Greatest Corvette spin-offs the world has seen

After several false starts, Chevrolet is preparing to take the Corvette in a bold new direction.

The eighth-generation Corvette is very nearly upon us, and the model if now heading in a new direction, getting a mid-engined layout for the first time in its long history.

Before now, the ‘Vette stuck with a tried-and-true front-engined, rear-wheel drive configuration for this long. Chevrolet and aftermarket tuners have made dozens of experimental Corvettes with all kinds of different powertrains ranging from a mid-mounted Wankel engine to a V12. Here are some of the wildest creations:

Chevrolet Corvette Corvair concept (1954)

Chevrolet didn’t wait long to explore what it could turn the Corvette into. In 1954, a year after the model made its debut; the firm displayed the Corvette Corvair concept at the GM Motorama in New York City.

It looked a lot like a regular Corvette when viewed from the front but it gained an aerodynamic, fastback-like roof line that flowed into a license plate insert shaped like a jet’s exhaust. Chevrolet considered approving the Corvette Corvair for production, the public and the press both loved it, but the standard Corvette’s alarmingly low sales stopped the project in its tracks.

GM allegedly destroyed the Corvette Corvair. An Indiana-based collector commissioned a replica of it in the early 2010s.

Chevrolet Corvette Nomad (1954)

Chevrolet presented the Corvette Nomad alongside the Corvette Corvair at the 1954 GM Motorama. Together, the two design studies explored how to turn the Corvette into a family of models.

While the Corvair went in a sporty, European-influenced direction, the Nomad put a more dynamic spin on the popular concept of a family-friendly station wagon with a long, low roof panel painted white and steeply-raked C-pillars. The model never reached production but it heavily influenced the design of the original, Bel Air-based Nomad released in 1955.

Like the Corvette Corvair, the Corvette Nomad was destroyed in the years following its Motorama debut. Enthusiasts have made several replicas since.

Chevrolet Corvette Impala (1956)

Chevrolet continued investigating ways to expand the Corvette line-up with the Corvette Impala concept introduced at the 1956 GM Motorama. This gorgeous design study took the form of a large coupe with seating for five passengers.

Chevrolet built it to gauge how buyers felt about the idea of a more spacious Corvette. Many liked its design, but fans unanimously suggested making the Corvette quicker was a more worthwhile upgrade than making it bigger. Chevrolet destroyed the Corvette Impala concept but used the name on a range-topping variant of the Bel Air introduced in 1958.

Chevrolet Corvette SS XP-64 (1957)

Underwhelming performance nearly killed the Chevrolet Corvette in its infancy. The firm responded to its critics by making a V8 available in 1955 but Zora Arkus-Duntov, an engineer known as the father of the Corvette, knew the model needed to win high-profile races to join the ranks of world-class sports cars. After convincing General Motors boss Harley Early that even a heavily-modified, production car-based racer wouldn’t be up to the task, he quietly began developing a car he hoped would be capable of winning the 1957 12 Hours of Sebring.

Code-named XP-64, the Super Spyder (SS) shared few components with the regular-production Corvette. It notably received a De Dion-type rear axle to improve weight distribution and inboard brakes to reduce unsprung weight. Power came from a fuel-injected, 307hp V8.

 Its performance was promising but it retired from the 12 Hours of Sebring due to problems with the electrical system, the brakes and the rear end. Duntov’s team began fine-tuning it with an eye on the 24 Hours of Le Mans but the Automobile Manufacturers Association banned factory-backed racing in 1957 in response to the fatal Mercedes-Benz 300 SL crash at the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Chevrolet Corvette XP-700 (1958)

General Motors design boss Bill Mitchell commissioned the XP-700 in 1958. It was based on a V8-powered 1958 Corvette but it received a brand-new body that incorporated styling cues borrowed from grand prix-winning race cars. Mitchell drove it regularly for about a year.

The XP-700 later returned to Chevrolet’s headquarters where stylists updated its design – notably by adding a transparent, double-bubble plastic roof – and painted it silver. GM displayed it next to other concept cars at various events held in America and dismantled it as soon as the wow effect wore off. Its chassis was allegedly used to build the 1961 Mako Shark concept.

There’s little evidence suggesting Chevrolet seriously considered mass-producing the XP-700. Some aspects of it (including its rear end) influenced later versions of the Corvette, however.

Chevrolet Corvette Mako Shark (1961)

Bill Mitchell’s fascination with marine biology permeated General Motors’ design studio around the turn of the 1960s. According to Larry Shinoda, an influential designer who worked for GM during that era, Mitchell caught a shark while fishing and immediately decided its shape and color would work well on a sports car.

He later asked Shinoda to draw a concept that previewed the second-generation Corvette (whose design was already locked in) while incorporating shark-like styling cues. Luckily for his design team, he hadn’t caught a lobster.

Mitchell’s shark looked nothing like the first-generation Corvette so Shinoda started from scratch and created an angular concept named Mako Shark that was loosely inspired by the 1959 Corvette Stingray concept. The blue paint applied to the top part of the car gradually faded into silver to achieve a more shark-like look. 

Corvette XP-819 (1964)

Perhaps inspired by Porsche, Chevrolet considered making the Corvette rear-engined during the 1960s. Frank Winchell, an engineer who worked on the Corvair, argued a rear-engined Corvette would handle well if its V8 engine was made out of aluminum to keep weight in check and wider rear tires. The lone XP-819 prototype built crashed during high-speed tests. It spent decades in storage, partially dismantled, until a collector purchased it and rebuilt it.

The accident convinced many at Chevrolet that developing a rear-engined, V8-powered sports car was easier said than done. Some of its engineers still believed in the layout, however.

Astro 1 concept (1967)

Chevrolet introduced a Corvette-like coupe with a strikingly low-slung silhouette named Astro I in 1967. Engineers wanted to make it as aerodynamic as possible so they installed a Corvair-sourced flat-six engine tuned to 240hp behind the rear axle. The entire rear section of the car lifted up to let passengers access the cabin.

Once inside, the driver faced aircraft-style joysticks rather than a steering wheel. The Astro I was only a design study built to turn heads on the auto show circuit and it was never a candidate for mass-production. By the time it made its debut, Chevrolet had already finalized the design of the third-generation Corvette which began arriving in showrooms in 1968.

Chevrolet XP-882 (1969)

Zora Arkus-Duntov doggedly believed the Corvette needed to adopt a mid-engined layout. He began working on a prototype named XP-882 equipped with a V8 engine and a transaxle both sourced from the Oldsmobile Toronado and mounted transversally directly behind the passenger compartment.

The project was canceled for cost reasons but the car was displayed at the 1970 New York auto show to trick Ford into thinking Chevrolet was preparing a rival for the DeTomaso Pantera, which the Dearborn-based firm imported to America, powered and sold through its Lincoln-Mercury dealers.

Chevrolet XP-895 (1972)

Work on the on-again, off-again mid-engined Corvette continued during the early 1970s. Though the third-generation model had only been on sale since 1968, members of the company’s research and development department saw an opportunity to expand the Corvette family towards the top by stuffing an array of new technology into a halo model.

XP-895 was loosely related to XP-882 but it wore an aluminum body made by Reynolds (which sometimes earned it the nickname Reynolds Corvette).

Chevrolet XP-897GT (1973)

Like NSU, Mazda and Citroën, Chevrolet spent a fortune developing Wankel technology around the turn of the 1970s. It planned to design a full catalog of rotary engines ranging from small, frugal units for the Vega to high-performance variants for sports cars like the Corvette. The concept that ensued was one of the most unusual factory-built Corvette off-shoots ever.

The team in charge of the project decided to make the Corvette smaller in a bid to increase its appeal on the European market, according to Hemmings. Instead of starting from scratch, engineers purchased a Porsche 914/6, chopped off the body and shortened the wheelbase.

 They installed a twin-rotor Wankel engine in the space normally occupied by the flat-six and asked Pininfarina for a sleek body that looked nothing like the third-generation Corvette. It was presented at the 1973 Paris auto show.

Chevrolet built a second Wankel-powered, mid-engined Corvette in 1973. It was an evolution of the XP-882 concept equipped with a highly experimental, quad-rotor Wankel tuned to provide 360hp. It reached nearly 150mph on a test track but development stopped abruptly when General Motors executives realized the Wankel engine’s future was dim at best in the wake of the oil crisis.

Greenwood Corvette Sportwagon (1974)

The number of companies that either made kits to let DIYers turn a Chevrolet Corvette into a station wagon or performed the conversion in-house was surprisingly high. Kits were sold through parts catalogs as early as 1968 but the concept is arguably more closely associated with a tuner and coachbuilder named Greenwood Corvettes than anyone else. 

Greenwood fine-tuned the design using parts sourced from a Ford Pinto. The result was a cohesive look that almost looked like it came straight from the factory and a practical hatch which gave users access to a makeshift cargo compartment. The conversion finally made the Corvette road trip-friendly. Greenwood estimates less than two dozen examples of the Corvette were transformed into a wagon using its kit.

Chevrolet Aerovette (1977)

The Aerovette concept was the final evolution of the mid-engined XP-882 prototype. Chevrolet executives gradually eased into the idea of making the Corvette mid-engined but they knew they couldn’t sell a sports car with a quad-rotor Wankel engine. Engineers consequently built the Aerovette around a V8 engine and stylists made tweaks to the design to bring it closer to production. Chevrolet announced a completely new kind of Corvette – one with double-hinged gullwing doors and newfound dynamism – for 1980.

The mid-engined Corvette likely would have become a reality had the men who carried the project forward not retired. Zora Arkus-Duntov notably left in 1975. Dave McLellan, who replaced Arkus-Duntov as the Corvette’s chief engineer, clearly preferred the front-engined layout and played an instrumental role in keeping the Corvette the way it had always been. The fourth-generation Corvette unveiled in 1984 retained a front-mounted V8 engine.

Dunham Caballista Corvette (1977)

American coachbuilder Dunham identified a market for a stately-looking coupe with the performance of a Chevrolet Corvette. Its entry into the personal luxury car segment was unusual, to say the least.

Starting with a third-generation Corvette, it changed many parts (including the grille, the lights and the trunk lid) to give the coupe a Cadillac-like design. It sounded and looked like the question to the answer no one asked yet about 50 customers commissioned the conversion between 1977 and 1982.

Chevrolet Corvette America (1978)

In the late 1970s, an independent coachbuilder named California Custom Coach (CCC) created a four-door Corvette that put an equal emphasis on performance and space. The complicated production process involved taking two Corvettes and fusing them together to extend the wheelbase by 30in.

The final product offered four doors, four individual seats, four removable roof panels and an 185hp V8 engine bolted to an automatic transmission. Chevrolet caught wind of the project and allegedly considered selling the car through its dealer network but it quickly decided not to get involved.

The conversion wasn’t cheap. CCC charged about $35,000 (approximately $107,000 in 2019) for a four-door Corvette in 1980. To add context, the standard Corvette started at $13,140 (roughly $40,300 in 2019) that year. Most historians agree six examples (including one pre-production prototype) of the four-door Corvette were made and only two survive in 2019.

Corvette Duntov Turbo (1978)

In the 1960s and the 1970s, Zora Arkus-Duntov unsuccessfully tried convincing Chevrolet’s top brass to take the Corvette to the next level. First, he tried making it mid-engined; he failed. Decision-makers then turned down his request to turbocharge the model because they argued it would cost too much. After retiring from General Motors in 1975, he turned to American Custom Industries (ACI) to make at least one of his dreams a reality.

Arkus-Duntov helped ACI create a unique Corvette named Duntov Turbo that came with a wide-body kit, non-retractable square headlights, digital instrumentation, steering and suspension modifications plus a turbocharged V8 engine.

ACI planned to make 201 examples but production stopped after the Ohio-based firm converted 32 cars. In 1980, the Duntov Turbo cost $37,500 (about $115,000 in 2019). Viewed in that light, it’s not surprising that ACI didn’t manage to sell 201 cars; even selling 32 examples must have been easier said than done.

Bertone Ramarro (1984)

Bertone always wanted to design and build a car for an American automaker. In 1984, shortly after Chevrolet introduced the fourth-generation Corvette, the Italian design firm turned the model into a futuristic-looking prototype named Ramarro.

It was 12in shorter than a Corvette and Bertone fitted it with sliding doors to make getting in and out of the cabin easier in tight spaces. Chevrolet had no interest in selling a re-bodied Corvette so the Ramarro remained a one-off concept.

Chevrolet Corvette Indy (1986)

On the surface, the Chevrolet Corvette Indy concept indicated the idea of taking the nameplate into mid-engined territory was still alive and well. In reality, it was little more than a rolling laboratory of technology built to showcase the firm’s technological prowess.

Power for the Corvette Indy came from a 2.6-liter V8 derived from IndyCar racing – hence its name. Lotus, which General Motors was in the process of acquiring at the time, worked on the suspension. The Indy also featured four-wheel steering, satellite navigation, an electronic throttle control system and a digital instrument cluster. All of these features later trickled down to production cars.

Chevrolet CERV-III (1990)

Chevrolet launched the Chevrolet Engineering Research Vehicle (CERV) series of prototypes when it released a grand prix racer-like design study in 1960. The mid-engined CERV-II from 1964 was also much closer to a race car than to a street-legal production model; it could have turned into Chevrolet’s answer to the Ford GT40. The CERV-III, however, was built to run alongside the fastest, most desirable exotic cars in the world – and it wore Corvette emblems.

Presented in 1990, the coupe stood out with a body made using various composite materials, like carbon fiber and Kevlar, and a twin-turbocharged, mid-mounted V8 engine tuned to 650hp with input from Lotus. The eight spun all four wheels through a frighteningly complicated six-speed setup consisting of a three-speed automatic gearbox that shifted through a two-speed transmission.

The CERV-III looked ready for production. The Corvette emblems on both ends suggested Chevrolet was preparing to turn the nameplate into a supercar slayer capable of 225mph (about 25mph more than the Ferrari F40) but the concept ultimately remained at the prototype stage.

Italdesign Moray (2003)

Italdesign traveled to the 2003 Geneva auto show to unveil a concept car it developed to celebrate the Chevrolet Corvette’s 50th anniversary. Named Moray, the design study kept the Corvette’s long hood, short decklid proportions but wore a much softer design accented by a transparent roof panel.

Italdesign cleaned up its silhouette by replacing the door mirrors with cameras, a technology starting to spread across the automotive industry in 2019. Power came from a 400hp, Corvette-sourced V8.

The Moray was never a candidate for production.

The eighth-generation Corvette (2019)

With the exception of the first-generation model, every factory-built Chevrolet Corvette has come with a front-mounted V8 engine that spins the rear wheels. That’s about to change. The eighth-generation model will shift to a mid-engined layout when it makes its debut in 2019.

Chevrolet hopes the new layout will inject a dose of excitement into the nameplate and lure younger buyers into showrooms. Going mid-engined will pelt the Corvette into an unfamiliar territory dominated by well-established rivals like the Audi R8 and the Acura NSX.

Chevrolet can’t afford to make a mistake. That’s why the model’s introduction has been delayed several times as engineers work to fix problems uncovered during extensive testing all around the world. The eighth-generation Corvette will make its debut on Thursday July 18 2019 at an event in California and arrive in American showrooms for the 2020 model year.

We don’t know exactly what it will be powered by but we’re sure it will be a V8. Some rumors also claim Chevrolet will build both the seventh- and the eighth-generation cars side by side in Bowling Green, Kentucky, for years to come. PICTURE: Autocar artist impression