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NEW AND FUTURE CARS
A two-position lift actuator with 1. 4
inches of travel will raise or drop the car
in less than 3 seconds at speeds up to
24 mph. It will lower or lift automatically
for up to 1,000 locations stored in the
GPS. On the aero side, Z51-equipped
cars make up to 400 pounds of
downforce at 180 mph.
“More than adequately sized”
electrohydraulic brakes have anodized
calipers that don’t change color with
heat, Tadge Juechter says.
shifts weight to the rear of the
car while providing better han-
dling and more traction around
corners but also provides 20 per-
cent more traction when the car
launches from a standstill. “Peak
g’s at launch goes from about 0.7
to more than 1 g,” Juechter says.
The car’s steering column is
much shorter and the windshield
is much closer to the front axle
because “having a cab-forward
design is a big enabler in aerody-
namic downforce.”
Despite being slightly short-
er overall than a Porsche 911,
the C7’s long hood has always
come off as more muscle car
than sports car, even though its
compact small-block V-8 allowed
for a 3.5-degree slope from the
bottom of the windshield to the
front axle centerline. Now its
windshield slopes down closer to
the front axle at nearly 5 degrees
and takes good advantage of the
layout’s natural front downforce.
The mid-engine layout allows
no space for structural members
between the wheels and the
pedal box, making the left-front
wheel placement dictate the
driver’s dead pedal position.
(Wheel/tire size is 245/35 19-inch
front, 305/30 20-inch rear.) But
there’s more space between the
seats and rear bulkhead, so the
seats recline 17 degrees, up from
9 degrees in the old car, and
there’s an additional inch of
rearward seat travel.
As we first reported a couple
of years ago, the 6.2-liter
small-block V-8 will be the
only engine offered at the start
of production. Chevrolet has
reworked it to breathe better,
Juechter says. With a new
camshaft and its 11.5:1 com-
pression ratio, horsepower and
torque will be up from the 2018
Corvette Gran Sport’s 460 and
465, respectively, though as of
press time, GM had released no
details. Both numbers should
begin with a five, at least. The
engine is positioned lower in
the car, and the composite
dry sump with three scavenge
pumps is located forward of the
engine. The crankcase faces the
rear, and there are four-into-one
exhaust headers.
An unfortunate aspect of the
mid-engine placement is that
the V-8’s accessory drive is locat-
ed directly behind the passenger
bulkhead. Corvette Academy
engineers proscribed a 9mm-
thick window between the cabin
and the engine compartment to
filter out the undesirable noise
and added a composite-material
sound tube that routes appeal-
ing exhaust noise from the back
of the engine into the cabin.
The Corvette Stingray coupe
will be the only body style at
launch. It features a removable
targa top that can be painted
body color or made in carbon
fiber or clear; it fits in the
rear storage area behind the
longitudinally placed engine.
The trunk also accommodates
two golf bags, Juechter says,
though he didn’t reveal its cubic
footage. The front trunk, or
“frunk,” is 5 cubic feet and good
for cooler items, like five cases of
beer—just keep them locked in
there until you reach your final
destination. The camera for the
next-generation rearview mirror,
with zoom and wide-angle
capabilities, is placed at the top
of the hatch lid to “let you see
the blind spots.”
The 2020 Corvette Stingray
retains the C7’s aluminum
chassis construction and
combination of fiberglass and
carbon-fiber body panels,
though it incorporates key
