Chevrolet Corvette C8

The Chevrolet Corvette is known to be an American icon because it's the sports car that ultimately symbolizes American freedom like soybeans harvested from American farmlands or shale oil drilled from American wildlife. It's the icon that put America in the world of sports cars that are heavily dominated by the Europeans and as times changed, Chevrolet made a radical approach to their new generation Corvette and for this new model, it's no longer your Grandpa's Corvette anymore because it's now a bit more different than the Corvettes of yesteryears.

2020 Chevrolet Corvette

That's because the all-new, eighth-generation Corvette, priced at 58,900 US Dollars plus additional costs, is now mid-engined and I know most Corvette purists know that making the Corvette mid-engine is a sacrilege and treason to its heritage but there is one very good reason why they made it mid-engined; fulfilling the dream envisioned by a certain expert who tried creating mid-engined prototypes for General Motors. Decades of hard work have resulted in the rise of General Motors' first mid-engined production car, which is the C8 Corvette, of course.

2020 Chevrolet Corvette

But before explaining more about its new mid-engined proportions, let's observe the design first and by the looks of it, the new model is a bit like a mash-up between the Ferrari F430's front, the side view of the previous Corvette, and the rear view of the Chevrolet Corvette, giving it a more Frankenstein approach to the new model but despite that, I think it looks fantastic at all angles and the design is one of the many reasons the folks behind the new model wanted to make the Corvette great again, whatever that means.

2020 Chevrolet Corvette interior

2020 Chevrolet Corvette interior

On the interior, the new Corvette features a more spaceship-like approach and once inside, you feel like you're in control of some futuristic fighter ready for take-off. Although radical, the futuristic interior really shows its cool toys to play with such as the vertical climate controls mounted on the side that separates you and the driver, the ultra-thin air vents, the race-inspired steering wheel, the Performance Data Recorder, Bluetooth connectivity, 4G LTE, and more. Aside from that, the Corvette offers three different kinds of seats to choose from ranging from the basic GT1 seats to the high-end Competition Sport seats.

In its normal, hard-top guise, you can really take the roof off manually by getting out of the car, detaching its roof, and placing it on the trunk, which is now on the front in case you're forgetting something. But in the Convertible, you can close or open its first-ever retractable hardtop at the push of the button even while traveling at 30mph, simple as that.

2020 Chevrolet Corvette

Now we get to talk about the new model's midship conundrum and why it matters. Achieving the reality envisioned by the late Zora Arkus-Duntov, the father of the Corvette, the new mid-engine layout delivers rear weight bias and improved downforce because the windshield is now over the front wheels. Simple as that.

When you toy around with it, you will have the lasting impression of why the new Corvette, thanks to its mid-engine layout, behaves like a Ferrari F430 on so many levels, and because of its newly found dynamics, it's worth coming back for more even though it's more challenging and more dynamic to handle than the old one. You can really get hooked on this car all year long until you are fully satisfied with it and there's no turning back now once driven.

Powering the new Corvette is an all-new 6.2L LT2 V8 engine mounted in the middle, which produces up to 495HP of power and 470lb-ft of torque. In Stingray form, that is the most powerful engine ever made in this variant, and mating to this all-American V8 tour de force is a double-clutch gearbox, which is great but utterly dramatic of course.

For Z51 Performance Package variants, the Corvette comes with the brand new Magnetic Ride Control 4.0 which reads the road every millisecond and adapts in about 10 to 15 milliseconds. Couple that with the Driver Mode Selector and the result is a very intelligent sportscar that adapts to every road condition like a supercomputer. It can be comfortable in the city streets or downright dynamic on the track, this is how the new C8 Corvette rolls.

As I was saying, the new C8 Corvette Stingray starts at 58,900 US Dollars plus additional costs and it is available in both Coupe and Convertible. Like the Ford Mustang, the new C8 Corvette, for the first time, can be configured to RHD specifications, meaning its official distributors from Japan, the UK, and Australia are more than happy to sell one.

So, what can I say about the C8 Corvette? While it's treason to the Corvette history, as purists feared, because of its mid-engine layout, it's by far the best sports car ever to come out from America and those behind it sure know how to make a Corvette great again, whatever the reason.

Welcome to the new world order.

Photo: General Motors