Thanks to our international network of spy photographers, we’ve published so many shots of Chevrolet mid-engine Corvette prototypes, it’s not even worth linking to them all. These are the most recent, but our favorites are still the ones from the mid-engine Corvette’s trip through a McDonald’s drive-through. But despite having seen so many prototypes that we can practically draw them from memory, we still had no idea what the interior actually looked like. Until now.
Today, our friends over at Carscoops published a series of spy shots that basically show the mid-engine Corvette’s entire cabin in full production form. You’ll want to head over there to see the full set, but as you can see here, the new Corvette’s interior is going to be fancy. Real fancy.
One of the first things that jumps out at us is the new two-spoke steering wheel. We won’t be too critical until we’ve actually sat inside the production car, but the wheel certainly does look odd. We also don’t see steering wheel buttons for adaptive cruise control. Then again, those seats don’t look production-ready either, so you never know what could change when it heads to production or what options will be available.
Zooming in on the extremely driver-focused center console, you can see that Chevrolet decided to give the new infotainment display a control knob with a Lexus-inspired hand rest. Thankfully, if you look closely at the top shot, you can see there’s still a physical volume knob. Anyone who was hoping that the Corvette would still offer a manual transmission option when it went mid-engine (well, technically rear-mid-engine) will be sorely disappointed, though. Those Lamborghini-esque push-button controls could be wired up to an automatic or a dual-clutch transmission, but the design doesn’t appear to have any sort of panel that could be removed to accommodate a stick shift.
Interestingly, designers chose to put all the climate controls in a row on the right side of the center console. It looks pretty cool, but until new owners get used to the layout, we imagine it will be incredibly frustrating to remember which buttons are where. And you can definitely forget changing the temperature without taking your eyes off the road. At least the materials look high-quality, though?
Currently, we still don’t know when Chevrolet plans to officially reveal the mid-engine Corvette. We already know it will be sold as a 2020 model, so you’d think Chevrolet would reveal it before the summer. But while the Detroit auto show seems like the obvious choice, Chevrolet doesn’t have anything on the schedule that could possibly be a Corvette reveal. Maybe that means we’ll see it at the New York auto show in April? Odds are, only Chevrolet knows. But we sure hope it would hurry up.
Source: Carscoops
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