mid engine corvette qtr panels leaked photo

We'll see the Me car, its ready to go and the plant upgrade is done. I think future corvette development will be slowed, because thats the lazy option and Gm management always chooses that path.. Meanwhile it looks like Cadillac paid for the quad cam V8 a version of which is going into the vette.

As to the rush to electric cars. Wife and I tried the Jaguar recently ipace, drives nice, feels a little golf cart'ish. There are lots on things on it that feel flimsy as with tesla because theyre really trying to save weight. Yes the power is addictive.

Heres the thing though, this is a car for the wife, like most suvs. She could care not one whit about a sub 5 sec 0-60. What she cares about is range and convenience. Can she visit our son at college, yes, but only if its fully charged before and you have the spare 40 mins to recharge at the other end. assuming you can find a convenient charging station. For even daily use the car should be plugged in every night, you need a special charging station installed at home for that. When do you plug in? just before bed, so its another chore.

In her words gas stations easy and gas is not a huge expense. For 20K less than the electric Jag she can get another loaded mercdes.
She said to me a few times, whats the point of an electric car. For her the only argument is you dont need to visit a gas station again, everything else is a negative. My bet is she is not an anomoly.

Going further I looked into real electric range. If you use heat in the winter and drive as many of us do, that 250 mile range is more like 180, also remove the last 20% becauise other than in exceptional circumsatces you cant use it. So were talkign lets say a 150 mile real range, fine for a comuter if they dont mind spending 30% more for the vehicle and the attentant charging/range issues.

Will more electrics sell in the future, for sure, but for 70% of america ICE is the way to go, thats why currently hybrids and electrics combined are not more than 7% of the market.

Personaly I dont believe Gm is cutting now to invest more in electrics than they already were, theyre just saving some $$$ by closing some car plants and mortaging their future by loosing capable egineering staff. Mary Barra is hardley a car/product person, shes a careerist, and that is the cure of large corps.
The mess at cadillac is a sure sign that to this day Gm management cant pick a winning product from a loosing one. Harley has the same issue, its not run by mtorcycle people at all.

In the end, it is all about product.

The vette is a great product, one of the few Gm has, it will survive on its merits, till the next genius comes along and Gm reinvents itself throwing a little cash the vettes way..

 

Its a 90K pickup, and that real 300mi range dissapears fast if you tow, which is what many people use pickups for. In other words like all electric vehicles its a niche.

 

The point I'm making is there is room for this segment or "niche". I've owned pick up trucks for 20 years and while I use the bed frequently, I've towed something only a handful of times. If GM or Ford said, "we're going all electric, no more gas f 150s, or diesel super dutys", well, that'd be nuts and abandon a massive market, its core market.I don't think GM is saying such. But, if its an option, and a platform that can be used for sport utilitys and trucks, there is a market and someone, will fill the market gap. GM appears to shedding cars that aren't profitable, not because they don't understand manufacturing, they're simply manufacturing something people won't buy, including their current electric vehicle.

 

An option - yes, great idea. I think GM said “all electric” a la Volvo. No hybrid, no ICE.

Very dumb. The laws of thermodynamics will dictate how much of a fail electric cars will be. You STILL need to generate energy, that doesn’t happen without a cost. 63% of all electricity generation in the US comes from fossil fuels, and the added demand on the grid from electric vehicles will see that rise.

Nothing is free in the world of energy. It has to come from somewhere, why people can’t see this is beyond me. It’s far more efficient to use ICE + fossil fuels than it is to plug in vehicles and have to generate X% more electricity to charge and recharge these things.

So long as the US remains a leader in oil production, you won’t see more than 10% market share for electric vehicles. As it stands, most estimates suggest 20 years before there’s even critical mass, and I think it will never happen.

I may be wrong, but short term, it’s a loser.

 

• "Transforming the global enterprise to advance the company’s vision of Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions, Zero Congestion"

I wouldn't say everything is going electric too soon after reading that vision statement. I mean the only thing excluded from that vision statement was world peace. That being said, we're in agreement, nothing is free in the world of energy. Electricity from the wall comes from somewhere, and unless solar or wind, it's coal or nuclear...or diesel electric plant. And I don't believe either of us thinks GM is going to dump gas / diesel trucks and s u v s in their entirety, or greatly by %.

apologies for thread derailment.

NOW BRING ON THE VETTE! gas powered please. And it's Cadillac brother.

 

Honestly this thread has completely veered off.

IMO its not really a discussion if electric cars are the wave of the future or a waste of time. That's GM's decision and they appear to believe electric is the way to go. That's there decision. And the same goes for Cross overs, which they appear to be pretty far behind on vs a lot of their competitors. Just look at FCA: The Jeep Renegade is Jeep's best selling vehicle by far and it's not much more than a Fiat 500x in Jeep clothing. People like these things.

The real question is where will GM put it's available resources in its products in the short and long term. As far as I can see, 2 seat sportscars aren't high on their priority list. And fancy gas guzzling 200 mph "halo cars" might make it look like GM is on the "wrong track" while not having products that most people want to buy which GM seems to believe are electric and efficient vehicles.

When GM decides who gets the short end of the stick, then you'll see the cut backs in investment and support. Programs screech to a halt, get cut back or delayed. Its the self fullfilling prophecy. And if you don't think it can happen, its already happened to Pontiac and Oldsmobile.

 

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Perfect example of the first two laws cited in layman's terms:

First Law says "you can't win,"

Second Law says "you can't even break-even."

 

to help get us back on track here is a pic of a current corvette quarter panel

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Here is the other problem for GM now. Everyone seems upset with them over the plant closures. Politicians from both sides, the media, along with just ordinary people who hear about it.

So in a few months they unveil the "New Mid Engine Corvette!" and everyone points to it saying as an example of what has been wrong at GM.

It's completely false, untrue, and a misunderstanding of the situation. But it's an easy target to grind an ax with.

I don't know if they were blindsided by the amount of bad PR came from the plant closures but now that the discussion is out there about GM's product range being "a problem", you have to wonder if they will quietly release information on the new Vette rather than celebrate it in full view.

 

The problem GM is having now is the fact they were bailed out and now looking to close plants. Politicians have the door open for them to trounce them along with public opinion. So maybe GM gets more funds in order to build **** they can't sell so that the plants remain open and people keep their jobs and the taxes keep flowing. Of course, this has nothing to do with the topic. Maybe we should start another thread?

 

^^^^
Capital idea (starting a new thread).

 

So this then is the perfect time to spin off the brand corvette or better yet sell it off. Let GM be without a corvette, makes sense Mayor, right? I think not.

The corvette starts their branding to the future with a ME design and I'm sure a hybred on the horizon ala everyother supercar mfg.

 

I have said many times GM should make Corvette it's own brand separate from Chevy and expand it into other vehicles, including a performance SUV.

But the history of GM shows visionary thinking is often lacking at GM since the 1970's

 

The upside is just like porche has range of sportscars, it now also has a range of differentiated VW SUV's that get cred from the sportscars and earn 80+% of the profits. The problem is GM has managed to mangle any upscale brand they have. The reason the vette survives is because its a relative backwater within GM, yes it fights for resources but is otherwise mostly not meddled with too much by the non car/MBA crowd which dominate GM.

Lutz said it years ago, the Vseries cadillacs should be vette sedans, probably somewhere within Gm there are decent bones to make a good performance SUV.
Its not like the vette enginers lack the talent or vision. GM problem used to be one of Unions and management, now its pure a management problem.

 

The fobs are labelled up to 3365. 65 pre-production cars.

 

Let's not forget that less than a month ago, there was a fob leak implying that Cadillac might be having a ME car. With the earlier news this week about GM cutting so many cars and the total lack of any statements about Corvette, this might imply at least 4 possible outcomes at this point in time:

A) Chevy still gets the ME Corvette
B) Both Chevy and Cadillac get a ME car
C) the Cadillac fob story was created for dis-information purposes
D) only Cadillac gets the ME car and GM has completely snookered Corvette enthusiasts

Cadillac fob story: https://www.autoblog.com/2018/11/07/cadillac-fob-mid-engine-roadster-xlr/​

 

Today's WSJ:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/2019-corvette-zr1-the-last-and-best-of-its-kind-1543428205

• CARS
• RUMBLE SEAT

2019 Corvette ZR1: The Last, and Best, of Its Kind
Chevy’s Corvette is being redesigned next year with a mid-engine configuration to keep up with its competition. That’s a pity, says Dan Neil. because this year’s front-engine ZR1 is the most dynamic ’Vette yet


BLACK BEAUTY The 2019 ZR1 will be the last ’Vette to feature the iconic elongated hood. PHOTO: CHEVROLET
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161 COMMENTS
By
Dan Neil
Nov. 28, 2018 1:03 p.m. ET



MY BROTHER-IN-LAW recently acquired his dad’s well-preserved 1982 Chevrolet Corvette, which he drove to Thanksgiving dinner. It being a holiday, we even let him park it in the driveway. The ’82 Corvette—the last of the third-generation (C3) design—is perhaps the least-loved model-year of all, due to the fact that these wildly fast-looking cars were so shockingly slow and underpowered. Trapped inside that wasp-waisted fiberglass bod is a 5.7-liter V8 wheezing out a mere 200 hp due to its crude emissions-control plumbing. The 1982 Corvette is that zoologically unlikely thing, a sexy slug.

As luck would have it, I too drove a red Corvette to the family dinner: a 2019 ZR1, the quickest, most dynamic, most powerful Corvette ever offered by the factory, fully loaded and bristling with carbon-fiber cutlery—notably its huge rear wing, part of the ZTK Track Performance Package that says, around town, “Hey, look at me, I’m a fun-loving dork with money.”


A VALEDICTORY ADDRESS 2019 is the last model-year for Corvette’s legacy front-engine design. The next design generation (C8), appearing spring 2019 as a 2020 model, will have its engine mounted amidships. PHOTO: CHEVROLET
The ZR1 has no trouble breathing, thanks to the immense supercharger sticking through the hood. Nor drinking, either: the 6.2-liter pushrod V8 is fitted with dual fuel systems to pump more gas into the cylinders in extremis. And when this pile of high-priced aluminum reaches its full cyclonic pitch, at 6,400 rpm, it produces 755 hp and shows up on weather radar. Seek shelter. Stay inside.

The ZR1 isn’t fronting. It’s quick. For one thing, the gearing is such that you don’t have to upshift to second gear before it reaches 60 mph (at around 6,100 rpm). You just pop the clutch in first gear, one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi, while the big V8 screams in your face like a gorilla.

‘This Corvette doesn’t have an accelerator. It has a detonator.’

I wasn’t in a position to replicate the factory’s acceleration pulls—0-60 mph in 2.85 seconds and 10.6 in the ¼-mile—due to the fact that the well-scrubbed Michelin track tires our tester was wearing magically turn to stone at about 50 degrees. Most of the time, these tires—kit with the track package ($2,995), along with rear wing and front carbon-fiber splitter—made driving the ZR1 like wrestling a giant bipolar eel: powerful, slippery, hard to get a grip. But when those tires came to temp, oh lord. This thing doesn’t have an accelerator. It has a detonator.

Chevrolet calls the ZR1 the most powerful, quickest and most dynamic Corvette ever produced by the factory, with a 0-60 mph acceleration of 2.85 seconds and a ¼-mile elapsed time of 10.6 seconds. A 2019 ZR1 set the production-car lap record at Road Atlanta of 1 minute, 26.45 seconds. PHOTO: CHEVROLET
Looking for a Corvette to tuck away in your hot-rod time capsule? Me neither. For one thing, I couldn’t take the psychic heat of being a middle-aged man bopping around town in a red Corvette. These cars should be sold with a restraining order.


Even now, in the Late Baroque Period of Corvettes, these cars have their issues. Why must it reek of glue? Oh right, it’s made of plastic. The ZR1 is a real head-tosser at low speeds, even with the fancy magnetic suspension on soft, in Tour mode. The honking supercharger bulges into the driver’s forward view, blocking the lower third of the windshield. The performance wheels and tires—19-inch up front and 20-inch in rear, wrapped with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2—look curiously undersized in the wheel wells. In all seriousness, skip the track pack.

The source of the Corvette’s power is its supercharged 6.2-liter pushrod V8, the LT5 engine fitted with a new, more enormous supercharger (2.65 liter) bursting through the hood. The LT5 produces a maximum 755 hp at 6,400 rpm and 715 pound-feet of torque at 3,600 rpm. PHOTO: CHEVROLET
And yet for collectors, this might be the One, the Ultimate, the Maximum. The next Corvette design (C8), due in spring, will be radically different automotive proposition. It will be a mid-engine vehicle, like a Ferrari or Lamborghini, not a front-engine car like, um, a Corvette.

There are good reasons for the change, some dynamical, some demographic. The remarkable thing about the legacy Corvette is how well it kept up with highly specific mid-engine sports cars. But for Corvette to remain among the super-sports car elite, to be considered by millennials in their prime spending years, the design had to go mid-engine. Our ZR1 lands as a joyously egregious finale to the era of front-engine Corvettes.

Behind the big pushrod V8 is a superb seven-speed manual gearbox, with a heavy clutch and a slick, notchless gate (an eight-speed automatic, pictured here, is also available). The C7 generation will be the last Corvette fitted with a standard, or manual transmission. The C8 generation will reportedly use a dual-clutch semi automated rear transaxle. PHOTO: CHEVROLET
What will be lost? First, these will be the last Corvettes with a manual transmission—a trick seven-speeder with a rev-matching function for downshifting. The C8 will use a dual-clutch paddle-shift transmission, which will be quicker around the Nürburgring than any manually stirred alternative. But purists and collectors will covet the charismatic anachronism of the three-pedal manual. Burnouts are easier too.

Second, the ’Vette will lose its versatility as a multiday grand touring sports car, owing to its hatchback design. There aren’t many, or any, super-sports that can carry two suitcases and two sets of golf clubs.

The ZR1 test car ($139,660) was equipped with the ZTK Track Performance Package ($2,995), including the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 track tires, the pitch-adjustable High Wing, and the elaborate carbon-fiber chin splitter with end plates. PHOTO: CHEVROLET
Lastly, and saddest of all, the Corvette will lose its hood of goodly length, the conspicuous priapism that has defined the mission for 65 years. The next Corvette might be faster, quicker, safer, better, but it will never swing the same attitude.

May I suggest the 1982 vintage?

 

^ I beg to differ on the word "superb" when it comes to the description of the 7 speed manual....

 

^ here's where i beg to differ: "It’s quick. For one thing, the gearing is such that you don’t have to upshift to second gear before it reaches 60 mph ..."

Tall gearing doesn't make for a quick car

 

It also doesn't make for a car that's engaging to drive on the street.

 

Seriously, I want to be writer...get stuff wrong (the "superb" 7 speed manual??). I have a nearly 5 year old Stingray and "superb" is not something that's ever entered my mind with my transmission. The wheels/tires look too small??? This writer is like all the guys that wrote about the 911 when Porsche FINALLY exorcised it's handling demons. "Lacks the soul of the previous 911's"....translation: You are less likely to stuff the car, backwards, in to a tree when cornering.

BTW, is "dynamical" a real word?

 

Yep car writers just wnat something to say, most of them are poor drivers. I dont get how a Zr1 which is menat to be a uber performance focussed car then gets criticized for its ride. If you want ride get a regular vette.
The 7 speed in vette is not superb, the porche 7 speed sucks.
Newer 911's do lack soul not because they are not twichy but because evrything is so filtered that there is little real feedback, and what feedback there is is actualy faked, same can be said of most cars today.

There are some excpetions however.

 

Odds that the C8 is the first 2 seat sports car to come with self driving mode? 9/10.