Pressure on Mike Simcoe for Corvette C8 design

The man in charge of styling the next Chevrolet Corvette says the pressure is on to make sure one of America’s most iconic sports cars continues its successful lineage.

Former Holden design boss Mike Simcoe – now based in Detroit and the head of design for General Motors – is believed to be entrenched in the final design and sign off of the Corvette expected to be known as the C8, replacing the current C7 generation.

Simcoe also led the design of the born again Holden Monaro – shown as the Commodore Coupe concept in 1998 before going on sale in 2001 – and says styling a Corvette is a monumental task.

“You’re dealing with an icon that’s been successful, consistently successful, and you don’t want to be the one who blew that,” said Simcoe, being careful not to give any details on the next generation Corvette, which is expected to switch from a front engine to mid-engine layout.

“Being part of a Covette design is very exciting for everyone involved and there certainly will be a next generation Corvette at some point.”

Simcoe said the level of excitement in designing a Corvette was similar to any other car in the General Motors broad portfolio but that the pressure was on for the legendary two-seat sports car.

“Certainly there’s a lot more emotional pressure when you’re doing something like a Corvette.”

He said the pressure was more intense and different to that heaped on when the top secret Monaro project was being developed behind closed doors in Port Melbourne.

“The Monaro, the emotional pressure there was that in its early days nobody knew about it,” said Simcoe.

The Corvette C8 is expected to be produced in right-hand drive and sold in Australia.

Holden has already confirmed it will sell a V8-powered sports car in future, with insiders pointing to the Corvette as that car.