The mid-engine Corvette has been an enigma. We know it’ll be fast. We know the engine is behind the driver. That’s really about it. We don’t even really think it’ll be called a “Corvette.” But thanks to new video from the Nurburgring, we know exactly what it sounds like. And that it’ll have an automatic transmission.
We saw the prototype the other day pounding around the ‘Ring, but we couldn’t really make out what it sounded like. Noise is important, you see. You can learn a lot about a car that way. What’s the engine like? What sort of transmission does it have?
Before we continue, we’re not saying it WON’T have a manual available as an option. It might, it might not. Frankly, we don’t know. But from the video evidence plaid out before us, GM is either using a driver with the world’s sharpest hand/eye coordination, wildly better than any known human before or since, or it’s an automatic. We’re betting it’s an automatic. We had a discussion in the office about whether or not it’s a dual-clutch transmission, but seeing as GM doesn’t really use dual-clutch transmissions, and has found a torque-converter automatic to be just peachy in overpowered monsters like the Corvette Z06, I think it’s fair to say that this one is a torque-converter automatic. Maybe.
The other debate we had over this one was the engine. It’s a little quiet for something naturally aspirated, which led me to think it might be a turbo V6, much like the one in the Ford GT, that engineers had designed to sound reminiscent of a V8. Everyone in the office agreed that it seemed a bit too quiet to be naturally aspirated, but then everyone in the office yelled at me that “OF COURSE IT’S A V8,” so go figure.
What do you think it is?