(upbeat band music)
- Guys and gals, you frickin' car nerds,
it is here at last, a real, honest to dog, production ready, fast AF, mid-engine American sports car. We have been dreaming and
speculating and gossiping for literally decades about this thing. And I can't think of another
car that's been hyped more than this besides the Supra. But the difference is, this one
didn't disappoint everybody. It blew everyone's frickin' minds. Let's find out why this thing, this beautiful thing, is so special. We're goin front to
trunk, bumper to bumper, on the new mid-engine C8 Corvette. (lively rock music) Big ol' big boy thanks
to this week's sponsor, Audible.
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(dramatic jazz music) Now I'm as excited as you
guys to dive into this car. But before we do that,
we need to understand how this car happened. (tones squeal) Mid-engine Corvette
rumors and concept cars have been swirlin' around
GM since the 1960s, thanks to engineer and avid
racer Zora Arkus-Duntov. The first gen Vette started
out as a total flop. But when Zora was
promoted to Head Engineer of the Corvette program,
everything changed. (upbeat electronic music) He started puttin' buffer and buffer small-block V8s under the hood. But he always knew that
the mid-engine layout offered better performance. It would push the Corvette into the ranks of exotic European sports cars. (engines rev) And even though Zora Arkus-Duntov
isn't here to see it, his hard work has paid off. And I think that if Zora were here today, he would be the proudest
dad that you ever did see. I've never seen a proud dad. (mellow jazz music)
So the new Corvette is a slightly different shape than the Corvette has sort of always been. And a lotta people on the internet are boohooin' about how the new look might ruin the character of the Vette. But those people have
only seen pictures of it. And in person, it looks very Corvette, the angular body lines, the sharky nose, the quad tail lights, all
unmistakably Corvette. Only now, it's unmistakably
very well-vented Corvette. There are vents in the front.
(bell chimes) There's vents on the sides.
(tones squeaks) There's vents above the engine. There's vents across the back, all for the sake of
coolin' this beast's heart. Don't worry. I'm gonna get to that
after you ring that little notification bell.
(bell chimes) And you guys clicking that is how we get to do stuff like this. And I don't wanna stop
doin' stuff like this. (exhales deeply) Puttin' the engine in the
back means that you have all this other room up
front for activities like a lower hood line
and a bigger windshield for better forward visibility. And yeah, now you get a front
that can carry a suitcase or a couple of duffle bags full of money. The critical part of this
is that if you buy one, you get to say frunk all the time. Oh, you wanna go work out? Yeah, let me go grab my gym bag from the frunk.
(tones squirt) Sir, do you have anything
illegal in your frunk? Nah, frunk the police. The door handles are very cleverly hidden
(tones chime) under the black side trim
which keeps the design lookin' nice and clean,
just like your boy. It feels like Chevy kept
the black vent trim element from the C7's front quarter panel to retain some of that old character. The Corvette's hallmark
removable roof panel is (drumbeats rattle) still removable. And it fits in the trunk, locks in nice. And the trunk can still
hold two golf bags. Now this is a very, very
important selling point for Corvette buyers. Golf bags and Corvettes go together like Goober grape peanut
butter and jelly and bread. (lively jazz music) Apparently, the C8's body
is 10% stiffer than the C7's for two big reasons. One is the huge, and I
mean huge, center tunnel that acts like a super strong backbone. The other is six
(tones zing) extra large, extra beefy,
extra strong aluminum castings that make up the frame. That's gonna make the new
Vette handle even better than the last one. And the last one handled very, very well. And now, it's time to go back to the back of the car. (electronic tones reverberate) (mellow jazz music) The back of the car is
probably the most identifiable Corvette part of the entire thing. The high set tail lights,
(tones zing) the black low trim, they're
all a natural evolution of all the previous designs. But there are a lot of changes too, like the vents that pass hot air out of the engine compartment. The quad tail pipes used
to be in the center. I really liked that. Now they've been squared up and split up. Don't worry, you guys. There's still four tail pipes. They're just separated. Also, you can't see it,
but the rear bumper beam is made out of carbon fiber. Now that's to help offset
the weight of the engine being in the back now. I know; I know. But I'm gonna say that one more time. The engine is in the back now. Well, it's in the front of the back. Okay, so like I got a tramp stamp when I was 12 years old. And then, I hit a growth spurt. So now, my tramp stamp is
at the middle of my back. Max, can we see a picture of that? (screams) Which brings us to the
exciting part, the engine. It's still a pushrod engine, but its shape allowed GM to mount it lower in chassis for a
better center of gravity. And it's no slouch. The Stingray's new 6.2 liter LT2 V8 makes 495 horsepower and
470 pound feet of torque with the Z51 package which
is what this car has. That includes performance exhausts along with improved engine cooling vents, better brakes, cooler aerodynamics, an electronic LSD and stickier tires. (mellow jazz music) Every single C8 is gonna
have a dry sump oil system, this car that costs less
than 60 grand. (chuckles) And that'll keep the engine
from starving for lubrication, even when it's pullin' a G or more.
(engine revs) I cannot wait to see what the aftermarket does with these things, man. People all over the world are gonna be soupin' these bad boys up. Seein' 'em this year is gonna be sick, Corvette, Corvette,
Corvette, Corvette, Corvette. (chuckles) Cool dude.
(car door slams) Whoa, this is sick. It feels like a cockpit. This is the nicest cockpit
of any Corvette ever, 1,000%. Goose, take me home or lose me forever! Chevy had a few goals when designing the cockpit of the new C8. Goal number one, perfecting driver focus, optimizing the F out of visibility. I think they did a good job. The steering wheel is a new square design 'cause it's square. And it's shaped so the driver can see the entire gauge cluster. And let me tell you guys,
this gauge cluster is sick. The dash also sits as low as possible, so you can see the road better
over the really small hood. This is like no American
car dash I've ever seen. Like the amount of texture and elevation, landscapey changes, I
can't believe that this is a $55,000 Chevy.
(funky electronic music) Chevy's second goal was
to do somethin' new. And they did that for sure. The vertical climate control cluster, a.k.a. the climate control strip, is like a partition separating
the driver and the passenger, the designers obviously
going for a fighter jet vibe. And this unconventional design, the layout really reminds
me of a MKIV Supra, a lot more than the new Supra does. Some people like it. Some people don't like it. Personally, I love it. I feel like I get into a lotta cars, and I don't know how to
do the basic car stuff, how to turn on the AC, how to turn on the seat
heaters or whatever. And in this car, everything
is right here, very clear. So I can focus on lookin'
cool and my golf game. (lively electronic music) That being said, the C8 does
also have a touch screen which is pretty commonplace
in new cars today. But what makes this
one a little bit cooler and a little bit different is the performance data
recorder or PDR which is cool. It records your lap
times, breaking points, bunch of data when you're at the track. It's race car stuff. Race car stuff is cool.
(engine revs) So let's talk about something that we don't see in the
cockpit, a gear shifter. For the first time in the
history of the Corvette, it will not be available with a manual transmission at launch. Let's just take a moment
and mourn it and move on. There is a lot of speculation that Chevy will add one in the future. But I'm not necessarily holding my breath because apparently, 15% of C7
Vettes were sold with a stick. And Chevy isn't gonna spend the money to develop a manual if
no one's gonna buy 'em. So it sucks, but it's
our fault. (chuckles) Welcome to Business Lesson 101. Don't make a product if
no one's gonna buy it. But that is not to say
that the new eight-speed dual-clutch transmission isn't great. It clicks off shifts in
less than 100 milliseconds and provides continuous torque. So it is absolutely faster than a manual, hard facts from big bro.
(mellow electronic music) The final goal is make the
Corvette a true super car killer. And that takes more than just speed. Because who buys super cars? Rich guys. It's gotta have a nice interior. And this one is a very nice interior. GM has been hammered by
people on the internet about the Vette interior for a long time. So the team went out of their way to give the C8 the feeling
of true interior quality. The seats are real leather. The metal accents are real aluminum. Some trim levels will have
real carbon fiber accents. They could've just made this interior as a plastic, cozy coupe 'cause that would have really
helped their bottom line. After all, GM is in the
business of making money. But they're playing with the
mid-engine kids now, all right? The piece that looks like a
material is that material. This is a really big deal. This car is a very, very big deal. I just wanna thank everyone
who watches all of our videos because three years ago,
I would never think that other than my mentor and
best friend Jay Leno, I would be the second person
starting this car on YouTube. So thank you. (Vette engine rumbles) (engine revs)
(laughs) This thing is very, very cool, dude. It's very weird because I know
I'm sitting in a Corvette. But I hear so much intake
noise right behind my head which is the coolest part
about driving a mid-engine car. Not the coolest part, it's
a very cool part though. (engine revs) (lively band music) I can't figure out how GM has made a car this advanced, this fast, this nice for under $60,000. In a couple of months, we're gonna see like a thousand horsepower
versions of these when people start boltin'
on superchargers and turbos and stuff like that. And those cars will still
be less than $100,000. This is a game changer, y'all. I'm probably the furthest thing from a Chevy guy that you will find. But I respect Chevy so much. And I wanna thank them for respecting us. They listened, and they gave the people exactly what they wanted
and more for less. Respect. The builders of this Cressida
are the Moonlight Runners, also known as John and Astrid. They grew up in the American punk scene. And they felt a special connection with the boasters of the culture of young motor heads
who challenges boring. When they discovered
they didn't quite fit in with typical car enthusiasts around here, they were inspired to
build something different.
I'm just here to stare at the various video angles in the car, I don't care what people have to say about it until they start putting miles and track time on it and really beat the piss out of it. It's a super pretty car.
And while I'm not wont for Doug's inspective details of dash trim and misplaced wires on every car but this is one car I really want to see Doug Demuro pick through end through end. I want to see the quality of this car, I want things pulled up and inspected, I want to see if this 60K car will stand up to the quality and performance. I couldn't care less about prestige and brand name, what makes this car interesting is its raw novelty. Pushrod mid engine for 60k with a corvette name to it.
Have the Up To Speeded yet on the Corvette? Have to do an addendum
All of donut media is terrible. They are so frequently wrong it’s painful
Only being able to go on the video (duh), the biggest improvement I see is the interior. Yes, the outside looks cool, but so did the C5 - C7. However, those interiors were pretty abysmal. The C7 was OK but still not very good to my eye. This new one looks really, really nice. Very functional and attractive.
Cannot wait to see one up close and in person.
Why does this video look so off? Is the background all CG or something?