Wide-Bodied C8 Corvette Points Toward Z06 Option

Everybody loves playing in the snow, even GM. And, even though all the Christmas gear is now secured in the attic for another year, it was like GM dropped off another recently-found gift that had been languishing in the supply chain for a few weeks.

For those who somehow have become accustomed already to the world’s newest supercar before GM even started producing them, the internet went abuzz at the sight of some new images of a Corvette, heavily padded and clad with a very uninspiring black cloth. While the entire car was covered to hide any and all features, the difference between what we now know and what GM tried to hide is as apparent as placing Kirstie Alley in one of her current outfits, shall we say, a few months too early.

Compare this previous shot of the 2020 C8 (Left) with the recent photo of this newest mystery machine (Right) and you can see how much wider the tires and rear flanks are on the new car. All photos: CorvetteForum.com

For Corvette enthusiasts, the apparent difference is just as obvious, and that’s a good thing! These latest spy shots show a car that is obviously different. The rear houses some seriously-wide tires and the bodywork is working hard to try and cover them up. Any guesses how much more fabric it took to conceal the new bodywork over the original C8 Corvette?

We’ve seen GM drape camo over various portions of the car when they weren’t ready to show it off, like when the new C8 convertible was getting ready to make an appearance. But this car got the full-dip, hiding everything except the light emanating from those unmistakable headlamps. That tells us there’s something to see (or KEPT from seeing) with this newest iteration. The wider tires, pulling the curtain over the entire car and the fact that GM has a history of stuffing bigger and better into wider-bodied things can bring us to only one conclusion – MORE POWER!

The new car must have a lot of interesting features as the entire car was covered. Note that even the wheels have been wiped of any character and wear black discs to hide their identity.

At that point, the forums and chat rooms go into a rolling thread of theories, supposed back-room intel, and “friends who have friends who work with someone who worked with someone” scenarios. Either way, here’s what we think we know.

It doesn’t make much sense to bring out the highest performing car right out the chute and hope that the customer will be happy settling for a lower status later. That means whatever IS testing in somewhat obscurity is likely the next best thing. Car and Driver surmise that this could well be the C8 version of the Z06. With that, they add this variant is likely not going to be supercharged, but instead a flat-crank, naturally-aspirated version of the 5.5 liter V8 we’ve swooned over in the C8.R.

These guys are a LOT better at math than I am, because they’ve surmised through the snowy, and somewhat grainy pictures of black cloth and white noise that whatever GM will call this thing will have around 600 horsepower. They go on to say that those boost-fiends will have to wait for the next iteration, which will then be twin-turbocharged and have around 800 horsepower. In a “But wait, there’s more!” moment, they go on to say that a hybrid, E-boosted variant will likely top out the dual-mode horsepower charts with around 1,000 ponies powering the ultimate Corvette, likely called the ZR1 or Zora.

Whichever way you look at it, these not-so-clear images are a clear indicator that something is afoot within the Corvette camp. We know it will have more performance, thanks to the wider footprint and assuming the high-revving 5.5 liter V-8. We also know that it will be fairly deft in the snow, as evidenced by these images which show it thriving in such a habitat.

About the author

Andy Bolig

Andy has been intrigued by mechanical things all of his life and enjoys tinkering with cars of all makes and ages. Finding value in style points, he can appreciate cars of all power and performance levels. Andy is an avid railfan and gets his “high” by flying radio-controlled model airplanes when time permits. He keeps his feet firmly grounded by working on his two street rods and his supercharged C4 Corvette. Whether planes, trains, motorcycles, or automobiles, Andy has immersed himself in a world driven by internal combustion.
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