Car and Driver’s Don Sherman Looks Into Crystal Ball for the Future of Corvette

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Car and Driver's Don Sherman Looks Into Crystal Ball for the Future of Corvette

Photo Render via CorvetteForum.com


Our friend Don Sherman of Car and Driver is back talking about the near-future of the Chevrolet and what the next 18 months should bring.

As the technical editor for C&D, the long-time 1967 Corvette owner has many friendships and sources inside GM and the Corvette team. That doesn’t mean Don is 100% up on what’s going on with both the launch of the 2018 Corvette ZR1 or the C8 mid-engine Corvette. No one is. But we like to think of Sherman’s articles on Corvettes like a modern-day EF Hutton commercial. When he speaks, we need to shut up and listen!

Don recently posted about the future of the Corvette on Hagerty.com and he had some interesting takes after visiting the Bowling Green Assembly Plant and taking part of the public tours before they recently closed them down.

Don was the guy who first put out there that the 2018 Corvette ZR1 will be introduced on August 6th at Road America during an IMSA race. He still believes that’s where the public will first see the latest C7 Corvette for the first time:

My educated guess is that the 2018 ZR1 will break cover at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin’s Road America race track in conjunction with the August 6 Continental Tire Road Race event. The photo op of the street ZR1s juxtaposed with Corvette C7.R racers is too golden an opportunity for Chevy to squander.

2018 Corvette ZR1 takes on the Nurburgring


He believes that the 2018 ZR1 will be powered by a version of the Corvette Z06’s 6.2L LT4 V8 engine. The ZR1’s engine will have a larger Eaton twin-rotor supercharger and higher capacity intercoolers to boost power up to 750 hp but it will still retain the same direct injection and variable valve timing setup as the LT4. But Don isn’t so sure it will be called the LT5 as many have speculated and believes the LT5 document leak was either a smoke screen or document error.

One of the features of the ZR1 that Don is excited to see will be an active aero dynamics system that was published in a patent application by GM:

This year’s ZR1 will also be armed with special features to optimize its aero performance: a means of accurately controlling each corner’s ride height to take maximum advantage of a variable front splitter and an active rear wing flying high and wide. In March of this year, GM applied for a patent that describes this equipment in intimate detail.

So what is all this going to cost? After all, the 2013 ZR1 MSRP began around $112,000. Don thinks the 2018 Corvette ZR1’s price point will be around $135,000.

Corvette Body Spotted at GM Battery Lap Powers Rumors of an Electric 'Vette

Photo Credit: Javier Oquendo Design


From there, he shifts into the future of Corvette and the C8 mid-engine. Will the Corvette shift to being a mid-engine car moving forward or will Chevrolet offer both a front-engine and mid-engine models and let the market decide?

Considering that Chevy currently owns more than 40 percent of the $50-100,000 sports car market, flipping the switch from C7 to a radically different and more-expensive C8 would be insanity. Instead, building both Corvettes concurrently will allow the faithful to decide which best suits their fantasies.

Don refers to the C8 mid-engine Corvettes at a 2020 model year. A year ago, he suggested the C8 Corvette would debut at the 2018 NAIAS in Detroit with an LT1 V8 and an MSRP of $80,000. So it’s worth noting the Corvette expert’s time-line change as the 2019 C8 is pushed back a year. However Don has lowered his expected MSRP of the 2020 C8 mid-engine base model to below $70,000 – that would be a real trick for the Corvette team to pull off and would remove the expected higher price point for customers to make the mid-engine jump at a price that is relatively the same as the front-engine C7 Corvette Grand Sport.

With 500 or so horsepower on tap and a base price below $70,000, the 2020 C8 should revolutionize the supercar category. As this new platform matures, Chevy will add alternatives to today’s LT-1 including an all-wheel-drive hybrid (possibly called E-Ray) and a twin-turbo DOHC V-8 hammering out a remarkable 1,000 horsepower.

Don offers a new rumor that is new to us, saying that the word on the street is that a North Carolina shop will upfit Bowling-Green C8s with a custom interior and exterior trim. We’re not so sure about that as the upgrades the plant will undergo in the next four months should make it easier for Chevrolet to provide all that in-house at the plant. We don’t see the company spending nearly $775 million on plant upgrades to outsource the installation of interiors to another vendor.

Finally, Don offers a tip when it comes to viewing the camouflaged C8 mules saying that certain prototypes are being constructed by Pratt & Miller engineering utilizing Daytona Prototype panels for subterfuge, saying “When your task is nurturing wild Corvette dreams, chicanery is to be expected.”


Source:
Hagerty.com

Related:
[SPIED] 2018 Corvette ZR1 Prototype with Active Aero in Detroit?
Patent Application Details Adaptive Aerodynamics Plans for C7 Corvette
Car and Driver: Next Generation C8 Corvette to be Mid Engine Only

 



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2 COMMENTS

  1. Well that’s a heap’n help’n of speculat’n! Chevrolet has a great thing going with the current Corvette configuration that offers world class performance in a package that can be a daily driver. It doesn’t matter how exotic the C8 mid-engine Corvette will be, the packaging of the car will render it an expensive toy. Chevrolet will go from selling 30,000-plus cars a year to 3,000 cars a year. Since it is not likely that the new Corvette platform will be used in another GM brand (I don’t expect to see a Caddy/Corvette, GM tried that before and Cadillac buyers aren’t into sport cars), amortization won’t help the cost much.

    However, the Corvette market could support two model Corvettes, the nose bleed exotic and the more traditional (and useful) current platform. Another thing to consider will be the mid-engine shape. Not everyone is going to get warm over the forward cabin profile that’s opposite the traditional Corvette look.

    As far as “when” the C8 will come out, I’ll go with the C8 as a 2019 model, debuted in early 2018. I’m sure that there’s more pressure on the C8 to be 100% perfect upon release than any previous Corvette because of unprecedented expectations. The elephant in the room from my view is AWD. Making power today is relatively easy. Getting it to the ground in a controlled way is hard. AWD is the only avenue left to explore, otherwise the C8 mid-engine Corvette will just be another mid-engine “Me-Too” sports car.

    I have heard from “unnamed sources” that getting the C8 to be totally balanced is turning out to be more challenging that imagined. And since if the car isn’t “perfect” out of the gate it will get slammed, Chevrolet is making sure the car WILL BE perfect. So, we’ll just have to wait.

    And lastly, I’m certain that Pratt & Miller is already working on the C8.R and has laid out plans for a Le Mans assault to take on the Ford GT. A Chevy vs Ford slug-fest at Le Mans! How cool would that be???

  2. It isn’t that much more expensive to put the engine in the rear mid position versus the front mid position. Think Fiero or MR2.
    Besides that, I’m betting the rear mid engine comes out as a 2019 Cadillac with a Chevy version two model years behind, 2021. Or perhaps both will be corvettes. Keep in mind there is no such thing as a Chevrolet Corvette. It is Corvette By Chevrolet (check your owners manual). Maybe the rear engine will be the Corvette XLR By Cadillac.

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