Time flies when you are having fun racing and winning. But five years can be an eternity in prototype sports car racing. I was shocked to see a report on Jalopnik.com that the five year old Corvette Daytona Prototype is now relegated to vintage historic racing events.
Concerning the mid-engine platform, that IS the direction the high-end sports cars are going. The whole “mid-engine Corvette” notion is an old wet dream that’s totally cemented into Corvette folk lore. Fifty years ago “mid-engine” made sense because tires and suspension wasn’t what it is today. The current C7 Corvette is a “front-mid-engine” and with modern tires and suspension it works as well as anything else.
At Riverside Raceway in 1960, Duntov unveiled one of the most unusual cars of his career at GM, the CERV I. (CERV – Chevrolet Engineering Research Vehicle) The car’s official reason for being was, “A research tool for Chevrolet’s continuous investigations into automotive ride and handling phenomena under more realistic conditions.” (wink, wink, RACING!) But everyone knew better. Duntov first got the idea of building a rear-engine racer in ‘57 while working out the details on the SS Corvette. Since R&D work was also going on with the Corvair and its unique transaxle, a mid-engine V-8 wasn’t outside of legitimate research. This alone may have been what got the project approved.
On March 23, 2017 AutoGuide.com reported that on May 24, 2016, GM Global Technology Operations LLC filed with the US Patent & Trademark Office, Patent Application number 20170080770, titled, “VEHICLE RIDE-HEIGHT DETERMINATION FOR CONTROL OF VEHICLE AERODYNAMICS”. The “Abstract, Claims, and Description” are on the US Patent & Trademark Office – Patent Application Full Text and Image Database website.
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