RIP Manual Corvettes - Rumour Mill Says C8 Could Be Auto-Only
It’s time for black armbands, people: the next Corvette is likely to drop to two pedals.
C8 Corvette test mules in camouflage have been spotted by Car and Driver, who say that the cars feature a new seven-speed Tremec dual-clutch automated transmission.
It should be strong, with upper input limits of 664lb ft and 9000rpm, but the investment involved in making the car suitable for manual gears as well could be too much for General Motors.
It should make for higher performance than ever, though. With no perceptible drop in thrust during gear changes, the C8 will put its power to the road more efficiently.
Also key to the move could be GM’s desire to see the Corvette battle the likes of Ferrari and Porsche in Europe, and with sales on this continent overwhelmingly in favour of dual-clutch - where the choice is offered at all - it’s sort of essential…
Source: Jalopnik
Comments
There have been many concepts in the many years of the vette, bet the manual was suitable in every chevy engineer back then, sucks to see it go on such a legend
R8 with a V6, RIP Evo and viper, corvette with an automatic?? All the signs are obvious: the apocalypse is starting
Don’t forget that future M power cars are going hybrid 😢
I also heard somewhere that the next GTR will be hybrid and CVT…
The electronic handbrake was bad enough
Look where the vents are in the second photo.
Well then; I guess that means that my car’s going to be valuable in the future!
10 years later….
Zach: I’ll give to you for no less than $200K
Why don’t they play it safe and itroduce this as a “new” model and see how it goes with possible return of a proper traditional front engined Corvette in few years. It’s meant to be a gt muscle car rather than time crushing supersport. It’s like the new Continental will be mid engined because of faster lap time. It just doesn’t make any sense.
“American musle car” some1 said
I think that we just killed the iconic muscle car. Now that the new Camaro makes the same power figures as a Vette, the muscle car is long gone. At least from Chevy.
The corvette is a sports car though. It’s been on par with Porsche 911’s and Ferrari’s. The mid engine will make the vette more competitive in it’s true market (e.g the Ferrari 488, new 911 turbo).
If everyone’s whining over the FR Corvette being gone, then where’s the fun in an MR? It wouldn’t hurt to try something new for the muscle car breed.
I’ve also thought a sequential exists, but apparently not since whining for the return of manual is much more polite than simply asking for the sequential gearbox option.
If you “car people” are “kind” enough to thumb me down out of pure ignorance, now would be a good time.
There were many mid engine prototypes
Even rotary
All sorts of engine and drivetrain
And suspension setups
People complaining about no manual need to move on
The corvette is THE super car from chevy
Up there with 911s, Ferraris!, etc
The camaro was meant to be the “drivers” car anyway
Autos are just as efficient and faster now
If not more so
And you can manually select gears
No chance of over rev from too quick a downshift
Etc… it just makes sense
I bet most here complaining weren’t gonna buy one anyways.
It’s like what Matt LeBlanc said in his 911R review (yes, yes, I know; we dare not speak of New Top Gear, blah-blah, but I honestly think that segment was one of the highlights): In car makers’ pursuit of speed, driver involvement is being cast aside.