Just wondering how the old school front-engine folks will accept this new mid-engine design.
Well, as a life-long lover of all Corvettes, let me put this in perspective from my point of view.
First, a little back story about how and why Corvettes became such an important part of my life. My father read about the very first Corvette in a magazine back in 1953. He was a long time gear head that worked on old cars mostly out of necessity since he didn’t have the money to buy new cars. As soon as he saw the new Corvette, he knew that he had to have one. There was only one “little” problem though. Poor kids in the ghetto of Sacramento that didn’t have much food to eat and barely had the clothes on their back didn’t buy Corvettes. They didn’t even think about buying such a fancy car.
So he went off to college, graduated, and got a good job in the Bay Area with the hope of one day buying a Corvette. In the meantime, the first generation Corvette came and went and it was replaced with the now famous C2 Corvette Sting Ray in 1963. (Sorry Chevrolet and new Corvette owners, but that name will ALWAYS be two words and it will ALWAYS refer to 1963 – 1967 Corvettes…no exceptions. One-word Stingrays will always just be Corvettes but two-word Sting Rays will always be Corvette Sting Rays. Zora Arkus-Duntov, Bill Mitchell, and Larry Shinoda all wanted it that way and so do die-hard Corvette fans.) Despite all the negative press about the 1963 Sting Ray, my father went out and test drove one. (If you don’t believe that a now legendary car like the 1963 split window Sting Ray could be hated, just go back and read the articles about it from back then.) He immediately fell in love with it and the instantaneous power of the Rochester fuel injected 327 in the test model but he absolutely hated the view-blocking split rear window…as did just about everyone that drove a Sting Ray back in 1963.
So he passed on the 1963 model year and he test drove the brand new 1964 Sting Ray with its much hyped and loved (back then) one piece rear window. He absolutely loved it and placed an order for a base model with the 327 with the Carter WCFB four barrel carburetor on top. That was all that he could afford back then as a young guy fresh out of college and soon to be married to my mom. (When he saw how much more the 1963s are worth compared to the 1964s recently, he regretted waiting a year to buy his but who back then knew that these old gas guzzlers would be worth anything?) The only options that he could afford were an AM/FM radio, four speed manual transmission, and backup lights. You read that right…backup lights. They were actually an option on Sting Rays along with a passenger side view mirror. Seat belts were standard however, which was unusual at that time. Imagine that kids, safety equipment was optional on cars in those days!
Thankfully, paint color was not an extra cost option so he picked the most drop dead gorgeous (in my opinion) color available, Daytona Blue. Everyone has seen white, black, and red Sting Rays but Daytona Blue ones weren’t too popular back then or today. Sorry Prince, you wrote a nice song but in my family Corvettes are not red. They’re Daytona Blue!
Anyway, that 1964 Corvette Sting Ray was my father’s first brand new car and he absolutely loved it. It played a pivotal role in my parents’ wedding and it was the vehicle that they used on their honeymoon, a road trip to Vancouver and back. I have lots of old photos of that car on the trip too at roadside motels and little diners. My mom put them in their wedding photo album and that album is a treasured family heirloom that is a window back in time to when my parents had a much more carefree life before kids, a mortgage, and college bills to pay for.
Many years later that Sting Ray was the exact vehicle that brought their youngest son home from the hospital after being born. That baby eventually grew up to be the same guy that is typing this long and boring story about stuff that absolutely nobody cares about. Back in those days you rode home from the hospital on your mommy’s lap. There was no other place to put a baby in a Sting Ray since there has never been a back seat in any Corvette.
That Daytona Blue 1964 Sting Ray is the exact same car that is in my garage. Though I am the caretaker of it now, it is still registered under my father’s name, hence it is an original owner Sting Ray. It has changed hands within my father’s family over its lifetime however. Both of my uncles (his older and younger brothers) have owned it. My younger uncle only had it for a few short years though. He wanted a Porsche so he sold it back to my dad. My oldest uncle had it the longest for about 25 years. I bought it from him a few years before he passed away.
As long as I have had that car and will continue to have that car, it will *always* be referred to as “Dad’s Vette” by me. It’s strange but no matter how long I actually own it, I’ll never ever really “own it.”
Most people wouldn’t get this at all. People of today, generally speaking, are not into cars. They just see them as a means to get from point A to point B. I guess that if all that you’ve owned were Camrys and Accords, that would definitely be your mind set. (Not that there’s anything wrong with Camrys or Accords. They are both absolutely fantastic vehicles for what they do and do excellently. It’s just that in fifty years I highly doubt that anyone’s kids will be writing romantically about their father’s Camry or Accord.) But in my family, owning that Sting Ray is like being a part of the family’s “male club.” My aunts don’t really get it (my mom does) but if you’ve owned that car, like four of us guys in the family have, then you do get it and get it very well. I remember that at family gatherings, myself, my father, and my two uncles used to get together and have round table discussions about that car and the adventures and wonderful memories that we all had about/with it. Looking back, I really wish that I had a video camera running during those chats now that one of the Corvette guys in my family is now gone.
The good news though is that my family's tradition of owning that exact same Daytona Blue 1964 Sting Ray is continuing on because now my son wants it. He’s only six so he has quite a few more years to go before he actually gets the keys in his pocket, but he’s planning ahead for the future. By the way, if you ever want to see a little kid’s eyes completely bug out, show him the headlights on a Sting Ray. In today’s world where pop up headlights are illegal, the Sting Ray’s completely revolving headlight assemblies are the most amazing things on the planet!
So, to bring this long and boring story to a close, you could say that I’m an old school Corvette guy. Corvettes have always been in my blood and they always will be. I have grown up looking at a Sting Ray literally since the day that I was born. I learned how to work on cars by working with my father under the *FRONT* hood of a Corvette. So, how do I feel about this new C8 Corvette and its engine in the middle?
Well, let me put it this way. For the first time since I bought the 1964 Sting Ray, when they announced the $60,000 price of the C8 Corvette, this thought passed through my mind:
“You know…you could sell the 1964 Sting Ray and probably buy a brand new 2020 Corvette without paying an extra dollar more.”
I’ve looked at all sorts of drool worthy vehicles in my lifetime but I have NEVER EVER even remotely thought about trading my car for them…until 7-18-19. After watching the live C8 reveal video where the head of Chevrolet announced the price at the end, I immediately went into my garage, uncovered the Sting Ray, and looked at the drop dead gorgeous front curving fenders.
“NO WAY MAN!”
So, how do I feel about this new mid-engine Corvette? It’s the first ever vehicle that put that thought into my mind. It certainly didn’t push me to act on that thought though but it did get that thought to cross my mind just for a split second.
It would take a pretty fantastic car to get that thought to even remotely cross my mind so, in a nutshell, the 2020 Corvette is a pretty fantastic car in this old, die-hard and life-long Corvette fan’s opinion.