Corvette Stingray - Corvette Stingray: The Mid-Engine Revolution

CORVETTE STINGRAY

FOREWORD BY MARK REUSS

You hold in your hands the story of the Corvette that changed everything. The 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray is, true to the vision of creator and original Chief Engineer Zora Arkus- Duntov, a mid-engine supercar. The eighth-generation Corvette, or C8, is everything Zora dreamed of... with technology he never could have imagined.

General Motors has explored mid-engine concepts dating back to the original Chevrolet Engineering Research Vehicle (CERV I) from 1960. Zora famously advocated for mid-engine vehicles, but we needed to make sure we kept Corvette true to its roots of attainable performance. Mid-engine has historically posed a challenge to this mission. Not so, anymore. The time has come, today, and we feel certain that both Corvette traditionalists and potential new customers will embrace the change in layout.

The reason for that confidence becomes clear as soon as you drive it. You will think its flat-out the best Corvette you have ever driven. And thats because its the best Corvette anybodys ever driven. There are many reasons for that, even beyond the mid-engine layout... reasons like the way it feels, the way it sounds, the way it looks and the incredible attention to every detail.

Since 1953, through the good times and the bad for this company, there was always Corvette, demonstrating what it means to win.

And with every succeeding generation since 1953, Chevrolet has worked to make Corvette better and better. We have never stopped improving, never stopped innovating and never stopped making the car faster, better handling, more comfortablemore everything.

Once we got to C7, we had pushed the limits of what we could do with that configuration. It was as close to perfection as a front-engine/rear-drive Corvette was going to get. To take performance and driving dynamics to the next level for our customers, we had to move to mid-engine. As a result, the C8, to me, with its perfect balance, superior handling and outstanding design, is the best Corvette ever.

Its not a statement I make lightly... Corvette is the reason I work at General Motors, having grown up in one. On many weekend afternoons, my dad took me to work with him at the GM Technical Center in Warren, Michigan, specifically the Chevrolet Engineering Building, where the Corvette came to life. I spent many of those rides to Warren hunched in the rear flat area of a Corvette coupe.

This is personal for meas it is for Corvette enthusiasts the world over. The passion all of us feel for this vehicle is the main ingredient in the recipe we used to create the C8. This book deftly tells the story of exactly how it all happened. Id like to thank the writers, editors and artists who brought the C8 story to life so vividly, and Id like to thank Corvette fans everywhere who love and support the vehicle so passionately. This book is for you.

THE ROAD TO C8

The story of the mid-engine prototypes and the role they played in creating the eighth-generation Corvette.

The road to C8 takes us back more than 60 years, to the late 1950s. Even though Chevrolet had pulled out of factory racing programs in 1957, Zora Arkus-Duntov and the Chevrolet engineering team still wanted to build the most daring Corvettes they could and didnt hesitate to use racing technology to make it possible.

They also wanted to prove to the world GM still had the right stuff to go racing if it so chose. This resulted in a series of prototypes. Some were engineering-based like CERV I (Chevrolet Engineering Research Vehicle) while others were design exercises meant to test public reaction to a potential new production Corvette down the road. These cars created a speculative frenzy in the press and often appeared on magazine covers.