mid engine corvette qtr panels leaked photo

It does look very nice with the updates. Do you think the 488 GTE sounds nice?? I think it sounds almost as bad as the Ford GT wich sounds horrible on the race track partly due to the way they split the exhaust.

 

This looks like a mako shark with it's mouth open, kinda smilin'. Image Unavailable, Please Login I'm not saying it's bad, just looks that way to me.

 

Well for a turbo car the 488 sounded great, esp compared to a mclaren withch is more blare than tune.. I am extrapolatign that the pista will sound better than the 488.
Ford Gt based on the audio is just noise.

 

The Americans created something similar back in the 80's though for very different reasons >

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Real question is pista or performante? Performante has the responsive, musical, last of breed na motor along with trick aero. Pista has the power and more rounded style compared to lambo sharp creases. pista probably extra $100k minimum. Tough one

 

The Pista is really beautiful -- the best of the 458 / 488 series.

I liked the 458 but imagine if Ferrari did this in 2009.

 

Then some of Pininfarina's best work on the Italia would never have seen the light of day. It is difficult to say if Mr Manzoni could have come up with the Pista if there had been no Italia design...

 

It’s the most aggressive of the 3. I prefer the Pista over the 458 I had & the 488 I currently have.

 

For clarity:
The "regular" C6's had steel frames
The C6 Z06 and ZR1 had aluminum frames
ALL C7's have IDENTICAL aluminum frames (not the same frames as the C6 aluminum frames)
The C7's dashboards/windshields mount to a magnesium structure.

I disagree with you on the 3 pedal Ferrari. In the 430 era, the cars were being ordered 90+% F1. I doubt Ferrari was talking people out of manuals, the customer base WANTED paddles.

 

I like the less fussy lines of the 458 myself. I do like the Pista over the regular 488, though.

 

Well......

I ordered a late model F430 and wanted a manual. I had a Maserati spider Cambiocorsa F1 (it was the only way it came originally) and was told it might never be made or would be drastically delayed. A lot of dealers pushed the $10K option over the manual so I'm not sure it's a fair comparison.

The dealer promised me the F43o F1 was much better than the Maserati. He was right about that and I still really enjoyed that car.

I will say this. Even C7 manuals are dropping in numbers now that they introduced their new Auto 8 speed. The trend is definitely away from manuals. I even had a really tough time getting a Manual Mini S with the equipment I wanted. 5 years earlier I could pick up anything on almost any dealer lot.

 

^^^^
There's an interesting trend that has gone on for 3 generations now of Corvette (C5/6/7). The first year of a new generation is the highest percentage of manual to automatic (but still favors automatic). That first year is all sold units, ordered by the end buyer, not the dealer as inventory. As the years go by, and the car settles into more normal business and dealers have inventory ON THE LOT, the automatic percentage goes up (because that's what dealers order for inventory). The C7 is the perfect example. 2014, the first year of the C7, was the highest manual percentage, 35% manual/65% automatic. By MY 2017 the breakdown was 22% manual/78% automatic.

For clarity sake, the C6 showed a lower percentage of automatics (but still favoring autos) because the Z06/ZR1 were available as manual only.
The C5 had automatic standard, manual was a $915 option. The C5 Z06 (intro'd in 2001) was manual only.

 

When I bought my manual C7 (one of the first of the convertibles), I was told not many were being ordered with manuals and this would be pretty rare. And, a lot of people were waiting for the new A8 autobox which was coming out the next year. He had driven one and said it was very much like a DCT in the speed of shifting and feeling. The salesman predicted almost all convertables would go with an auto box the next year as dealers would order them all that way. Only people (like me) special ordering a car would get one with a 6 Speed. He called us "old schoolers"

And, fewer and fewer dealers were interested in ordering special orders when they had 10 cars on the lot already.

Dealers do help push the automatic trend by default. They go for the easy, quick sale -- which is the auto.

 

By comparison the 2018 911 GT3 is about 50% manual, and for those who did paint-to-sample colors the majority are manuals.
Perhaps 911 clients are a different breed...

 

No,GT3 customers are a different breed.

 

and the very embodiment of the "less is more" mantra

 

Agreed

 

The difference is you can buy a performante
You can’t actually buy a pista

 

Some renderings posted on Corvette Forum - alleged to be close to what another forum member "saw" (credit to FirstVetteSoon @ Corvette Forum):

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Love it!
Hope they go w this rounded look

 

Looks like a very slightly tweeked 458. Not saying that's bad, but not fresh either. If it does everything it should and they put a nice interior it will be a winner.

 

I like it a lot, but the grill looks a little busy to me.

 

The Corvette has a much smaller frontal area than a Dodge Demon for example. As a result they have to be rather creative in the manner that they manage air to meet the cooling requirements of this Corvette. Strangely from an aero standpoint the mesh grill cools better than a simple open area to.

 

Look at the "B" pillar area. Can't tell if that is a black shadow arising from the side glass coming in under a side roof overhang, or if it is a giant piece of black trim running between the edge of the roof and the top of the side windows. Any thoughts?

 

When you look at the car 'head on' the side window glass curves in quite distinctly at the top. One of the reasons for this was to shrink the width of the roof panel. The glass fits flush with the body and is not buried at the top. Every dimension on this car is there for a reason and in some cases we are talking fractions of an inch or in metric - millimeters.
Interesting design shape for the large and small side vents on the body panels in the drawing!

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