December 14: Hearts were broken

Please say it ain't so, Joe. Please, please tell me that this is all a bad dream. Please, please, please ease my aching heart.

This sleek and angular rear engined Corvette has been delayed. I blogged about this much anticipated new, and for Corvette, revolutionary model last year. Everyone expected that this new direction model would be introduced at the 2018 Detroit auto show. Then possibly New York, but more informed pundits, expected it might be overseas, in order to give this car international cred. Then the spotlight shone on Detroit for 2019. It had been seen numerous times in testing guise, so it had to be right around the corner.

Why the anticipation? Obviously because front engined sportscars are a vanishing breed, so to keep up with the competition, rear or mid-engine is the way to go. Corvette has come a very long way, to the point where most unbiased testers rank it among the best performing supercars on our little blue planet. Time to take the next step.

Corvette has had some history playing around with this engine placement for over fifty(!!!) years. Sometimes we thought a new model would be close, only to be pulled back at the last minute or maybe never actually even intended for production. Tease us, we love it!

A brief history in pictures......

Recognize the famous grey haired gent in the middle? 

All of these could have made it into production (except maybe that sauna inducing red bubble top). The point being, Corvette has played around with this concept forever, but only as a concept until recently.

Now the folks at Chevrolet are serious. They have the bit in their teeth and are going after a real production model, that would raise Corvette's stature yet again. The camo'd model was even seen testing at the famed Nurburgring. Only a matter of time we said. We hoped.

And that still might be  the case, but after a couple of years of testing, the engineers have found a problem. Something to do with the electrical system. Gee, only after a couple of years of running what seem to be near production models, this arises? Now the intro has been delayed. No Detroit. No Geneva. No New York. Detroit 2020?

Is it possible that the delay might be forever? Maybe this is all we'll ever see of this long hoped for new model.........

Say it ain't so, Joe. And keep those fingers crossed. Oh, and if you know anything about cars' electrical systems, please give Chevrolet a call.

Until next time.......