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07.1 8 .19 1970 XP-882 April 2, 1970 was a notable day for Corvette fans, as the XP-882 mid-engine Corvette concept made a surprise appearance, wowing the crowds at the New York auto show. Even this early in the mid-engine Corvette story, such a model had already taken on mythical status among the faithful, and the XP-882’s drop-dead looks gave Corvette lovers everything they didn’t even know they wanted. And then some. Corvette lead engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov’s team started working on the XP-882 in 1968. Two prototypes were built around small-block Chevy engines, with plans for big-block power and eventually all-wheel drive. Zora had been playing with AWD since his experimental mid-engine CERV II racer. The styling group designed a new look that was crisp, edgy, and low-slung, yet it still looked like a Corvette. Despite fierce resistance from sales, styling, and engineering, Chevrolet general manager John Z. DeLorean canceled the XP-882 project in August 1969 to pur...

During his tenure as the general manager of Chevrolet, John Z. DeLorean always seemed to have his eye fixed on something over the horizon. After the Corvette XP-882 mid-engine prototype chassis improvements were approved (the 882 would morph into the XP-895), DeLorean authorized the design team headed by Bill Mitchell to create a new body for the updated prototype. Something rounder, with big wheel flares, a sugar scoop rear roof treatment, and NACA ducts on the hood. While the final design was nice, it strayed further away from the Corvette “look,” and was actually closer in style to the Two-Rotor (XP-987 GT) mid-engine Corvette prototype. Oddly, the body was mostly made of steel and the car weighed about 3,500 pounds all in—about 100 pounds more than that of a production ’73 Corvette. This would yield no performance improvement at all, so what was the point? It needed to be lighter. It needed to be a car like the Reynolds Aluminum Corvette Prototype. Reynolds Metals (of alum...