Engineer’s book reveals 2020 Chevrolet Corvette quarter-mile time

The Corvettes at Carlisle event draws more than 5,000 Corvettes over four days to the Carlisle Fairgrounds in Harrisburg, Pa. Some GM execs are there, too, as one would expect, including 2020 Chevrolet Corvette chief engineer Tadge Juechter and some of his engineering corps. A Corvette Forum member happened upon one of those engineers in the crowd, and got to look at and photograph a few pages in the engineer’s booklet of C8 Corvette specs. Among the interesting stats, the booklet shows the Corvette with a quarter-mile time of 11.3 seconds at 121 miles per hour. For context, GM’s official quarter-mile estimate for the C7 Corvette with the Z51 package was 12 seconds at 119 mph, the C7 Z06 was listed at 10.95 seconds at 127 mph, and the C7 ZR1 did the quarter in 10.6 seconds at 134 mph.

Before we get further into the booklet, assuming the information is legit, note that none of it is final. Another Corvette Forum poster wrote that “in the 2020 Corvette Walk Around Presentation that Tadge Juechter said, ‘We still have a ways to go. We have to do some additional test work, some final tweaking on the calibrations … a lot of little fine tuning still left to do to make sure the car is perfect when we finally do start production.’”

Having said that, the unofficial time looks AOK. The original poster didn’t mention if the quarter-mile time came with or without the Z51 package, but we’re inclined to think this is for the base model. Maximum lateral G for the base Corvette is 0.9, and it rises to 1.0 with the Z51 package. There’s only one top speed listed in this section, and that’s 193 mph. Earlier this month we heard that the base Corvette’s top speed will be 194 mph, and the Z51 will be slower because of its aero package — another poster on the Corvette Forum wrote that it will be 184 mph. Since the only top speed figure is 193 mph, we think it’s safe to say the quarter-mile times apply to the base model.

Another useful tidbit is the weight with fluids. At the reveal last month, GM gave the 2020 Corvette’s weight at 3,366 pounds dry. According to the booklet, the entry-level coupe weighs 3,535 pounds with fluids, and puts on another 42 pounds with the Z51 package, coming in at 3,577 pounds. The convertible weighs 102 pounds more than the coupe, at 3,637 pounds; there’s no weight listed for a convertible with the Z51 package. 

We also get preliminary acceleration times. In the same section with the drag-strip numbers, figures are broken out for the entry model and the Z51 package: 0 to 60 mph takes 3.0 seconds with the entry-level model, 2.9 seconds with the Z51 package. The 2019 Corvette with the Z51 package took 3.8 seconds to reach 60 mph, the C7 Corvette Z06 with the eight-speed automatic and Z07 package took 2.95 seconds, and the the C7 Corvette ZR1 needed 2.85 seconds.

Braking distance remains just about the same; the 2019 Corvette with the ZR1 package took 107 feet to get from 60 mph to standstill, the ZR1-equipped 2020 Corvette uses 108.4 feet, the entry-level model does the same in 115.1 feet.

Head to the Corvette Forum for more details. Even the C8 Corvette’s rumor and speculation gets better the more we hear about it.