The 2019 Corvette C7 ZR1: The Greatest Front-Engine Corvette Ever?
Illustration & Graphics by K. Scott Teeters
I’ve had my head plugged into all things Corvette since 1965 and sometimes I forget my age! Car magazines have been taunting the Corvette faithful with dreams of a mid-engine Corvette since the early ’60s when photos of the 1960 CERV-I and the 1964 CERV-II engineering study cars were published. The CERV I looked like a prehistoric mid-engine Indy car and the CERV-II looked like a Le Mans race car; and not very “Corvette-like”.
Corvette lovers didn’t see a mid-engine prototype that looked like a Corvette until Corvette R&D chief engineer Frank Winchell’s experimental Astro-II was splashed on the cover of Motor Trend in 1967. From there we were teased with the 1969 XP-830, the 1970 XP-882, the 1973 Two-Rotor and Four-Rotor cars, and the 1976 Aerovette; a SBC-powered version of the Four-Rotor car.
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