When we heard that the mid-engine 2020 Chevrolet Corvette would start at under $60,000, we were impressed. Especially since we were a bit concernedthat the vehicle would cost over six figures. Now Chevy’s released its order guide showing the equipment that the sub-$60,000 car comes with. Let’s take a look

No, if you were worried (or hopeful, depending upon your perspective) that the base Corvette would come with hubcap-adorned steel wheels, cloth seats, and drum brakes, fear not: Even though the standard 1LT-trim Vette doesn’t get heated seats, the base GT1 seats are eight-way power leather buckets (shown below). Plus, there’s dual-zone climate control; an eight-inch touchscreen display with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and Near Field Communication; and a Bose 10-speaker audio system.

On top of those, there’s a high-definition backup camera with park assist (handy, since there’s an engine right behind you), a 12-inch gauge cluster display, keyless ignition and entry, Near Field Communication, remote start, valet mode, power windows with automatic up/down, illuminated vanity mirrors, heated manual-folding but power-adjustable side mirrors, and a power leather-wrapped tilting and telescoping steering wheel.

The base 2020 Corvette also comes with a stainless steel exhaust system, 19-inch silver aluminum wheels with 245/35ZR19 all-season tires up front, and 20-inch wheels with 305/30/ZR20s out back. The brakes are four-wheel discs with 12.6-inchers up front and 13.3-inchers out back, and there’s a standard mechanical limited-slip diff in the rear to manage how the 6.2-liter small-block Chevy V8—which is mated to an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission—gets its power gets to the road.

In case you’re curious, Chevy also offers the 2LT and 3LT trims. We don’t know pricing for those, but suffice it to say that it will be above 60 large in both cases. The 2LT trim adds a head-up display; power-folding mirrors; power bolstering and lumbar adjustment for the heated and vented seats; wireless charging; a heated steering wheel; Navigation; a Bose 14-speaker audio system; Performance Data Recorder; rear camera mirror; memory package; curb view camera; blind-spot monitoring; and rear cross-traffic alert.

Lastly, there’s the 3LT, which—in addition to offering more interior color options than either the 1LT and 2LT—gets GT2 seats with Napa Leather and “Carbon-Fiber trim” paired with a custom “leather-wrapped interior” with suede on the upper sections and leather on the lower doors.

You can check out the full order guide here, and take a look at the optional equipment as well. Among those options is the Z51 Performance Package, with its 13.6 inch front rotors, 13.8-inch rear rotors, performance exhaust with various modes, electronic limited-slip differential, heavy-duty cooling system, and more. Because as nice as interior gadgets are, let’s be honest, all we care about are the performance options.

For its starting price of $59,995 including shipping, the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray comes with an automatic transmission, more horsepower than the outgoing version and a dry-sump oil system that previously cost extra. But buyers will have to spend at least $7,300 more to get the automatic front-suspension lift system that General Motors touted at the car's unveiling.

The midengine Corvette will come in three trim levels, with the top-end 3LT starting at $71,945, GM said Thursday.

Adding the Z51 performance package, which boosts acceleration with exhaust and suspension upgrades, to any of the three trims costs $5,000, the same as on the front-engine 2019 Corvette. The performance exhaust upgrade, which adds 5 hp and 5 pound-feet of torque, is $1,195 by itself.

The starting price of the 2020 Corvette, which is offered only with an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, is $1,005 more than the 2019 Corvette with an automatic transmission. The 2LT trim starts at $67,295, $3,850 more than on the 2019, but includes wireless phone charging, a heated steering wheel and a number of driver-assist technologies not previously available.

"Most people thought when we moved the Corvette to midengine it would no longer be attainable, but we knew we couldn't mess with a winning formula, and the 2020 Stingray proves it," Brian Sweeney, Chevrolet's U.S. vice president, said in a statement.

The 3LT trim adds luxury features such as Napa and Mulan leather seating surfaces and a carbon fiber trim, a custom leather-wrapped interior, suede-wrapped upper interior trim and leather-wrapped door panels.

The front lift system, designed to protect the car's nose on driveways and speed bumps, is not available on the 1LT and costs $1,495 on the two higher trims. Adding it to a Corvette 3LT Z51 would bring the price to $78,440.

"We've packed a lot of performance into the Corvette Stingray at this price when you consider an eight-speed dual clutch transmission, Small Block V-8 and engine-mounted dry sump oil system are all standard," Tadge Juechter, the Corvette's executive chief engineer, said in the statement.

The 2020 Corvette's 6.2-liter V-8 engine produces 490 hp, compared with 455 hp on the 2019, and 465 pound-feet of torque, up from 460 on the 2019.

GM will start building the 2020 Corvette Stingray this year in Bowling Green, Ky. The company had previously said only that the car would start at "less than $60,000."

To avoid dealer markups on the highly anticipated 2020 C8 Corvette, fans are working together to make sure they get a fair deal. With some reports stating markups of over $30,000, Corvette fans are joining together to make sure they don’t get taken advantage of.

When Chevy revealed the C8 Corvette’s relatively affordable base price of only $59,995, it meant many traditional Corvette owners could afford the new mid-engined car. Unfortunately, some dealerships are taking advantage of the reasonably priced C8 Corvette and are adding markups that move it from affordable to unobtainable. Luckily there’s a clever grassroots solution.

To combat dealers who are trying to profit on the C8’s popularity, a thread on Corvette Forums is keeping a growing list of dealers who will sell the C8 at market-suggested retail price and those who are asking for large depositors or markups. This comprehensive guide is meant to steer customers towards honest dealers while avoiding someone looking to make a quick buck.

According to the post on Corvette Forums, the top eight dealerships by sales volume for the previous-generation C7 Corvette are all selling the new C8 at MSRP. Once you get down to the lower volume dealerships, markups are more frequent.

The thread on Corvette Forum sees both Corvette fans and dealerships chiming in on exactly where you can find a C8 at MSRP. This thread is a great way to reward dealers that are not tempted to profit off the C8’s hype by allowing them to put their pricing commitment in writing

Putting all of the important information in the hands of potential buyers limits the power of dealers to take advantage of the situation. Dealership markups are nothing new but that doesn’t mean customers shouldn’t band together to find a fair deal. The organized Corvette community is a perfect example of how enthusiasts should combat dealership markups in the future by working together.

You've heard the rumors and you've seen the leaked CAD drawings. The car world has been speculating about overhead cams and turbochargers and flat-plane cranks in the backs of C8 Corvettes for months now, but we've confirmed with a deep source on the Corvette team that the upcoming C8.R race car and, more crucially, the C8 Corvette Z06 will be powered by a flat-plane-crank twin-turbo dual-overhead-cam V-8



"Everyone thinks it will be a small block, but it won't be," said our source. "Listen to the race car."


We did, and if you've ever seen the current C7.R car live, you know the roar of the pushrod LS7.R engine is unmistakable. Compare the above video, which shows a camouflaged C8.R testing at Sebring, to the one below. The C8.R exhibits an entirely different exhaust note, one consistent with a flat-plane-crank engine design. Key characteristics to listen for: a higher-pitched exhaust note, a consistent exhaust note without the pushrod's staccato bass line, higher RPM than a pushrod motor typically reaches characterized by longer times between upshifts, and lightning quick downshifts wherein the engine spins up to higher RPM much faster than a pushrod engine.

That last part helps explain why Chevrolet would do this. After all, Corvette Racing has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans eight times in 21 attempts with pushrod engines. As with the move to a mid-engine layout, the switch to a flat-plane crank is all about performance



Consider the advantages. Flat-plane-crank engines have smaller, lighter crankshafts which can spin up faster than cross-plane-crank engines and lose less power to rotational inertia. The change in firing order also allows for better exhaust scavenging than a cross-plane crank. Exhaust scavenging, the method of pulling the last exhaust gases out of a cylinder faster using reflected pressure waves, improves performance and combustion efficiency—both crucial in racing



Of course, flat-plane cranks have a big disadvantage in V-8 engines: balance. The whole reason Cadillac engineered the cross-plane crankshaft for V-8 engines back in the 1920s was to smooth out the engine. While cross-plane-crank V-8s are naturally balanced due to the order in which the pistons rise and fall in the block, flat-plane-crank V-8s have only half their vibrations cancelled out naturally, and the vibrations only get worse as engine speeds increase. Because the vibrations are caused by the movements of the pistons themselves, lightweight pistons and short strokes can help reduce (but not eliminate) the vibration of a flat-plane-crank engine. Aside from being annoying in the cockpit, vibrations can damage components or cause them to wear out more quickly.


Chevrolet, clearly, has calculated the performance advantage of lightening the rotating assembly and improving scavenging are worth the expense of designing a new engine, which explains the flat-plane crank. Why not a flat-plane crank pushrod engine, though? While it's mechanically possible, there's no advantage. Exhaust scavenging works better the faster an engine spins, and getting high RPM out of an engine requires a robust valvetrain. Even the best pushrod engine, the mighty LS7, maxxes out at 7,000 RPM. At higher engine speeds, flex in the valvetrain hurts precision and stability, which hurt performance. Ford's 5.2-liter Voodoo flat-plane crank V-8 doesn't spin to 8,250 RPM because of the crank, it's because of the advanced dual-overhead cam valvetrain.


That explains the flat-plane crankshaft and blasphemous dual-overhead cams, but just keeping up with Ford doesn't explain the turbos. Le Mans does. Le Mans' sanctioning body, the ACO, uses a formula called "Balance of Power" to attempt to level the playing field between different engine types and sizes, and for the past two years it's favored turbocharged engines from Ford and Ferrari to Corvette's detriment. Critically, Balance of Power can be adjusted simply by changing the maximum boost pressure of a turbocharged engine, whereas the naturally aspirated C7.R is forced to breathe through CNC-machined metal intake restrictors which have to be made from scratch.


Where would Chevrolet get such an engine? Why, from Cadillac, of course. Not quite, though. Even though Cadillac's new 4.2-liter twin-turbo DOHC Blackwing V-8 is built at the Corvette's engine plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky, GM has been adamant it's exclusive to Cadillac. How exclusive? Cadillac President Steve Carlisle told us Corvette would get it "over my dead body" and even Corvette champion and GM President Mark Reuss has said the engine hasn't even been test-fit in the C8 because it's a Cadillac engine.


Carlisle and Reuss may be splitting hairs, though. While the Z06 and C8.R's engine may not simply be a Blackwing with the wick turned up, it's likely to have a lot in common with Cadillac's engine but with enough different to make it a game of semantics. For starters, the Blackwing is a cross-plane-crank engine, so that would have to change. More critically, the Blackwing is a hot-vee design, a reverse-flow engine which puts its turbochargers in the valley between the heads rather than hanging off the sides of the engine. The leaked CAD drawings of a supposed twin-turbo DOHC C8 engine clearly show a traditional design with outboard turbos and the intake in the valley. At minimum, the Blackwing's crankshaft and heads would need to change, and that's a huge amount of work.


It doesn't necessarily mean starting over from scratch, though. The Blackwing was designed, in Cadillac's words, to be a "compact, mass-efficient" design which emphasized power-density and packaging, both important in the C8's small engine compartment. To share development costs, it's possible the C8 motor could use the Blackwing's block, and much of what was learned in developing the Blackwing's heads could be reused in the reconfigured Corvette heads.


There's one more change that would have to be made: bore. The Blackwing is an under-square engine—its stroke is longer than the diameter of its cylinder bores. Good for reliability and torque, bad for high-RPM performance. All modern flat-plane-crank V-8s, from Ford to Ferrari to McLaren, use over-square engines to reduce piston speed and quell those nasty flat-plane vibrations. Assuming Chevrolet doesn't change the stroke, the Blackwing would need to be bored out, increasing the displacement.



Don't expect a 5.5-liter displacement, though. Many outlets have tossed this number around without any basis. It may have come from the C7.R's engine, which is restricted by IMSA racing rules to 5.5 liters, and the old rule states "there's no replacement for displacement." Except there is. It's called forced induction, that's where the turbos come in. More important than that, though, larger displacement (bigger bores and longer strokes) means bigger vibrations, which is why it was so shocking to see Ford launch a 5.2-liter flat-plane-crank V-8. There's a reason Ferrari's flat-plane-crank twin-turbo DOHC V-8 is 3.9 liters and McLaren's is 3.8. Expect the C8's displacement to grow from the Blackwing's 4.2 liters, but fall well short of the 5.5-liter number that's been thrown around. The number of issues Ford has had with Voodoo engine failures alone should dispel any notion of Chevrolet going to an even larger displacement.


According to Chevrolet, the C8.R race car will be revealed sometime this fall. When it does, take a good look under the engine cover, because what you see there is what you'll be getting in the next Z06, and it won't have pushrods.

Chevrolet dropped the cover on the drop-top C8 Corvette and it looks just as cool as the coupe, possibly cooler.

The first-ever convertible hardtop Corvette goes into production in the first quarter of 2020 with a starting sticker price of $67,495 for the 1LT trim level, just a $7500 bump in price over the coupe.

“…and there was much rejoicing.”

The two-piece hardtop is powered by six electric motors - more reliable than previous hydraulic systems, Chevy said. It goes up or down in just 16 seconds, and you can do it while driving at up to 30 mph. Chevy even showed a video of the top going up and down at speed, so you know it works. Then members of the production team raised and lowered the top several times during an evening-long party at The Motoring Club in Marina del Rey, California, an event run simultaneously with a reveal in Miami.

A divider glass raises or lowers to fine-tune air circulation in the cockpit. The sheet-molded composite top stows under a very stylish cover with glorious fairings reminiscent of… well, you decide. Officially those fairings are reminiscent of the nacelles of jet engines. You'll see something similar on CERVs I and II. Some might see some Maranello in there, but lead exterior designer Vlad Kapitonov insists there’s no Ferrari in his design.

“I had an aesthetic of a Corvette in my mind and then many things inspired me: airplanes, fighter jets, anything fast and emotional.”

After seeing it in the flesh, we gotta believe Kapitonov was spot on.

The convertible shares the same 6.2-liter small block V8 LT2 engine with the coupe, as you’d expect, making 495 horsepower and 470 lb ft of torque (when equipped with performance exhaust). That engine will be mated to Chevy’s first-ever eight-speed dual-clutch transmission that Chevy promises will provide “lightning-fast shifts and excellent power transfer.”

Even though the exterior has a uniquely distinct shape all its own, the aerodynamic drag is identical to the coupe. The top itself stows in a compartment right behind the driver’s and passenger’s noggins, on top of the engine. Will the top melt when stowed back there, right above 495 ragin’ horsepower? Chevy says there are heat shields back there to protect it from engine heat. And the rear trunk looked big enough to hold a set of golf clubs or two.

The chassis itself had to be modified with unique springs and dampers to account for the droptop’s extra 70 to 80 pounds (no specific weight was announced at the California reveal).

The interior is the same as the coupe, with the long line of buttons to the right of the shifter.

“We were trying to keep the dash as low as possible,” said interior designer Tristan Murphy. “The whole name of the game is keeping everything low.”

Both driver’s and passengers seats are comfortably low. I sat in both seats, then asked a guy perhaps twice as wide as me how he felt in the driver’s seat and he said he loved it. So everyone will like sitting in the new Corvette, hardtop or droptop, it seems.

“We’re particularly proud of the way it looks both with the top up and down,” said Kapitonov.

And with 17,000 different combinations of colors, tops and trim, chances are you can find one to suit your tastes. Go to chevrolet.com to activate the visualizer and build your own C8 convertible. You won't be disappointed.

More than 60 years of racing heritage helped set the stage for the most important debut in Corvette's racing history, as Chevy's first mid-engine GTLM race car - the Corvette C8.R - made its surprise debut alongside the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray convertible at the Kennedy Space Center. The C8.R and Corvette Stingray represent a true technology transfer, taking lessons from the street straight to the track and vice versa.

"The C8.R is much more than just a race-tuned version of the 2020 Corvette Stingray. It's a culmination of many years of testing and development between GM Design, Propulsion, Engineering and the Corvette Racing team," said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. vice president of Performance and Motorsports. "The collaboration between these teams has allowed us to take these vehicles' performance to the next level, both on the street and the track."

With its tremendous success on the track over the last 20 years, Corvette Racing has helped push the development, performance and popularity of Corvette's top-line performance cars on race tracks across the world.

Since 1999, Corvette Racing has won 107 races - the most of any professional sports car team in North America - including 13 Team championships and 12 Driver and Manufacturer titles. In 2015, Corvette Racing became the first sports car team in 15 years win endurance racing's Triple Crown - victories at Rolex 24 at Daytona, Twelve Hours of Sebring and 24 Hours of Le Mans - in the same season.

The C8.R No. 4 car dons a new silver livery, inspired by the color of iconic Corvette concepts such as the 1973 Chevrolet Aerovette and the 1959 Corvette Stingray Racer. This car also features yellow accents.

Complementing the No. 4 vehicle is the No. 3 car which will feature a traditional yellow color scheme with silver accents that continues the lineage of the successful GTLM racing Corvettes of the past 20 years.

The C8.R will make its racing debut at Rolex 24 at Daytona in January 2020.