Long time coming

After six decades of teasing enthusiasts with intriguing concepts, Chevrolet is launching an all-new Corvette with its engine located where Zora intended-behind the driver.

In the Spring of 1957, while pondering the demise of Chevrolet's Corvette Super Sports racer at Sebring's 12-hour endurance race, legendary Corvette godfather Zora Arkus-Duntov concluded, “Heat source must be behind driver.” The official explanation offered for dropping out after 29 laps was a failed rear-suspension bushing-but the actual show-stopper was that driver John Fitch's feet were being cooked by the exhaust-header pipes snaking around the SS's sheet magnesium ‘firewall.’

Sixty-two years later, the Corvette development trek initiated by Arkus-Duntov's brainstorm reached New York's Times Square, when a camouflaged prototype (see cover image) driven by chief engineer Tadge Juechter and with GM CEO Mary Barra as passenger, finally confirmed that the 2020 Corvette will have its engine located behind the driver.