Chevrolet Corvette C8 review - American-made sports car hits European roads - Autocar

The eighth-generation Chevrolet Corvette has landed in Europe. Available at last in official ’export’ specification compliant with European emissions regulations, and finally on sale in the UK in factory-warranted right-hand drive form, this is a landmark version of one of the oldest, most famous and most successful sports cars in the world. And we’ve been waiting for it for a long time. This car has been through a key technical transformation as part of which its famous and character-defining Chevy ’small block’ V8 engine has migrated from the front of the car to the back. Now mid-engined (like an Audi R8 or Ferrari F8) rather than front-engined (like a Jaguar F-Type or BMW M4), the C8 has also adopted steel coil suspension in place of its old leaf sprung axles, and drops a manual gearbox entirely in favour of a new twin-clutch automatic. Power for European versions is slightly lower than in North America, pegged at 475bhp rather than 495-; but standard chassis specification is imp