But it still remains a front engine Corvette, not a mid engine, and with the easy to do two mods I have suggested, it will have 152 more horsepower and will ride better and corner better with the leaf springs replaced by lighter coilovers. My C6 Z06 is not near maxed out in it's stock from the factory trim and horsepower. Lot's left in a C6 Z06, so that nullifies the idea that the front engine Corvette is maxed out, especially on the street where 99% of the time, Corvettes are driven.

When cruising along on the highway, with the car not in boost(no cruising at 198 MPH down the Interstate at WOT), the bypass valve on the supercharger is open and the free spinning rotors only use 1/3 horsepower to spin them. Sorry, but 1/3 horsepower extra drag on the LS7 isn't going to change the fuel economy one bit.

You must not read much. The zr1 set the 2nd fastest time EVER at Lightning Lap. Faster than Huracan performance. Only bested by GT2 RS. It DEMOLISHED all the mid engine cars and had none of the issues you claim it has.

One thing you are overlooking in your argument of a supercharged car's fuel economy is the engine's compression ratio. The LT1 has 11.5:1 compression ratio. The LT4 and LT5 have 10:1 compression ratio. When in cruise mode(part throttle application) the supercharged car is not operating as efficiently as the LT1 because of the lower compression and that does lower the fuel economy.

My Z06 has a 11:1 compression ratio and it doesn't change when I install a Edelbrock supercharger, thus it is just as efficient as a stock LS7 when operating in cruise mode(less the 1/3 horsepower required to spin the freewheeling rotors.

You should read the SAE article that Duntov wrote about the 1963 Corvette and the three designs they considered. They rejected two of the designs. A mid engine platform was one of the three and it was rejected because of cost. Duntov(and GM) did not believe that the additional "benefits" of a mid engine design outweighed the additional cost to manufacture with the resulting increase in the Corvette's MSRP.

In the 1930's the Germans knew mid engine was the right location! This is a pic of my 1938 Auto Union with a 3 Liter supercharged V12 that produced 550 hp (albeit mine is a bit small! :lol:)

Zora said Dr. Porsche (who he had worked with) wanted to build a mid engine sports car from the start but cost drove him to the rear engine based on the "people's car" he built with an air cooled rear engine because it was cheap!

Earlier this year there was a an SAE section meeting our ASME section joined at Core AutoSports in Rock Hill SC. They run the Porsche USA team. While touring the beautiful facility with many race cars, they talked about the 911 looking IMSA racer they are building reversing the engine position and making it into a mid engine! I give Porsche engineering credit for making a great handling car with an inferior design! But if you want to win, the engine needs to be located in the middle :lol:

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...b55d7e219a.jpg

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...b298535b92.jpg

One thing that I noticed in theses photos was that all the cars have a front engine location.

However many of the other classic cars in my "Car Collection" are mid engine! :lol: :thumbs:
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...b15ef203d9.jpg

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...da9d5067dc.jpg

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...97dd79c2fa.jpg

^^^^^^^^

Do you have any photo's of Duntov engineering and racing any of your model cars?

This has long been one of my favorite photos.


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...8e1db112a6.jpg

I love that long nose.

No but love this model I have of one of the original Grand Sports where they used 4 dual throat Webers!

If I had room I'd put Webers on the 502 cid engine in my Street Rod! :thumbs:

Running out of space on the walls of my "Man Cave" for more pics or models! :lol:

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...ccf20a938f.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...58884f46b4.jpg

Some days I wonder why we even have sports cars anymore. ME or FE, makes no difference. Growing up I loved to drive anywhere and everywhere, but these days traffic is such a PITA. Most driving around here is like a bad NASCAR session, bumper to bumper whether going 5 mph or 75 mph with constant idiotic drivers texting, cutting each other off, not signaling, going across 4 lanes at once, etc. Many younger people are so soured on driving they defer or don't even get licenses. But the overall trend is that fewer of us will think of driving as fun and buy sports cars. I need to retire to a less congested area.

^^^

I feel that way often when I'm away from home! Took a cab from Atlanta Airport to the Hilton for our annual show this week! Yep the driver could interview for a NASCAR ride! We quickly got in bumper to bumper traffic and since the ride is a fixed price he got off the highway and took many back streets passing folks on the right and weaving in an out. Would have been fun if I wanted to risk my license or have my first accident! Feel the same when I visit daughter and family outside of LA!

However don't have those issues in our rural area 17 miles from a relatively small town! Usually take the back roads rather than I95 and have several little used roads past farm fields. There is also a twisty section with few homes. Look forward to going to the grocery store to pick up milk etc! :yesnod:

Exactly why I love living in Nowhere USA, in the heart of middle America.

Rush hour in town means, instead of taking the normal 15 minutes to drive across town, it takes 16 minutes.

Then, when I feel stressed because of the in town rush hour traffic, I can drive any one of my 3 sports cars a few miles south of town and drive some beautiful twisty back roads in the Missouri and Arkansas Ozarks.

Yet I have all the advantages of much larger cities. Dining...check. Shopping...check. Entertainment….check. Medical....check. Plus I get all that with a lower cost of living. And cleaner air.

Because I'm in the heartland, when I want to visit other parts of the country on vacation, I'm much closer to my destination....north....east....south... .west.

Oh brother!!:crazy2:

Hitler and Porsche talked to Hans Ledwinka of Tatra cars before they invaded Czechoslovakia about Han's cars. Hitler said they would perfect for his peoples car. Porsche stole the design from Tatra cars. A settlement was made in 56 after years of litigation. Tatra cars fell into another dictators hands by that time. Poor 'ol Hanns never made a dime. All of Han's patents for this car were filed in NY USA.
Citroen hid their 3 prototype 2CVs from the Germans before the war. German car manufactures were on the prowl for a peoples car.

Then prove me wrong.

Shaka
so we all do not have to hear for the ten thousand time that Joe's super duper bestest ever 09 Z06 is the world greatest Corvette with a 30 plus MPG while traveling to all the worlds national parks .
All the while carry two weeks worth of dirty underwear so he does not have to wash clothes while traveling in he super super corvette with extraordinary cargo space.

Just agree so we don't have to have 10 follow up post about C6 Z06 and how much it weighs and how he gets 30 plus MPG while driving a 69.3 mph in temperature of 72.8 degree on a cloudy Wednesday in the heartland of America.

Gees I just can't take one more post about his C6 .

Joe to make you feel better you definitely have the most special one of a kind super car C6 Z06 with the most cargo space of 15.266.99 Cubic ft of storage when the car is pointed north on a 30 degree slope late on that cloudy Wednesday.

Now are you happy????

Joe you win!!!!!!!!!

You forgot to mention that Shaka believes that aluminum weighs more than cast iron, and that if I switch engines between my C6 Z06 and my all original 1964, that my 64 will end up heavier and my Z06 will become lighter, as Shaka believes.

I bet that Shaka has replaced the aluminum pistons in his "lightweight" cast iron engine with cast iron pistons to lower their weight so his 1996 LT4 with it's factory 6,300 RPM redline will rev as high as the 7,100 RPM fuel shutoff in my C6 Z06's "heavy" all aluminum LS7, with it's "heavyweight" aluminum pistons.

Yes, definitely a market demand for a ME Corvette.

The American market is just in a late-to-the-party, catch-up mode to the European/Japanese manufacturers of MEs.....

​​​​​​​Exciting times, indeed. 👍

JoeC5,

Congratulations are in order.....according to SHAKA>>>>>>>>>

I must've missed where you took delivery of a NEW 2019 ZO6 C7 ?!

100% yes. Hopefully the tech will follow the car too

Not one NEW 2019 or any NEW C7, for sale @ my nearest Chevrolet dealer. That's because they didn't order any. Not because they're selling a lot of them. Demand has dropped to zilch in our Metro area of 5 million. Take that FWIW.......

Plenty of demand here. Seasonal demand certainly an issue as we go into winter, but seems to be doing well even still. Zr1 really woke up realization of how much faster c7 is than the exotics, at an insanely lower price. Oddly enough, seems like z06 os seeing the gains from that around here. Zr1 must be too limited production?

That's not the issue. Here a guy is talking about ME placement and for some reason you take off about compression ratios. You may be exactly "correct"--in mind-numbing irrelevant pedantic detail that nobody cares the least little bit about. You're very exacting and passionate. It's just that you are not only not on the same page, but not even in the same chapter.

As of November 11th, 2018, the Corvette Forum web site has just shy of 250,000 members.

Far fewer are consistently active on the web site.
Not all of the total members currently own a Corvette. Some have never owned one or plan to buy one.
A few hate Corvettes and seek validation from actual owner experiences for their mindset whereupon they criticize what they may not actually understand.
Most members cannot pony up the cost of a new Corvette for numerous reasons.

Since I'm not an administrator, I don't know how many of the active members regularly check into the C8 forum, but anecdotally - going by the posts and comments on this forum - most appear to be current owners of either C6 or C7 Corvettes and many have above average disposable income.

To use only the C8 forum group as a gauge of the chances for success of the mid-engine Corvette probably represents a non-valid sample size. On the other hand, to sample every Corvette Forum member and draw the conclusion that such a superset of potential buyers guarantees validity would be similar to the political polls that sample registered voters versus likely voters: both likely and registered voter techniques are skewed samples. And both are frequently wrong.

My point? All of us - me included - have opinions on the gamble that GM is taking with respect to the C8 ME but none of us are equipped with the in-depth, extremely granular, market research that GM has collected. GM is risking a huge amount of money on the project whereas none of us are risking anything other than being wrong in our opinions.

To me, the real question is will GM interpret their research correctly? They have not always been right as most of us know.

GM is going to figure out pretty quickly after the C8 introduction if they guessed right and will make a mid course correction if they were wrong. For example, if they DO market both FE and ME cars, the mix of FE and ME cars being built on speculation (not customer ordered in other words) will be quickly adjusted. If anyone can learn what the original production mix is and what adjusted mix gets put in place a few months after introduction, I hope it's posted here. Otherwise, it will be several months after the General starts selling the car before we'll know the marketplace's verdict.

Yep business involves risks and decisions! As I have stated, the need for a ME is GM's! The days of the large cid pushrod V8 are over! To make the next step forward they need to use a smaller cid, double overhead cam, turbo to get more energy efficient engine. They need that to get their corporate mpg up to increasingly tough standards. Stuffing one of those in a low hood front engine sports car is not viable unless you like the look of a AA/Fuel Altered! :lol:

The C8 engine will become a good "halo item" for folks to point to. If you haven't heard, GM will be using a 2.7 liter L4 in the Silverado full size truck in 2019. It will have 320 hp. When those truck owner's buddies laugh at their engine they can point to the small cid turbo engine in the C8! :yesnod:

You are right on #1 - we will definitely find out whether ME is the future or death of Corvette.
If the ME is to be successful you can't be right on #2 - we have never seen a new generation of Corvette without "Market Adjustment pricing"
As for #3, with the plant now limited to 3,000 units per month, that means a 5 year production run of 180,000 units - a little above what the C7 has done (although 2018's short build year with only 9,700 units skews the results).
#4 remains to be seen. I am hopeful it is true, but I can also see it going very bad if it loses all the utilitarianism the C4-C7 generations have had.

Yep Ferrari customers can afford the penalty the company will pay (and pass on) to sell cars in the US! The current CAFE penalty is $55 USD per vehicle for every 1 mpg under the standard. That will probably double. The Superfast is listed as getting an average 13 mpg. If the current EPA standard of 56 mpg for sports cars were in effect in 2025 that would be 56-13 = 43 X $110 = $4730. It sells for $315,000 Considering in CA where they sell a lot of cars the sales tax is $23,600 it's peanuts! :lol:

New Coke -- Old Coke. Porsche 928. We've seen the rollout before. Including seemingly powerful market research results!

Now, I suspect this "New Coke" will be a success -- but GM probably should still keep "Old Coke" in reserve...

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...3ea95d3cdd.jpg
Future 928 heading toward luxury touring.

Yep, you can stuff a NA V12 in a large (3900 lb) Sports car but an efficient modern example is the 3.9 Liter 720 hp twin Turbo V8 in the mid engine Ferrari 488 GTB Pista that weights 3200 lbs!. Sure hope the C8 is closer to 3200 lbs than 3900!

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...59db549740.jpg

If Ford can do it using parts employed for other vehicles, Chevy can do it better! :lol:

Yep it takes room for turbo's, intercoolers etc and a mid engine location makes it viable.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...c5c0d7fb5a.jpg

The 2006 Z06 weighed 3130 pounds. I wonder if one could add 70 pounds of twin turbo's to the LS7(with lower compression forged pistons, of course) and realize more than 720 HP from it's 7 Liters? Maybe replace the Z06's fiberglass hood and roof with the carbon fiber roof and hood from the 2009 ZR1(direct replacement) and replace the 2006's iron brakes with CC brakes, and end up with less than 3200 pounds. The hood, roof and brakes are parts bin items.

I bet so. 7L 720 HP and under 3200 pounds with a front engine Corvette(with a huge cargo area for those two week road trips, with clean underwear everyday)..

I did not know the LS/LT series of engines were V12.

Even if you could find room for turbo's and intercoolers GM won't build it as they need a very efficient engine! Meeting 56 mpg corporate goal for a Vette in 2025 will not be easy (even if it gets reduced to 50 mpg!) The world is changing. But not a bad idea to build your own 2006 Vette with twin turbo's even if some parts have to stick thorough the hood! :thumbs:

My option, if I didn't build a '34 ProStreet rod was a ~ '67 Camaro with a ZZ502. Fits fine and you can buy ridged chassis components that bolt to the unit body that include disk brakes and coilovers! For those that must have a big V8 suggest that may be the way of the future! In SC if over 25 years old no personal Property Tax each year. My Grand Sport is over $1000!:yesnod:

Probably can find room for the turbos and intercoolers. At least Mercedes did with their front engine AMG GT, with it's DOHC V8 and nothing sticks through it's hood, nor does the AMG GT have a tall power bulge on the hood like the C7 ZR1 has. I doubt my LS7 is physically any larger than the Mercedes DOHC V8.

ZZ502 in a 67 Camaro would be cool, since you could get the 375 HP(425 HP when in the '65 Corvette and is the same engine) 396 big block from the factory. I had a 427, from a wrecked '69 Corvette, in my 1964 Malibu SS and had plenty of room.

A couple of years ago, on a trip to Deadwood, SD, I was in front of a 2015 C7 Z51 with the A8 and 460 HP, with all the latest fuel economy gadgets that GM could throw at it and he was running in ECO mode with AFM engaged. Heading north on I-29 on level highway and I was getting 35 MPG on the DIC, in my C6 Z06 with the cruise control set on 74 MPH. I radioed the C7 behind me and he said he was also getting 35 MPG on his DIC. 427 cu in vs 376 cu in and 505 HP vs 460 HP and we were both getting the exact same gas mileage. It was a great comparison of the two cars, as we both had the same gasoline(ethanol free 91 BP), the same highway at the same time. The same highway condition at the same time. The same wind, if any, at the same time. The same 74 MPH speed, at the same time.

My Mercedes 4 door sedan weighs about 75 pounds more than my Z06 and has a small 4 banger engine with a factory Roots supercharger. My Mercedes has a lower Cd but slightly higher CdA, since it has to punch a slightly larger hole in the air when driving down the highway. It gets 30 MPG on the highway, best ever I've seen. My 7L Z06 gets better gas mileage than my Mercedes on the highway, but not in town. That's comparing real world driving, not window sticker driving.

^^^^
Turbo intercoolers, take space for efficiency. Both my Mercedes Benz turbo diesel I-6 3.0 & 3.2 sedans have their turbo intercoolers below the radiator, horizontally placed.

The C8s - if turbo-intercooled, will find the space AND cooling space necessary, to get the job done. Count on it, guys!

Is a V12 not a configuration?

To answer the OP's question -- IMO, there is some risk here if the price jumps too much. A sports car isn't where the engine is. It's what you feel like driving it. Aside from the engine noise coming from behind you, I doubt most owners will notice much difference driving around on city streets,

GM says its because the current platform is about as far as it can go performance-wise. Well, I'm not sure about that because some of Ferrari's fastest cars are still front engine. It's a lot easier to stick extra cubic inches in the front of a car than in the middle of a car.

Mid Engine cars do generally look better and people today are sold on the idea that "an exotic" has to be "mid engine". I guess they forgot the Fiat X 1/9, the Fiero, and Toyota MR2. All of those died and they were mid engine.

The answer may be -- its time or we will look like an old fashioned dinosaur. I'm sure the new car will be better on paper than the old car. The question is how much more does the consumer have to pay for it?

I'm glad I don't live in SC. It costs me around $74/year for a new registration sticker for an '18 Z06.

I'm on the fence between a C7 or C8, but not sure how much HP is enough, Most just want a sports car not a race car.

I just don't get this maxed out HP we are going from point A to B with a million traffic signs along the way.
Do we want to be in jail? or worse.

On the other hand putting a tiny litre engine in a sports car is pretty lame, we don't buy them for gas savings.

i want an EXTERIOR that rivals FERRARI OR LAMBO with awd...

It's all how States collect taxes. I pay more personal property tax for two cars (pay essentially nothing for my '34 street rod) than we do for our home on a lake etc that would cost a small fortune in in CA!

Around here many folks pay much more for their 4 door new truck than their home! That is why max sales tax on a car purchased is $500 (just was raised after many years, I only paid $300 for my 2017 Grand Sport.) Folks want new cars and trucks, the bank will lend money so that is what they have! Then they pay for the privilege. If you don't have the money buy one >25 years old than it's essentially zero, even a $10,000,000 1974 Ferrari! They go only by the Black Book price. :yesnod:

The key is not what YOU want it's GM (and all others) have to meet tighter and tighter Corporate mpg requirements. It's dependent on vehicle type and size but a Vette size sports car is currently required to have 56 mpg by 2025! Probably will be negotiated as GM is trying to do as CA has these requirements and GM and all others don't want to build special cars for CA!

GM already announced the Silverado, a full size truck they sell >550,000/year will have a 2.7 Liter turbo 4 cylinder in 2019! Think those tuck owners are jumping for joy? The world is a changing!

Motor Trend Best Driver's Car
 

The ZR1 got beat by a Honda Civic and a Kia according to Motor Trend. Does that answer your question?

Simple answer . . . Balance of Performance (BOP) rules imposed by the sanctioning bodies FIA and IMSA allow lesser cars to be more or less equal. Faster cars are detuned, weight is added, boost limited, etc. If the Ford GT were allowed to run at full potential, it wouldn't surprise me if it won every race barring crashes and mechanical failure.

Ford won the IMSA GTLM manufacturer's title with 5 wins this year, but the #3 C7R won the driver/team title without winning a single race by simply being more consistent. In fact, the only win this year for C7R was the #4 car at Long Beach. That's hardly "mopping up."

If in fact, the "C8R" ME car becomes dominant, it will be brought back to the field quickly.

Yeah, you're right they get you one way or another. Out here they don't nail you yearly on the car registration & we don't have a state income tax. But our state sales tax rate is 8.25% (6.25% on cars) & property tax on homes is ridiculous compared to many places (excluding places like CA etc..).

This isn't really correct. It is an average of the light passenger duty fleet of vehicles. Every single car does not have to meet the standard, just the average of all of them therefore, you can sell cars that make 12mpg as long as you sell a lot more that make 60mpg.

And GM showed silver haired gentlemen in their ads for the C1's back in the 1950's. When a 70 year old Corvette owner in 1959 died, he was replaced by a 60 year old new Corvette owner in 1960, and when that Corvette owner turned 70, and died, he was replaced by another 60 year old Corvette owner, etc. Corvette ownership moves on, but with new owners, still in their 60's-70's..

It's true that new 50-60 somethings are created every day, but there are fewer of them with the large baby boomer crowd on the verge of moving past that age bracket and not buying expensive cars anymore.

Soon none of this will make any difference. We will all be riding around in silent, slow, self-driven electric boxes without steering wheels or controls of any kind & they won't be individually owned. They will be 100% controlled by faceless mega-corporations & they will dictate where/when you can go & how fast you can get there. Individual ownership of cars will be outlawed. :willy:

It's not that simple! You can read through the many page EPA document with many curves and math but also understand CA has said they will enforce the EPA guidelines! GM and all other auto manufacturers don't want to make special cars for CA, OR and some other states so are currently negotiating! The mpg numbers will come down but financial penalties will be put on for every mpg less than the goal a class of cars/trucks achieves. Classes are based essentially on size!

It's complicated but below are old "goals." Note below, those old "goals" show the Corvette as an example of its type.

Also if you think GM is going to make their standard size truck folks where they make more profit/vehicle than a Vette and sell >550,000/year have to accept small cid turbo charged 4 cylinder engines and vehicles that will no doubt have start/stop and other energy saving features to increase mpg - for a Corvette selling at 30,000/year- 6% of the full size truck volume- Think Again!

Expect GM and other's will pass on their Corporate penalty to those cars that do not meet the "goals." So there will be a ZR1 type C8 but it may have a stiff penalty! Easy marketing way to control demand for gas guzzlers! Yep those basketball and football pro's will buy them! That base C8 with a smaller cid turbo engine may well sell at low prices in 2025! :lol:

Yep, for all those "ringing their hands and stomping," you can always build a Street Rod with a Chevy 572 cid crate engine or "stuff" one in an old Camaro- they fit! :thumbs:
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...4ba3bed0f6.jpg

Best Driver's Car competition.

With the ZR1 it is all about the venue! It is definitely not a well balanced drivers car, but, yes, in a straight line it will do well!

Not as well as a Hellcat or Tesla in a straight line. The point is that the FE layout is not as competitive on the track as the ME and Corvette does not want to be in the business of losing races.
"SHANGHAI (Nov. 18, 2018) – Corvette Racing’s closed its 20th season of competition Sunday with hard-fought effort in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Six Hours of Shanghai. The Milner/Gavin pairing drove their No. 64 Redline/Mobil 1 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R to a 10th-place finish in the GTE Pro category."

Corvette racing was shut out in every race in 2018.

I have mixed feelings about an ME. I will see how it goes when they come out and how they hit me

Same here. I love the fact that they want to evolve the car, I just don't want them to change up the successful formula all that much. When I hear mid engine, it really doesn't excite me much like it does some others. My knee jerk reaction is mid-engine is more complex, which means it is more expensive to maintain and it is now sharing company with the likes of Ferrari, Lambo, Audi, R8, Acura NSX, etc. Hopefully GM can build a mid engine car that can change those perceptions. The only thing we have to go by is the Pontiac Fiero and those things caught fire. :willy:

GM's #1 objective is to sell cars, not win races.

How exactly do those objectives contradict each other?
Obviously they don't and Corvette's winning races, especially on the international circuit, sells more cars in every world market, not just the U.S. That is why the ME is going to be a very high performance car and cost a lot of money.

LOL, of course they are today because so many Boomers have passed away. Boomers far outnumbered today's Millenial crop when they were in the same age bracket.

Demand? Unknown. Anticipation? HIGH!

Horsepower is half the fun of a sports car

Winning races sells cars. That is why carmakers do it

Desmodromic valve actuation
 

A favorite idea of mine. Ducati does it today and their motors RULE MotoGP.

If you guys will take the highest new Corvette purchase years by age of the Baby Boomers, set that aside until the Millennial peak new Corvette buying years in 20+ years henceforth, you'd have something concrete to compare.

I haven't read the whole thread, but has it been mentioned that a large number of millenials have no interest in cars at all. They are all wrapped up in their electronics toys and couldn't care less about the whole auto world. Personally, at 74, I've been a car guy since I started reading car mags at about seven or eight. There have been a very few years in my adult life when I didn't own at least one sports car starting with a Triumph TR-3 and working up through Healeys. Lotuses, Porsche's, BMW's, Corvettes, MB's, to my current 575 HP AWD F-Type. In those dozens of cars only one was a ME, and that was an under powered Bertone X-19. We are definitely at the limit of FE, RD cars in terms of traction and handling, and although the AWD in my Jaguar helps, it's not the final answer. I have driven a number of ME cars and Liked most of them. I would welcome an excellent handling ME Corvette, and I'm sure it would also please "Corvette Racing". Who knows, It might even get me back into the fold, after a five year absence.

C8 mid engine demographics
 

Per the all knowing internet:

Porsche 911 owners are on average 52 years old with household income of $311,000.
I would offer this as a guess at the market for the ME. C8.
I would guess that GM will price the ME lower in hopes of expanding that rather small pool of potential buyers.

According to CAC/MacMulkin, average age of people buying new Corvettes is low to middle 60's .https://www.corvetteactioncenter.com...e-think-again/

I also found this stat.

Of new car ownership. the Boxster is kept for 9.9 years and the Corvette is kept for 8.8 years and the overall average of all new cars is 7.3 years.

Porsche 911 owners, or, new Porsche 911 "buyers?"

Purchasers of current model new Porsche 911s. 8% were women. Market research stat from 2010.

The Corvette will not be required to have 56mpg by '25.

By 2025, auto companies will require a fleet average of 51.4 mpg. Some vehicles will get far less, and others far more. EVs also give automakers credit towards less efficient gassers and guess what? GM plans to have dozens of EV models by 2025.

The EPA is also reviewing the economy requirements so if oil prices remain low then you can bet your ass the 51.4 average economy standard will be lowered.

Bottom line: the C8 will feature better fuel economy by 2025 but not dramatically better economy.