Yesterday, Chevrolet finally acknowledged its worst-kept secret: it has a mid-engine Corvette coming. That, dear readers, means the current C7 Corvette’s days are numbered.
In a Thursday announcement, General Motors said the final C7 Corvette will be produced this summer and the car will head to a Barrett-Jackson auction for a charitable cause. GM CEO Mary Barra said during an annual Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation Footsteps to the Future gala that the final C7 Corvette will benefit the charity GM has supported for years.
The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation builds mortgage-free homes for injured U.S. military service members. It also works to help pay off mortgages for families of first responders who were killed in the line of duty. The homes also feature accessibility for service members who may return from duty as disabled.
GM did not provide an official end date for C7 Corvette production, but the final sports car—a black 2019 Corvette Z06 model—will be auctioned off on June 28 at Barrett-Jackson’s Northeast event. When the car does exit production, it will more than likely put a cap on the Corvette’s long-running history as a front-engine, rear-wheel drive sports car since the model first showed up in the 1950s.
The next-generation C8 Corvette will move to a mid-engine layout, a revolutionary change that Chevrolet and Corvette engineers have worked on for decades. Most recently, the C7 Corvette itself was meant to make the switch, but the Great Recession and GM’s bankruptcy restructuring put a pin in those plans. The mid-engine layout will help the Corvette realize even higher performance standards and likely usher in an era of electrification for the sports car.
Rumors persist that, down the road, we’ll see a Corvette hybrid with up to 1,000 horsepower and all-wheel drive, thanks to an electric motor and internal-combustion engine working alongside one another.
The mid-engine C8 Corvette will debut on July 18 this year.
Subscribe to GM Authority for more Chevrolet Corvette news, Chevrolet news, and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
Comments
NOOOOOOOOO!!
Is GM really not going to give buyers any sort of variety? Lets see, one could have a 47k front engine piece of American history, OR an 80k mid-engine super, ultra performance car. Id take the former. Whether the mid engine performs better or not, I want a front engine model.
I guess after making so few interior color options *cough* black only *cough*, or a CT6 with 6 exterior color options, what can we expect.
If you want a car that doesn’t strive to be the fastest sports car but handles well and has to seats. The Mazda MX5 might be better for you.
The end of one era is the beginning of a new era that will let us look back to see how far we have come.
The price change is not going to be as much as some think.
If anyone wants a front engine C model there are tons of them with very low miles out there at very cheap prices. It has been the car everyone buys, wipes with a diaper and puts away. The supply for low mile models is great and the demand is low so you can get a good car for under $20K.
We are lucky that the Vette has worked for as long as it has as most sports cars with two seats live very short lives. Be happy with what we have or it could be in the same place as a XR7, MG, Triumph, Austin, 280 ZX, MR2, Fiero, XKE, ETC.
What about the pathetic Boomers – what lays in store for them? Their already struggling cardiovascular systems weakened by years of fast food is going to just completely implode from this stress. Will JC Penny’s also be auctioning off their supply of white sneakers and jean shorts? Where will they take their entitlements from working their entire life in a factory now??? When they drive their “very rare” 1 of 35,000 C5’s to a Cars and Coffee once every third month, how hard is it going to be for them to ignore the 30-something-year-old with a college degree who could afford more than just the base model C8, and how loudly/obviously are they going to scoff that “that kid doesn’t deserve that car – he didn’t work for it”.
Yea. We will see how many 30 somethings with a college degree actually buy a C8 Corvette. My bet says that the car will continue to be sold to basically the same people it does now. The people you describe are not in the market for a $60,000+ toy. They are too busy buying a house, raising a family and trying to pay off crazy high student loans. And the younger generations are not as car crazy like the baby boomers are. The Corvette does and always will sell to a certain clientele and this design change will not change that. Sure, you may get a few younger buyers at first, but that also happened with the C7 too.
The current clientele should be taken out behind the barn with the C7 – they are primarily the reason I don’t like being associated with the Corvette band.
Fock off @$$hole. You don’t even deserve to be taken to the wood shed or behind the barn. Your just a jealous little boy as you’ll never be able to afford one Hairy Boyback, lol……..
It’s pretty sad when comments require crude profanity
The biggest transfer of wealth in history is going straight to the millenials. So yes, they will have plenty of cash to buy fancy sports cars if they wish.
If the boomers want front engines, there’s a 200 day+ supply out there to scoop up.
Probably living in your Boomer parents basement waiting for your inheritance.
Where did all your hate come from. Didn’t your mommy love you
Even mothers have their limit. Lol Most likely tried to abandon him or give him up for adoption.
A lotta people will hate me for saying this, but this seems like the perfect opportunity for GM to cut ties between Chevy and the Corvette. Its actually time for this to go its separate way and be sold outta of a Corvette only store or a Cadillac store IF Cadillac is not getting its own version. Heck, even if it is. As a Corvette owner since the 1990s (’79 L82, ’95, ’00 Z51, ’08 Z51, ’14 Z51, ’16 Z06) and a Cadillac owner since ’05 (’05 STS4.6L, ’09 CTS-V, ’12 CTS-V Coupe, ’16 CTS-V) I can honestly say that one gets no where near the treatment at a Chevy dealership as U get from a Caddy or BMW, for that matter, one. Corvette is a luxury brand. Its as simple as that. $60-130K says it all. In fact, at this point it is actually more expense than any Cadillac on the top end. Luxury car owners need more.
That being said.. I think and wish the C7 continued production. To actually help populate a Corvette Brand. It already is a sub-brand and should get full fledged status. We currently have Stingray, Grand Sport, Z06, and ZR1. A mid-engined and CUV would complete the brand and make it full on a Porsche competitor as Zora saw it. Furthermore the Camaro has all the chops to take the Vette’s place in the Chevy line-up.
Hate at will
Anyone consider the fact that the younger buyers with money pass over the Vette because it was not the kind of car they wanted. Now build them a car that is better than the R8 they were looking at and they will buy it.
As for the Corvette Brand don’t hold your breath. Chevy has over seen and invested in the Vette so much and for so long they will not give it up with out a fight.
Might consider this. GM made Hummer a brand vs a model at GMC. Imagine if they had given it to GMC and how they would have had more flexibility to make changes that could have saved the line and even spread it out over the rest of the line.
If you isolate the Vette you lose the powerful backing and support of Chevy so you will run the risk it could be more easily killed.
People underestimate the power of Chevy. They are the foundation GM is built on so what Chevy wants generally Chevy gets.
Might note the Fiero dies due to the people at Chevy. They saw the more powerful DOHC V6 and the one V8 Fiero that was built and feared that they would cut into their sales. As John Shinella of GM said Chevy sells more cars so Chevy gets more say.
Who cares about the R8 crowd. The total sales of the Audi R8 during its ENTIRE production run so far (2007-2018) doesn’t even equal 6 month of Corvette sales. I will never understand why people want to raise the price and lower the sales of the Corvette. I am not against GM producing this car, but it should be a different model of the Corvette. Call it the Corvette Zora and keep the Stingray a front engine car. There is plenty of room for both. Make 1500-2000 Zoras a year and still sell a Stingray. That way you CAN command top dollar for it and sell every one made. The R8 had only 1 year it sold over 1,000 units (2011). I am afraid that the sales of the Corvette will shrink so much that it will not justify keeping a plant that is exclusively dedicated to it open. And we see what GM will do to cut costs. So we may end up losing America’s great sports car and losing a lot of American jobs too.
That’s why they have the Camaro, Jerry. And I care about the R8 crowd… and the NSX crowd, and the McLaren crowd, and the i8 crowd. If more people couldn’t afford the Corvette, it would make those who can feel all that much more special.
We must care about these folks as they are all building cars under $200K that GM can take sales from at $100K less and still deliver better performance.
The Strength and size of GM has its advantaged in lowering cost.
No Harry. The Camaro is for competing against the Mustang and Challenger. So your reasoning is that if fewer people buy Corvettes, then they feel special? That is the most stupid business plan that I have ever heard. Let’s devote a whole factory, workforce and millions of dollars to make you feel special. You actually do need sales volume to keep the Corvette a viable business plan. Selling less than 1,000 cars a year is no business plan. Take a look at the sales figures for the cars you say you care about. Not one of them would support a business plan for a stand alone factory. Even if you added all their sales together for the last 12 years, it still wouldn’t support a factory. As I said before, I am not against GM building this car, it’s just that you cannot support a factory on the paltry sales of the cars you mention. Why quit building 20,000 cars a year to chase sales of less than 1,000 a year, just so some insecure millennial can feel special. If anyone needs taken out behind the barn and some sense knocked into them, it’s them.
Jerry the key to the future is not only create new Corvette buyers from sedans but also from other sports cars of all prices.
Even the Ferrari guys may not replace their cars with a Corvette but they may add a Corvette to their stable as they generally own a number of vehicles.
The Corvette will be in several trims of several performance levels at several price ranges. There will be something for everyone.
It is hard to sell a limited production 2 seat car at high price and even more difficult to sell a lower priced 2 seat sports car at a lower price in higher volume. GM need to appeal to a wider group than they have moving forward. As development cost continue to rise they need a larger base just to justify more changes and even a C9.
Contrary to popular belief the Vette winning a business case is not always a sure thing. The C6 was canceled and if not for Joe Spielman in 1992.
Also in 2008 the car was on the chopping block. But the work of some others and Tadge Juechter saved the C7. They were working on the mid engine and had to compromise to go front engine again for one more series.
Read the history as too many really don’t know anywhere near the whole story.
https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a21052428/how-the-chevrolet-corvette-was-saved-from-extinction-twice-feature/
Scott, I agree with you about the key to the future is to attract buyers from all sports cars, no matter the brand. Some say to chase the R8, NSX, I8 and McLaren with the C8 Corvette. I say those sales are not as important to the Corvettes future as some think. The sales of these cars is awful. From 2007-2018 Audi sold a total of 9063 R8’s, 927 last year. Acura has sold 1020 NSX’s from 2016-2018, 170 last year. BMW sold 5674 I8’s from 2014-2018, 772 last year. McLaren is the big seller with 3181 sales from 2016-2018, 1195 last year. If you add up all of their sales TOTAL for the last 12 years, it only adds up to 18,938. That equals about 1 year of Corvette sales. In fact, while those exotics were selling 18,938 units over the past 12 years, the Corvette was racking up sales of 273,834. Those cars very rarely, if ever, crack 1,000 sales a year. You need to make a business case to keep the Corvette around, and those sales figures just don’t support that. As I have said, I am in favor of GM building this car, it’s just that the sales figures of those cars cannot support a stand alone factory. We all see that GM will not hesitate to close factories and cut models to save money. What will happen when sales of the C8 drop to 5,000 or so a year because of higher price and alienating your existing customer base? We all see how GM prices new product. The new Blazer, XT6 and Silverado are just a few examples. That is why I believe the C8 should have been a special model, not a complete replacement for the C7.
For the record Jerry – I agree with everything you just said here.
One has to wonder whether this is a mistake as Chevrolet could have built both the front engine car with the the mid-engine car; the C7 would be the Corvette with the C8 being the Zora as Ferrari builds both front and mid-engine sports cars why can’t Chevy.
I think it is a big mistake. Think about it, next to Suburban, Corvette is the oldest surviving nameplate of any traditional Big Three vehicle. Corvette was the quintessential American sports car- front engine, long hood, short deck. I think this will be a mistake much like when Cadillac tried going head to head with the Europeans while abandoning its traditional customer base. Pricing will be key, but I think that this will be on the same level as when Coca-Cola changed its original formula in 1985.
Sad.
The C7 is just about perfect.
Now they’ll have this ungainly looking, fat-in-the-ass mid engined car.
Blech.
m,
Then go buy one or STFU
The sad thing is it’s clearly not perfect. One point towards that is there was no spool-valve damper version.
I can’t help but suspect C7 was held back by the idea there had to be an evolution toward the mid-rear design. (not a comment on the change itself)
It may be a nice car without the camouflage, but the profile looks like a blob. The great American sports car is dead. This decision will be right up there with changing the formula of Coke.
Dropping the C7 and replacing it with the C8 is a debatable mistake. The C8 will be a 6-figure priced vehicle and that spells the end of the Corvette, which I think GM already knows and has planned the C8 as the exit car.
Correction ‘debatable decision’
Let’s face it, the Camaro has replaced the C7/front engine Corvette.
Once the price of the C8 is known, the back inventory of the C7 will evaporate over night.
I think it may not be feasible to build the C7 & C8 ( they are very different builds) on the same line, and probably not enough room in Bowling Green to assemble both.
I personally would like to see both.
It will be funny to see the pessimistic folks with no grasp when things just keep on moving along as they have or even better.
This new car is going to usher in a whole new era just as the 63 did.
Pessimistic versus Realistic.
“no grasp”… col! Really…..
My first Vette was a 63′ Sting Ray 53′ years ago.
By the way Scott, I hope your right as I’m a huge fan of the Vette and can still remember the first one I saw in 1955. It had already been wrecked and the owner drove for years with that damage. Where we lived there was no Chevy dealer and fiberglass repair was a new skill and relatively unknown.
“Usher in a whole new era” _ True. A new mechanical layout era, yes…for a Corvette. But, is it a new visually exciting new era, hardly.
I can remember the first time I saw the new Sting Ray, it stunned me, and it was only a black & white side profile picture in Mechanics Illustrated. I swore I would have one by the time I turned twenty one, and I did.
The new C8 doesn’t affect me that way. There are newer cars out there that do. I would be more interested in the C8 if it were an AWD EV like the I8, or even a hybrid, which it might be in its future. But, the visual emotional hit I got from the new XKE and then the Sting Ray just isn’t there with the C8. It just seems clunky, a boy racer video game like rendering.
There are some truly intriguing, exotic new mid-engine designs out there these days. The C8 doesn’t approach their level visual interest or excitement.
I’m I glad GM is finally building a mid-engine, yes, but not at the cost of losing the traditional Corvette.
While Ferrari’s top of the line car is the 812 Superfast which IS FRONT engined not to mention the entry level Portofino followed by the 488GTB , F8 Tributo and then a GTC4 Lusso. 5 models!!! So this makes no sense and shows GM’s shortsightedness, again. There’s room for both and GM is too stupid to realize it when examples exist. Fools.
Yet the best performing car Ferrari makes as well most all companies are mid engine.
Ferrari makes the Portofino for the Paris Hiltons of the world to the true enthusiast. When Ferrari was alive and in control we got cars like the 288, 308 and F40.
Chevy and GM is trying to leave the gold chain trailer park C4 crowd behind and try to reacquire the true sports car enthusiast. That is why they have a road race track at Bowling Green.
More condescending BS from you @$$hole. I don’t live in a trailer park and I own a C4. My 80 year old father has the C4 I sold him with extremely low miles in 1986 and it is in mint condition which he still gets compliments on at car shows. He can buy and sell pretentious @$$holes like you all day long, douche. No gold chains and trailer parks here, just “vette enthusiasts of all model years. Exactly what ‘Vette do YOU own?? Oh, that’s right, YOU don’t. Please, tell us all what you drive and do you even have the balls to put up an avatar of it? No. Can YOU even afford a ‘Vette or Portofino? Nahhh you couldn’t even buy Paris Hilton’s used tampons, never mind a $200k Ferrari not to mention a 488GTB.
The C8 will be great and as a lifetime ‘Vette owner and enthusiast I look forward to it kicking the imports ass’s. Funny thing is, douches like you have a lot to say yet do not own nor will ever likely own multiple ‘Vettes let alone a C8. Just keep talkin’ your BS as that is all it is.
The trailer park in the city over is filled with people with beaten-up C4s who think they’re king sh!t.
If C4s were such good car, why are even barely used ones worth next to nothing? I too associate C4’s with gold chains and old farts with toupets and pork chop sideburns. Lol
Another stereotyping @$$hole. Nothing more, douchebag.
Pretty quick on the name calling. Lol
It must be taxing for you to constantly fight the stereotypes of a slimey, slippery, fast talking blue collar poser.
Speaking of douchebags:
“He often talks about how cool, successful, and popular he is, yet never catches on to the fact that he comes across as a total loser. Nevertheless, he firmly believes that he is the smartest, most desirable, and most charming person in the room… and will try to bad-rep anyone who would threaten to expose this facade.?”
That describes quite well your response to scott3 above.
You are what you are regardless of name calling and if the name fits you then so be it. Just another condescending douche. And what do you drive??? Nah, don’t bother as I’m sure it’s some base level econobox to which you can’t even post an avatar either and just jealous of ANYONE who drives a ‘Vette, regardless of year/ model.
The C4 is a true sports car. When introduced, it was probably one of the 5 fastest and best handling production cars in the world, bar none. The C4 is really the car that started the rebirth of the Corvette. It replaced a 15 year run of the C3 that was left to wither on the vine with minimal improvements. If you look at the C4 evolution, it was made better and better almost every model year. The ZR1 and Grand Sports come to mind. Engines got more powerful. So to say that the C4 was a gold chain trailer park car was insulting and shows your ignorance of the C4’s history. I guess the C8 will be for the snobbish, rich crowd who have no idea of the Corvette’s history then,, by your reasoning, since you seem to be wanting to turn your back on existing customers and draw in all new customers. Would you tell a Porsche 911 owner they are driving nothing but a glorified VW Beetle? I bet not. Because a 911 has a long history of being a iconic sports car. No matter the year. It’s the same with the Corvette. Its an iconic AMERICAN sports car. No matter the year.
Boy! Scott. Your inherent biases on display there.
“Gold chain” reminds me of Magnum of Magnum P.I. And he drove a 308 GTS/GTSi/GTSi-Quatttrovavole
I spend a fair amount of time in Miami, Ft Lauderdale, and Vegas. The ‘Gold Chain’ crowd drive exotics.
I run with a group of C4 aficionados who campaign their cars at Thunder Hill and PIR. Not a gold chain in the bunch. Smart guys and gals with mostly six figure incomes who have nearly as much treasure in their C4’s as the price of a new Grand Sport. LS3 crate engines, Baier brakes, etc. And… not a snob in the bunch.
C4’s are like Miata’s, plentyful, reasonably priced, easy to work on and upgrade, and fun….. a lot of fun.
Where did all your hate come from. Didn’t your mommy love you