The long-awaited mid-engine Corvette C8 will be unveiled Thursday

The revelation of the C8 next week will take place in the historic Tustin Hangar No. 2 about 40 miles south of Los Angeles. With 17 floors and 1,000 feet long, the two airship hangars built in 1942 are among the largest wooden structures ever built. The hangars were completed a little over ten years before the first generation, the front-engined Chevrolet Corvette.

Few things – and many – have changed since the introduction of the first Corvette in 1953.

The tandem sold slowly in its early days until the program was transferred to Zora Arkus-Duntov, the "father of the Corvette", who made the car an American icon from 1955.

The front-drive car would endure, but Arkus-Duntov was convinced that a mid-engine platform was better, even in the early years.

"It happened to him after Corvette withdrew from the Sebring 12-hour race in 1957 … because John Fitch's feet were cooked in the open air," says writer Don Sherman, who reported on the Corvette for decades. "Reflecting on that, Zora told me … that he had concluded that the heat source had to be behind the driver."

Dozens of prototypes have been produced over the years, but none have reached the production line. Until now.

The highly camouflaged C8s were captured for the first time by the spy photographers' goal at GM's test facility at Milford Proving Grounds in mid-2016. Sources told the Detroit News that GM was injecting some $ 800 million into the Corvette Bowling Green assembly plant and paint plant for the production of the new car.

"The program I approved in 2007 was $ 900 million," Bob Lutz, former GM product manager in 2016, told Detroit News, "and included a Cadillac XLR with a supercharged Northstar engine. If the current program is $ 800 million, I would bet it also includes a different Cadillac. "

Cadillac's focus has shifted to SUV production, but the mid-engined Corvette has remained on track.

As the development of the C8 matured, the images of the C8 in the wild began to proliferate over the past year, like the granular plans of Sasquatch. There was a video of the car tests on the Nürburgring and Sebring race tracks, as well as on the mountain roads outside of San Diego. There were even images of GM's rifle shotgun, Mark Reuss, in a C8 on an Arizona highway.

Yet GM continued to deny the existence of the supercar.

Rumors were rumored that the car would debut at the Detroit Auto Show this year. The show comes and goes without observation. Sources said the car had problems ranging from twisting the chassis to, more convincingly, the complications of a new electronic system to be introduced across the GM range.

Then suddenly, the finely camouflaged C8 appeared in Times Square this spring. The 18.1.18.19, which is not so encrypted, was emblazoned on his side and telegraphed the official debut of the car on July 18.

Expect Chevrolet to unveil only the base model next Thursday, although the C8 is expected to have several model options in the coming years, including a flat-crank V-8 engine. There could even be a hybrid model with an electric motor at the front that complements a ferocious V-8 bi-turbo at the rear. And then there's the racing version that will start at the 24 Hours of Daytona in January against other mid-engine guns like the Ferrari 488.

As radical as its mid-engine configuration, the C8 base should still accommodate the 6.2-liter V-8 small-block push rod that has been reliably powering the front-engine Corvettes for generations. Purists will surely complain, however, of the lack of a manual transmission option; The C8 will be offered only with an 8-speed automatic dual clutch transmission.

In the world of today's supercars, fast lighting automations are much better than manuals, and Chevrolet did not need the added complication of designing a mid-engine transaxle with an option manual.

The price of the C8 has not been released, but the Corvette has made its mark over the years by offering the same capabilities as Lamborghini and Porsche Turbos, two to three times more. Do not expect this to change, but without the manual option, the basic Corvette should cost between $ 4,000 and $ 5,000 more than the current $ 57,000 front engine model.