All posts in “c8”

C8 Chevy Corvette has reportedly faced chassis twist, electrical, legal issues

Don Sherman at Hagerty said he “gave the bushes another relentless beating to compile an updated report” on what’s been happening with the mid-engined C8 Chevrolet Corvette. Since it appears that General Motors is throwing a gaggle of new tech at the next generation of America’s sports car, it’s not shocking that there have been some teething problems. One issue was the electrical gremlins that made news in December. At the time, reports said excessive draw required a redesign of the coupe’s wiring system.

Sherman’s intel corroborates electrical trouble, saying it’s part of GM’s adoption of a new writing architecture. GM product chief Mark Reuss talked about the Global B electrical system in 2015. A Reuters report said Global B would “move much of a vehicle’s computer power to the … cloud,” and in doing so enable over-the-air updates. To ensure privacy, it’s said GM conferred with Boeing and military contractors about network security. Sherman wrote that “100 or more computer modules per vehicle communicate on CAN (computer area network) bus,” and Corvette engineers are — or were — having a tough time getting all those nodes on the same team.

A second delay came from the power unleashed by the top-tier twin-turbo model with 900-1,000 horsepower, thought to be the Zora trim. Hard work on the throttle twisted the aluminum spaceframe enough to crack the backlight. A poster on Mid-Engined Corvette forum wrote that this is an old issue, solved when GM put its Cray supercomputer to work to beef up the chassis. A poster over at Corvette Forum said insiders told him “that it is literally frightening to floor” the throttle in the hi-po model, and that GM “had a team of lawyers in to advise on the legal perils of selling such a potent vehicle for street use.”

Another matter Sherman mentioned we can’t even label a problem. Supposedly, designers had “some unspecified bone of contention” with the development engineers. But unless the designer also happens to be the engineer, that happens all the time on every vehicle. What might matter most is that at the end of last month, spy photographers caught a convoy of prototypes in San Diego carrying Corvette engineers Tadge Juechter, Harlan Charles and Alex MacDonald. And a week ago in Yuma, Arizona another convoy included none other than Mark Reuss in one of the passenger seats. Corvette watchers take this to mean the program is back on track.

We’d been told to expect a standalone reveal sometime this year, and Sherman thinks that could go down at the 25th anniversary celebrations of the National Corvette Museum at the end of August. His intel figures the base, 500-hp LT2 V8 version will come in between $60,000 and $70,000. LT6 and LT8 V8 models will goose the output in steps, up to around 1,000 horses. When the eventual hybrid arrives, it’s said the electric motor powering the front wheels will “consume the (front) trunk space otherwise used to carry two sets of golf clubs in the base model.” That sounds suspect to us, but we’ll all find out soon enough. All will wear the Stingray badge, but Zora could be applied to the capstone trim.

Paperwork another user on Corvette Forum found has been taken to mean the C8 will start production in December. The country’s largest Corvette dealer, Kerbeck Chevrolet in Atlantic City, New Jersey has begun accepting $1,000 refundable deposits for a place in the C8 line, and has put double-digit discounts on C7s in stock, with discounting also happening elsewhere as dealers try to reduce a huge C7 backlog. We suppose that means things are getting warmer. A little warmer.

Related Video:

March 13, 2019 / Comments Off on C8 Chevy Corvette has reportedly faced chassis twist, electrical, legal issues
0
472

C8 Corvette rumored to launch next summer at dedicated event

GM Authority returns with more insider trading on the C8 Chevrolet Corvette. The site, which recently reported that America’s sports car will be delayed six months over an electrical issue, says now that the launch won’t come at an auto show. Citing “sources close to the matter,” GMA says we’re looking at a summer reveal, “perhaps May at the earliest,” at a dedicated event where the ‘Vette won’t share its new look on life with any other vehicle. Seems only fitting, since two years ago Chevrolet launched the latest Camaro at a standalone event in May in Detroit.

Price has been an even more confusing topic than the launch date, with numbers from $70,000 to $170,000 making claims. Seems that three months ago, Bob Lutz told Autoline the C8 would run roughly $5,000 more than the current C7. With 2019 C7 prices having just risen for the new year, the entry Stingray Coupe starts at $56,995 out-the-door, putting a Lutz-based estimate around $62,000.

The Bob has revised his figures, though. The Mid-Engined Corvette Forum got hold of Road and Track‘s December 2018/January 2019 issue, and posted a snippet from Lutz’s “Ask Bob” column. He writes, “I expect the goal is to sell the C8, version for version, at a little more than the C7.” We don’t know how Lutz defines “a little?” If Chevy can get the cap the starting bid at $70,000, that feels like win in spite of a 25-percent price jump. There’s a healthy gap to the C7’s price, which will sell beside the C8 for a while, and that buys a 6.2-liter mid-engined V8 with more than 455 horsepower. Besides, the 992-series Porsche 911 starts at $110,000.

More expensive versions will come, though. In the same column, Lutz wrote, “The superfast variants will come out two to three years later and cost more than $100,000.” Those roaring trims are predicted to include the much-discussed twin-turbo DOHC V8, and a hybridized model with four-figure horsepower and all-wheel drive thanks to an electrified front axle.

On a side note, Hagerty ran a story in October interviewing three previous Corvette chief engineers whose tenures ran back to 1975, when Zora Arkus-Duntov retired. They talk about why the mid-engined Corvette has taken so long, from GM skepticism to core-customer apathy. There are a few revelations, such as when Dave McLellan says it was clear Chevrolet designed the C8 first, then designed the C7 to be an obvious evolutionary step from the C6. And Dave Hill, sounding just like Porsche 911 boss August Achleitner, says of the C8’s automatic gearbox, “Traditional customers will certainly resent that change because the manual-shift cars are fun to drive. But I believe that machines often outdo humans…”

Related Video:

December 23, 2018 / Comments Off on C8 Corvette rumored to launch next summer at dedicated event
0
443