Business Insider Covers Chevy Corvette's Evolution From Sports Car to Super Car

Starting out by branding the Corvette as one of the most recognizable American sports cars and heralded scene stealers in the history of movies, Daniel Gessner of Business Insider provided a great feature last week about its evolution. He begins his close-up look by acknowledging how the Z06 and ZR1 really cranked up the horsepower in their supercharged versions, but that at that point the car had maybe not quite yet graduated into the same class as the high-priced and high-speed cars like Lamborghini and Ferrari.

For the 2020 model, that gap was closed with one very integral and necessary design change, and it resulted in the creation of a car that has the ability to carry its weight in the biggest leagues. Since its introduction in 1953, the Corvette has undergone many changes, during a well thought-through transformation from a street cruiser into a high-octane racing machine. The 2019 ZR1 managed to squeeze in 755 horsepower under the hood, but engineers bonded together and agreed that the current design was holding it back from its full potential. The Chevy team then spent much time at the drawing board, and finally offered up the mid-engined model that had been thought about for decades.

All of us on staff here at O'Rielly Chevy of Tucson have marveled over the fact that the time has finally come, and the engine now resides in the space directly behind the driver. This is the layout of choice for some of the most exotic supercars in existence, because of the drastic results that take place within the realm of performance. With the engine in the middle, the weight is more evenly distributed between the front and rear wheels, which allows the vehicle to change direction quicker. In a rear-wheel-drive car, the added weight helps add traction and lets the rear brakes provide more energy for the task of stopping.

When horsepower and torque are added to an engine, the mass sees a drastic increase as well. In a rear-wheel drive vehicle, when the beefy engine is sitting on top of the front axle, less weight is distributed to the wheels where your power originates. This is a concept that has been tested in many different ways since the 1960s, utilizing the Chevy Experimental Research Vehicle Series.

One of the reasons that these never graduated from the concept car category was due to engine cooling issues, as well as their limited passenger and luggage space. What the folks at Business Insider honed in and took a close look at here was the Corvette base model compared to the Ferrari 458. They both are very similar in terms of mechanics and performance, but have quite a stretch in price: the Corvette is nearly $180,000 cheaper. This is no doubt one of the most radical changes to happen in the American car industry in quite some time, and it is just one of those instances where a complete reconstruction made the most sense in the world!