[VIDEO] Here is How Chip Foose Would Improve the Design of the C8 Corvette

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[VIDEO] Here is How Chip Foose Would Improve the Design of the C8 Corvette


We’ve featured several of these videos from Chip Foose where he draws a specific Corvette model and then adds his own personal touches to the car. His previous “Chip Foose Draws a Car” videos from Hagerty have featured both the 1963 Corvette Split Window Coupe and a C5 Corvette that he turned into a speedster. Now the Overhaulin’ star is back with a new video and for this one, he is taking on the new mid-engine C8 Corvette.

Holding up a photo of a C8 Corvette, Chip kicks off this video by talking about how much he liked the evolution of Corvettes over the multiple generations and says the American Sportscar is only second to the Porsche in terms of how it evolved over the years. Chip says he isn’t quite sold on the drastic switch to the mid-engine configuration just yet and he’s been fighting “falling in love with this car” due to his appreciation for the lineage of Corvettes from C1-C7. So in this exercise, he wants to see if he can carry over some of the previous design cues to fix that.

Chip immediately points to the C8 Corvette’s side intakes as one of the issues he has with the car, saying “it just seems to be such a tacked-on piece that doesn’t go with the overall design of the car” and that’s where he begins.

[VIDEO] Here is How Chip Foose Would Improve the Design of the C8 Corvette


“Don’t get me wrong when I’m saying that I don’t know if I’m a fan or not. I’m a huge fan of the performance…It’s the styling that I keep looking at and wondering why they do this or why did they do that rather than keeping that evolution of the Corvette.”

Once Chip has the sketch completed, he runs through his thought process and shows how he incorporated some of the previous generational design cues into the new C8 Corvette. Much of it picks up where the C7 Corvette left off but he does sprinkle in a little C2 in there as well.

Check out the video by Chip and let us know what you think about his restyled version in the comments below.


Source:
Hagerty / YouTube

Related:
[VIDEO] Chip Foose Draws a 1963 Corvette Split-Window Coupe
[VIDEO] Watch Chip Foose Work his Magic on the C5 Corvette
[VIDEO] Chip Foose Goes to Work on a Custom 1962 Corvette Widebody (Part 1)

 



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50 COMMENTS

  1. Many designs for future Corvettes are on the drawing broads all over but the current effort in the C8 is an acceptable version of the Great American Sports Car in the mid engine configuration. This platform has many years and miles ahead of it and their better be 93 octane gasoline for as long as I can drive my C8. Electric Cars charged from Wind, Solar, and even coal power generator is not as clean a me , the C8, and 93 octane gasoline. Anyone that tells you it is just lied!

  2. I TOTALLY agree Chip – as a C7 owner I just haven’t been able to warm up to the C8. I keep thinking GM will “tweak” the design closer to yours for upcoming years and models. It’s a shame that GM went with the current design since some of the initial preliminary sketches were closer to your design. Unfortunately if they don’t tweak the design I’ll be glad to hang onto my C7. In addition to your overall design ideas, you addressed the other flaw by adding appropriate wheels. LOVE IT!

  3. What as Ass. It’s real easy to take a car and change it after someone else
    had done all the hard work of designing it. Chip, why don’t you stick to
    designing your high dollar ugly wheels and let us owners enjoy our new beautiful
    C8 Corvette.

  4. Chip, I love the improvements but do think your frontend looks like a Camero. Of course they changed the Camero to look like a Corvette. I have owned a C2, C3, C6 and C7. I liked them all but I guess I liked the C2 best, maybe because it was my first. C8 is appealing to a younger buyer which pleases GM. Most people driving Corvettes of any year tend to have mostly gray or no hair.

  5. Some people just can’t accept change. I don’t buy the anti “boomerang” arguments. The C8 is a ripoff of McLaren and other “supercar” designs because GM wanted to offer a supercar looking car at an affordable price point. Beging compared to a car that’s 5x the price isn’t a bad thing. It’s mid-engine which pretty much means you need an intake behind the door. When you talk about radical styling changes between the C8 and C7 what would he have said about the dramatic and radical change between the C1 and C2? BTW I missed the door handle on the “improved” design. What is the door handle going to look like? A chrome handle that juts out a couple of inches?

  6. Another good job by Chip. That side scoop is definitely the worst element of the GM design. I prefer to see it body color which makes it less noticeable.

  7. I’ll bet Foose didn’t pen “triangular” door rear view mirrors like the C8.
    That’s really the only feature I don’t like on mine. The C7’s were OK.

  8. Chip has designed some beautiful and unique cars in his lifetime. But, this design looks like nothing more than a C5–C7 model with a design bump at the rear. Thank goodness GM went with the design they did which has laid the entire sports car, super sports car industry on its ears. I just got my C8 (our 11th Corvette) and out of the 87 cars of every imaginable design and performance, I’ve never had more people stop me, talk to me, give me a thumbs up etc. etc. etc. And, after buying it I still have $150,000 dollars more in the bank than the people who just still have to have their Porsche’s or Ferrari’s or Aston Martins…….all of which I can leave in my mirrors or at least just behind the rear fender. NO THANKS, I’ll take my new C8 for which a guy just seriously offered to trade me even for his 3 or 4 year old Porsche (because he can’t have a C8 until probably 12 – 14 months away) that he says he paid $150,000 for. NO THANKS AGAIN. No one needs to be redesigning a car that has literally set automotive history in every way imaginable.

  9. I like the extended front end 6-9 inches, the extended roof line is great and the rear spoiler design is defiantly a good look. Would have really wanted to see something on the rear end design. I do not like the C7 C8 Camaro rear lights again. I am a more curves guy. I don’t like straight edgy designs. The C6 C3’s will always looked sexy!!!!

  10. Chip has the right idea here. The C8 is NOT a great design, but it is different. And the styling problem inside GM goes WAY beyond the C8 all the way up to Micheal Simcoe, VP of Design. Just look at some of his other recent work, from the Cadillac CT5 (generic) to the Chevy Bolt (ugly). Mary Barra doesn’t know it, but Simcoe will be the single biggest impediment in getting the public to buy GM’s future products. GM needs real world class design talent, but Simcoe isn’t it. Expect more of the same so long as he holds his current executive position.

  11. Sorry Chip but that just doesn’t work. Tries to look too much like an old muscle car.

  12. If this were the C8 body style, I feel that us C7 folks would be lining up to buy this machine. Chip’s design makes it a Corvette. Mid engine is a winner…

  13. Firstly, this video would have been much more effective if the viewer could have seen what Chip was doing as he did it as in over the shoulder camera position. Secondly, again more effective if my first suggestion had been accompanied with Chip’s changes accompanied with explanation as he progressed. At times he was referring to specific stylistic features that some viewers like myself do not recall. If all this is were a “see what I can do,” then ok. But it was intended to be this is what I suggest and here is why, it misses the point in my opinion. Just sayin’.

  14. To George C.
    Leave your corporate politics out of this. We’re not talking about any other GM/Chevy pieces of crap. We’re talking strictly about the C8 and as I said before…..it has set the automotive industry both design and performance on it’s ears and has 18 months of history to prove that.

  15. Ya come on Foose they get better with time it’s ALL new!! I like some of the wide body kits I have seen better then Chips design, at least for now. I looked at a black one today at the Chevy dealer, my god in person and up close how can you NOT like this car.

  16. I’m glad the current design team did no include you. In my opinion, you need to be designing back braces and girdles for the elderly. You’re ideas would be really respectable 25 years ago. Face it. Your design talents are obsolete.

  17. As the individual designer, who designed and copyrighted my STINGRAZ emblem in 2001 (which resulted in GM finally placing a Stingray emblem on a Stingray) I honestly agree with Chip. In my opinion the C8 was a missed opportunity. Yes, it looks striking going down the street, but it fell short clearly with the mundane Camaroesque rear facia, the overstated side scoop, and the blunt open nose area (biggest failure). Chips windshield and roof line are far superior in appearance, along with his redesign of the side scoop. The “only” aspect of Chips redesign I wouldn’t agree with is not having tapered the nose down. In my opinion, any leading edge of a supercar should be very sleek.This is one reason why Bill Mitchells C2 and C3 are without question “timeless designs”.And yes, adequate radiator cooling can be accomplished with a tapered nose. So Chip…..one more rendering addressing that, would be great (<:

  18. I’m a C7 owner and I’m not ready to pull the trigger on a C8. Like Chip Foose I like the performance of the C8 but I’m not totally sold on the styling. I think Chip’s design makes the C8 look more like a Corvette but he still needs to take it up to another level. I think he needs to improve the proportions of the car even more and I’d like to see how he would redesign the front and rear of the C8.

  19. Chip does some of the greatest work ever in the custom auto world from his restomods to the Foose Cope.

    On this one, sorry, don’t care for it. I’ll take an up incoming hyper model, Z06/ZR1/ZORA!

  20. I like your design Chip, as it resembles the C7 and also the Camaro due to the low roof line. Just one problem, you’ve basically moved the cockpit farther back to get your look, so now where are you going to put the engine?

  21. Chip, your design is a million times better! The C8 looks like a riceburner out of a toys R us store?

  22. I have taken the time watch the video and to read everyone’s opinion on it.
    Down here in Australia we have a saying, opinions are like arseholes, everyone has one.
    Until recently I had the pleasure of owning 11 Corvettes all at once, a ’61, a ’63 Grandsport replica, a ’65, a ’68, 2 x ’70s, a 73, an 82, an 01, an 06 and a 2011 Zo6 Carbon, and loved looking and driving everyone of them (I still have 6 left in my possession). My thoughts on the matter are this, you can’t please everyone on everything, so if you love it buy it, if you don’t then don’t. I have loved all the Corvette models even if some were less appealing than others, mainly because they are just that, a Corvette and I can’t wait for the C8 to get down here in Oz. My C8 preference will be a HTC Zo6 and regardless if it looked like Chip’s version or the current GM shape I would still buy one.

  23. Too bad he wasn’t an integral part of the redesign. The C8’s giant ass is a huge fail that makes it look as if the thing was designed by a “front” team and “rear” team. There is zero flow. Not to mention all of the unnecessary creases and folds. It’s an Origami 101 class gone horribly wrong.

  24. Well, it’s all a fantasy game for all of us in deciding what should be changed, tweaked here or there, or redesign this or that. It took a long time for me to accept the nacelles as they are. I wasn’t a fan at first, but getting it in a contrasting color breaks up the bulkiness of the rear quarters. Obviously, that goes out the window when the car’s all black, then it just makes it look a little less “fat,” naturally because it is the color black.

    Considering that I like a lot of Chip’s truly amazing work on High Boys and classic rods, Chip’s fantasy design for the C8 is, honestly, meh. And that’s just the side view of the car he drew. What about the front, overhead, and rear views? What’s his reinterpretation? This leaves me wanting.

  25. My respect for your courage but the new c8 original design is just perfect the way its, a mid engine bargain that is totally distinctive from the Italian bull and horse with a great stand and great value for the dollar.

    To me your rendering looks like the front resembles the Ford gt the middle like a McLaren and the rear like a Aston Martin with a Porsche.

    You can do better.

    The c8 is a new book not a new chapter that is catapulting the heritage to a new horizon.

  26. Finally—what a Corvette should look like, and what many of have been thinking. Notably, Chip Foose did wonders with a redesign of the goofy side scoops. Now, if he’d only do something with that weird rear view.

  27. I got my 1st Corvette on Nov 7 1961 a 1962 Fuelie; a 1968 Coupe; in 1980 another 1962 Fuelie; a 2005 Conv; a 2007 Conv; a 2009 Conv; a 2009 ZR-1; a 2010 ZR-1; a 2013 60th 427 Conv; a 2013 60th ZR-1; a 2015 Z06 / Z07 Coupe; a 2016 Z06 / Z07 Coupe; a 2019 ZR1; & I can proudly say my 2021 Z51 is @ 3300. Believe you me I think every line of the C8’s “SCREAM” Corvette loud and clear!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  28. Chip Foose’ design is “old school” design of a 20 year old design styling and not appealing at all today. Nice mod for a Camaro or Mustang but that’s it. He’s out of touch now days.

  29. Clearly the appropriateness of Chip’s ideas are a matter of opinion. I wish there were more folks who felt as he does so availability would improve, considering that strike/parts/covid /weather issues have disrupted the plant. I personally think he should have focused on the tail lights, this re-engineering calls for otherwise dramatic styling change, definitely time to deviate from the long nose.

  30. Chip I completely agree with your thought on the design of the C8 Corvette. I wanted something with a little more power. So I sold my C7 Grand Sport and bought a used C7 ZO6 with only 4000 miles on the car. The ZO6 cost me more than what I would have payed for a C8, however it still looks like a corvette and it’s in showroom condition.

  31. Nothing against the C7, but i think people who dislike the C8 cant accept change and is a little jealous of the C8 success, I’ve watched other Corvettes debuts since the C4, but ive never seen a Corvette as awarded and loved as the C8, this Corvette is the first one that has the younger generation buzzing and not calling it an old man’s car. You can look no further than You Tube. when test driven people are taking pictures, and gawking over the car upon seeing it for the first time, the type of excitement equivalent to the attention of a 300.000 dollar exotic. The C8 has given the brand new fans, who would never even care or consider of owning a Corvette. I’ve seen it in many comments. The C8 have injected much needed excitement in the Corvette that i have never seen before, and GM can’t build enough with customers eagerly awaitng on there orders.

  32. @Terry You can’t be serious. I for one think a ME is an awesome idea vis-à-vis the Corvette’s evolution. And I want nothing more than for the brand to prosper (no jealousy!). But to state that “…people who dislike the C8 cant accept change and a little jealous of the C8 success” is like those of us with a differing opinion saying “some people were so anxious for the C8 to become a ME psuedo-exotic to attract a younger demo that they are blind to how butt-ugly it turned out”.

  33. It never ceases to amaze me how so very many people in comment sections tend to mistake and/or state their obvious, blatant opinion with/as actual facts. HUGE difference, just so you know. I totally agree with the Aussie commenter – opinions are like arseholes and everyone has one! Folks also tend to forget how much hatred the C7’s design first garnered from the so-called purists when it first debuted — very much like people do with practically EVERY new generation of EVERY car, particularly when that car is an automotive icon with such a long and storied history and with such an impressive lineage. Now that being said, personally, I like the car overall BUT I agree with Chip on some of the design standpoints. This car COULD HAVE been designed to show a little more homage to the cars 65+ years of history AND been designed in a way that continues showing an evolutionary change (as Chip said, evolving in a way like the 911 has – some seem to have missed or just ignored that statement) instead of such a huge, drastic departure from where they were with the C7. It IS a nice car. It IS impressive. It just could’ve looked better, imo. It looks too much like every other super car out there, particularly McLaren. The vent on the side does look like an afterthought for most every single person who’s ever studied any kind of design, and the lines are going in so many different directions it looks as if they spent far more time on the engineering aspect and figuring out the logistical side of the car that they just kind of threw something together last minute, decided it looked OK and decided to just run with it. That’s not saying it’s ugly, that’s saying it could’ve been far better looking while still maintaining its obvious evolutionary design cues.

    And just an FYI: the Corvette has not been just the car of “gray hair or no hair drivers” for quite a while now. One guy says this while mentioning YouTube, but if one spent a little more time on there they’d see the insane amount of both males AND females under the age of 40 that have some variant of Corvette. Or just look around at those on the streets, because here in Miami/South Florida (you know…THE retirement capital of the US) I know and see WAAYYY more people under 40 driving Corvettes than I do over 40 driving them.

  34. Oh yeah, and just because YOU don’t like Chip’s C8 redesign rendering by no means whatsoever means his designs are old, outdated or antiquated. It’s mind numbing just how crass, brazen and downright hateful/horrible some folks are all while comfortably hiding safely in anonymity behind their screens.

  35. Sorry Cam,

    Terry hit it right on the head. Exclusively an old man’s car? No. Primarily an old man’s car? Yes.

    Let the numbers speak for themselves. This is the most popular Corvette, period. I have never been a Vette man because I saw it as an old man’s car. Mid life crisis mobile.

    But this one I like.

    Those that prefer the old style… you can just continue to drive them until they become vintage. Your choice.

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