[MUSIC PLAYING]
CARLOS LAGO: We just watched the reveal of the 2020 Chevrolet
Corvette Stingray.
The base price is going to be less than $60,000.
That's incredible.
This is the eighth generation Corvette, and of course now
it's mid-engine.
There is a 6.2-liter V8 right about here.
Now, that's a big deal for a lot of reasons.
Well, one, it's the first time that a Corvette
has gone mid-engine.
Two, it brings a ton of performance benefits
and it makes a pretty radical change to what Corvette is.
Really quick, that engine is still a pushrod V8.
That means it's low, it's sacrificing a little bit
of valve train sophistication for sitting low in the car
itself.
It's attached to an 8-speed dual clutch automatic transmission.
The only transmission offering, and of course, it
drives the rear wheels.
Now, it makes 495 horsepower with the performance exhaust,
and with Launch Control, and with the performance options,
like the Z51 track package that was on the C7, and so on,
enables 0 to 60 in less than three seconds.
Push is pretty spectacular.
Now, one of things that happens when
you switch to a mid-engine configuration
is of course all that space that was once cargo volume is now
engine volume, I guess?
But there's still a trunk behind it,
which Chevy says can fit two golf bags, which
is pretty impressive.
It shows Chevy's commitment to understanding
the practicality aspect of the Corvette,
and why owners really appreciate that.
It makes this car more usable for more people.
On top of that, there's also a front trunk, or frunk,
up front.
Combined, both of those compartments make 12.6-ish
cubic feet of cargo space, which is pretty important.
Let's go a little bit further up.
One of things they maintained was the removable roof,
which has always been a highlight of Corvettes.
It's nice to be able to take the roof off and just
go for a cruise.
There are a couple of other big, dramatic changes
to the rest of the car, as well.
Gone are the transverse leaf spring
setup that used to underpin Corvette for a long time.
Now we're just down to coil overs, which
is more traditional, and should make
for a really sophisticated ride and handling,
especially when paired with the magnetic fluid-filled shocks
that Corvette's been using in recent years, and those,
we've really liked a lot.
Chevy says in the press materials
that the Corvette equipped with all-season tires
can generate 1 G laterally.
That's ridiculous for all-season tires,
and that's such a high amount of grip capability
that actually all Corvettes now will have a dry [INAUDIBLE]
oiling system to ensure constant lubrication to important engine
bits when you're cornering really hard.
A lot of really exciting stuff there.
Let's move our way to the front.
And one of the real advantages, beyond all the performance
headroom, of having the engine in the middle,
because it's putting more mass on the rear tires,
giving them more traction to brake, accelerate, and handle,
but you also move the passenger compartment quite a bit
forward in the cabin.
And that means you can put the hood down lower,
because there's no longer an engine there.
You can make the windshield bigger.
That gives you a better sight line.
And because there's no longer an engine blocking it,
you can have a shorter and more direct steering
system, which makes the whole thing feel more direct.
It also helps when you're closer to the front wheels, too.
It makes the process feel a little bit better.
Let's find a way to hop inside and talk
about what's going on in there.
The interior's a pretty dramatic change,
like the rest of the car, I guess.
Two seats, of course.
Squared-off steering wheel, which
looks interesting, but in my experience, cars
that use this design work pretty well because you have
four unique points of contact that
help in doing hand-over-hand steering around tight corners,
or when you're in a power slide, as I like to do,
it helps you locate where the center of the wheel
is really quickly.
Big digital gauge cluster behind that, infotainment
display here, all very driver-oriented
how it wraps around you, especially this little trim
piece of HVAC controls.
Very interesting decision.
It's going to be a while before we actually figure out
if we like it or not, but I will say,
I like having physical buttons rather than digital ones buried
in the menu.
One of things we haven't talked about
is something that's really impressive,
and that's a button hidden up here
that lifts the front end of the car when
you're approaching like a speed bump or your driveway.
And the cool thing is when you do that, you can actually
have the GSP system remember where that was,
so when you get home, you don't have to always hit that button.
Or if there's always a speed bump or a pothole on your drive
home, the car will just learn that as you use it.
And that's a really cool thing to have in a sports car.
There's nothing more embarrassing than scraping
the nose on your sports car as you leave your driveway
in the morning.
Very, very embarrassing.
There's a lot here that we're going to learn, and experience,
and talk about.
But for the time being, this Corvette looks really cool,
and we can't wait to drive it.