As the world patiently waits for the to be unveiled this evening, some images that appear to be official Chevrolet press photographs were leaked out, as we suspected they might. Behold the newest version of America’s sports car.

According to information leaked ahead of the launch by , which is also the source of the leaked photographs shown here, the new Corvette will feature a 6.2-liter V8 called LT2 mated to an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic. This was .

Further, the V8 is alleged to make 495 horsepower and 470 lb-ft of torque. If the Esquire leak—which was first noticed and posted by before Esquire pulled its story—is correct, the car is also stated to run a sub-3.0-second zero to 60 mph time if properly optioned.

Visually, the car is about what I expected to see as well. Chevrolet has been parading mules around for over a year, and they all look about like this. It’s clearly an evolution of the C7's aesthetic, with a bit more “folded edge” added for good measure.

The large voids in the wheels are a nice look for this type of sports car, though they might look more “Corvette” in silver. The aggressive side vents are pretty awesome.

If you would like to see a borderline hilarious amount of buttons, look no further than this early…

This is a pretty big step forward for the Corvette, and after decades of hints at moving toward a mid-engine platform, GM has finally bitten that particular bullet.

Now we wait until the official launch to see the important stuff, like pricing. And top speed. . The Esquire story seems to estimate the car will be priced in the $70,000 range, but we won’t know for sure if that’s the case until later.

More on this as we get it.