GM Began Working On Mid-Engine Corvette Way Back in 2005
GM gave its team the greenlight to explore the idea of a mid-engine Corvette in 2005, but bankruptcy and other issues ultimately delayed its arrival.
It’s no secret that certain folks – chiefly, Zora Arkus-Duntov, had dreams of a mid-engine Corvette dating back decades, and yet, for various reasons, such a thing took far longer to actually come to fruition. There are many reasons for this, of course, but as we all well know by now, the mid-engine Corvette finally arrived in the 2020 model year with the all-new C8 generation model. However, in a recent podcast with Corvette Today that hosted a trio of Corvette team members – Tadge Juechter, Harlan Charles, and Josh Holder – the crew revealed that GM had been working on its mid-engine Corvette for a very long time prior to that important date in the iconic sports car’s history.
This bit of information comes from Charles, who noted that the concept first came to life in 2005, but Juechter was quick to add that’s when the team started the project “in principle.” 2005 was when the team performed its very first presentations asking leadership to allow them to simply pursue such an idea, even after the team was told on one particular occasion that anyone working on such a thing would be fired. It apparently took quite a few presentations before the Corvette team convinced upper brass simply to let them explore such an idea, too – though there would be far more obstacles standing in the way afterward.
Problem was, GM faced its fair share of financial issues at the time, which culminated with a bankruptcy filing a few years later that brought this whole idea to a screeching halt. Thus, rather than launching a mid-engine Corvette with the C7 generation as originally intended, it had to wait a bit longer. Of course, this particular task wasn’t exactly easy either, as Juechter notes that creating a mid-engine design on the team’s first try was its biggest challenge.
After all, the Corvette team had already nailed its front-engine design in terms of thermal management, though in a mid-engine car, there’s no natural airflow through the engine compartment, for example. Figuring out how to provide optimum cooling via side openings without turning the car into a giant parachute is one problem that had to be solved, and heat mitigation is another issue altogether. Ultimately, the Corvette team had to figure all of that out via a number of computer models.
All of that persistence clearly paid off, and the team is pleased with their work – as they should be – calling the Stingray their proudest achievement, given the fact that it provides customers with a true, usable, reliable, exotic sports car at a reasonable price. Design synergy between the coupe and convertible is another point of pride, as figuring out how to store the retractable hardtop without making big changes or concessions wasn’t exactly easy, it seems, while the transmission and its short axle played a role in the overall design of the C8 as well. There are clearly many, many tiny details (and kinks) that had to be considered during this process, but in the end, we can confidently say it was all worth it.
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