[PODCAST] Bob Lutz Says C7 Corvette Was Developed with just $270 Million and a Mid-Engined Cadillac was also Planned

By
Mitch Talley
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Photo Credit: Chevrolet


General Motors would have unveiled a mid-engine Corvette about a decade sooner if economic conditions had been better for the company.

So says former vice chairman Bob Lutz in a fascinating new interview with Henry Payne of The Detroit News. He’s also joined by Corvette Executive Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter and Manny Katakis of Muscle Cars & Trucks in an hour-long chat about the past, present, and future of America’s Sports Car.

Lutz says the mid-engine Corvette could have arrived by 2011 or 2012, having been approved by GM brass as far back as 2007.

The delay “had to do with running out of money because at the time there was going to be a mid-engine Corvette, which was styled completely differently from the C8,” Lutz revealed. “It was much smoother, less angular, and looked a lot more like, let’s say, a McLaren or a mid-engine Ferrari.”

At that time, Cadillac was also going to get a mid-engine version of its own, according to Lutz, using a supercharged Northstar engine but “with a lot of stylistic differences.”

“Cadillac was gonna be a lot more gentlemanly, a little more refined,” Lutz said. “The Corvette was gonna be a little more noisy, a little more harsher to drive.”


At the time, GM planned to spend $900 million on the new mid-engine architecture, but the financial problems that cropped up with bankruptcy imminent caused “a lot of programs to be stricken,” Lutz said, and the mid-engine Corvette was one of them.

“The Corvette capital investment budget was basically reduced to zero,” Lutz said, “and we were just gonna produce the C6 for quite a while longer. Then in the fullness of time, when we got re-funded, we were able to allocate about $270 million if memory serves and [do] the C7, which is based on the C6 but not quite because it did have a two-inch longer wheelbase for better balance, which is why the C7 was a similar but much more capable car than the C6.”

Still, the front-engine C7 was only “a placeholder” for a few years until GM could unveil the mid-engine C8, Lutz said. “A holding pattern, if you will.”

If not for the financial problems, the mid-engine Corvette would have been here much sooner, “but unfortunately [it was] deferred,” Lutz said. “I don’t think the enthusiasts minded that much because the front-engine Corvette had a great following and everybody agrees the C7 was a very attractive, very capable car.”

For more insider details, check out Henry Payne’s interview with other Corvette experts like Juechter and Katakis.


Source:
TheDetroitNews.com

Related:
Carbuzz Offers the Latest on the Rumored Corvette SUV
Bob Lutz Thinks the Corvette Brand Needs a Performance SUV
Bob Lutz: C7 Corvette is a “Much Bolder and More Dramatic Design”

 



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6 COMMENTS

  1. C7 may be remembered as the last real Corvette. It also is probably the last American sports car for the average Joe.

  2. Yes and yes!. As for Mr. Lutz, anything he has to say, I’m listening. By far, one of the greatest automobile minds of the late 20th century and early 21st. In my opinion, had not Iacoca not blocked Lutz from succeeding him as head of Chrysler, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, would still be a thriving AMERICAN car company instead of some international conglomerate.

  3. Bob Lutz is the Hillary Clinton of the automobile world. He made terrible decisions, enriched himself, took credit for other success, got fired (repeatedly) and then burned the building down on his way out the door. He’s responsible for the K car, the near death of Chrysler, the darkest days at GM that resulted in their bankruptcy and he killed Pontiac and blamed the government. Anybody who knew the guy called him Bob Putz. He is Peters Principle personified. Why do people like this clown???

  4. I guess I don’t follow as close as I should, I’ve probably had 20 Corvettes, last 2 we’re 16 & 19 Z06 convertibles, both really impressed me, BUT that 2023 3LT convertible, Z51, front lift(now I can get in my driveway) is very impressive, I’m on the list @ MacMulkin for a Z06- I CAN’T WAIT!!!

  5. History be damned. Any car manufactured anywhere that can establish a waiting list for sales is doing what is required in a capitalist meritocracy. Kudos to Corvette!

  6. After buying new C5 and C6s, I refused to buy the C7 because GM refused to fully fund the C7 program. The C7 should have been mid engine, and GM should have found a way to make it happen. I’m now dying to see the Ferrari/McLaren style mid engine Corvette design, because the C8 looks like crap in comparison to the Ferrari 488 , which is the best looking car ever.

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