Apparently possessing the institutional memory of sperm, the auto media is once again trotting out the 50-year-old rumor that will never die: OMG, the new Corvette is going to be mid-engined! Or, as we are so fond of saying around here, not. The madness started earlier this week, when GM North America boss Mark Reuss blew his dog whistle by hinting that the C7 Corvette would be “completely different.” The media needed no further encouragement to trot out the mid-engine rumor once again. As Paul Niedermeyer has pointed out, the mid-engined ‘vette speculation has been an industry institution since Zora Arkus Duntov posed proudly with his CERV I concept in 1959. Besides, Corvette engineers have been emphasizing the C7’s evolutionary nature for some time. Reuss’s hints could be about something as mundane and pre-signaled as a split rear window, or as out-there as Two-Mode hybrid option. Hoping for more is, I fear, would amount to a failure to learn the lessons of history.
It’s not like mid-engine is all that awesome on a production car anyway. Just look at GT-R and LF-A.
A lot of 2M4s and mister twos would beg to differ!
Find somebody who will let you borrow their Ford GT, then get back to me.
I’m not sure I get this comment. The LF-A isn’t really mid-engined except in the “engine is just past the front axle and the hood is really long” sense of the word. Ditto the GT-R.
If the engine is between the axles it’s mid-engined.
Also the a car in the current price range and market, I think it is called a corvette, has been front mid-engine for over a decade. GM really needs to catch up
Mid-engine Corvette rumor? Ah geez not again. The last time I fell for that one I was only 12 and didn’t know any better.
I won’t believe it until they say it also has a wankel.
Quad-rotor Aerovette, anyone???
I’d be more inclined to believe the return of the Blue Flame Six.
REVOLUTIONARY – Oh good, look for a 9 speed automatic transmission or a manumatic dual clutch box of fail. Or maybe a retractable hardtop cause that’s roughly a 60 year old idea.
My bet is that “revolutionary” in this sense means “turbocharged four cylinder and the most aggressive implementation of skip-shift in history”
Good one!
Here’s hoping that “completely different” means a decent interior, wherever the engine is mounted.
Howsabout an E85 Corvette? Even if you never use the stuff, it would come with stock higher-flow injectors and would likely work REAL nice with forced induction (stock or otherwise).. Who knows, it could be wicked popular in Brazil..
ZOMG! Just got off the phone with my friend who is “in the know”,I can’t reveal my source because he could lose his job! Anyway here are the C7 specs:
AWD
DOHC
Twin Turbo
V10
Mid Engined
V6
2000lbs
1000hp
$25k
I really hope that all of these idiots are trolls, but I know that just isn’t the case.
I am in no way affiliated with corvette development, nor do I even follow the rumor mill anymore and I can tell you with 95% confidence what the C7 will be:
FM engine
Smaller V8 with DI
Hydroformed AL frame on all models
Total evolutionary styling
Maybe some CF body parts
[i]Maybe some CF body parts[/i]
If I was a betting man (which I’m not) this where I’d put my money. Seems like the logical progression from the current fiberglass panels.
:cough: 7-speed manual :cough:
CERV I concept = pure lust.
A mid-engine Vette will never happen. It should have a twin-engine AWD setup. No, I’m being serious. There are currently no transverse V8s in GM’s lineup to share build costs. Now picture a FWD I4 & 6 speed in front and a FWD V6 & 6 speed out back. Could total almost 500HP naturally aspirated and triple turbos for the ZR1. Plus it’d be perfectly balanced under hard braking/cornering with the right amount of weight over each axle. Now that’s a Corvette I’d be excited about.
You don’t need a transverse V8 to do rear-engine, but you do need a transaxle, which they also don’t have… but these days manufacturers seem willing to use third-party off-the-shelf bits more than they used to, and the Ford GT’s Ricardo transaxle has proven itself to be bulletproof. And Ricardo has lots to choose from.
The problem is finding an automatic/clutchless transaxle. The transaxle drivetrain for the C5 corvette was almost scrapped because the tooling costs for the automatic transmission were way too high, but they figured out how to use some existing parts from the truck line.
Either way, the front engine design just has way too many packaging advantages over midengine. Just think of how much luggage space the corvette currently has, would a mid engine design would come close.
Like a real Porsche, your luggage goes between the front wheels.
But. . .but . . .it already is mid-engined. . .
I think you’re right.
Don’t forget the huge jump in print magazine sales every time this rumor starts up. Every commercial interest wins from spreading this rumor… except consumers, and TTAC. See what the truth gets you, TTAC?
So what you’re saying is…the C7 will be REAR-engine?!
They’ll never see it coming!
Yawn. It’s a vette, who cares? They haven’t been interesting in decades and it seems the only people who buy vettes are people who already have vettes. Its sort of the automotive Hummel figurine.