Aussie heads design for next Corvette

An icon of America’s automotive industry will soon be given a healthy Aussie injection.

Mike Simcoe, the former Holden Australian design boss who now heads up General Motors international design division in Detroit, has spoken about his involvement in penning the C8 Chevrolet Corvette.

The eighth generation of Chevrolet's flagship sports car will be a radical departure for GM's biggest brand. For the first time, it is expected to be mid-engined and could even be sold in factory right-hand drive form in Australia.

Simcoe, who played a strong hand in the design of the locally-built Monaro during the nineties and noughties, admits that an Australian designing the next American icon is a huge deal.

“What’s the C8?” he coyly said of the top-secret project, before clarifying: “Being part of the Corvette design is very exciting for everyone involved and there certainly will be a next-generation Corvette at some point”.

Simcoe will draw on his extensive experience in the industry, working with some of GM’s best and brightest in developing the Corvette.

As previously reported, the C8 Corvette is set to be mid-engined, and will likely be offered with a traditional V8 powerplant, along with an electrified option that would rival the likes of Honda’s NSX.

Simcoe admitted the nostalgia and history around the car added another layer of intensity to the project.

“The level of excitement is the same but realistically the designers and the whole team involved get excited about every vehicle they do,” he said.

“Certainly there’s a lot more emotional pressure when you’re doing something like the Corvette and if I liken it to the Monaro, the emotional pressure was that in its early days, nobody knew about it. It was exciting.

“Here, you’re dealing with an icon that’s been consistently successful, so you don’t want to be the one that blew that.”

Simcoe’s vision for the Corvette may soon be more relatable for Australians. With Holden promising it will replace the locally-built Commodore with a rear-drive V8 sports car at some point in the future, the Corvette and the Chevrolet Camaro loom as the most likely candidates.

“This wasn’t part of my dream future. It was something that I had no concept of,” Simcoe said of his current role heading GM design, a position which sees him oversee cars across the company’s global portfolio.

“I didn’t know what to expect. Looking up is very different to looking down, it’s been a lot more comfortable than I expected. The people who work globally within GM design are very good at what they do, and my job at the moment is not to get in their road.”

Even without Simcoe’s input, the mid-engined Corvette received a strong Aussie injection early in its design phase, when a mid-engined prototype masquerading as a Commodore ute was caught out testing.

“No matter what job you’re doing, you don’t want to screw up,” Simcoe said. “The consequences of this one are a little more daunting.

"I don’t expect to screw it up … I don’t expect to do this job badly because I’ve got so much support.

“Yes, I have the ultimate opinion within design but I don’t simply dictate things because I’ve got to rely on all positions within design to do the right thing, and they always do.”