Before it came out, I saw pictures of the eight-generation Chevrolet Corvette in a news story. Of course, the car was heavily camouflaged, and it was being piloted through Manhattan by Corvette Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter, with GM CEO and Chairwoman Mary Barra riding shotgun. Both of their faces positively beamed in a way that a genuine smile radiates from the inside out. These were not typical auto conglomerate upper-management press photo smiles. Barra and Juechter looked like they were having a ball, and their enthusiasm for GM’s new baby was apparent and inspiring. Bless them.
However, when I viewed a profile shot of this C8-in-disguise, I paused… long and hard. It has been out there for a while that the upcoming 2020 Corvette will have its engine mid-ship, breaking a 66-year tradition of front-engined cars. Mine is probably only one of a least a handful of CC articles that will reference the new ‘Vette, and as is my normal practice, I will defer writing about details of the technical specifics of the new car to other contributors who are better qualified to do so.
From a visual standpoint, however, I don’t know that I’m ready for mid-engine proportions on a car called “Corvette”. When the C7 was introduced for model year 2014, I thought it featured many daring visual cues that broke with tradition, not the least of which were the non-round twin taillamp clusters. The current design is creased and still looks menacing, even if I feel it has aged more quickly than some of the cleaner designs that preceded it. (The C5 still looks good to me, today.) The most important thing about the seventh-generation car, though, was that even with all of the changes in its visual identity from what came before it, it still looked like a Corvette.
Our featured ’81, from the C3’s penultimate year of production, was one of about 40,600 units – a sales figure that was flat over the prior year, and impressively so for a basic design that was thirteen years old at the time. To your author, a kid who came of age in the ’80s, this red car is quintessentially “Corvette”. Yeah, there’s that ubiquitous Prince song that many of us could sing while half-asleep, but this example’s Corvette-ness goes even deeper than that for me. It’s red. It’s hot. The t-tops are off. Corvettes just like this one were the epitome of cool to so many kids my age. I’ve written all of this before in a previous post on a different C3 that was parked in this very same spot seven years prior to when I took these photos.
This Corvette has a long hood, curved rear glass, and proportions traditionally associated with these cars. The C8 has none of these things. In my personal life, I’ve been trying to open up more to embracing the inevitabilities of change – at the office, in personal relationships, finances, and just in general. It may sound cliche, but it’s true that change really is the only constant, and in so many areas. So, why am I having such a hard time with the Corvette’s substantial reinvention for 2020? I am, as in current parlance, genuinely shook.
Gino’s North. Tuesday, October 26, 2010.
The pizzeria in the background of many of these photos, Gino’s North (as also seen directly above and which I had referenced in a previous piece), serves as a very good metaphor for what appears to be up next for Chevy’s iconic fiberglass sports car. In the decade-plus that I’ve lived in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood, Gino’s North has been one of my favorite restaurants – for the delicious food and cocktails, ambiance, history, great prices, jukebox, and friendly service. I used to love the very old-school glass block facade and neon sign that proclaimed “OPEN ‘TIL 2 AM”. The wood paneling on the inside and jazz on the jukebox (yes, I played that Kenny Burrell you’re all bopping to) contributed to the throwback experience of enjoying a pie at an eatery that had been open since 1941.
Gino’s North. Sunday, June 10, 2012.
Then came the Chicago Transit Authority’s (CTA’s) semi-modernization project of the Granville station, under which Gino’s North is located. Upon completion of this project, the entire front of the restaurant had been opened up with floor-to-ceiling windows. The wood paneling in the main dining area had gone away. It suddenly felt like I was enjoying my “Gino’s Special” twelve-inch pizza and Maker’s Mark Manhattan inside of a giant fishbowl. People would now stop and gawk in from the outside. The slightly-seedy-but-not-really vibe was gone, and I missed it. This place lost much of its magic with me, at the time. I didn’t stop going, though.
Gino’s North. Friday, July 3, 2015.
Fast forward seven years to present day, and I’ve come to love the giant windows (which are lovely during a fluffy snowfall in winter) and wide-open ambiance. Some sort of shift in my tastes and/or acceptance had eventually occurred, and while I will always treasure my memories of my earlier experiences at Gino’s North, in 2019, I couldn’t imagine this place any other way than how it is today, post renovations.
As for the new Corvette, I know I will eventually come around. I also realize this isn’t the first time I’ve ever seen pictures of a mid-engined car with the “‘Vette” name attached to it, thinking specifically of the Aerovette concept of the mid-/late-1970s. The world continues to change, just as it always has. This former Billboard magazine junkie (who used to be able to rattle off the titles and artists of the songs in the weekly Top-10 on the Hot 100 chart with accuracy) probably couldn’t name ten artists in the entire top-40 right now. Both tastes and the substance of popular things evolve. It’s all good, though, and I do hope the radically redesigned Corvette is a success. Just give me time to genuinely love its proportions.
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois.
Thursday, August 2, 2018.
Note: A rerun of an older post.
I saw this red Vette and instantly had great memories. Back in about 1989, I picked up a low miles and perfect condition 1982 Vette exactly like this but with the red leather seats. It was such a nice car to drive, although not very powerful. It was best cruising along at about 70 MPH, yet the speedo only went to 85.
There’s something off with this car in the article. Something with the tires? They look strange and maybe the wrong size?
It’s recollections like this about an example of a featured car that make me happy. I’m glad your experience with your late-example C3 was a good one.
It’s not normally my practice to comment on my old essays when they get picked for reposting at CC, but this particular feature brought back a lot of good memories for me – of summer, Corvettes, and Gino’s North. Happy weekend!
I always enjoy these articles Joseph (being English I struggle with using the first name of someone I don’t know) you have a real talent for reflective prose. Not in your league but I’m going to chance my arm with a COAL, thanks for the inspiration.
Thank you, Ed – and feel free to call me Joe. I started at CC with “Joseph” and that’s my given name, but it always makes me think I’m in trouble. Haha
I look forward to reading your first COAL entry!
Dan; I think Springs are new, and sitting a tad high. A friend of a friend drove me in his very low miles ’80ish 15 years ago. It was the epitome of GM crappy construction. It creaked and groaned. As an owner of dozens of GM cars, ie: Corvairs, Cadillacs, 5.7 diesel Malaise, 6.2 diesel trucks, I know junk when I’m sitting in it. And last year I had 100k burning a hole in my pocket. I sat in a new mid engine. Bad surprise, my “only” 6″ long legged frame felt scrunched. I got back in my ’95 Z71 junker klunker, and forgot about my Corvette dreams
Your description of generally rattly build quality isn’t inconsistent with what I’ve read about these. It doesn’t make me want one or like them any less, though uncomfortable driving dynamics would definitely be a dealbreaker for me, even if not for only long-range cruising.
Wouldn’t it be something if Chevy came out with a “retro” C8 like were done with recent Camaros and Mustangs? Transform the sharp edges into graceful curves, and there you go. Round taillights too.
BTW: Cranking “Rose Room” while reading made the experience all the more enjoyable.
Kenny Burrell is one of my favorite jazz guitarists of all time. Still doing it at age 90! The round taillights need to come back. Just a little bit of stylistic continuity with America’s best-loved ‘Vettes woild be more than welcome.
Joseph, you’re not the only one having to readjust their perceptions about the current Corvette. It really is very comparable to a Ferarri, you couldn’t say that about an early ’80’s model. As a Boomer I grew up in the ’60’s, and the Vette name was pure Magic. It and the Harley Davidson Sportster were the primo muscle machines of the era. Still, the best thing about vintage cars is that it exists right now, If I wanted to re-experience the ’70’s -’80’s I could buy a car from that period.
If you think that the Vette has changed, check out the new Sportster S. It is totally different and it is much more powerful. I don’t know that I will ever embrace it’s looks.
Jose, there have been more than a few times when I had seen a new Corvette in my peripheral vision and turned my head expecting to see a Ferrari or McLaren or something, and it’s a new Corvette – which gives up nothing in style. I just wish there was just a bit more visual connection to previous models just to tie it all of them together aesthetically.
The C8 design has not grown on me and I don’t believe it will. There are some very good looking mid-engined cars out there (X1/9 comes immediately to mind) but this isn’t one of them. I remember reading when the C8 came out, the design team was tasked with a 2 golf bag trunk. IMHO that’s what ruins the design.
In the six years since this article originally ran, I have warmed to the C8’s looks to wheels I can respect the risk taking involved with such a wholesale reinvention of what a Corvette means. Looks-wise, it’s still not my favorite, but I’m a sentimental dude who loves the classics. That might have a lot to do with my lingering resistance to embrace the C8 wholesale.
Consideration and rumors of an future mid-engine Corvette have been so pervasive for the last 50+ years that it didn’t shock me when it finally happened. The layout seems to be optimal for a sports car, performance-wise if not looks-wise.
I think many (not all, I’m sure) Corvette fans were pleased with a layout and packaging that was finally again class-competitive, changed though it was from everything that had come before. I still have high hopes for the next restyle or redesign.
New corvette = Transformer pretty pretty…ugly. And yeah I could buy one but I choose not to.
I have to say it surprised me recently learning the sales high of the C8 actually matched the previous Corvette all time high of 1979, but like the 79 it’s far from my favorite Vette personally. I’ve really never been into Vettes or sports cars all that much so it doesn’t really matter, but there’s a charm to older front engines Vettes in kind of defying international sports car ideals yet succeeding I always appreciated, be it its cheaper price tag, front engine layout, not particularly exotic 90° pushrod V8s or sometimes ostentatious styling. The C8 seems like a surrender to technological standardization, and I inherently admire stubbornness so it just falls flat for me. I’d probably like it better if it went back to round taillights though, I hated and still hate the C7 for that deviation.
The 80-82 is a conflicting car for me, I think this restyle fixed a lot of sore spots of the 73-79s and got it looking more on par with the 68-72s but the drivetrains were still terrible(if not worse than ever) and we’re positively ancient by this point. I love the design of the early C3s, possibly to the point of blasphemy sometimes preferring them to C2s, but where icons like the Mustang weathered the malaise era on an awkward rebody of the Pinto, the C3 started strong being an Uber C2 with stingray styling and much needed room for wider tires(a shortcoming of the C2 design), but year after year got chipped away into something more and more lame.
Matt, I did not know this about the C8’s sales figures – thank you for this. It’s even more impressive considering that sales of specialty coupes and vehicles seem to be much lower than in the past with further market segmentation.
The C3 will always resonate with me more than the beloved C2 (which I also love) simply because it was the Corvette I had grown up right next to.
Joe, you likely remember this funky # 1 Billboard Dance chart hit from 1981. Would have been great long play overnight driving music, for this ‘Vette. Over seven minutes.
Daniel, I am not familiar with this song but thank you for another great musical reference. Solid tune. 🎶
Does anyone else think that the track widths on this C3 are all off?
The C8 does nothing for me, looks wise. I drove one, twice and behind the wheel, I was happy enough with it, but to me, it’s just another ugly GM car, like the Camaro at the latest end. It has design choices that could, and IMHO should have gone another way. I don’t “get” a lot of the styling choices made lately. I know I’m old, but people young and old look at some of the older cars and are wowed. Doesn’t seem to happen very often with new ones. My Challengers have and still get attention all the time. Kids, and a LOT of old guys, women too, tell me they love my car. Does it look like an angry bug like most new cars? Nope. It kinda looks like an old Challenger, as it should. If/when they come out with a new one, I would bet they will screw it up and lose the magic, like GM totally did when they brought back the Camaro, supposedly a tribute to the ’69 car, but that car looked great, the 2010 did not, and then in ’16, they upped the ugly, and now only the Mustang is left, it looks…….OK, IMHO, but I never understood the choices Ford made for it from day one, as pretty much I never “got” any of the older Ford car’s styling. The present Mustang is a nose job and butt job away from looking great.
I understand the need to modernize general styling themes for new cars. I mean, the way I see it, a new aesthetic idea is new only once. I also understand the wisdom of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. It’s a conundrum, for sure – either to recycle older, original styling themes without significant deviation, or risk upsetting purists. I agree with you that the front and rear styling of the current Mustang could be retweaked to good effect.
Joseph ;
I too enjoy your evocative writing, here in So. Cal. I have a favorite Pizza joint, open since 1961 it’s still cozy and quiet inside along with hands down the best (thin crust) Pizza I’ve ever had on the West Coast .
At least they didn’t ruin Gino’s, it still looks nice, why they didn’t make the entire new front wall of those cool glass blocks I have no idea .
This ’80 looks like the Corvettes I remember in my youth, my late lamented buddy Ed Meeks had a ’68 ‘Vette rag top he’d bought out of a Corvette junkyard in Los Angles, a really straight theft recovery body & frame, a front clip from one junker, hard top from another, seats from yet another and a healthy 350 V8 and four speed gearbox from one last .
They assembled it all and he had a passable less than ten year old stick shift ‘Vette that we rode around in until he died years later .
He told me they all squeaked, so much plastic ! .
The only rattles were from the forward alignment pins of the hard top, they’d pound to death every two or three years….
May the average old Corvette continue making owners smile for many decades yet .
-Nate
Thanks, Nate – and I like the story of your late friend’s Frankenvette. The C3 was in production for so long (fifteen model years) that it seem ls completely plausible that he wasn’t the only one who had assembled their own Corvette in a similar manner.
I owned and used for my daily driver and only car a 1982 Corvette, with the infamous Crossfire engine. In the three years in my ownership, the car never let me down, beside a transmission coolant line breaking and a 12 volt battery. Both (for me) easy fixes. I still love the 81 and 82 disco Vette the most.
The C8 doesn’t do the trick for me, pretty sure it’s an amazing car, but it, again to me, looks to much like another generic supercar.
I don’t even care about the mid-engine, but is simply is no Corvette to this 1965 born kid…..