Battle Of The Motown Mid-Engine Exotics: Is One Ford GT Worth Ten 2020 Corvette Stingrays?

The stunning debut of General Motors Co.’s eighth-generation Corvette Stingray, with its mid-engine architecture and dazzling exterior styling, is deservedly one of the top automotive events of 2019. Of the many exciting performance statistics is the C8’s starting price: “under $60,000,” says GM.

With comparisons to Ford Motor Co.’s mid-engine GT in mind, my first thoughts run to the enigma of how GM could charge such a preposterously low price and why it would.  Was the $500,000 Ford GT, which won at LeMans, really worth nearly ten new Stingrays? Conversely, could a 495-horsepower Stingray, with a 0-60 time of less than 3 seconds, only be worth one-tenth the price of a GT?

Though C8 Stingray and Ford GT are roughly comparable mid-engine exotics, their architectures differ particularly with respect to the materials used in their manufacture.  More significantly, they differ with respect to the number of copies that will be manufactured and offered to the public: Ford, with a deliberate strategy to create scarcity, limited the number to 1,350 GTs and no more.

GM hasn’t specified how many C8s it will build – but it could be in the range of 40,000 to 50,000. The new Stingray represents a triumph of packaging, engineering and “excellent economies of scale, leveraging the best of what GM can do in terms of manufacturing, know how, touch and feel,” said Kevin Kelly, a GM spokesperson.

GM relied on a mixed materials strategy, using aluminum for the “tub” that comprises the cockpit and other parts, as well as high-strength steel. Carbon fiber is used sparingly, for the single bumper beam, and for trim.  By contrast, Ford’s GT relies extensively on carbon fiber – which is light, costly and difficult to fabricate.  Ford says its car is four hundred pounds lighter than GM’s.

The new Stingray, as with previous Corvette versions, will be built in the automaker’s Bowling Green, Kentucky assembly plant.  Its engine, a 6.2-liter V8, is adapted from the same basic engine found in a Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck.  (GT is powered by a 3.5-liter V6 generating 650 horepower.)

Ford, by contrast, has hired Multimatic, a Canadian contractor, to build all of its GTs essentially by hand.

None of these comparisons suggest that either mid-engine car is “better” than the other.

From the standpoint of GT owners, their vehicle probably will represent a better investment once they are free to sell their cars.  As part of an agreement with Ford, GT owners must keep their vehicles for two years before selling.  The first batch will be eligible for sale this October; Lauren Fix, an automotive journalist and engineer who owns a number of race cars, guesses her GT could be worth $2 million. (She’s not selling, at least not for the moment.)

Fix points notes that her GT – black with a silver stripe and gold wheels – features “a true Formula One suspension setup,” while the Stingray uses McPherson struts, a more prosaic solution.  “No one has driven the C8 yet,” Fix said. “Still, I can assure you that the GT will handle better.”

The current seventh-generation Stingray, about to be discontinued, commanded excellent reviews even with its front-engine rear-drive setup.  With the C8, GM legitimately can compete with Acura NSX, Porsche and other European exotics, especially a the much lower price.  The price and mid-engine setup could attract a younger buyer, which GM would welcome just as all automakers covet a younger, hipper customer to create buzz for their brands.  As Henry Ford II always said: “You can sell an old man a young man’s car – but not the opposite.”