Manoli Katakis 
As global hype settles around the 2020 C8 Corvette, we’re left combing over the finer details of the ins and outs of this sub-$60,000 modern marvel from General Motors. The biggest aspect of which has to be its design, as it’s the main draw to the 490 horsepower supercar. After all, if the Corvette design team botched the looks, nobody working at the automaker would hear the end of it. Thankfully, that’s not the case, in our opinion, as some have gone to claim that the C8 is the most important vehicle of the decade. That said, the exterior design does seem to be missing a few notable throwback easter eggs. Namely, a split rear window. However, that’s not because the design team didn’t give a C8 Corvette split window a shot.
“We looked at a (C8 Corvette split window)… it was too literal… and however way we did it, it came across as forced,” said Chevrolet Performance Exterior Design Director Tom Peters to MC&T.
The C8 Corvette was one of Peters’ final project in a storied career at General Motors that included the radical Pontiac Banshee Concept, the iconic Cadillac Sixteen Concept, the fifth-gen and sixth-gen Camaro, the mighty C7 Corvette, and the rugged K2 Chevrolet Silverado. He is a 2019 inductee into the National Corvette Museum Hall of Fame for his work on the American sports car over the years.
Peters nevertheless recognizes the legendary split window design element of the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray, and his team did manage to weave a nod to the aesthetic.
“Because the ’63 is so powerful, is there a way to represent that split window theme in a modern way? We tried to emulate the theme in the rear, and if you look, you can see a theme come through the roof… the glass aims and breaks subtly, and that lines up with the top of the motor. And that lines up with the Corvette Stingray emblem. So your eye connects the dots and it’s kind of a thematic element to the split window,” said Peters.
The theme is obvious in the photo below. The 2020 C8 Corvette Stingray will go on sale in Q4 of this year.
