were told to never draw a single line on that paper without using the ruler and that’s how the C8 came to be. I mean, look at those tiny 1 inch tail pipes.
To conclude, it’s still a corvette, it’s going to have a basic GM interior, and its still not exotic nor is it using any exotic materials. The main reason people buy corvettes is because they can’t afford to buy a proper super car from the likes of Mclaren, Porsche, Lamborghini or Ferrari but now, everyone is expecting the corvette to be a good amount more expensive so I don’t really see many C8s selling around the world. In all honesty, chevvy should have put more effort into the C8 because if they’re changing their recipe, at least add some good ingredients.
Reinventing The Wheel 