The internet blogosphere had a good year of speculating the starting price of the 2020 Corvette Stingray. Some claimed the C8 would be just a hair over the retiring (front-engined) C7 Corvette in MSRP. Others sourced information claiming it would start well into six figures. Thankfully, it’s the former, as General Motors President Mark Reuss confirmed to attendees of the C8 Corvette reveal last month that the cost of entry to own this 490 horsepower mid-engined supercar would be astonishingly under $60,000.
Today, it’s official: $59,995 for the 2020 Corvette Stingray 1LT. Moreover, the pre-order books are open.
For comparison’s sake, the C8 Corvette MSRP is nestled right in between the C7 Stingray’s starting price of $55,900, and the wide-bodied C7 Grand Sport of $65,900. But it’s more capable than both.
Based on official numbers from Chevrolet, a 2020 Corvette Stingray 2LT costs $67,295, which adds 14-speaker Bose audio system, a heads-up display, heated and cooled seats, and GM’s next-generation Performance Data Recorder, along with more interior and exterior personalization options. A C8 Corvette 3LT starts at $71,495 and adds suede and carbon-fiber interior trim, unlocks all three seats, opens up all of the interior color options, all of the exterior color options, and more. For those that need visualizing, the 2020 Corvette’s online configurator is up.
Mechanically, all variants are the same: a 6.2L LT2 small block V8 engine pushing 490 horsepower and 470 lb-ft of torque. Output is sent exclusively through an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission, and there’s no manual shifter for the first time in a Corvette, nor will there be likely ever be one.
For those that want the best performing 2020 Corvette Stingray money can buy, they’ll need to select the $5,000 Z51 Performance Package. This adds larger brakes, Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tires, a bigger rear spoiler that delivers 400 lbs of downforce at speed, a trick electronic limited-slip differential, performance exhaust that also adds five horsepower and five foot-pounds of output to the engine, as well as extra cooling hardware. However, one can also just opt for the noise of the performance exhaust, which is a $1,195 standalone option. On top of the Z51 package, the FE4 suspension with Magnetic Ride Control is $1,895. Oh, and if you want that GPS-based, speed-bump clearing suspension lift, that will be a cool $1,495 on 2LT and 3LT trims.