00:00sure it's a weird time to be discussing foreign market anything given that any such conversation
00:09seems liable to be tariffed that'll be 25 for discussing overseas auto industry happenings
00:16but here we are general motors has just announced the opening of its newest design studio located in
00:23royal leamington spa uk and while that news might elicit a yawn or a google search of that mouthful
00:29of a town name gm made sure it'd pop with a surprise corvette design study the automakers uk design team
00:36was loosed on the corvette's 70 plus year history of being america's sports car and apparently told to
00:42go all t and crumpets on it before 2020 such an exercise and certainly the striking concept car
00:49it begot probably would have seemed more extreme but since the corvette at long last ditched its
00:55front engine layout for a more exotic mid-engine design in its eighth generation c8 the goalposts
01:02for freshness in corvette world have clearly moved gm's british team also appears to have done its
01:08homework on corvette ology translating several classic design themes from various corvettes over
01:14the decades into a single futuristic low slone concept car that's both far more exotic looking
01:20than today's c8 corvette and still somewhat recognizable as a vet or at least we could
01:27see this design standing up as a would-be next generation corvette raise your hand if you'd be
01:32offended if chevy came out tomorrow and declared this the c9 corvette we'll wait the pointed three
01:39dimensional snout calls back to the c3's shark nose treatment while the central crease and hood cut
01:46lines remind us of the previous generation c7's body streaks and who can miss the c2 split window
01:52treatment here applied to both the front and rear glass to stunning effect below the painted bodywork
01:59essentially everything from the concept car's waist down is pure new age fantasy a contrasting color
02:06aero deck filled with fence flaps and guide channels the only obvious callback to corvette's past
02:12are the quad tail lights peeking out from just below the rear fenders same goes for the gullwing
02:18doors which are hinged at intriguingly the roof center line along the visual link between the front
02:24and rear window splits the front and rear ends are essentially wide open revealing a chassis setup with
02:32inboard pushrod actuated shocks and springs that could work on an open wheel race car suggesting this
02:38design is as ambitiously racy as some of the wildest hyper cars of today we do not of course know what
02:45powers this would be bet nor is gm saying most of the technical details focus on the aerodynamics
02:51packaging and lightweighting efforts the structure is said to be envisioned being constructed using
02:57additive manufacturing ie 3d printed while the doors open under their own power there are active aero elements
03:05two with fan assistance and active ducting employed to redirect air over and through the vehicle at
03:12speed fins and spoilers that deploy and retract as needed and fan assisted ground effects this wild
03:19stuff is all packaged within an entirely realistic at least in terms of c8 corvette succeeding feasibility
03:27footprint the design study measures and at a very very low 40.7 inches tall ac8 is 48.6 inches
03:35tall 183.8 inches long and super wide 85.7 inches across the c8 is about an inch shorter and fully nine
03:46inches narrower the cabin is simple with clean lines and a warm cocoon-like atmosphere exaggerated by the
03:52egg-shaped greenhouse would the brits ever design a cravette who knows but gm says the uk advanced design
04:00studio exists to help conceptualize and push forward new designs globally including in the u.s this design
04:07is only the first of several corvette ideations gm says are coming from the new facility which is also
04:13working on a yet to be revealed gmc concept vehicle so far all we know about that one are a pair of coordinates
04:20visible in teaser images that point to leicester england and saginaw michigan we'll sort that out whenever gm
04:27actually shows that vehicle but for now we're just going to sit back and mull over how much we dig this
04:34british corvette
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