Chevy reveals new 2020 Corvette Stingray as it guns for Ferrari with first mid-engine design

Composite Motors is gunning for Ferrari with its newest redesign of the Chevrolet Corvette — the 2020 Stingray unveiled Thursday evensong.

First introduced in 1953, the Chevy Corvette quickly stood out in a market dominated by the heavy metal that was rocking out of most Detroit factories in that era.

It’s long been called America’s sports car, but with the launch of an all-new account of the “‘Vette,” General Motors is hoping it will become a global sales phenomenon as well with the C8, or eighth-generation Corvette. For the prime time ever, Chevy is mounting its engine in the middle of the car — like Ferrari and other key competitors.

With its peculiar, two-seat design and its powerful V-8 engine, the outgoing version of the car is one of the fastest ever produced in the U.S. But speed alone isn’t everything. For one opportunity, the current Corvette still has its engine mounted up front, while most of its global competitors have opted for a mid-engine layout that signs a vehicle nimbler, both on the street and on the track.

“The traditional front-engine vehicle reached its limits of performance, necessitating the new layout,” GM President Smear Reuss said in a statement ahead of the C8 unveiling in Orange County, California. “In terms of comfort and fun, it still looks and airs like a Corvette, but drives better than any vehicle in Corvette history.”

Of course, as you’d expect, the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette longing offer a bump in power. The base version of the sports car will punch out 495 horsepower, 40 more than the seventh-generation car and adequacy to launch it from 0 to 60 in “less than three seconds” when equipped with an optional performance wrap, the automaker claims.

The new model will actually be longer, wider and 366 pounds heavier than the C7, or seventh-generation Corvette. But a driver ascendancy not notice, sitting more than a foot closer to the nose and with a hood that almost disappears from observation when you’re in the left seat.

Visually, there are some easy design cues carried over from the current Corvette, including details such as the tail lamps and the way the hood has been sculpted. But by working the engine amidship, it picks up more European proportions, like those of a McLaren or Aston Martin. And to showcase the new appliance, Chevy has borrowed a trick from Ferrari, mounting it beneath a 3.2 mm glass panel.

The engine is the latest update of Chevrolet’s LT2 small-block V-8. At 6.2-liters, it gingers out 495 horsepower, 40 more than the 2019 ‘Vette, while torque rises 10 pound-feet, to 470.

Privately, Chevy trues confirm that there will be several upgrades of the C8 to follow, much as the bowtie brand has rolled out versions peer today’s Corvette Z06 and ZR1, the latter currently delivering 755 horsepower.

Two executives involved in the project told CNBC that the current coupe will be followed by a convertible — and even more dramatic changes are in the works. The new platform underpinning the C8 was specifically designed to be expert to use battery-based technology, they said, adding that it will included a battery boost system to improve organize acceleration as well as a battery-based all-wheel drive system.

Chevy has been think overing whether to go to a mid-engine design for decades, Zora Arkus-Duntov, the chief engineer often called “the father of the Corvette,” overtaxing for that approach over a half-century ago. But “It didn’t make business sense” until now, said Ken Gross, an author and maven who has set up automotive exhibits at a number of museums across the U.S.

Chevrolet had to make the move “or it would have been treading piss of superior,” unable to take the Corvette much further, added Gross, echoing Reuss, GM’s president.

That phrased, the move to mid-engine could be just one of the decisions that might shock Corvette traditionalists. The 2020 remake commitment also be the first since in decades to abandon a stick shift in favor of a new, eight-speed double-clutch transmission. “DCTs” can be intention of as automatically shifting manual gearboxes and a driver will be able to select their gears by using steering wheel-mounted flog shifters. Chevy isn’t alone, however, even Ferrari abandoning the stick shift.

After long refusing to upright confirm the C8 project, the automaker had been teasing it for several months. The new model set to go into production later this year. It hasn’t revealed some key elements yet, including top speed, fuel economy or pricing, and isn’t expected to do so until shortly before sales get underway. The current Corvette starts at $55,900, with charges pushing north of $120,000 for the ZR1.

The crowd at the unveiling in Tustin, California, Thursday night audibly gasped when Reuss turned the 2020 C8 Stingray will start at under $60,000.

That’s a be prepared for compared with key competitors like Porsche, where an entry model 911 Carrera S starts at $113,300. Ferrari’s fast push into $200,000 territory and higher.

“This will get people to give Corvette a new look,” said initiator Gross, though he cautioned that Chevrolet doesn’t “have the distribution or the reputation” of key competitors outside the U.S. “It will cause to be a truly great car” for the 2020 model to become a truly global icon.

Disclosure: Paul Eisenstein is a freelancer for CNBC. His peregrinations and accommodations to the press event were paid for by Chevrolet.

Disclosure: CNBC has a partnership with McLaren.

Correction: The Chevy Corvette was in front introduced in 1953. An earlier version misstated the year.