Report: Mid-Engine Corvette on Track for 2019

The Chevrolet Corvette will switch to a mid-engine layout when the next-generation model bows in early 2019, according to The Detroit News.

Chevy hasn’t released any product or timing details about the next Vette. But decades of rumors about a mid-engine model, which enthusiasts prefer because it enhances handling characteristics, have intensified in recent years. Citing multiple unnamed sources, the News story follows a similar report by Car and Driver earlier this summer.

The mid-engine Corvette is championed by Mark Reuss, General Motors Co.’s executive vice president of product development, one source tells the News. The person describes the project—codenamed “Emperor”—as the “worst-kept secret in town.”

The performance-oriented configuration promises to attract a younger mix of buyers to Corvette’s aging demographics, the newspaper points out. A mid-engine architecture also would make it easier to build all-wheel-drive, plug-in hybrid and other variants—possibly including a Cadillac sports car, according to the sources.

Virtually every major component would have to be redesigned and repositioned for the new layout, in which the engine would be located between the driver and the rear wheels. To help keep costs down, GM could repurpose its small-block V-8 engine for the application, C&D suggests.

Bob Lutz, who retired as GM’s global product development chief in 2010, tells the News that the new mid-engine Vette sounds similar to a program that GM approved in 2007. That vehicle was nixed when GM filed for bankruptcy amid the 2009 recession.

GM has built a handful of mid-engine models in the past, including the short-lived Pontiac Fiero. The company also has produced several mid-engine Corvette concepts, but none has come to fruition.