Did you know that 100 pecent of the people currently in GMAuthority‘s employ reside within the United States?
It’s true, and while as journalists we recognize the varied achievements of automakers from the world over, as Americans, we take particular pride in the feats of our own domestic automotive manufacturers. So, we were especially delighted when our spy photographer camped out at Germany’s world-famous Nürburgring Nordschleife produced a few images of the forthcoming mid-engine Corvette (C8) rocking the old red-white-and-blue on its derrière, if you’ll pardon our French.
As shown in these photos, the mid-engine Corvette C8 prototype proudly wore a “U.S.A.” bumper sticker with an American flag pattern as it drove around the distinguished European road course, representing its home country while on the old continent. There is perhaps something a bit funny about it wearing any sort of identifying feature while it’s all covered up in obfuscating camouflage, but we’re too darn proud to laugh.
Making us all the more proud as GM fans is that the forthcoming mid-engine Corvette is nearly ready to join a small, elite class of rear-mid-engine American production cars. While it’s a layout that’s long been embraced by several boutique European carmakers, America’s volume automakers have never been quite as keen to install the powerplant just ahead of the rear axle, although the Pontiac Fiero and Ford GT (and earlier GT40) are notable exceptions. The Chevrolet Corvair and DeLorean DMC-12 utilized a rear-engine layout, where most of the engine sat behind the rear axle, while AMC’s AMX/3 never quite made it to production.
Why move to a rear-mid-engine layout? It’s all about the distribution of weight between the axles. Putting mass at the rear of the vehicle helps keep the driven wheels glued for maximum acceleration, and under braking, much of the weight shifts forward anyway, helping the front tires slow the car and exercise strong cornering grip. Now, today’s Chevrolet Corvette – the C7 – already has a slightly rear-biased weight distribution, thanks to a front-mid-engine layout and a rear-mounted transaxle, but even more bias is never a bad thing.
The new layout should help the forthcoming mid-engine Corvette / Corvette C8 compete with the very best of them. It’s a good time to be an American.
Comments
LOVE ANTHING CORVETE.
HAVE OWNED 1958, THEN 1963.
LATER 1981 AND 1985.
MUCH LATER, 1972 IN RETIREMENT. PRODED BY SON AS A CAR FOR “POP”.
THEN TWO 1954’S FOR INVESTMENT AND SON’S PROJECT CARS.
PURCHASED IN KENTUCKY AND TRUCKED TO CALIF.
PROUD TO HAVE A USA CAR REPRESENT US IN THE LAND OF UNBELIVERS THAT ANYTHING AMERICAN CANNOT BEST ANY OF THEIR BEST.
Love it!
Great to see a mid-engine, American engineered and soon-to-be made car. The USA sticker is subtle poke at the Euro’s propensity to place those black and white nation stickers with country abbreviations on their cars. Love that GM put a good ol’ stars and stripes variant on it.
Cant wait until this thing is officially unveiled. Which will be sooner than people think.
Actually the move to mid engine is not moving mass to. The back. It is all about putting mass to the middle of the car and also listing the center of gravity.
The key to handling is not just 50/50 balance only it is about getting the weight in the center as much as possible.
The other thing is moving the engine permits lowering the cowl and that gives the ability to lower the seating and driver.
The present C7 has a great 50/50 balance and even moves the engine back toward the center. But there is still too much weight at the ends of the car that creates unwanted polar movement from the weight on the ends.
Think of it as a barbell. If the weight is moved in near the center of the bar it is easy to control with one hand. The more it is moved out it can become difficult to control and keep in line.
You make a good point; moment of inertia is a key consideration with the move from FR to RMR. Nevertheless, shoving the center of gravity further rearward than on the C7 is, we think, a good thing. I remember reading that Porsche was very particular about shooting for a 43:57 weight distribution in the 918 as they’d determined that to be about the optimal balance for the car.
Well, this USA oval might be just required for driving on public roads in Germany (which those Corvettes do, as the photos prove) and when the cars carry US licence plates instead of German ones. If it were a German licence plate with the “GG” code for the Groß Gerau county where Rüsselsheim is located, this would be a proof that Opel is responsible the testing (or at least providing some administrative work for it).
The image above was taken on a public road, as the sign in front of that red cabin suggests, and the blue flag with the “Willkommen” (welcome in German) at the right.
Unfortunately the licence plates are blurred so that I can’t see it.
Could the GMauthority people reveal this, or at least reveal the primary source of the photos?
Anti-American “observer” trying to find excuses for GM showing their pride.
No, sorry, there is NO rule requiring country stickers on cars just because they are from another country. A stupid statement with no basis whatsoever. For the EU that so prides itself on being the “EU”, why the heck would they want countries to display their nation pride?
Great to see the American flag on the USA sticker. A subtle but effective jab that GM is coming with something big to challenge the expensive Euro cars.
You should read the comment more attentively.
The crux of the matter is whether there is an EU law that requires cars with a non-EU license plate to have an identifier of which country the vehicle is registered in.
These mid-engine Corvette prototypes are wearing U.S. license plates… so Observer7 might actually be on to something.
Being from the EU, I can confirm non-EU license plates require an oval sticker showing the country of origin of the license plate. In addition, there’s a limit of 3 months on driving in the EU with a non-EU license plate. Before the harmonization of the EU license plates, every single European country also required an oval sticker with the country of origin when travelling outside that country (e.g. an Italian going to France required an oval “I” (from Italy) sticker.
So hence the reason why USA is mentioned on that sticker – it is a legal obligation here.
However, the law states that the oval sticker should be white with black letters; the fact that the US flag is shown on the background, is therefore a patriotic hint ;). So all people reacting above are kind of right ;).
These oval country identifcation signs date back to an international conference in Paris in the year 1909, when the automobile was still a new phenomenon, and the governments felt the need that they could trace the owner of an automobile by a licence plate, and then to make that traceable beyond national borders.
People living in the USA, spanning a whole continent from coast to coast, rarely encounter this transborder necessity. But those Corvettes testing on the Nürburgring are no longer in Kansas…
Is this a recent law? In the past we have seen GM cars with Michigan MFG plates and no USA sticker before.
We have seen the cars here and in Europe with the same plates sans sticker.
Here is an example of why I ask. The ZR1 was a recent test.
http://www.corvetteblogger.com/2018/04/16/bridge-gantry-reports-unofficial-712-lap-time-2019-corvette-zr1-nurburgring/
The camo ZR was the same as well the ZL1 Camaros. None sported the USA sticker and all had Michigan mfg plates.
The Corvette team has often used Easter eggs on prototypes. Remember the mid engine Malibu mule with Ferrari tail lamps and the V8 in the back seat with mfg Michigan plates.
1st: this country identification plate originated from the 1909 international conference on automobile traffic in Paris, the French capital, when automobiles were still a complete novelty, and licence plates, too. Originally those were certainly not self-adhesive stickers, but solid plates which were screwed somehow to the car’s back.
2nd: The image at the corvetteblogger site shows a car running on the Nürburgring Nordschleife (Northern loop) which is a private road. Those mid-engined Corvettes traveled on public roads outside of the Ring, so they needed the country identification plate in addition to their national licence plate.
Let’s see if this comment appears…
Mike has made good acurate points on no boarder crossings with most GM cars.
The C8 must be doing more road testing in other countries in a Europe.
Most GZm cars are flown in tested at the track then flown home never leaving Germany. It makes sense.
The issue is not crossing a border between Germany and another EU country. The cars already crossed a border when they arrived in Europe from the USA. BTW, the countries neighbouring to Germany are all part of the Schengen area, where there are — in principle — no border checks.
The issue is driving on public roads in the first place. The Nürburgring race track is not a public road.
We can’t know if those Corvettes were transported on a truck from the airport (or sea port), and which one to the Nürburgring, or driving themselves.
I am also quite sure that there must have been more than one driver per car, and a whole team of engineers and other specialists to service and monitor and evaluate the test drives.
And it might well be that nobody of them were aware of the need to have this country identification plate, and got told by a bystander about it, and bought such a sticker on location. At the Nürburgring there must be some shops selling such stuff. Every day, cars are making their rounds there, and people come as tourists.
Hi Scott3,
This has been an international requirement in many countries after the U.N.’s Geneva Convention on Road Traffic (1949) and the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic (1968).
The Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, Article 37, says:
1) Every motor vehicle in international traffic shall display at the rear, in addition to its registration number, the distinguishing sign of the State in which it is registered.
2) This sign may either be placed separately from the registration plate or may be incorporated into the registration plate.
3) When the distinguishing sign is incorporated into the registration plate, it must also appear on the front registration plate of the vehicle if such is obligatory.
Quoting from the “EU Council Regulation No 2411/98” of 3 November 1998 on the recognition in intra-EU traffic of the distinguishing sign of the Member State in which motor vehicles and their trailers are registered: “Member States requiring vehicles registered in another Member State to display a distinguishing registration sign when they are being driven on their territory shall recognize the distinguishing sign of the Member State of registration displayed on the extreme left of the registration plate in accordance with the Annex to this Regulation as being equivalent to any other distinguishing sign that they recognize for the purpose of identifying the State in which the vehicle is registered.”
In other words: with the new European license plates, the country code is shown at the left of the plate (within the blue EU-flag) and no oval sticker is needed any more.
Since only two countries border the United States and the vast majority of Americans, Canadians and Mexicans hire a car instead of bringing their own when they go abroad, these stickers were never a necessity in North-America. In fact, the oval-shaped country stickers have never been subject to any kind of regulation by the US Government.
As to why an oval sticker would not have been shown on previous spy pictures:
a) It can be that the car was actually flown in into one EU country (e.g. Germany) and then the border control paperwork would be sufficient if carried in the car. The sticker would only be needed when crossing the border.
b) With intra-EU borders having disappeared, there’s almost no control any more on these stickers. So even if it’s missing, it’s no big deal, provided the paperwork is available.
The fact that this Corvette carries the sticker, could mean the car will be driven in multiple EU countries, or even outside the EU (Switzerland comes to mind, and there the sticker is a must – remember GM’s Corvette & Cadillac HQ for Europe is located in Switzerland).
In any case, as the US flag is shown on the sticker, I guess the patriotic aspect is certainly present ;).
Thanks your A and B covers my real question.
It makes sense on the boarder crossing. GM often just fly the cars in but never leave Germany. That matches up with what you state.
Plus one.
Note we do see the international emblems here but mostly on posers who own BMW’s that have never left the country.
Then most Corvette owners here run one plate on the rear when many states require two.
No, he’s 100% right.
If you were observant in just the slightest, you’d notice that EU plates have 2 letter country identifies on their plates. When that can’t be arranged, a temp sticker is applied to the car.
“Vehicles with EU number plates do not need to display the white oval international vehicle registration code while within the European Economic Area (EEA), or in countries signatory to the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic.”
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Europe
Also you’ll want to google the ‘International vehicle registration code’ while you’re at it.
Holy frig you’re trying too hard to make something out of nothing.
The country code on the actual licence plate according to EU rules does not always have 2 letters. They are the same letters which have been agreed at this Paris conference in 1909: just “D” for Germanay (Deutschland), “F” for France, “B” for Belgium, “L” for Luxemburg “N” for Norway, “NL” for Netherlands, “GB” for Great Britain. Today there are also 3-letter codes, e.g. FIN for Finland, which was not an independent country in 1909.
See https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:EU_blue_band_on_license_plates
I thought it would have been better if the EU had agreed upon using the 2-letter ISO-country-code, e.g. “DE” for Germany, “FR” for France, “LU” for Luxemburg etc.
I also believe that a car registered in a EU country would need this oval country sign when traveling outside of the EU, e.g. in Russa, Morocco, or Turkey. In Europe we are in this respect now in a similar situation than in the USA, i.e. one rarely crosses the EU borders. But on the other hand, neighboring countries have adopted an analog scheme for putting the country information on the actual licence plate.
See https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Non-EU-sections_on_license_plates
Another thing about the sticker could be connected to the Made In America program Corvette Racing is involved in.
Jake this year is a Red, White and Blue. They also have made in America shirts, hats and stickers.
No, this is the standard oval international vehicle registration code. An advertisement would probably not use the horizontal oval form. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_vehicle_registration_code
Looking at the dimensions of the blurred area, this is the form of US licence plate. A German licence plate would be wider
Which also shows that this Corvette is being tested not using the services of the Opel International Technical Development Center, but directly by US people.
Stop making excuses for your anti-American, whiny inferiority complex.
There is NO registration standard for GM to put an American flag on the car. Like Scott3 said, they put it on the car to show American pride in manufacturing and designing, which obviously bothers a few of the anti-American juveniles on here. Which is a good thing because these sorts of idiots need to be put in their place.
There is absolutely NO requirement that they have a country sticker when tested by “U.S. people”! Get over your psychological issues and focus on facts…Remember, the EU is all about “open borders” and no visas, so why would they be so obsessed with identifying each country as a nation state? None for a FLAG since EU country stickers are general black and white.
Julius, you are wrong on the facts and on the law.
The licence plate is on the car by law, so that the owner can be traced in case of a problem with a car like and accident caused by it.
Licence numbers are unique only within the country which issued the licence plate. So, when the car drives on public roads outside the country where it is registered, it needs an indicator showing which country had issued this licence plate. This has nothing to do with country the driver is actually a citizen of.
The need of this was felt at the beginning of the 20th century, when the automobile emerged, and in 1909, an international conference in Paris agreed on the requirement to add a country identifier when the car drives outside its “home” country. They agreed on this oval shape with the main axis of the oval being horizontal, and on abbreviations for the various countries then in existence.
Those living in the USA will rarely see such international identifiers, since the country is so vast that most people rarely cross a border into another country. But these Corvettes are no longer in Kansas…
In the USA
There is absolutely NO requirement that they have a country sticker when tested by “U.S. people”!
Wrong, there is such a law in the EU.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_vehicle_registration_code
Sure, this has nothing to do with the citizenship of the driver, only with the country which has issued the national licence plate on the car. The purpose of this is to enable the authorities to find the owner of the car, not the driver.
Actually, Observer7 is one of the best commenters here on GM Authority, with a significant amount of insight into GM.
Comments made by Observer7 are always relevant and on point and have something new and worthwhile to add to the topic at hand. I have yet to see a comment from you (user “wow”) that would meet that criteria.
the corvette race team now has to run a lot of down force in the rear wing to get rear wheel traction with a front engine car and this down force slows the car on top speed.
Judging by the shape of the blanked out license plate, I would say it is US, not German. Look up in wikipedia to see the difference between the two shapes.
D’ette’s da best…… Murica….
To the ceo of GM the window on the back of the midengine corvette is not slanted great enough. If you place the
glass at a different angle you can take off a little of the body in the back where the glass is 5 inches above the rear
lights. Also the back tires fender in the back could be shaved 2 inches.This way if you cut and made those changes
can save GM lots of money.
Yours Trully
Kevin McGinnis
Yeah, that’s what the C8 needs right out of the gate. Corner cutting to save money.
Hell no.
Show your pride by opening first class dealers in all EU markets where people will be able to buy and service this car. In Warsaw 2 Porsche dealers ferrari Lamborghini etc. Not a single cadillac/corvette.
This is a hen and egg problem. GM has relied for many decades to operated exclusively via the Opel and Vauxhall brands in Europe. And, especially for older people, the image of US cars is still tarnished by those 1950ies and 1960ies cars or rather barges on wheels with their waste of material by fins and wings.
But you can find dealers starting with cadillaceurope. com and chevroleteurope. com.
In Poland you will find four Cadillac dealers, in Warszawa, Opole, Swarzędz and Gdansk.
Sorry to say, but Julius and Wow are just talking nonsense.
As Jbakerjonathan also noted, the shape of the blanked out licence plate indicates that this is a US licence plate, and not a German one, and then the law requires that to this be added an oval sign indicatig the country which issued this licence plate, so that the owner of that can can be found.
Well, this USA sign is decorated with the Stars and Stripes as background image.
Recently there was an article on Cadillac with the image of three Cadillacs parked before a red brick wall with German licence plates with the GG for the Groß Gerau county, i.e. registered by Opel (Rüsselsheim is in Groß Gerau county). Since now Opel is no longer a GM subsidiary, those Corvette test rides are obviously run directly from Warren, and carry US licence plates.
All this back and fort about a sticker, meanwhile I’m trying to figure out how the Irish made, French engined DeLorean became “American”……….