The mid engine Corvette C8.R racecar has been caught on video testing under the cover of darkness at Sebring International Raceway.
YouTube user Lanky Turtle shot and uploaded the video, which shows a C8.R test car lapping the 3.7-mile south Florida circuit at considerable pace. The video gives us our best idea yet at what the mid-engine GTLM racer will sound like, with the test car emitting a high-pitched noise that could be a turbocharged V8. The video also gives us a great look at what the C8 Corvette’s taillights will look like at night when fully illuminated. Not surprisingly, they look quite a bit like the C7 Corvette’s trapezoidal taillights.
Via YouTube.com/LankyTurtle
This video all but affirms suspicions that the mid engine Corvette will be offered with some sort of turbocharged V8 engine. We’re all familiar with the sound of a naturally aspirated Small Block V8 engine in race spec, and the test mule in the video sounds nothing like it. It sounds more like a small displacement turbocharged V8, similar to the McLaren 650S GT3, for example, or the Ferrari 488 GT3.
Corvette Racing was testing the C8.R as part of a two day test that also involved the familiar C7.R. The Pratt & Miller squad will run the C7.R for one last season in 2019 before switching over to the more advanced mid engine platform in 2019. Sebring, with its unusually bumpy surface, serves as a good torture chamber for both cars and drivers. The team was also caught testing the C8.R at Road America in the summer.
Chevrolet may debut the new mid engine Corvette alongside the C8.R racecar at the forthcoming North American International Auto Show in Detroit next month. We won’t have to wait too much longer to know all the details on the C8.R, but for now, you can take in the race car’s rather interesting exhaust note in the video embedded above.
(source: Sportscar365)
Comments
The taillights settle it. Its no Cadillac.
Those taillights look menacing! Just a question to you guys, are your sources still confirming a Detroit unveil? Rick conti has gone on record saying we are still months away? Maybe even as far as the LA auto show or as soon as after New York
Also those lightning fast shifts are music to my ears….. that’s not no 8 speed lol
FLAT PLANE CRANK
Exactly! So I would assume the production version will have a flat plane crank as well, no?
This was established a Corvette a long time ago.
Keep in mind you are looking at the C8R not the C8. While based on the C8 production car this is a full on race car with some real track enhancements that do not always translate to the street.
The Pratt and Miller team clearly said the C7 is going to Le mans and is expected to run most of next season as the production C8 would not be in production in time to start the season. Many expect production in August or September based on this statement.
They did not get the waver that Ford GT got where it was on the track long before the car went into production.
We will see a flat plane crank and that flash of fire in the exhaust is a good sign of a waste-gate.
Yes it looks like a duel Clutch is in the works but it may cost you the full manual.
Chevy NSX!
(I wish I had thought of that, but “John France” on SC365 thought of it first)
Flat plane or not that is not a V8.
Big Chevrolet , GM guy , Car Guy . Not a fan of the sound of the flat crank. Would not own one . I have 1969 Z28 best sounding factory engines ever.Along with 396-375 / 427-425
Porsche, Ferrari and all others are very skeptical of this new menace venom corvette. Actually, I believe they’re all scared of the fact that the Corvette is now on equal footing all of them.
The Corvette has long always been an image builder for GM. However, this time it’s a bigger statement with a serious point to prove.
While one has confidence that the Chevrolet C8 Corvette will be a success.. there’s still a bit of doubt given the recent track record of General Motors CEO Mary Barra as many of her ideas have been misfires like Cadillac’s CT6 and Chevrolet’s L3B 2.7L DOHC-4v 4-cyl engine; General Motors essentially flushed $1Billion and with the cancellation of the Cruze and Volt, it’s another $1Billion which means Barra could be responsible for as much as $3-5 Billion.
What is the world! Those taillights look awesome. but the engine sounds terrible!
The Zr1 sounds so much better!
There is no doubt they’re going to have a High horsepower Street version of this Beast. And I also believe that the ones that were run at Nuremberg or just low horsepower versions of what’s to come. I hope Chevy puts the world on notice with the C8 and doesn’t let us Corvette fans down. It looks like it can be capable of owning the Nuremberg record and I see no reason why I can’t. I’m hoping it’s going to be in all-wheel drive all-wheel steering and that will put Chevy right up there with the McLaren’s the Porsches the Ferraris the Lamborghinis that’s making sense to me. I own two C7 R Edition convertibles and can’t wait to see what they are going to offer to the public with this new C8
It sounds as though Chevrolet has adopted a Cadillac V8 (Blackwing) in spite of Cadillac claims that they would not allow Chevrolet to use their new engine, which by the way is assembled in the Corvette Plant in Bowling Green, somewhere close to the Corvette assembly line. What a coincidence
Not completely sold on the sound as of yet. I still love that old school rumble of a V8. You can hear the turbo kicking in as well when he is coming out of the chicane.
Will be interesting overall though to see how they handle the pricing on a complete redesign.