Units of the all-new, mid-engine Corvette C8 barely started production before the coronavirus pandemic delivered the world a significant blow, changing the lives of millions. General Motors managed to produce just shy of 2,700 units of the new 2020 Corvette Stingray Coupe before the car’s home – the GM Bowling Green plant in Kentucky – was idled. Though production remains suspended as we write this, the Corvette’s future shines bright, with the product team planning no less than six models during the vehicle’s lifecycle. GM Authority has spent the last few months speaking to insider sources and compiling information to put together a comprehensive guide of all the future Corvette C8 models and variants that are expected to be on the way. So buckle in and let’s see what’s in store.
| C8 Model | Powerplant | Horsepower | Torque | Drive Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corvette Stingray | 6.2L Atmospheric V8 OHV 16V LT2 | 490-495 | 465-470 | RWD |
| Corvette Grand Sport | 6.2L Atmospheric V8 OHV 16V LT2 | ~510 | ~490 | RWD |
| Corvette E-Ray | 6.2L Atmospheric V8 OHV 16V LT2 + Hybrid Electric | ~600 | ~575 | AWD |
| Corvette Z06 | 5.5L Atmospheric V8 DOHC 32V FPC LT6 | ~600 | ~500-550 | RWD |
| Corvette ZR1 | 5.5L Twin-Turbo V8 DOHC 32V LT7 | ~700 | ~850 | RWD |
| Corvette Zora | 5.5L Twin-Turbo V8 DOHC 32V LT7 + Hybrid Electric | ~1000 | ~1000 | AWD |
C8 Stingray
First is the C8 Stingray. As announced by GM last year, power comes from a naturally-aspirated, 16-valve 6.2L V8 LT2 engine delivering up to 495 horsepower and 470 pound-feet of torque. Shifting duties are performed by the Tremec-sourced, dual-clutch 8-speed automatic transmission and power is sent to the rear wheels.
C8 Z06
Next up the future Corvette C8 model cadence is the Z06. Returning to its roots as an all-motor track beast, the C8 Z06 will be powered by a naturally-aspirated, 32-valve 5.5L V8 DOHC LT6 making north of 600 horsepower. We couldn’t pin down the torque figure, with one source saying it will be just shy of 500 pound-feet, while another telling us it will be closer to the 550 mark. Previewed in the C8.R, the ruckus atmosphere breather will also feature a flat-plane crank while having a rev-happy personality. Shifting duties will be carried out by the same 8-speed dual-clutch transmission as in the Stingray, and power will be sent to the rear wheels.
Unlike the Stingray, however, the body of the Corvette C8 Z06 will be wider to accommodate larger wheels and tires, bigger brakes, and a more competent suspension system. A unique rear wing will be available as part of an optional aero package, as GM Authority was first to exclusively report.
C8 E-Ray
Shortly after the C8 Z06 will come the C8 E-Ray – a hybridized variant of the C8 Stingray that will deliver a relatively unique powertrain combination, joining the Small Block V8 LT2 with a hybrid-electric motor.
The LT2 – the same one used in the Stingray – will be mated to an electric drive unit located between the front wheels getting juice from battery packs located in the middle of the car. Peak output of the hybrid system should be around 85 kW (115 horsepower) and around 100-115 pound-feet of torque, and total system output should be roughly 600 horses and 575 pound-feet. Thanks to this unique configuration, the E-Ray will also be the first C8 Corvette (and the first Corvette ever) to feature all-wheel-drive.
Though we have had conflicting reports on the matter, the body of the C8 E-Ray should be more along the lines of what we see today in the C8 Stingray, and not like the wide body of the Z06.
C8 Grand Sport
Once the Z06 and E-Ray are out the door, it will be time for the C8 Grand Sport. Much like the Grand Sport of yesteryear, this model will merge the naturally-aspirated 6.2L LT2 V8 from the Stingray, with the wide body, beefier tires and brakes, and more robust suspension of the C8 Z06. Thanks to a different tune, though, the C8 Corvette Grand Sport will make slightly more power than the Stingray.
From here, two future Corvette C8 model variants remain – the ZR1 and Zora. Set to be the undeniable flagships of the Corvette family, the duo will essentially be the same vehicle, but with different powertrain configurations and, as a result, different levels of performance.
C8 ZR1
The first is the C8 ZR1. It will be powered by a boosted variant of the 5.5L V8 DOHC LT6 in the C8 Z06. In the C8 ZR1, the twin-turbo 5.5L V8 DOHC LT7 will make an estimated 700 horsepower and 850 pound-feet of torque.
The rest of the car will be a cranked up version of the Z06 – with rear-wheel-drive, a wide body, active aero, and some trick suspension components. Sources also told us to expect several “surprises” for this vehicle.
C8 Zora
The future Corvette C8 model variant will be the Zora. Named in honor of Zora Arkus-Duntov, who pioneered the idea of a mid-engine Corvette decades ago, the C8 Zora will pull out all the stops – joining the twin-turbo 5.5L V8 DOHC LT7 form the ZR1 with a hybrid-electric system similar to that used in the e-Ray. With AWD capable of handling massive quadruple-digit power and torque, a wide body, plus active aero feature galore, this bastion of American engineering will deliver “out of this world” performance that will put Corvette, Chevrolet and General Motors into previously-uncharted performance territories, and into automotive hall of fame.
Some Words On Timing
As of this writing, availability and launch timing for all these future Corvette C8 model variants is very much unclear, especially as COVID-19 forced GM to put development operations of many vehicle programs – including the Corvette – on hold. What we do know is this: prior to the virus, the Z06 and e-Ray models were next in line to be introduced, as the models were being developed in close succession.
At the end of the day, all of the aforementioned Corvette models and variants should still launch, though it might be a bit later than originally planned. And despite the uncertainty with their launch timing, one thing remains clear: the Corvette’s future shines bright. Very bright.
We’ll have more on the Corvette C8 and all it has to offer, so be sure to subscribe to GM Authority for more mid-engine Corvette news, Corvette C8 news, Corvette news, Chevrolet news, and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
Comments
Half of this article points out how the rear bumper of the C7 is so much better than the C8. Proper emblem, license plate below the fiberglass.
Just couldn’t help but notice. If they can fix that on the XTS mid-cycle, they can fix it on the C8 mid-cycle.
I never do this, but I’d pay a couple grand for a body kit to fix that.
Best news I have read all year. I can’t wait for the Other models and the stingray is perfect already.
The non-turbo models are what I am interested in. I can’t stand the sound of turbo engines! If anything I would get a z06 and procharge it! As it stands currently from what others are saying about the base stingray C8, I know that would be more than enough car for me. These additional variants will be great for corvette. I think they will draw many new customers around the world to the brand. Maybe some more Europeans.
While the whine of the SuperCharger sounds terrific I’m with you on normally aspirated. They’re also much less complex and IMO will have longer lives before needing repairs…
Yeah I loved the supercharger on my C7 Z06 but I guess its tough to cool it in the mid/rear engine situation like in the C8. The C7 Z06 should have used an upgraded LS7 and should have never had a supercharger to begin with.
650hp 427 on ZL1, Z06, and CTS-V? That would be the best decision they would have ever made!
Go for the E-Ray! The hybrid system will give you several benefits, such as less engine running time (and lesser maintenance cost), less brake wear due to regenerative braking, quiet running at low or city speeds, and better MPG rates. And it still give you 600 HP.
That is a bright lineup indeed and also the sort of reporting I have come to expect from GMAuthority.
I will wait around for the Z06 but even the base Stingray should do well from a performance standpoint. The C8 looks good already but I can only imagine it with larger tires. ZOMG!
88 lb-ft/L is approaching the maximum on a naturally aspirated pump gas engine. I can safely say the LT6 will make quite a bit less than 485 lb-ft peak torque. Unless it has VTEC, expect around 455 lb-ft. Nowhere near the 550 lb-ft you quote, which makes me think this is more speculation rather than “insider” info. Are you still hung over from Monday? 😉
The first LT6 prototype came in at 600 hp and 620 lb-ft so this report is actually lower than what the LT6 will make when it comes to market.
@Chris I’ve been reading this site for a long time. They have a solid track record in nailing these kinds of things. Dont remember a single time they got something wrong and I trust this report.
My C8 Stingray 3LT is on order. Can’t wait for the plant to reopen. Maybe my wife will want to drive my C8 Stingray so I can get the Z06 when its out. Time to start making a “business case” for it.
Goose. If your wife is anything like mine the ZO6 will be gone when I get up. The ZR1 sounds like the deal to have, but to long of a wait for me. I will be more than happy with the ZO6, but still hoping for Carbon Fiber wheels, wing, and ground effects. Body parts would be nice too.
Only if it’s forced induction or at least 7.1L.
Chris is right – gasoline powered N/A is basically limited to 86-87 ft-lb per liter. Porsche GT3 RS? 86.5 ft-lb/l. Ferrari 458? 87 ft-lb/l. Huracan performante? 85 ft-lb/l. GT350 Mustang? 82.5 ft-lb/l. The absolutely insane 4.6l flatplane V8 in the Porsche 918 spyder? 86.5 ft-lb/l.
Pick any of the craziest, most exotic gasoline fueled N/A engines you can find, and they won’t exceed 87 ft-lb/l or so. The only exception I can think of is NHRA pro stock, and those are very, very far from usable in a production setting for a huge number of reasons.
Either somehow, Chevy managed to figure out something that Porsche, Audi, Lamborghini, Ford, Ferrari, and literally everyone else in the car industry has missed, or these numbers have to be wrong. I know which one I’d put my money on.
In addition, the horsepower and torque numbers don’t make any sense. A high-revving OHC flatplane V8 should make peak power up well above 7000 RPM, which means if it did make 550 ft-lb, it should be making at least 700, maybe even 800hp. 550hp and only 600ft-lb implies an engine that makes peak power at only 6000-6300 or so.
If they really did make a 5.5l OHC V8 with 600hp, my money would be on 460 ft-lb @ 5500 RPM, and 600hp @ 7250 or so, with a 7500-7700 redline.
And of course, in my second to last paragraph there, that should be “550ft-lb and only 600hp”, not the other way around. Oops.
if so then it is not the flat plane crank 5.5 we thought.
what is your source?
Impressive.
I’m a little confused as to why they are giving the DOHC 5.5 an LT moniker. You would think that they would want to have this new offering stand out from the push rod small blocks. Maybe throw a nod to the blackwing in there.
I believe that the 5.5 will get a proper name once they get closer to launch.
Right. All V8 engines for cars get the LT# RPO, no matter the engine configuration.
The logic seems to be that the higher-numbered motors are DOHC (LT6 and LT7)… not counting the Blackwing LTA.
The LT nomenclature is no big deal, but it could get a little confusing. GM already has an L8T and an LT5 for the gen V LS motors. I just don’t like how this blackwing spinoff is not a gen V LS, but they are just going to try to identify it as such anyways, seems silly.
The Gran Sport should be manual only. Then it would be the only manual offering trim and would become more special. It would also be cool if they combined the fender hash with the infamous “T stripe” on the hood.
I’d like to see a lightweight stripper without any unnecessary electrics, no luxury items or nanny stuff, & an M/T conversion, like the model followed by the Porsche 911T so many years ago.
How much to buy the Zora ? I have a zr1 now
Why not have one custom built for yourself?
Will the E-Ray stress improved mileage or improved performance? The numbers suggest that the power from the electric motor will be added to the output of the ICE.
So my guess is improved performance, but how? Getting an 85KW/115 HP motor up to full power requires a large storage system. If a typical 400 volt battery is used, it needs to deliver 212 amps to reach 85 KW, but considering inverter conversion losses and motor efficiencies, I wouldn’t be surprised if the battery would have to be capable of delivering over 250 amps of current at a sustained 400 volts. The problem with this is you need a rather large and heavy battery to deliver this much power, even for a few seconds. Such a battery would kill performance, but might allow 20-25 miles of all electric range in the city.
I don’t think people are interested in a Corvette designed to drive around town like a Prius. I think what would be appealing is a system capable of absorbing and storing 85 KW of energy during hard braking in track more and be capable of instantly delivering up to 85 KW of power on demand for 10-20 seconds.
A small (50 lb?) battery can’t do this, so another form of energy must be used. Perhaps a capacitor or a fly wheel based storage system.
If you think this is fantasy, this is already in use in Formula 1 race cars.
Given that the current naturally aspirated 6.2L V8 makes 495 hp, the reported 600 hp of the 5.5L DOHC-4v V8 is a bit of a dud as it will only give marginal performance increase while most likely be a big increase in price; the E-Ray is another potential dud because the electric motor makes so little power as it’s unlikely to blitz the C8 to 60 in under the 2.8-2.9 times and will not really offer any mileage improvement given that the naturally 6.2L V8 does have a limp mode; it’s an all or nothing situation as the only C8 Corvette to really invest in is the ZR1 or the base Stingray as everything else is hype and white noise.
The torque will be available much lower in the RPM’s in the 5.5 than the 6.2, as I understand it. Track guys will probably like that. I would disagree with your assertion that the base stingray will be the better investment. I think that both the 5.5 motors will hold there value very well.
This story came out on Hagerty’s website and both Torque ratings seem unrealistic.
From Hagerty,
2022 LT6 5.5-liter 32-valve DOHC 650 hp 600 lb-ft Corvette Z06
No way a 5.5L high redline N/A will have that much torque unless it is forced induction, or electrified.
Allow me to shed some light on this. This GM Authority story is not related to the Hagerty piece you mention whatsoever. In case you care about this sort of thing, here’s some inside baseball for you.
GMA has been working on this story for quite some time, as you can probably tell by the extensive nature of the write-up, especially compared to any other coverage out there. Our plan was to gather a few more details before going live with our piece next week. But given that someone else came out with a much more basic report on the same topic, we decided to launch our story as well. That’s how that cookie crumbled.
Be that as it may, a naturally aspirated, gasoline fueled N/A 5.5l is not going to make more than 480 ft-lb at the absolute most, so both you and Hagerty got that one clearly wrong (and it shows a rather disappointing lack of engine knowledge).
Basically all gasoline fueled, naturally aspirated motors are limited to 86-87 ft-lb/l. You could do a bit better with ethanol maybe, but even then, 100ft-lb/l is not possible. The only engines I know doing that (without forced induction) are NHRA pro stock engines or methanol fueled engines, and I think it’s safe to say this Chevy engine won’t look anything like those.
Besides, with the rumors also claiming flatplane crank and high redline, these numbers don’t make sense anyways. 550ft-lb and 600hp implies an engine that makes peak power around 6200-6300rpm, and would probably be a reasonable guess for something like a 7.5l V8 designed for a mix between sportiness and streetability. A 5.5 high revving flatplane should make peak power up at 7250 or 7500 at least, and if it actually made 550ft-lb, that would imply well over 700hp. I believe 600 is a completely reasonable hp number for this engine, if it exists, but the torque should be between 450 and 475 ft-lb.
a higher displacement (LS7 ish) methanol n/a motor could be quite interesting.
Great, meanwhile the rest of the Chevy car line-up is cancelled, uncompetitive, uninspiring, alienating but $100k Dbag rockets is the priority.. (the Malibu is ok but it needs an major update or replacement car to consolidate Impala and Malibu..yes with rwd also)
The Malibu could go RWD when it goes electric. Model 3 is really forcing the auto makers to accept RWD again, and there’s no MPG hit from throwing power to the rear wheels like on gasoline (there may be some parasitic loss – but it’s electric – so the EPA/CARB doesn’t care… yet).
I agree with Guestt, there are a lot of us out here in AMERICA who do not want an SUV or pick-up truck, we want cars, and not cars that cost $70,000 and higher. But fools like Ford and Mary Barra are telling us we MUST only drive SUV’s and pick-ups or EV’s, we will no longer sell “cars” as they are not profitable. Seems like I see an awful lot of Japanese and Korean “cars” running around. Hey Mary, I wonder why that is? How do they sell all those cars and still be profitable? You have already given the foreign market the entire Van segment and now you want to give them the “car” segment of the market too! What is wrong with you Mary? I know you want “zero” everything, but you are also going to have “zero” sales also. Remember when GM was 52% of the auto business in the world? That’s when auto execs were true leaders and visionaries and not just “bean counters”. Mary, please resign and let a true “car person” take over so we can once again have pride in our AMERICAN brand cars.
Yes please! Get some gasheads into the buisness
Ken
For some reason the cars just don’t sell that well anymore. I think you have to look at how nice the new trucks and SUVs are. I agree with you, I love my cars but for every day use they can’t do what my new truck does, with out giving up anything when it comes to comfort. I can pull a boat, snowmobiles, get things from the hardware story, and still have a really nice vehicle for everything else, plus they are so much better in the winter if you live in that part of the country. If you look at what most dealers are selling it kind of makes since. Just a thought. Stay safe in these crazy times and hopefully we will all get our C8s sooner or later.
still though, what about all these cars we see? there is still a market. and it’s not a niche market.
I hope this what’s going on in the carside. IMO the Onix will probably be offered here as it replaces the Sonic worldwide, a Malibu/Impala replacement is likely and VSS-R is the best candidate, they have the upcoming Bolt line-up for E/Vs.
As for M/B she didn’t cause GM to shrink, go all fwd, cancel Pontiac, Olds etc, go BK or cause people to buy CUVs, don’t think anyone who worked at GM during the BK (she worked at Pontiac) wants to go through that again, that’s why we see a more conservative GM today but they need to spice up the mainstream models.
Chevrolet’s C8 Corvette Zora, a twin-turbo 5.5L DOHC-4v V8 with electric motor assist for a combine 1,000 horsepower is essentially a ground-launch cruise missile.
Due to the current global economic condition, any chance some of these offerings will be on the bubble? Just too much overlap?
A supercharger actually draws its power from a turbine driven by the engine’s exhaust gases, and the hurricane will be more visible.
Then why do they have pulleys. I think u mean turbos, I could be wrong
he does mean turbos. supercharges are either driven by an electric motor or a pulley connected to the crankshaft.
Been waiting almost two years to order this car. Said screw it after waiting so long and dealers 5 10 thousand dollar mark ups. Keep your crap vettes. Between terrible design, love all the dings on cars i’ve seen from rocks kicked up by tires. You had this problem on last model also. Hope if you ordered one you dont mind damaged paint. Brakes that squeal like a pig. This is just the start of the best vette. How about having to take car apart to add two quarts of tranny oil to take your car to track just because chevrolet is to cheap to add it for you. Dont remove the wrong bolt,you will destry your transmission. G.m. quality. I worked and retired from g.m. what a crap company.
If the LT6 indeed has 550lb and is naturally aspirated, you must expect atleast 6.322 litres or 5.5 litres and methanol.
The Grandsport makes ZERO sense to me to make, Such little HP gain on a heavier car? Also, they Can’t pump out 1 model fast enough, geez lets go from 4 models on C7 to now 6 different models? what a production scheduling nightmare this would create.