Mid-Engined Corvette C8.R Breaks Cover at Road America

[CorvetteBlogger]

From SportsCar365.com:



The first photos of Chevrolet’s all-new mid-engined GTE Corvette have been revealed, amid the early stages of the Pratt & Miller-built car’s testing and development program.

Sportscar365 has obtained exclusive images of the car, likely to be named the Corvette C8.R, which was spied testing Wednesday at Road America.



Dressed in a camouflage livery, the new Corvette completed laps around the four-mile Wisconsin circuit, in what’s understood to be the first track test following an initial rollout at the GM proving grounds near Detroit earlier this year.

It comes just days after the team scored a double podium finish with its current-generation Corvette C7.Rs, in the ninth round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Details on the all-new car have been extremely limited, largely due to the production car not yet having been officially announced.



Both the road and race cars are expected to be formally presented at January’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit, ahead of a possible end-of-2019 debut for the GTE model.

Corvette Racing program manager Doug Fehan previously stated that its current-gen Corvettes will again take part in next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, which will prohibit newly-homologated cars due to being a round of the 2018-19 FIA World Endurance Championship season.

Stay tuned for more details on this developing story.

[John]

Great job CorvetteBlogger! This is clearly not the entry ME, nor the year 2, Z06 version. Hopefully we see this beauty start to race at Daytona next January!

[whl3]

Road & Track also just broke with this story. They think it is the C8.R, not a ME Z06 or ZR1. The sound emitted was not a small block pushrod motor. And because Pratt & Miller were there to supervise the testing at Road America, it would stand to reason that this is the next generation race car. R&T also mentioned that although the WEC would not homologate the car for the 2019 24 Hours of LeMans, IMSA might make an exception for their 2019 season as they did with BMW this year. R&T also said that both the C8 and C8.R would be shown in January at the NAIAS.

[ZL-1]

Very cool find! Is it just me or does this car seem to have the proportions of a front engined car?
*Update: the new side shots clearly show the mid engine profile. The telephoto rear angles were kind of deceiving.

[John]

Hooray!!!!
Thank you whl3!!! Can’t wait for NAIAS in January. BTW, if they reveal it in advance a day or two in front of the show itself, as they lately have been doing at a private reveal party (as they did for the ZR1 in LA before that show and for the C7 before NAIAS), the reveal should be

[John]

Thank you whl3! Exciting times are here, and I can not wait for fvs and others to see what they can learn from this car thatwcould be new that is also applicable to next year’s regular 2020 ME!

No thick camo on this puppy!

[John]

This Is the Mid-Engine Corvette Race Car

Here's what Chevy will use to challenge the Ford GT. [IMG]https://hips.hearstapps.com/rover/profile_photos/b2cfeef1-25bf-4478-9b98-fc76f817ad9c.jpg?fill=1:1&resize=200:*[/IMG]
BY MARSHALL PRUETT
AUG 8, 2018
[IMG]https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/corvette1-final-1533744601.jpg?resize=480:*[/IMG]
SPORTSCAR365.COM

We've seen the mid-engine Corvette prototype on the road, but via SportsCar365, here's our first look at the version that will take on Le Mans, the C8.R.

RELATED STORY

Mid-Engine Corvette: Everything We Think We Know
Rumors of Corvette’s new C8.R race car being readied to test at Road America were confirmed on Wednesday as the replacement for the aging C7.R broke cover in the Kettle Moraine valley.

Held over from last weekend’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event, where the factory Corvette C7.Rs finished second and third behind the Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT team, Pratt & Miller Engineering has spent the morning completing short runs with the mid-engine C8-based GT Le Mans machine.

Although unconfirmed, the exhaust note emitting from the camouflaged C8.R around the 4.0-mile road course is said to be unlike the renowned, rumbling V8 found in all of its predecessors. It was suggested a twin-turbo V6 could be fitted to the first production-based mid-engine Corvette race car, though the road car is expected to receive a V8.
[IMG]https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/corvette2-final-1533744631.jpg?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=480: *[/IMG]
SPORTSCAR365.COM

Among its IMSA GTLM rivals, the C7.R has achieved unparalleled success since its surprise introduction at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion in 2013. Since its competition debut in 2014, wins at the 24 Hours of Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring, 24 Hours of Le Mans, and championships have followed.

But with newer models to chase in the 2016 Ford GT, 2017 Porsche 911 RSR, and 2018 BMW M8 GTE, the C7.R has been working from a development plateau in recent years. Help through Balance of Performance adjustments have kept the current Corvette in play while the C8.R has been developed.

Looking to the future, the new Corvette could be restricted to North American competition with IMSA due to the wonky FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) “Super Season.” With the WEC in the middle of a championship that started at Spa in May and runs through next June’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, homologating new vehicles is not, at present, part of its plans.

Once the 2019 Le Mans event is complete, the C8.R would be eligible for homologation and use in competition, but the C7.R would be the only model permitted for use in the 24-hour classic. IMSA, which has made homologation exceptions to allow BMW to race both the non-WEC certified Z4 and M6 in its domestic GTLM class, would likely be inclined to permit General Motors’ new halo car to participate on home soil next year.

CREDIT AND THANKS TO SPORTSCAR365 AND ROAD AND TRACK!

https://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsp...ar-spy-photos/

[JB]

Forgeting about the huge rear wing..lthe vehicles shape looks awesome.

cant wait to see the production version...

thanks for posting up...

[fvs]

Little by little… From here we can see a front fender wheel well exhaust slot which kind of makes sense. I think here is much more extreme then we will get on the production model. But I think it will be there. Exaggerated wheel flares which C7 pimp has indicated.

have to look closer ! Exciting day

[Frenzy36]

Wow, Thanks surely does look awesome. Now the wait till January. Just visited a local Chevy dealer today. They had 2 New Orange ZO6 cars and out of curiosity I asked about coming off sticker and they said 6K below if anyone has interest. They also had a Convert GS White for 3K below.

[FrankLP]

Very cool stuff here. I'm guessing thered will be more pics published soon... can't imagine a spy photographer stopping at just four pics! Looking forward to seeing/hearing more!

BTW... there's a sound clip at the end of the sportscar365 story: https://sportscar365.com/industry/au...-turbo-engine/

[xXColorShiftXx]

This has to be a C8.R mainly based off the Radical Body panels on the car, the production ME wont have that rear bumper thats so "Tight" if that makes sense. plus maybe the vent on the front fender may make it into the production Road car, just not as wide of course. as for the exhaust it is Center mounted for what im guessing is less restricted and shorter for performance. seeing as the production ME needs the "outboard" exhaust to fit Catalytic converters and muffler for emissions of course. so yes this is not a Z06 ME or GS Testing, but a full blown A** kicking Lemans winning GM racecar boys!!

[xXColorShiftXx]

Audio clip from the Test Car at Road America!

https://sportscar365.com/industry/au...-turbo-engine/

[OnPoint]

Hot ****!! They just gave us a very good look at the rear fascia and rear quarter panels. Both of which look fantastic.

This rig is going to be a honey.

[vetteb_96]

Yeah, if you look close at the rear fascia it looks just like the CAD images. You can see the indents for the taillights.