CHEVROLET CORVETTE

America’s equivalent of the Porsche 911 has bravely changed tack for its eighth generation. Can it now compete on the global stag

- MATT SAUNDERS

TESTED 8.10.21, MUNICH, GERMANY ON SALE NOW PRICE £ 7 7,15 0

Production of the eighth-generation (C8) Chevrolet Corvette got off to a slow start at the end of 2019. Much of 2020 was also understandably problematic. Other than for mask makers and online retailers, of course, it can’t have been a good year for anyone.

Now, however, Chevrolet’s production lines at the Bowling Green plant in Kentucky are cranked up and running apace, building Corvettes at a rate of some 50,000 per year, most of which are currently being gobbled up by the North American market. Wherever they’re headed, that’s a lot of sports cars: very likely more than all the 911s built by Porsche and all the F-Types built by Jaguar this year put together.

But sales volume hasn’t been enough, thus far at least, to make the Corvette a globally respected player within its strategically important market niche. That, you suspect, is what the car’s new mechanical layout and technical configuration – mid-mounted engine, dual-clutch gearbox, adaptively damped and manually adjustable coilover suspension and right-hand-drive option – is really all about. Not just making the Corvette handle like the pedigree Europeans but making it a much closer notional rival for them as well – and therefore so much harder for badge snobs to dismiss.

As of now, European deliveries of the Corvette are under way. Sole UK sales agent Ian Allan Motors of Virginia Water, Surrey, is expecting its first right-hand-drive customer car in November and has an order bank running well into 2023. Yes, you did read that correctly. You might still be able to get a car quicker if you import one yourself or through a third party, but the official route gets you a right-hand-drive car, a proper dealer warranty, servicing back-up and more besides.