When you first lay eyes on the new 2020 Corvette, a modern version of the classic American sports car isn’t the first thing that pops into your head.

Instead, you think Lamborghini, Lotus, McLaren.

The eighth-generation ’Vette, dubbed C8, is radically different from its predecessors, which for 66 years had the engine in the front. Engineers moved the General Motors’ trademark small-block V8 behind the passenger compartment. The belt running the water pump and other accessories is only a foot away from the driver.

Also gone are the traditional long hood and large, sweeping front fenders, replaced by a downward-sloping snub nose and short fenders. In the back, there’s a big, tapered hatch that opens to a small trunk and the low-sitting all-new 6.2-liter, 495 horsepower engine.

So why change the thing?

“We were reaching the performance limitations of a front-engine car,” explained Tadge Juechter, the Corvette’s chief engineer, ahead of Thursday night’s glitzy unveiling in a World War II dirigible hangar in Orange County, Calif.

With a mid-engine, the flagship of GM’s Chevrolet brand will have the weight balance and center of gravity of a race car, leaving behind sports sedans and ever-more-powerful muscle cars that were getting close to outperforming the current ’Vette.

GM President Mark Reuss said the C8 will start below $60,000, 7% more than the current Corvette’s base price of $55,900. Prices of other versions weren’t announced, but the current car can run well over $100,000 with options, thousands cheaper than most European competitors.

Corvette sales aren’t huge. Through June, the company sold just under 10,000. But industry analysts say the car helps the company’s image, showing that it can build a sports car that performs with European models.

GM said the C8, with an optional ZR1 performance package, will go from zero to 60 mph in under three seconds, the fastest Corvette ever and about a full second quicker than all but one high-performance version of the outgoing ’Vette.

The “cab forward” design with a short hood looks different, but GM executives said they aren’t worried that it will alienate Corvette purists who want the long hood and the big V8 in the front.

Harlan Charles, the car’s marketing manager, said mid-engine Corvettes had for years been rumored to be the next generation. GM also is hoping the change will help draw in younger buyers who may not have considered a Corvette in the past.

George Borke, a member of Village Vettes Corvette Club in The Villages, Fla., a huge retirement community, said he hasn’t heard anyone in the 425-member club complain about the new design. “I think after 60 years it’s time for a change,” said Borke, who owns a C7.

The new car has two trunks, one in the front that can hold a carry-on bag and a laptop computer case. Under the rear hatch behind the engine is another space that can hold two sets of golf clubs.

Juechter said the Corvette can go from eight cylinders to four to save fuel. Some owners get close to 30 mpg on the freeway with the current model, and Juechter said he expects that to be true with the new one. Fuel mileage tests aren’t finished, he said.

Engineers also took great pains to make the car quiet on the highway, with heat shields and ample insulation.

Even though the car has an aluminum center structure and a carbon fiber bumper beam, it still weighs a little more than the current model. It’s also slightly less aerodynamic due to large air intake vents on the sides to help cool the engine. The C8 comes with a custom-designed fast-shifting eight-speed automatic transmission with two tall top gears.

Higher-performance versions are coming, although Juechter wouldn’t say if the C8 is designed to hold a battery and electric motor.

Workers at a GM plant in Kentucky are starting to build the cars, which will arrive in showrooms late this year.