Flashback Friday: 2015 Rendering of C8

Rendering from ten years ago of the eighth generation mid-engine “Zora ZR1”

In early 2015, the C7 had been in production for only two years, but speculation about the next generation was already rampant. Maybe this was because some people had thought that the C7 was finally going to fulfill Zora Arkus-Duntov’s dream of a mid-engine Corvette. Here was one report:

“The rumor mill is churning out reports that the new C8 model several years down the road will feature a high-end offering to be called the Zora ZR1… It’s likely that this mid-engine generation Corvette will be priced out of reach for ordinary buyers, much as the C6 ZR1 (over $100,000) was unattainable for most people… Corvette engineers are well aware that the front-engine rear-drive layout is approaching the limits of this design. To achieve the performance and responsive handling characteristics of the foreign exotics, the mid-engine layout is crucial.”

It seems to me that at that time, it was envisioned that the front-engine rear-drive configuration would continue to be Chevrolet’s bread and butter sports car for the masses, and that the mid-engine configuration would be so expensive to produce that it would have to carry a hefty premium over the “standard” car which would remain in production.

As we now know, Chevrolet found a way to manufacture the mid-engine C8 for only a little more than the C7 model. But the pundits five years ago were correct that there would be a mid-engine offering due to the reasons they surmised at the time. I think they were also correct that the ZR1 model would be extremely expensive and likely out of reach for the average buyer.

I think somebody did a pretty good job envisioning the future design of the C8. But don’t you think that the rendering shown at the top of this post actually looks somewhat mild compared to the actual C8 that we know today?