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Once a forum member announces or declares his opinion...is it like politicians ...? That is not allowable to change your opinion no matter how the facts present themselves?
I'm just kidding of course and I hope the c8 moves to rear mid engine throughout the lineup.
C7 is cool but in my opinion the corvette design teams efforts to create the c7 and c7 z06 gave the vehicle a very substantial design ...
I would prefer a leaner cleaner slightly lower look and I think the rear mid engine design would allow a new design language that we haven't seen in corvettes especially with the stunning c7 design.
I'm a huge fan of low front cowls , low front hoods that allow for a Porsche 911 like view of the road ahead.
Rear mid engine vehicles have the ability to offer that view of the road that is reminiscent of driving a formula Ford ..
That would be a driving experience that would entice many existing and new to the fold to purchase a rear mid engine corvette ...
Sales would skyrocket for many years to come...
Plus it would allow the 2 plus 2 camaro to evolve away from its retro heritage design and become more sophisticated in its sheet metal to also lure away more consumers from the competition.
The sixth gen camaro is an a,aging performance vehicle but it's reminencent fifth gen styling which arks back to the original camaro just isn't lighting up consumers to open their wallets and buy a new camaro...
To answer the question..I believe the front mid engine corvette will exist for a short period of time..maybe a few years even while the rear mid engine corvette is on sale as well...(launching the c8 LT5 or LT4 rear mid engine design first) then bringing in the LT1 powered version later for mere mortals to afford )
The 911 has a height 2 inches more than a C7 and I bet the cowl height is higher also. True that the 911 has a sloping hood. but it doesn't seem to help the driver that much. I have no problem driving my 56, my 64, or my Mercedes sedan, and none of them have the top of nose just inches off the ground, as I can actually see the end of the hoods. Now, with my C6, even with it's low cowl, I don't know where the front end of the nose is, as I can't see it, as the sloping hood isn't helping at all.
The 911 is not a "wedge shaped" car, and it has a .31 Cd(much lower than the NSX).
Take a straight edge and hold it up to your monitor and place one end about where the drivers eyes would be, and then rest the straight edge on the top of the cowl. Notice that the line of sight is way above the top of the nose of the car. On the 911, the high cowl does not let you see the ground just in front of the car's nose.
Take the NSX and also lay a straightedge from the driver's eyes over the cowl, and eee where the line on sight hit's the ground in front of the car. It's not directly in front of the car, but way out in front of it. That low nose doesn't allow you to see things right in front of the car, that's on the ground, like a penny that you don't want to run over.
In real world driving, if a 3 foot tall kid runs from behind a parked car directly in front of you, you will see the kid, whether you are driving a 911 or my 1956 Corvette. if that kid rolls a golf ball out in front of you, one foot in front of the nose of your car, you are not going to see it, in a 911 or a 56 Corvette.
Worst car I ever had was a 1969 Corvette as for seeing the ground in front of the car. I had no idea where the end of the long pointed nose was. It sloped down, out of sight from the driver's seat. When my wife drove it, she just drove it into the garage and stopped once she had knocked another hole in the dry wall at the end of the garage. I kept a large can of spackling compound around as I was always repairing the wall. That was easier than trying to get her to stop hitting the wall(and no, the tennis ball on a string didn't help)
Saw on GMauthority today that the ME would come out next year as a 2119 model and they would make the c7 and c8 both for a year at least and that the ME would have a starting price somewhere around $65000 to $95000
Saw on GMauthority today that the ME would come out next year as a 2119 model and they would make the c7 and c8 both for a year at least and that the ME would have a starting price somewhere around $65000 to $95000
GMauthority is not GM. they have nothing to do with GM. They are not a spokesman for GM.
They don't know any more about future GM products than does Good Housekeeping.
Read their website where it says...."Please note that GM Authority is a product of Motrolix LLC and is not sponsored, owned, or in any other way condoned by General Motors Company, its brands, subsidiaries, or partners."
While you may know what GMauthority is(a gossip rag), many might read your post and arrive at a conclusion that they actually are reporting facts, and not rumors about what GM is doing or planning.
They are good about spreading rumors and that's about all.
The 911 has a height 2 inches more than a C7 and I bet the cowl height is higher also. True that the 911 has a sloping hood. but it doesn't seem to help the driver that much. I have no problem driving my 56, my 64, or my Mercedes sedan, and none of them have the top of nose just inches off the ground, as I can actually see the end of the hoods. Now, with my C6, even with it's low cowl, I don't know where the front end of the nose is, as I can't see it, as the sloping hood isn't helping at all.
The 911 is not a "wedge shaped" car, and it has a .31 Cd(much lower than the NSX).
Take a straight edge and hold it up to your monitor and place one end about where the drivers eyes would be, and then rest the straight edge on the top of the cowl. Notice that the line of sight is way above the top of the nose of the car. On the 911, the high cowl does not let you see the ground just in front of the car's nose.
Take the NSX and also lay a straightedge from the driver's eyes over the cowl, and eee where the line on sight hit's the ground in front of the car. It's not directly in front of the car, but way out in front of it. That low nose doesn't allow you to see things right in front of the car, that's on the ground, like a penny that you don't want to run over.
In real world driving, if a 3 foot tall kid runs from behind a parked car directly in front of you, you will see the kid, whether you are driving a 911 or my 1956 Corvette. if that kid rolls a golf ball out in front of you, one foot in front of the nose of your car, you are not going to see it, in a 911 or a 56 Corvette.
Worst car I ever had was a 1969 Corvette as for seeing the ground in front of the car. I had no idea where the end of the long pointed nose was. It sloped down, out of sight from the driver's seat. When my wife drove it, she just drove it into the garage and stopped once she had knocked another hole in the dry wall at the end of the garage. I kept a large can of spackling compound around as I was always repairing the wall. That was easier than trying to get her to stop hitting the wall(and no, the tennis ball on a string didn't help)
Joe you made a long post which as always is argumentative to point...quite frankly go drive a 911 or a cayman and you'll see what I'm talking about and if you still don't...well god bless you...
I personally find the cayman and 911 as well as the Boxster offering up a very nice view of the road in much the way I described as a formula Ford race car.
Corvettes with their engines up front tend to have a higher hood line and a longer sight line to the road...
To put it in terms you might better understand...the front sight line of the c5 was much closer than the c4....and the c6 was improved shorter front sight line of the c6 compared to the c5....
My feeling on the c7 is the front sight line is farther away than the c6.
Please feel free to find the terminology that you prefer.
Not having the engine up front does often offer a shorter front sight line whereby the road seems to be running closer to your view than those cars with longer front engine vehicles.
Joe I always enjoy your posts....you are very interactive and often invoke interesting thoughts.
Either way I look forward to rear mid engine corvettes for a unique driving environment compared to the present front engine c7
Joe you made a long post which as always is argumentative to point...quite frankly go drive a 911 or a cayman and you'll see what I'm talking about and if you still don't...well god bless you...
I personally find the cayman and 911 as well as the Boxster offering up a very nice view of the road in much the way I described as a formula Ford race car.
Corvettes with their engines up front tend to have a higher hood line and a longer sight line to the road...
To put it in terms you might better understand...the front sight line of the c5 was much closer than the c4....and the c6 was improved shorter front sight line of the c6 compared to the c5....
My feeling on the c7 is the front sight line is farther away than the c6.
Please feel free to find the terminology that you prefer.
Not having the engine up front does often offer a shorter front sight line whereby the road seems to be running closer to your view than those cars with longer front engine vehicles.
Joe I always enjoy your posts....you are very interactive and often invoke interesting thoughts.
Either way I look forward to rear mid engine corvettes for a unique driving environment compared to the present front engine c7
I can't complain
about looking out the windshield, down the nose on my C6.
The beauty to be observed on a road trip isn't 2 feet in front of the nose of my car, but way, way out in front of it. That's what I'm looking at, not a 1/4" crack in the pavement 2 feet in front of my Corvette. I could care less if that penny that is 2 feet in front of the nose of my C6 is heads up or tails up.
I haven't run into anything in any of my Corvettes over the decades. I've seen anything in my way in plenty of time to avoid it. If I'm driving down the highway at 100 feet per second, and I don't see an object until I'm 2 feet from it, then it's too late to stop or to swerve to miss hitting it.
When I was in the Air Force in the early 1960's, we had a bunch of these to drive from our home base out to our missile silos. Sure, you could see the ground directly in front of you, but they were absolutely no fun to drive( but ours were pained AF blue and had blackwall tires).
He thinks it's possible the C7 continues or is replaced with another front engine car.
While the mid engine car could be a limited production car designed to challenge the Ford GT.
I read somewhere the mid engine will be shown at car shows in January. So probably for sale Sept 2018
Eliminating the front engine, rwd Corvette and going mid-engine would be likened to Porsche eliminating the Carrera and saying they were building all GT3's. It'd kill the damn brand.
GM has spoken, very clearly, about the "modular vehicle tool kit". This approach to design and manufacturing is a pivotal change for GM, and the HALO of GM will lead the way in this process. It's the true nature of what is happening at Bowling Green with the plant expansion. Read the article below, and you will understand much more clearly
The C7 was built with a modular frame construction. This allows the front (engine bay), middle (passenger cell) and rear (storage compartment) to be modular. This means, you can use the passenger cell for multiple platforms, simply by attaching different front and rear cross members. This is why the castings were applied to connect the front and rear frame structures, to the passenger cell in C7. In C5/C6, the frame rails went bumper to bumper as one solid, hydroformed beam.
The mid-engine car will be the HALO for this build approach and will be the first car GM executes using the new technique. The C8 will then be created, in the traditional front engine, rwd manner, with the mid-engine car coinciding in some way I'm sure they have all planned out.
Eliminating the front engine, rwd Corvette and going mid-engine would be likened to Porsche eliminating the Carrera and saying they were building all GT3's. It'd kill the damn brand.
GM has spoken, very clearly, about the "modular vehicle tool kit". This approach to design and manufacturing is a pivotal change for GM, and the HALO of GM will lead the way in this process. It's the true nature of what is happening at Bowling Green with the plant expansion. Read the article below, and you will understand much more clearly
The C7 was built with a modular frame construction. This allows the front (engine bay), middle (passenger cell) and rear (storage compartment) to be modular. This means, you can use the passenger cell for multiple platforms, simply by attaching different front and rear cross members. This is why the castings were applied to connect the front and rear frame structures, to the passenger cell in C7. In C5/C6, the frame rails went bumper to bumper as one solid, hydroformed beam.
The mid-engine car will be the HALO for this build approach and will be the first car GM executes using the new technique. The C8 will then be created, in the traditional front engine, rwd manner, with the mid-engine car coinciding in some way I'm sure they have all planned out.
That's how it's goin down
Great article; but most interesting to me was the observation that the modular chassis concept is necessary "to keep GM in the game" rather than a game-changer, and that VW has had such trouble implementing its modular chassis concept.
Great article; but most interesting to me was the observation that the modular chassis concept is necessary "to keep GM in the game" rather than a game-changer, and that VW has had such trouble implementing its modular chassis concept.
Well, both are true...it's a game changer for an American automaker, and an *** saver in the global realm I suppose. BMW's approach is similar, but they essentially have a modular tub that goes strut tower to strut tower, and the floor has modular sections for coupe to sedan. They can build SUV's and sedans from the same platform though.
With the German Cartel Office, EU antitrust and DOJ investigating the German automakers for potentially robbing the US market since the 1990's though...game changers could be over the horizon for VW Group, AMG and BMW. They say, if found guilty, it'll make dieselgate look like a small appetizer before the main course.
I think GM has some big things ahead...sport SUV's, expansion of the Corvette brand, and GM appears to be the most in house capable of the big three in the EV game, moving forward. And I still say Pontiac needs to resurface as the RWD, sport brand it was briefly discussed to become. Completely reinvent that brand from the ground up, start small, use the C8 Corvette modularity and make a baby Corvette, a compact sport suv...sh*t like that...a younger brand.
I would agree that what we will be witnessing is the emergence of a Corvette sub-brand. It will compete w the likes of Jaguar and Porsche.
Its more than past the time for GM to take advantage of the massive brand recognition Corvette has world wide. Only rivaled by Harley Davidson as an American Icon. There's a ton of money being left on the table, and as the sedan business keeps fading and giving way to the SUV/truck segment, the profits need to be replaced and grown.
09-11-2017, 04:08 PM
