The all-new, rear-mid-engine 2020 Chevrolet Corvette is a big deal. Arguably, not since the Corvette's introduction nearly seven decades ago has the car undergone so radical a transformation as for the 2020 model year, when Chevrolet finally relocated the engine behind the driver, chasing an ever-greater performance envelope by shifting the sports car's center of gravity rearward.

Now, a two-part documentary detailing the new C8 Corvette's gestation is on the way, and it's essential viewing for anyone who may find themselves wondering, "how did we get here?" A trailer for the documentary, titled "Revolution: The Mid-engine Corvette Development Story," dropped this week, and it's well worth a watch.

The idea of a rear-mid-engine Corvette can trace its roots back to Zora Arkus-Duntov - a Belgian-born engineer who is often referred to as the "Father of the Corvette." General Motors explored the concept with numerous one-off prototypes, all teasing a mid-engine sports car that, it seemed, was not to be.

Arkus-Duntov passed more than two decades ago, but his realization - that the Chevrolet Corvette could not reach its full performance potential without relocating the engine to a position behind the driver - lived on. And today, at long last, Chevrolet has the production mid-engine sports car it's always deserved.

Automaker-commissioned documentaries like the coming film about the C8 Corvette are nothing new; Ford released a similar multi-part doc about the Focus RS hot hatch shortly after that car was launched.

But the significance of that topic pales in comparison to the C8 Corvette, which represents nothing short of a paradigm shift within the story of the sports car's evolution. We can't wait for both parts of the forthcoming documentary to launch; it will at least help fill the time between now and when we start seeing the first customer-owned 2020 Corvettes hit the road.