According to many auto experts, there’s a lot of debate inside GM right now about the Corvette C7. Seems some folks think it’s time for the Corvette to move the engine back a few feet, and go with a mid-engine design instead of the current front engine. VP of global product development Jim Queen has spilled the beans on one of GM's most crucial future models. In an interview with Motor Trend , Queen said the next-generation C7 Corvette will retain a naturally aspirated V8 engine but will develop up to 700hp in flagship form. The SS also adds features like ceramic brakes, something GM has opted out of the current car because of the over $10k cost. The price has been brought down though, however and it’s a feature that certainly should be present on the very best of Corvettes.

GM should keep the Vette a "Vette" and make the changes from the C6 to the C7 evolutionary. A call to follow the road map set by Porsche with the 911 is right on. Variable valve timing, AFM (GM-speak for cylinder de-activation), auto stop-start. Figure that combo would be good for about 340 horsepower and 310 lb./ft. Rumors have been circulating that GM vice chairman Bob Lutz has been pushing for a mid-engine C7 Corvette. A mid-engine C7 Corvette would get a version of GM's upcoming high-feature V8, expected to be an efficient, direct-injection 5.0L plus gas engine with quad cams and four valves per cylinder and due to launch in 2009 to replace the Northstar V8.

That's a good question, because right now GM execs are planning the next-generation Corvette, the C7 Corvette. What they decide over the next few months will be hugely important. The SS also adds features like ceramic brakes, something GM has opted out of the current car because of the over $10k cost. The price has been brought down though, however and it's a feature that certainly should be present on the very best of Corvettes.

Rumors have called the car a precursor to the next-generation C7 Corvette, but it seems as if the car is really a throwback instead of a throw forward The vehicle is actually a design study, known for now as the Corvette Centennial Design Concept, and has been developed to mark the 100-year anniversary of General Motors.

GM has several options it's considering for the C7 Corvette. It can go down the regular path of a big RWD V8 sports car, switch to a new an all-new mid-engine design, or downsize to the lighter Kappa and make the Corvette a lithe roadster. GM was seriously considering shelving the project, leaving the Corvette to be little more than a footnote in automotive history, and would have done so if not for two important events. The first was the introduction in 1955 of Chevrolet's first V8 engine since 1919, and the second was the influence of a Soviet migrant in GM's engineering department, Zora Arkus-Duntov