Author: Richard Heseltine
Photography: Chevrolet
Mid-engined Corvettes aren’t new – Chevrolet have been testing the waters for years.
As we all know by rote, the Chevrolet Corvette is ‘America’s Only Sports Car’. The thing is, there was a time when General Motors’ high-performance talisman borrowed quite a lot from Norfolk, but then the biggest of Detroit’s Big Three owned a 91 percent stake in Lotus at one point. The idea of a mid-engined Corvette has been floated for more than half-a-century, and one of the more tantalising concept cars – or ‘… running visions of the future’ in Chevy speak – arrived in 1986. What’s more, the Corvette Indy was more than a mere motor show stand-filler, it was a fully-functional supercar. Well, at least one of them was. Three were made, after all.
Chevrolet began toying with the idea of mid-engined machines as far back as 1959, although the single-seat, open-wheeled CERV1 (Chevrolet Engineering Research Vehicle) was as far removed from a road car as you could get. The CERV 2 that followed in 1964 was touted as being the world’s first mid-engined car with permanent four-wheel drive. Other show-stoppers with engines mounted amidships followed into the 1970s, with rotary power being hyped along the way, but the Indy was something else entirely.
The project was given the green light in late 1985, the idea being to build a dramatic flight of fantasy that would promote Chevrolet’s branding of the Indy racing engine built by Northampton’s Ilmor Engineering. It was originally intended to be a ‘quickie’ prototype and nothing more, the ‘car’ displayed at the following year’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit going from clay model to 1:1-scale concept queen in just six weeks. It was a non-runner, the transversely-mounted twin-turbo 2.65-litre engine being in place for decorative purposes.
The Indy was greeted with great enthusiasm by the press and public alike. So much so, the Corvette development team lobbied to take the scheme further. Successfully so. Two more cars would be made, one for PR duties while the other acted as a mobile test bed. This time, however, a purpose-built all-aluminium 350cu in V8 substituted the highly-strung race engine. Designed by Lotus, this DOHC, 32-valve gem would ultimately form the basis for the engine that powered the 1990-95 Corvette ZR-1. It generated 380bhp at 6000rpm and 370lb ft of torque at 3800rpm.
Chevrolet insiders claimed the Indy was capable of reaching 180mph and 0-60mph in 5secs. This situation was aided somewhat by the molten grip proffered by the four-wheel drive set-up and monstrously-wide tyres (275/40ZR17 front, 315/35ZR17 rear). Not only that, it also had active suspension, development of which had been started by Team Lotus in 1981/82. Lotus Engineering then picked up the baton and in 1984. It landed a lucrative contract from a pre-buy-in General Motors to develop a raft of active systems. These were trialed first on the Esprit and then GM models such as the Buick Park Avenue and assorted ‘regular’ Corvettes.
The Indy led to another research vehicle, the 1990 CERV III, which was powered by a twin-turbo version of the Lotus-Chevy engine. What’s more, some design features subsequently appeared on mainstream Corvettes, not least fly-by-wire throttles, anti-lock brakes, electronic traction control, carbon-fibre construction and even a SatNav system. So, there you have it: Kentucky’s finest with a bit of Hethel added to the mix. It was never going to be boring.
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