by Wallace Wyss –
I wish I could say that I am happy with it—after all it is mid-engined and didn’t I hammer on GM for decades that they need to go mid-engined for the Corvette to be a leading edge contemporary? But the result, in at least the first one of three, they are planning showing, is too much 200-mph race car and not enough street for me. This one comes from General Motors’ UK Advanced Design Studio.
And from the top view it looks like a ’63 Stingray coupe body was set onto, say, a ‘60’s McLaren racing roadster. OK the split window was a great idea, but not so much it needs bringing back. And having a second split window in front—well that’s over-doing it, not to mention some potential for bad news in a crash. (Ask me – I once did PR work for a lab whose business was firing cadavers through windshields).
And the doors. They look cumbersome. Don’t tell me there is no way to roll down a window. I like to roll down windows, both when the car’s A/C isn’t putting out cold air yet and to ask directions. I think when you have windows that don’t roll down, you cut down your potential buying audience big-time.
And the back of the car. Oh, there’s car color on the back deck but then you’re plunged into a sea of black—like “You don’t want to see what’s back here.” It is abandoning the designer’s job to not do a back that’s all visible. I could see no back panels on some race cars with smokey exhausts but this is an electric capeesh?
The PR release goes on and on about Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell, both former GM VPs, that indulged heavy in concepts but I also remember that a lot of stuff they proposed was phony-baloney, like scoops that didn’t scoop and knock offs that didn’t knock off. We’ve outgrown baloney that doesn’t work.
So I’m hoping proposals 2 and 3 will show more real world common sense. And, hey, guys, I want windows that retract…
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
THE AUTHOR Wallace Wyss is a native of Detroit who counted Bill Mitchell as a pal and rode in many a concept car. Today he paints portraits of significant car designs in oil.
Photos compliments of General Motors.
I’m not a fan. I’ve loved Corvettes ever since I can remember and once owned a 1977 (white over red leather) Corvette…last year of the coved back window C3 Vette. It was my mom’s car (she loved cars) that I bought from her. While I never loved the rubber bumpers, that design was in my mind, the last of the good looking Corvettes and it has been downhill ever since. This new proposal, IMO, is the nail in the coffin. 1972…..C3 with the chrome bumpers front and back was the last and one of the best Corvette designs besides the C2 mid year cars. Now, in terms of concept Corvettes, this one was beautiful.
https://www.motortrend.com/news/1970-xp-882-concept-mid-engine-chevrolet-corvette-history/photos/
I love my C’4’s. They are sleek, they handle very well and the power is delivered smoothly and linearly. The design I see in this article is just more of the Space-Pod school of design. They need to get back to the sports/ gran turismo design philosophy, IMHO.
I think this is an interesting design exercise that is fun to look at but I would not want to see this as a Corvette model.
My father was a Chevrolet dealer. I was 14 and could not drive a stick. So I ordered a silver 1963 coupe. My neighbor loved it, and I felt guilty, so we sold it.
These new Corvettes? I belong to a generation that does not understand ‘all that.’ I have no desire to own one. People used to give thumbs up at red lights with my v-8 with a hot cam. Now, technology has ‘advanced’ beyond that lumpy, unbalanced idle.
From what I read, this new Corvette is supposed to be an all-electric version.
I love Corvettes – my favorite is the ’63 – but I have to be honest in saying that I lost interest after the C5 design was replaced.
The thing that is actually driving me crazy here is not this design itself, but the fact that GM set up a new design studio near Birmingham, England, yet it sold off all its European marques.
Glenn in Brooklyn, NY.