Here's your first look at the all-new mid-engined Corvette

You’d imagine that a new version of America’s most celebrated sports car would be announced like Elvis Presley popping down from the clouds to do a one-man show in Vegas. With Marilyn Monroe and Elmo on backing vocals. You’d expect the ticker-tape parade of excitement and freedom fries with extra cheese.

You’d be wrong, however.

For a while, the worst-kept secret in all of motoring has been that the new ‘C8’ Chevy Corvette will go mid-engined. For the first time in its history, the production-spec ‘Vette will shove its V8 behind the seats, not ahead of them. And in so doing, become a true Ferrari and Lamborghini-rivalling supercar. A car for people who like McLarens, not Big Macs.

And yet, official confirmation of the new car’s arrival has been given with a whisper. No lasers, no confetti canons, no national anthem sung by a reality TV starlet. Just a new Corvette, wearing plenty of monochrome camouflage, driving down 7th Avenue in New York City. The car did a lap of Times Square, showcasing the date stickered to its flanks, then disappeared into Manhattan.

So, at least now we know the date to mark in your calendar. 18 July 2019 is the day the world will see America’s new mid-engined supercar. How do we know it’s mid-engined? Well, look at it. Those gaping side intakes have to be there to cool something big in the back. Unless this is a supercar with the world’s biggest on-board fridge.

Redesigning the ‘Vette as a properly low-slung supercar might enrage the old guard, but Chevy wants to shrug off the car’s slightly, ahem, retirement-present image, and go hunting the likes of the Acura NSX, Ferrari F8, and whatever combination of nutty numbers McLaren’s dreamt up this week.

Can it succeed? We’ll get our first clues mid-July. Stay tuned.