Making Corvette C8

Sure, the UAW strike delayed the rollout of the all-new mid-engine C8 Corvette.  But anticipation and speculation continue to redline.

For instance, automotive journalists flocked to the Corvette display during press days at the LA Auto Show.  And now reports are leaking that the Corvette C8 will have an all-wheel-drive hybrid version.

But, hang on to your gear shifter, cause this hybrid C8 is being talked as delivering 900 pony-power!  Yaozah!

So, since I'm not Jay Leno who's already gotten to drive around in a C8.  I did get to sit in one and record a podcast at the LA Auto Show.

Chevy's Communications Director, Shad Balach joined me to share some details on the path to making Corvette C8.  Find out what he said about C8's electric plans below.

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The Making Of Corvette C8

Making Corvette C8 

Tom: We are at the LA Auto Show podcasting literally from a C8 Corvette Convertible. That is a, I'm going to call it sexy blue, but I bet you know the particular blue name that this is.

Shad: It is a sexy blue, but we're sitting in a Rapid Blue Corvette Convertible.

Tom: Rapid Blue. Very nice. Shad, thank you for joining me, this is absolutely awesome and I really appreciate General Motors gifting a C8 Corvette to iDriveSoCal. That's very generous of you guys.

Picture from July 2019 Reveal

Shad: You too, huh? I got one as well.

Tom: So topic du jour is the history of the Corvette.  Making of the C8 Corvette really.  Now obviously what we're sitting in, we need to really talk about, but from the very beginning. Corvette started in 1953 I believe.

It All Started @ The Autorama Car Show In 1953

Shad: That's correct.

Tom: And why don't you just kind of give us the summary and the bullet points leading up to the mid-engine.

Shad: So Corvette was first shown in 1953 at the New York Autorama and it was shown as a concept car.

More than 6-decades of Corvette

And Corvette was brought out to compete with some of the Italian and European race cars at the time. So it was always meant to be a performance vehicle.

And back in those early days, it was sort of the father of Corvette, Zora Arkus-Duntov knew that a mid-engine configuration was probably the better situation for power and performance.

I mean the weight balance that you get by putting all that weight in the back of the vehicle gives you the traction, lets you get planted to the ground.

CERV III

So we knew this going as far back as, you know, more than 50 years. We knew that a mid-engine configuration was something that we would toy with.

And we've actually, we developed what we call CERV, Chevrolet Engineering Research Vehicle, that had mid-engine configurations. We've been talking about this forever.

Tom: Right.

The Father Of The Corvette

Shad: And finally for the 2020 model year, we actually did it.

Tom: Zora.

Shad: Yes. Yes. He's who we call the father of Corvette.

Tom: Right.

Shad: Yeah. So yeah, he is the one who wanted us to get a vehicle to compete in the racing circuit.

CERV I

He is the one who knew that a mid-engine configuration would be the optimal way to build a Corvette. And this is his dream realized.

He is the one who kept this top of mind for us for more than 50 years while we were developing generation after generation of Corvette. So this is his work. This is his masterpiece.

Tom: Is he still alive?

Shad: No, no, he's not.

Me in the driver's seat podcast prepping!