I've never been a huge Corvette fan - I appreciate their performance, but the styling has never been something I've lusted over. But, I do think they hit a home-run with the shift to mid-engine. This had to be done in order to continue progressing the performance of the car. I don't necessarily think they nailed the aesthetics - it looks a bit frumpy and awkward in some areas, but I expect that's mainly due to the fact that they were trying to evolve a front-engine design into a mid-engine design and weren't willing to completely throw away the old and start from scratch.
I give GM a lot of credit. This was NOT an easy task. The typical Corvette buyer didn't want the layout to change, and they had to do quite a lot to keep the car recognizable as a Corvette, while accommodating a lot of what made it what it is: affordable, comfortable, usable storage, etc. On a side note about this, Jalopnik had an article a few days ago suggesting that "Boomers" were angry about the new layout. I was extremely disappointed in the editor, Jalopnik in general, and the commenters (for the most part), since it was filled with vitriol, bigotry, and stereotypes... peppered with quite a few ageist and even political comments that have no place in the car enthusiast world. In fact, I was so shocked by a lot of it, that I may stop reading Jalopnik altogether. I'm not a Boomer... a young Gen-Xer, in fact... but I felt disgusted after reading the article, and even more so the hateful comments. Apparently Jalopnik is NOT welcoming to people from all demographics - age being one of them - and seems quite OK to accommodate what amounts to hate-speech in their comments section.
But back to the C8. I think it'll sell well. I'm shocked that they managed to keep the base price so reasonable after what must have been a massive investment. The interior looks like a nice step up - although, I'm sure the fancier of the options we're seeing will likely lead to a much more expensive car. But man, what a bargain still - sub 3 second for well under $100k?? Yes, I think it'll sell very well.
The only shame here is that I wish GM did this 10 or 20 years ago - because this could easily be the first and last generation before we just have an electric, or minimally, hybrid C9. And, for that reason, special editions of this car may instantly become very collectible - the only combustion-engine powered mid-engine Corvette? Who knows.
Congratulations, GM!