Interested in the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette? See our comprehensive coverageHERE.

The heart of any Corvette is its engine, no matter where its placed. That remains true for the eighth-generation Corvette Stingray, too. Mounted under just over 0.1 inch of glass is the new Corvette's crown jewel, the LT2 6.2-liter V-8. Good for up to 495 hp and 470 lb-ft of torque (when equipped with the optional performance exhaust system), the LT2 makes 35 more horsepower and 5 lb-ft more torque than the LT1 found in the C7 Corvette Stingray. The new 'Vette's naturally aspirated mill (which Chevy says is the most powerful naturally aspirated engine found in a mid-engine car) is built from an aluminum block, and it's designed to drop weight and the Stingray's center of gravity. It also gets a dry-sump oil system with three scavenge pumps, a first for a base-model Corvette, to deal with lateral acceleration levels that Chevrolet says can exceed 1 g in all directions.

The "jewelry" Chevy fit to the LT2 is less functional but arguably just as important. Given that the engine is exposed for all to see, the Corvette's engine is designed to be seen, with, as Chevy says in its press release, "every part … built with appearance in mind."

A standard eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission is paired with the LT2. The first dual-clutch ever fit into a Corvette, this quick-shifting transmission will be the only available transmission in the C8, so for the first time since the 1982 Corvette, no manual transmission is available. Even though you can't shift your own gears, the 2020 Corvette's Tremec-built eight-speed dual-clutch seems promising. It's built with a low first gear to allow for quicker launches, and a close-ratio gear spread from second through sixth gear are optimized for track use. Seventh and eighth gear are essentially overdrive gears designed for grand touring. Power, as you'd expect, goes out the rear axle via a transaxle-mounted electronic limited-slip differential.

Aided by its newfound rear weight bias, Chevy says the 2020 Corvette with the Z51 performance package—which we'll get to in a sec—will be the quickest Corvette ever, launching from 0 to 60 mph in less than 3.0 seconds. Launch control joins six drive modes on the new 'Vette: Weather, Tour, Sport, Track, MyMode (a new driver-configurable setting for street use), and ZMode (a driver-configurable mode for track use).

Given the radical shift of engine placement, a brand-new platform was needed for the C8. The Corvette's lightweight aluminum and carbon-fiber platform, built around a rigid center tunnel, negates the need for the extra-wide rocker panels found on some mid-engine cars.

A revamped suspension works hand in hand with the new platform; for the first time it does away with the old-fashioned transverse leaf-spring suspension design. Instead, the C8 Corvette gets double A-arms frontandrear, backed by modern coil springs. The suspension will be available in four states of tune: FE1 (a slightly sportier tune than the old C7's standard system), FE3 (sportier still), and FE4 (the fourth generation of GM's phenomenal magnetic ride control system). The Corvette also gets a nose-lift feature that can jack the car's nose up 1.6 inches to increase ground clearance in 2.8 seconds at speeds up to 24 mph. The system can also be programed to work automatically through GPS to remember up to 1,000 locations.