The moment we've all been waiting for isn't around the corner. GM has made it official that the mid-engined, C8 Corvette won't be unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show. Ford will, however, launch the 2020 Mustang Shelby GT500. Did Chevrolet chicken out at the last moment and tried to avoid direct comparisons with the GT500?

It sounds like an incredible hypothesis, but what if it's true? Or what if Chevrolet actually encountered some other issues during the final tests of the C8 that pushed the American giant to delay the launch of, maybe, their most awaited product ever? In any case, the most bad-ass sixth-generation Mustang will be at NAIAS and Chevrolet will have no 'answer' for it at their stand. This is interesting.

Does Chevy see the Shelby Mustang GT500 as a Rival to its Mid-Engine Corvette?

After months of speculations and gossip, we were hoping that Chevrolet will do the decent thing and unveil the C8 Corvette at the last edition of the Detroit Auto Show to be held in January. That's disappointing, to say the least. But we will have Ford's new Shelby Mustang GT500 there, and this is what might've pushed GM to delay the reveal of their C8.

You see, the Shelby Mustang GT500 is still a muscle car but it will most likely up the ante performance-wise as an answer to everything Dodge has been doing with its ludicrous Chargers, and this might push the GT500 into supercar territory in terms of its numbers.

We know that the car will come with a supercharged V-8 and we guess it could be a modified 5.2-liter unit, similar to that on the GT350. That would be as much torque as the ZL1 produces and as much as 70 more horsepower while it would also surpass the 707 horsepower put out by the Hellcat (the Demon's 808 horsepower is still a bridge too far, ignoring the added ponies enabled by the use of special racing fuels).

Also, with a suggested dry weight of 4,225 pounds, the new GT500 would be around as heavy as a Hellcat but some 400 pounds heavier than the Camaro ZL1. But how will it compare to the C8? Well, the DOHC twin-turbocharged 5.5-liter V-8 engine should be good enough for about 700 horsepower, substantially more than what the classic pushrod LT1 V-8 is rumored to make. That's about the same as the GT500 while the Corvette should handle better due to the lower center of gravity and better weight distribution. It should also have slightly more torque.

You'll have to pay more for the version that will have as much power as the GT500 - as much as $100,000 more. At the end of the day, though, the C8 will be aimed at a different market and, due to its radically different architecture, should hold its own against the Shelby GT500, regardless of the clever suspension and dampers that Shelby might put on the new 'Stang.

So, I think that Chevrolet didn't cancel a potential unveiling of the C8 because of Ford's decision to show-off the new GT500 on January 14th. Yes, the new Shelby-badged muscle car will be a force to be reckoned with, and it could best the Camaro ZL1 on track, as well as the Challenger Hellcat, but GM would rather have to worry about the new 992-generation 911 when it comes to rivals of the Corvette. This conclusion still leaves us with the original question: why you and I and everyone else won't see the C8 at the Detroit Auto Show?

Well, news emerged today of a potential answer to that exact question. GM Authority reports that the engineers have found a troubling issue with the electrical system of the new supercar that is incapable of powering all of the car's components adequately.

This means that the car won't be seen at the New York Auto Show in March either so you can expect Chevrolet to throw the C8 its own exclusive launch party when it's finally ready and all gremlins have been sorted. All things said and done; the car should still come as a 2020 model year. But, it's not out of the question that more delays could see it arrive as a 2021 model year. Let's wait and see if this delay will hurt what should be a revolutionary car.

Further reading

Read our full speculative review on the 2019 Chevrolet Corvette Zora.

Read our full speculative review of the 2020 Ford Shelby GT500

The 9 Mid-Engine Corvette Concepts That Didn't Make it To Production

Latest Renderings of the Mid-Engined C8 Chevy Corvette Depict a True Ferrari 488 Competitor

Former Corvette Engineers Look at Why It Took So Long for GM to Build a Mid-Engine Vette