Chevy drove the next-generation Corvette through New York City - and GM CEO Mary Barra was along for the ride
- Chevy has finally confirmed a reveal date for the long-rumored eighth-generation Corvette.
- The C8 Vette will have a mid-engine design, ending six decades of front-engines only.
- Chevy took the new Corvette for a drive through Manhattan, with GM CEO Mary Barra in the passenger seat.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
The long-rumored eighth-generation Corvette has finally been confirmed. And it won't have its likely twin-turbocharged V8 engine up front - the new Vette will be a mid-engine machine.
The car has been spotted testing around the world, but Chevy hasn't said anything about when it would be revealed. We found on Tuesday, when General Motors CEO Mary Barra was driven to a Stephen Siller Foundation event in the camouflaged Vette (the foundation, named for a New York firefighter who died in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, administers various charitable causes).
Chevy said that the C8 Corvette would be revealed on July 18. The carmaker provided no additional details, but word is that the six-decade-old nameplate will get a new engine that cranks out upwards of 800 horsepower, beating out the current king of the hill, the 755-pony Corvette ZR1. A possible gas-electric drivetrain could take that to 1,000 hp.
Read more: We drove the Lamborghini Urus to see if it holds up as a family SUV
The seventh-generation Vette has been around since 2014; the Stingray was Business Insiders first-ever Car of the Year. The platform has given us the Grand Sport and the Z06, and the C7.R competition version has carried Corvette Racing to victory at numerous sports-car events worldwide, including the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans.
It's expected that Chevy will sell the front-engine Vettes alongside the new mid-engine car, at least for a while.
It remains to be seen whether the C8.R will take on the mid-engined Ferrari 488 and Ford GT in sports-car races in 2020, but that's certainly something that fans should be looking forward to (the Ford GT program is ending this year, and the participation of Ferrari is contingent on independent teams).
Obviously, one of these days we're going to see some photos of the new Vette in which the car isn't sporting black-and-white camo. But now we know that the long Corvette hood could soon be a thing of the past.