It's What's Inside That Counts: A Closer Look at the 2020 C8 Corvette Interior
By all metrics, the C8 Corvette is a groundbreaking machine, taking the greatest leap the model has ever had in its long history, By now we’ve heard about the new mid engine layout, the advanced technology on the car, and its amazingly low starting price, but what’s it like inside?
While the history of the modern Corvette has been filled with all sorts of accolades in performance, exterior styling and of course value, the one area where recent Corvettes haven’t really delivered a knock-out punch is the interior.
Whether it’s the overall quality of the materials, the longevity and attention to detail or just the look—modern Corvette interiors have been passable at best, especially given how great the rest of the car is. The C5 generation in particular was known for having a rather subpar interior that didn't feel much different from GM's economy cars of the time, though improvements have been made on the following generations
So with the imminent arrival of the radically different C8 Corvette we were very interested to see how the new car’s interior would stack up to the rest of the package. During the recent Rolex Monterey Motorsport Reunion we had the chance to get a closer look at a pre-production C8 interior and have some observations to share.
First up is that the new Corvette offers a vast array of interior trimmings, colors and options. If you are one of those more used to modern cars with few to no options for interior trimmings, you may be surprised at the number of options available here.
Of course a lot of this will depend on the exact trim level and options on the car, but even the base model $59,995 1LT model offers a surprisingly well equipped interior with its standard power "GT1" seats, with available options like more aggressive competition sport bucket seats, a mircofiber suede steering wheel and a variety of seatbelt colors.
And it only gets fancier from there. The 2LT features heated and cooled seating while adding even fancier GT2 seats to the option list with Napa Leather upholstery and even bigger selection of interior colors.
While the basic 1LT model is available with gray, black or red interior colors, moving into one of the higher trims opens up an even larger selection of colors including blue, tan and a handsome color called Morello Red.
Other options available to give the interior even more personality include two-tone seats, a few different color stitching options for the higher trim options and a $1500 carbon fiber interior trim package, which we imagine will be quite popular.
So while, the number of options available for the C8's interior is impressive, that still doesn't really tell us how it shapes up from an aesthetic and functional sense, and after seeing the interior in person our first impressions are rather positive.
In person, the first thing you notice is the large, sloping center console that separates the driver and passenger seats. This an element that will take some getting used to, but it's already started to grow on us.
We've seen a lot of comments about the sheer number of buttons going down the C8's center console, but in person they actually blend in quite nicely and it's always nice to see real buttons when so many cars have switched to touchscreen interfaces.
And speaking of the touchscreens, here's a look at the C8's floating infotainment screen, which as you can see is almost arranged as a complimentary display to the car's main instrument panel.
Also important to note is the C8's new steering wheel. While many cars sport flat bottom wheels these days, the C8's wheel is actually flat on both and bottom, and the rectangular wheel matches nicely with the new cockpit layout. It also provides plenty of access to the paddle shifters for the dual clutch transmission.
It will be some time before there can be a final verdict C8's interior as the cars start being lived with and driven, but from what we can tell Chevrolet has done commendable work with the new Corvette's cabin.
It may not quite be the same leap that the exterior or drivetrain of the C8 is, and it will never be opulent in the way many high end supercars are but the 2020 Corvette's interior seems to be anything but an afterthought—especially if you consider that crazy low starting price.
Now we just want to spend some extended time in it.
If you missed it, be sure and check out our closer look at the technology of the 2020 C8 Corvette.
