This ain't the first time Sweet Pete's tossed this one out there — but this time he's claiming he's got himself an exclusive — he's claiming the General's made a "monumental philosophical shift" on building a mid-engined Corvette for the "C7," or next-generation Corvette. Here's what Sweet Pete's got to say (before it disappears, like all content, off his site forever next Wednesday):
"It was already supposed to be a done deal that the seventh generation of the Corvette would arrive in its current, front-engined, rear-wheel-drive configuration - albeit slightly smaller, lighter and with two engine choices. There was serious talk of an extremely limited production mid-engined "super" Corvette (fewer than 500 units), which would be built as an adjunct program to the traditional car, but that had not been decided. That's the way we reported it many weeks ago, and that was the assumption by many in the business as to how it was going to go down - until now. But after my conversations late last week with executives at the top of the company (who shall remain nameless for obvious reasons), I can tell you that the "idea" of a mid-engined "C7" Corvette has not only progressed far beyond the initial planning stages, the engineering on the car is well underway."
So Pete, when's it coming, Sweetie?
"...the next-generation mid-engined Corvette will make its debut - on the street and at Le Mans - in 2010."
Wow, that's exciting news! But wait, that's not all — Sweet Pete also issues some caveats right before his declaration of when this new mythical and magical mid-engined Vette would drop. Let's take a look at the rest of the paragraph:
"The word from inside sources intimately familiar with the next-generation Corvette is that a final "go" decision for the mid-engined C7 will be made by the first week in September, and given everything I've learned and everything I've pieced together on the timing, I'll bet the farm right now that the next-generation mid-engined Corvette will make its debut - on the street and at Le Mans - in 2010."
Ah, so no one has actually decided anything and the 2010 guess is your best "bet." Hmm, somehow we're not sure we're willing to take that bet. [via AutoExtremist]