Sports car fans were ready to see Chevrolet pull the sheet off the mid-engine 2020 C8 Corvette at the 2019 North American International Auto Show in Detroit this past January, but it never happened. Numerous rumors suggested the car had been delayed and would debut at its own standalone event sometime this year.
Last Friday, Hagerty reported that it has dug up three reasons why the hotly anticipated mid-engine Corvette hasn't surfaced yet. They all point to the fact that Chevy's supercar killer simply isn't ready for prime time yet.
Reason number one is a rumor we've heard before. According to sources, the mid-engine Corvette isn't playing nice with a new electrical architecture. The report said every GM vehicle is moving to the new architecture to support 100 or more computer modules communicating with a CAN bus, or computer area network. Apparently, engineers have had many issues sorting out the bugs in the mid-engine Corvette and other unnamed models.
2020 Chevrolet Corvette (C8) spy shots - Image via S. Baldauf/SB-Medien
Secondly, sources shared with Hagery that the aluminum spaceframe was prone to distortion under extreme duress. Apparently, one of the mid-engine C8 Corvette's engines was powerful enough to twist the rear of the car so much that it broke the glass hatch that covers the engine planted in the middle. The incident reportedly happened with a twin-turbocharged V-8 that made 900 to 1,000 horsepower. Engineers are likely working to beef up the spaceframe to ensure it's strong enough to withstand the forces exerted by all of the engines planned for the car.
2020 Chevrolet Corvette (C8) spy shots - Image via S. Baldauf/SB-Medien
The final reason, per the website, is somewhat vague. Sources shared that there's some sort of internal argument between designers and engineers, but it's unclear what it's about. Of course, designers work hard to make the Corvette a good-looking machine, while engineers do their best to push the performance envelope. What the two sides can't agree on is unknown, but it could be anything from an ergonomic issue inside the car or even an exterior component.
That leads to the biggest question: when will we see the car? Hagerty pegs the National Corvette Museum's 25th birthday celebration, which takes place in August, as a good guess. That falls in line with previous reports that the car would debut this summer.
