C8 Mid-Engine Corvette

Posted on by Ready Motorsports

Hunting Ghosts

It’s been a long time in the making.  For as long as five decades, there have been whispers of the mid-engine Corvette.  Here we are in February 2019 asking ourselves, “will we ever see this car?”.  We hope so, but there’ve been quite a few false starts.

In our research, at least nine documented prototypes of the mid-engine Corvette exist:

  • 1964 CERV II
  • 1973 Four-Rotor Corvette
  • 1968 XP-880 — the Astro II
  • 1976 Aerovette
  • 1970 XP-882
  • 1986 Corvette Indy
  • 1972 XP-895 — the Reynolds Corvette
  • 1990 CERV III
  • 1973 XP-897GT — the Two-Rotor Corvette

In his article posted on June 18, 2018, Clayton Seams did a fantastic job cataloging and describing these would-be vehicles: The 9 Mid-Engine Corvette Concepts Chevrolet Almost Built.

In addition to these, let’s not forget the amazing concept car known as “Fast Eddy” that Aria Group announced in 2016.  This was a car that not only served as a nudge to Chevrolet, but also took on a life of its own as Aria’s FXE hypercar.

As a Corvette fan, it’s been hard to remain patient.  After all of these years, you’d like to think the C8’s release is imminent.  Feeling like a ghost hunter, we’ve gone to the LA Car Show in December 2018 then the Detroit Car Show in January 2019 hoping that the C8 would make an appearance.  Well, it didn’t.  Could Amelia Island’s prestigious Concours D’Elegance be the one?  Or maybe the NY Car Show in April 2019?  Who knows, but we’re not sure we want to be chasing ghosts for much longer.

Yesterday, the latest photos of the C8 were revealed.  There are a lot of sites analyzing these latest findings, but we like Matt Maran’s video review here:

Matt’s review is very thorough, with excellent insight into what the eventual production model could be.

The C8 represents all that is right in American automotive ingenuity.  And that’s coming from a team that’s completely enamored by its C7 ZR1, Haze.  The C8 takes things to another level, and the world is waiting.  Come on Chevrolet, time to appease your loyal followers and announce the arrival of its new king.