mid engine corvette qtr panels leaked photo

You guys realize that all these "renders" are being done by AMATEURS on CorvetteForum, RIGHT?

Not ONE of these renders has gotten the side scoop/rear fender right...NOT ONE. If you look at a 3/4 rear view of the camo'd cars, you can see a character line that flows from the rear wheel well all the way to the leading edge of the door. NONE of these renders show that. You can also see the camo billowing up around the scoop area in the videos which tells you there are some pieces under the camo to confuse the shape.

 

Indeed. The Cayman GTS (fastest Cayman right now) won't stay with a C7 Stingray. A C7 GS would destroy it.

 

I thought GT4 was the fastest cayman.

 

It's only 2 months away. After a 40 year wait. No matter what it looks like, they will sell out....for the first year at least.

 

Not all. Some are done professionally by car mags.

 

Absolutely.

 

Well if these people are Amateurs, they're very good.
Of course they haven't captured all the nuances of the design. But they keep trying

 

^^^^
Indeed they are. And I admire their talents (I sure couldn't do it) but, I feel like many of the "renders" are what the renderer WANTS to see rather than what the clues are telling him/her.
I'm hoping in 3 months this will all be moot.

 

I was speaking of currently available cars. No doubt the 718 GT4 will be the fastest Cayman when it's introduced.

FWIW, using Car and Driver Lighning Lap, the previous gen Cayman GT4 (tested in 2016) was slower than the Stingray Z51 (tested in 2014)

 

Heres the thing about "fastest" or faster. Any cayman, not to mention any vette is faster than you can even semi sanely go on road if youre really pressing on an stringing more than two corners together. True on an open highway to the extent you dont care about your license and its highway a vette is faster than a cayman, esp above 150mph, but on any type of twisty road the differences are moot because both are faster than you can go without the serious risk of killing some civilian or driving off the road. In fact a 1990s lotus is already faster than most roads or drivers can handle.

Theres a reason motorcycle makers sell more nakeds than pure sportbikes, because both will easily exceed whatever can be done on the street, so character sound motor, feel riding position and looks become the driving factors, given that the perfromance is already more than adequate for the road or even amateur track.

For track focus its different where a more purely focused machine makes real sense. There the ability to hold up to repeated laps, day in day out, the ease of modification and support for such, the undelaying platform potential, the predicatibilty of the machine at the limit are all big factors.
Good as some lightening lap of a vette may seem, the fact is where the rubber meets the asphalt there are maybe 10 porche to every vette on track, why is that. You can buy a used vette for the same money or less than a cayman. Its a serious question I'm not knocking any car, but asking a question because when people get serious spend hard earned money on track it seems to be miata and then cayman, those are the ubiquitous machines, and theres a reason for that.

Maybe its as simple as the balance between performance and cost to run. But my observation is that whether its a car driven to the track, or one arriving on a trailer its in many cases miata or cayman, with some aficianados also going for e36 series BMWs. Im talking about people who spend 10-30 days per year on track. Maybe its NE thing. Or maybe its as simple as those cars feel all of a piece on track, are predictable at the limit and you can really grow with them. Or maybe its just that they have big racing classes and so lots of healthy competition. Ill argue its also something intrinsic in those platforms.

Cayman GT4 imo on track not really that fast. Modified Cayman really really fast. Perhaops the current vette you cant add that much too in terms of speed, the factory has taken it as far as possible, whereas a cayman you can add lots of speed to, esp in the supension tuning. Maybe thats always been proches secret, a great underlauing platform more than adequate for the street that you can keep easily adding bits to to go faster on track.

In any event were thinking the ME vette is aimed more at supercars. Out on track the Mclarens seem to do real well. Last day out someone took their 458, it had to get towed in because the tranny took a crap. Woudlnt want to add up what that cost to fix. The two Maclarens were fast and ran all day. Perhaps the the point, unless youre a pro the difference between a Maclren 570 Mp12 650 or 458 etc is really driver, theyre all really fast, and the more predicatble stable one is the one most people will in reality be fastest in, couple that with durability and youll have the winner. That means the me vette could be the best thing since sliced bread. If it weights +35000lbs or 3800lbs wet, regardless of some lightening lap, it simply will be too heavy to be anything other than a few lap wonder, and beyond magazine paper specs not really any more impressive for someone who actualy goes to the track than a veyron, Huraya, aventadior, nsx etc.

The C8R gives me hope, if they can make a civillian turn key version car thats light enough then someone like me can buy supercar performance that "works" on track and is reasonable to run. Of the current cars the Gt3 comes closest. If you want to be taken seriously you need a Gt3 beater, a Turbo beater is nice but more of vanity performance than real trackday warrior performance. A car thats good on track as above is likely to feel alive on road too.

Given what Chevy was able to achieve and improve with the too heavy to start camaro 5 platform in the z28 ( a platform still way too heavy but amazingly improved) there is no doubt that they know what to do. The question is what in-baked goodness is there in the Me platform, or have the bean counetrs and marketeers crippled it from the start.
If its got really great underlaying bones a stiff tub and can be Iightened in "gt3" spec dont mind waiting till version 2.0 or 3.0 till we get the great ones. The forst one out the gate is never going to be the best one, but does it carry the auto genes to be a great one day.

Meanwhile I think the Zr1 is the vette to buy and keep if you want a great future collectable you can drive. Its like the Hemi challenger of our day. Were simply not going to see another car with the classic chev small block pushed so far out hp wise from the factory, probably ever. Its a zenith of the classic stick shift front engined platform, a car that traces its lineage and language at least as far back as the C3. If people think a 993 turbo was the last of the real and most developed porches this is that in a vette. As to performance, however good it is or not on track is moot. Within a year or two newer car will eclipse those numbers and this "ZR1" is not car really going to track. What will be remebered is that it was THE sledgehammer of 2018 regardless of price and zenith of the classic vette, not to mention a riot on road. That makes it THE one to buy and keep.

 

OK, if the GT3 is your standard, than buy a C7 GS with Z07 package and you've got a car that is JUST as fast on a track for half price. And please, there is ZERO doubt that a C7 GS is cheaper to run, disregarding the fact that you saved $70K on the frontend.

 

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Similar center stack to 918

 

Laughably bad.

 

https://www.motor1.com/news/272839/chevy-corvette-mid-engine-rendering/

 

Your track number and experience come from r and t and c and d etc, meanwhile out in the real world.

 

Blocky and heavy about the sides, derivative of a 360 in front which was hardley a maranello high point.

 

If this is really it, then its Vette meets NSX.
"Laughably bad" someone said.
Ill go with that and say its last decades misinterpretation of cool, today. Meanwhile the game moved on.

However Im sure some old dudes will be impressed with it on the way to the golf club.
If this is it, count me out.

 

Maybe you need to find a new car to follow? You're looking for an out-of-the-box race car that weighs 3000lbs, has 650 hp, and doesn't eat consumables all while being stylized to your specific tastes. You're not going to get that in a Vette, so why waste your time writing walls of text about how it's so bad and not a real race car for serious race car drivers?

 

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmeh

 

It needs maybe 50-60 more buttons and switches and 3 more TFT screens.

Obviously "light weight" and "simplicity" were not high on their priority list

 

There is nothing special here at all. It's not bad. It's just..... like nothing to shout about. After years of waiting for this car this is the best they could do?

Its a crisped up 1999 Ferrari 360 with a faux LaFerrari front grill

 

There is a witness line that starts at the top of the side scoop and then around the rear wheels going down to the ground that has to be a mistake. Its really ugly.

I personally don't like witness lines and creases that just blend off into nothing. The transition surfaces always seem to have some odd areas of neither one or the other. I'd rather continue them and be bolder with the design intention of having it in the first place.

IMO, this line would have been better off continuing off to the rear and moving somewhere along the back side all the way to the other side

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

you mean like the 488? Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

My words were prefaced with, "IF" this is the new vette interior.
Maybe I just would like a corvette built as good as it can/should be, and feedback is good.
Fanboi's went ape when I and others said the c6 had rent a car interior, meanwhile they fixed it on the C7.

I also remember saying a few years back when I saw them at the auto shgow that the then new CTS and ATS were duds, the numbers support this.

If there is an assertion that a vette is great on track, and this assertion is used to give the vette legitimacy, last I heard its free country and I can point out why thats not quite true.

The C8 is being heralded as the best thing since sliced bread, and it could be.
From what we see so far, maybe an opportunity missed, especialy as theyre keeping the Fe car.

From what we hear a 650 hp na motor is coming, and any track car will eat consumables, the question is the rate.

Yeah after two vettes I'm not a vette buyer, not for any other reason than product execution, there are simply ebtetr cars to drive out there, the c8 could and should change that.

We'll see.

Lots of manufacturers miss the mark, ferrari 599 being exghibit A.